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't really exist in wealthier countries. This isn't an insult to the Chinese people; after all, a great number of financially successful ones -- like their counterparts in India or Saudi Arabia or Brazil -- want their children to be educated in the rich world. It's simply an acknowledgment that, for people with sufficient means, life in wealthier, more developed societies contain an attractive set of advantages. Does this absolve the Chinese government of its responsibilities to make the country -- and its capital -- more livable? Not at all. Air pollution and food safety issues are grave threats to China's stability and prosperity, and Internet controls entail considerable blow back risk. And surely, China could make conducting business in the country fairer for foreigners without sacrificing prosperity. But it's simply unreasonable to expect China, with a per capita GDP of $5,445, to provide a comparable quality of life for a successful middle-aged family man to Canada, which is almost 10 times wealthier. And this ignores all the other personal, cultural, and financial factors which typically inform individual decisions to move to new countries. China has problems. But no, it's not a sinking ship. At least it doesn't seem that way to the many foreigners who, as van der Chijs once did, eagerly arrive to launch their professional lives in the country. When wealthy, middle-aged men and women from the developed world begin leaving their country in droves for China, that's when CNN Money should start paying attention. We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to [email protected] Freedland (My plea to the left, 30 April) asks us to imagine if a country far away was created for black people and asks if the left would treat it as it does Israel. As a Palestinian I want to tell him that if, instead of a country for Jews, a country for black people or any other group had been created in our homeland without our consent, we would have objected and resisted as Palestinians with the same vigour. If it continued to defy international law and occupy, colonise and murder and make our lives so miserable that we would leave, we would call for its boycott as we do in the case of the real occupier, Israel. And if that occupation had continued for as long as Israel’s has, we would have called supporters of human rights to help us end this occupation, treat Palestinian citizens of that state equally and allow Palestinian refugees to return. As it happens, those are the legitimate demands of the BDS movement called by Palestinian civil society organisations in 2005. Further, had Israel been created in, say, Uganda and not in Palestine, does Freedland or any other supporter of Israel think that Palestinians would have created Fatah or Hamas and sent them to Uganda to attack the Jewish citizens of this entity in Uganda? Even closer to home, Balfour had more right to promise Wales to the Zionists than Palestine – with my apologies to the Welsh people. Had he done so and had Israel been created in Wales, had Cardiff been occupied and declared the united capital of Israel, and had Swansea been under siege for 10 years because it reacted to Israel’s illegal occupation, would the Welsh have simply accepted this and behaved as a model occupied people? I remind all who are interested in peace in historic Palestine that we Palestinians did not choose our occupiers. They chose Palestine knowing it was not an empty land but one that had a people, my people, the Palestinians that have paid with their land, lives and rights. As we approach the 68th anniversary of our catastrophe or Nakba, our occupiers need to acknowledge the wrong they did to us, apologise and pursue a genuine reconciliation, which may necessitate a very different political arrangement in historic Palestine. Instead they are busy conflating antisemitism with anti-Zionism, thinking this will end the call for Israel to come to its senses. Supporters of Israel who do this are really working to protect its illegal policies and to delay the day when it finally operates within rather than above the law. Professor Kamel Hawwash Birmingham • Join the debate – email [email protected]'s economy has been hit by falling demand for its exports German unemployment rose in June, official figures have shown, but the increase was smaller than expected. The number of people out of work reached 3.495 million on a seasonally adjusted basis, a rise of 31,000 on May's number, official figures showed. Analysts had forecast a bigger rise of about 45,000. The jobless rate rose to 8.3% from 8.2% in May, the Federal Labour Office said. On an unadjusted basis, unemployment fell by 48,000 from the previous month. "[We] expect seasonally adjusted unemployment to rise throughout 2009 and 2010, with monthly increments most likely to pick up during the second half of 2009," said Timo Klein from Global Insight. "Employment has generally not fallen quite as fast as unemployment has been increasing, as firms aim to hold onto their existing workforce wherever possible."This article is over 3 years old 2,000-year-old city has been demolished, says tourism and antiquities ministry Islamic State militants have bulldozed ancient remains of the 2,000-year-old city of Hatra in northern Iraq. An official said the tourism and antiquities ministry had received reports from its employees in Mosul, which is controlled by the radical Islamist group, that the site at Hatra had been demolished. A nearby resident said he heard a powerful explosion early on Saturday and that neighbours had reported that Isis militants had destroyed some of the larger buildings in Hatra and were bulldozing other parts. The destruction follows a similar incident this week when Isis fighters bulldozed the ancient Assyrian archaeological site of Nimrud, south of Mosul. Some of the works had survived for more than 1,500 years. Outcry over Isis destruction of ancient Assyrian site of Nimrud Read more Unesco, the United Nations cultural agency, condemned the action as “cultural cleansing” and said they amounted to war crimes. A week ago Isis militants released a video showing them smashing statues and carvings in Mosul’s museum, which housed Assyrian and Hellenistic artefacts dating back 3,000 years. Saeed Mumuzini, a spokesman for the Kurdish Democratic party in Nineveh province, said Isis stole ancient gold and silver coins that were used by Assyrian kings and were stored in Hatra. Hatra dates back 2,000 years to the Seleucid empire, which controlled a large part of the ancient world conquered by Alexander the Great. It is famous for its striking pillared temple at the centre of a sprawling archaeological site.- Advertisement - - Advertisement - Fraud on the court is fraud which seriously affects the integrity of the normal process of adjudication. Gleason v. Jandrucko, 860 F.2d 556, 559 (2nd Cir. 1988). It involves far more than an injury to an individual litigant or a case of a judgment obtained [simply] with the aid of a witness who, on the basis of after-discovered evidence, is believed to possibly to have been guilty of perjury. Id. (citations omitted) (alteration in original). The concept embraces that species of fraud which does or attempts to, defile the Court itself, or is a fraud perpetrated by officers of the court so that the judicial machinery cannot perform in the usual manner its impartial task of adjudging cases presented for adjudication. Kupferman v. Consolidated Research & Mfg. Corp., 459 F.2d 1072, 1078 (2nd Cir. 1972) (quoting 7 MOORES FEDERAL PRACTICE ¶60.33, at 515 (1971 ed.).26 The Sixth Circuit has ruled that the elements of fraud upon the Court consists of conduct: - Advertisement - 1. On the part of an officer of the Court; 2. That is directed to the judicial machinery itself; 3. That is intentionally false, willfully blind to the truth, or is in reckless disregard for the truth; 4. That is a positive averment or is concealment when one is under a duty to disclose; 5. That deceives the court. Mark Fuller, the federal judge who oversaw the Don Siegelman trial, committed fraud on the court by failing to disclose his bias against the former Alabama governor. That means the judgment against Siegelman and codefendant Richard Scrushy should be vacated, says an attorney who has conducted extensive research on Fuller's legal and business activities."The evidence is clear to me that Judge Fuller failed to disclose his bias in the Siegelman case and committed fraud on the court," said Paul Benton Weeks, an attorney in Springfield, Missouri. "It is an example of what the Supreme Court has called an 'inexcusable' failure of a judge to remove himself from a case."Weeks spoke at a media teleconference this morning as a follow up to an investigative report by veteran attorney and journalist Andrew Kreig that was published last Friday at Huffington Post. Kreig reports that Weeks is initiating a renewed call for impeachment amid allegations that Fuller tried to defraud Alabama's state-employee pension system and earned millions of dollars from military contracts during the Bush administration.Weeks said he uncovered Fuller's misconduct with the assistance of Gary McAliley, a Siegelman appointee who took over as district attorney for two south Alabama counties after Fuller was named to the federal bench by George W. Bush."Fuller was deeply concerned that McAliley was going to indict him," Weeks said. "When that concern passed, Fuller became determined to stay on the Siegelman case because he wanted revenge."Weeks compared Fuller's actions in the Siegelman case to those of a Louisiana judge in Liljeberg v. Health Svcs. Acq. Corp, 486 U.S. 847 (1988). Liljeberg involved ownership of St. Jude Hospital in Kenner, Lousiana. Loyola University had an interest in the hospital, and the judge who heard the case was a Loyola trustee. The judge failed to disclose his relationship to Loyola, and the Supreme Court ruled that was grounds for vacating the judgment in the case."If a judge knows something that others in the case don't know, and it would cause an appearance of bias, he has an obligation to identify it and get out of the case," Weeks said. "The Supreme Court said in Liljeberg that the judge's failure to do this was inexcusable."Weeks said Fuller's actions also raise issues that were addressed in Hazel-Atlas Glass Co. v. Hartford-Empire Co., 322 U.S. 238 (1944). That case involved a fraud on the court that was discovered years after the judgment had been entered. The Supreme Court found that such a fraud required the judgment to be set aside.Fuller's actions in the Siegelman case rise to the level of a fraud on the court, Weeks said. What is fraud on the court? Here is how one court described it:The court goes on to describe the elements of a fraud on the court:Fuller was an officer of the court in the Siegelman case and concealed a bias that he was under duty to disclose. That, Weeks said, constitutes a fraud on the court.Apple has released a free tool that helps organizations configure and deploy large numbers of iPads and iPhones. The tool was not mentioned when Apple unveiled its latest iPad during a press event in San Francisco on Wednesday morning, but it's now available from the company's online Mac App Store. "Apple Configurator makes it easy for anyone to mass configure and deploy iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch in a school, business, or institution," reads Apple's description of the software. According to Apple's website, the tool lets users configure up to 30 iOS devices at a time. "Apple Configurator can be used by larger organizations and businesses to set up new devices, install enterprise apps, and enroll each device with a Mobile Device Management solution for remote management by an IT administrator," the site reads. "It is perfect for the classroom or student lab where devices need to be quickly refreshed and kept up to date with the correct settings, approved policies, apps and data. Apple Configurator can also be used to personalize devices with data and documents for specific users." The tool was first noticed by The Next Web, which compared it to software that Apple itself uses to reset devices into retail showrooms. The iPad and the iPhone were originally billed as consumer devices, but they've found their way into businesses in large numbers. For instance, Life Technologies – a company that sells biotech products and services – tells us that it has recently purchased about 900 iPads for its worldwide sales staff. "Being early to the game here with the iPad – with its interactive applications that are so easy to use – we find that training cycle our sales staff is relatively small," Life Technologies chief information officer Joe Beery tells Wired. According to Chris O'Leary, who oversees the company's mobile devices, Life Technologies used a third party to configure the iPads and load them with various applications, including a tool called Roambi, which grabs business data from tools like Excel, SAP Crystal Reports, or Salesforce.com and coverts it into graphical reports for viewing on the iPad and the iPhone. Roambi is just one of many iOS business apps that Apple highlights on its website, and Apple now offers a way for businesses to offer their own private app stores stocked with their own apps. Elsewhere on the Apple website, the company discusses the use of iPhones and iPads inside the business world, and this includes various case studies, including profiles involving United Airlines and GE. The company did not respond to a request for comment.SEMICON West - EUV Readiness Update Figure 1. EUV throughput trend. Figure 2. EUV LER before and after smoothing. Figure 3. Pellicle progress. At the imec technology forum held at SEMICON West, Martin Van Den Brink, President and CTO of ASML presented on the latest developments on EUV. I also had an opportunity to sit down with Mike Lercel, ASML Director of Strategic Marketing for an interview.ASML acquired Cymer to tie together the development teams and accelerate increases in EUV source power. Since the acquisition EUV source power has come up by 10x and six weeks before the show ASML showed 250-watts at the San Diego factory. 250-watt capability will ship out to customers later this year. For several years achieving 250-watts has been the single biggest EUV roadblock and ASML has now met this goal. Figure 1. presents the EUV throughput trend over time.EUV with >100 wafers per hour (wph) is now shipping and the specification for the NXE3400B is 125 wph at 20mJ/cm2. ASML is on track to meet the 125 wph specification and they think they can go above 125 wph next year. For the first time, ASML is meeting all the specifications for EUV!Another key EUV issue is line edge roughness (LER). 125 wph at 20mJ/cmis only useful if it comes with acceptable LER. To-date much higher doses have been required to achieve acceptable LER. At the imec technology forum An Steegen presented a slide showing a 32nm pitch printed with ~21 mJ/cm. The LER as printed was >5nm but after smoothing techniques were applied 2.4nm was achieved, see figure 2. Smaller pitches and dense contacts were also achieved although the dose for those was >30mJ/cm2.Multiple pellicles had been fabricated with zero printed defects, see figure 3. Pellicles transmit approximately 80% of the incident energy and ASML has tested the current pellicle up to 140 watts. With hydrogen cooling ASML believes the pellicle will support 250 watts.At SEMICON West last year, worldwide EUV systems had exposed 600 thousand wafers, this year over 1.2 million wafers have been exposed with good pattern fidelity.EUV is expected to provide lower cost versus complex multi-pattering schemes, at 7nm reduced process complexity is expected to provide better yield, EUV shows lower process variation versus multi-patterning for 7nm and the reduction in extra multi-patterning related processing will result in shorter cycle time and enable faster time-to-market. Last year in an interview I did with Gary Patton, CTO of Global Foundries he told me they were using EUV for non-transistor levels during their 7nm development to speed up the development process.ASML has introduced a new NXT2000 immersion system providing matched overlay with EUV for 7nm, 6nm and 5nm production. The NXT2000 matches immersion to EUV for multi-patterning with EUV cuts. ASML expects that when EUV starts shipping for production, immersions systems will continue to ship and the two will need to work in concert. The latest alignment and leveling sensors are functionally the same on the EUV and immersion systems.ASML expects to ship 12 or 13 EUV systems this year and around 20 systems in 2018.After many years of research and development EUV is now on the cusp of entering production. TSMC and Global Foundries are both introducing 7nm processes based on immersion lithography but they are also developing follow-on improved 7nm process to take advantage of EUV. Samsung has bene the most aggressive in EUV adoption and their initial 7nm process will be EUV based and is expected to enter risk production in 2018. I even heard a rumor at the show that Samsung was going to start using EUV on one DRAM Layer this year!Ronan Tynan (born 14 May 1960) is an Irish tenor singer and former Paralympic athlete. He was a member of The Irish Tenors re-joining in 2011 while continuing to pursue his solo career since May 2004. In the United States, audiences know him for his involvement with that vocal group and for his renditions of "God Bless America." He is also known for participating in the 1984 and 1988 Summer Paralympics. Life and career [ edit ] Tynan was born in Dublin, Ireland. His family home is in Johnstown, County Kilkenny, Ireland.[1] He was born with phocomelia, causing both of his lower legs to be underdeveloped; his legs were unusually short (he is now 6-foot 4), his feet were splayed outward, and he had three toes on each foot.[2]:16 He was one of a set of twins; his twin brother Edmond died at 11 months old.[2]:18 At age 20, he had his legs amputated below the knee, after a back injury from a car accident; the injury to his back made it impossible for him to continue using prosthetic legs without the amputation.[2]:84 Within weeks of the accident, he was climbing stairs at his college dormitory on artificial legs. Within a year, Tynan was winning in international competitions in track and field athletics. He represented Ireland in the 1984 and 1988 Summer Paralympics, winning four golds, two silvers, and one bronze medal.[3] Between 1981 and 1984, he won 18 gold medals from various competitions and set 14 world records.[4][5] In the following years, Tynan became the first person with a disability to be admitted to the National College of Physical Education, in Limerick. He worked for about two years in the prosthetics industry, then went to Trinity College, became a physician specialising in Orthopedic Sports Injuries, and graduated in 1993. Encouraged to also study voice by his father Edmund, Tynan won a series of voice competition awards and joined the Irish Tenors. A devout Roman Catholic, Tynan has appeared on Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN). At the invitation of New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan, he sang at the Archbishop's installation Mass in St. Patrick's Cathedral on 15 April 2009. Presidential performances [ edit ] Tynan has performed in several events President George W. Bush has attended. Some of them include: Other performances [ edit ] Tynan has sung "God Bless America" at sporting event venues, such as Yankee Stadium (during New York Yankees home Major League Baseball games, including Opening Day, nationally televised games, the last game at the old Yankee Stadium, and playoff games) and on several occasions prior to games involving the National Hockey League's Buffalo Sabres including a performance before 71,217 fans at the AMP Energy NHL Winter Classic along with Sabres anthem singer Doug Allen, who performed the Canadian national anthem, on 1 January 2008, when the Sabres played the Pittsburgh Penguins. Tynan has not performed for the Sabres since Terrence Pegula purchased the team in 2011. Most recently, he sang Eagles Wings at the 2017 Memorial Day Concert. In 2004 he sang Theme from New York, New York at the Belmont Stakes where Smarty Jones failed in his attempt to win the Triple Crown.[10] and less than a week later he was at the Washington National Cathedral for former United States President Ronald Reagan's state funeral, where he sang "Amazing Grace" and Franz Schubert's "Ave Maria". Tynan sang for George H. W. Bush at Bush's Houston home on the day of the president's death on November 30, 2018. The first song was Silent Night, while the second was a Gaelic song. Bush's friend and former aide James Baker said that while Tynan was singing Silent Night, "[b]elieve it or not, the president was mouthing the words."[11] "As long as they're not Jewish" controversy [ edit ] While a real estate agent and prospective buyer Dr. Gabrielle Gold-von Simson were looking at an apartment in Tynan's building on Manhattan's East Side, Tynan made what was construed to be an anti-Semitic remark. Shortly after this, the Yankees cancelled Tynan's performance of "God Bless America" for Game 1 of the 2009 American League Championship Series on 16 October 2009 because of the incident.[12] According to Tynan's version of the event, two Jewish women came to view an apartment in his building. Some time afterwards, another real estate agent showed up with a potential client. The agent joked to Tynan "at least they're not (Boston) Red Sox fans". "As long as they're not Jewish," Tynan replied, referring to the exacting women he had met earlier. The prospective client, Jewish paediatrician Dr. Gabrielle Gold-Von Simson, took umbrage and said: "Why would you say that?" Tynan replied: "That would be scary", and laughed, referring to the previous incident. Tynan subsequently apologised for his remark.[12] The Anti-Defamation League accepted his apology. Tynan performed at an ADL event in Manhattan soon thereafter.[13] Only July 4, 2010 Tynan performed "God Bless America" for the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park with the support of some in the local Jewish community.[14] Further reading [ edit ] Halfway Home: My life 'til Now. Scribner. 2002. ISBN 0-7432-2291-1.Just Joking? By the time the clock was about to hit midnight on FRIDAY, MARCH 2nd, a half-dozen advertisers had used TWITTER to notify their clientele that they had pulled their advertising from RUSH LIMBAUGH's syndicated program. CALIFORNIA mattress store chain SLEEP TRAIN was the first to announce via TWITTER that it has pulled its ads from LIMBAUGH's syndicated PREMIERE NETWORKS show after the host referred to a college student testifying about contraceptive availability as a "slut," then demanded that women on the pill provide sex videos since the government mandates insurance pays for the pill -- comments LIMBAUGH asserted were made as a form of absurd humor. The chain, which operates in the SACRAMENTO, SAN FRANCISCO, SAN DIEGO, CENTRAL VALLEY and INLAND EMPIRE markets, tweeted, "We don't condone negative comments directed toward any group. In response, we are currently pulling our ads from RUSH with RUSH LIMBAUGH (sic)." National advertiser SELECT COMFORT, which advertises its SLEEP NUMBER mattresses on the show, also pulled its ads from the show, tweeting, "Recent comments by RUSH LIMBAUGH do not align w/our values, so we made decision to immediately suspend all advertising on that program." Neither company's tweets indicate for how long the suspension of ads will last. Later in the day, QUICKEN LOANS sent out the following Tweet: Due to continued inflammatory comments -- along w/valuable feedback from clients & team members -- QL has suspended ads on RUSH LIMBAUGH program." Apparently, LIMBAUGH only fueled the controversy over his comments about activist law student SANDRA FLUKE and her attempts to testify before Congress in favor of government-funded contraception, saying on FRIDAY, "when the left wants to pretend they have no sense of humor, they are excellent at it. Yesterday in the riff about it, 'Okay, okay, fine. If we're gonna pay for this, at least let us have something for it. How about some sex videos?' If anybody doesn't realize that we are illustrating absurdity here by being absurd and that that is the trademark of this program... But oh, no! 'Oh, of everything else you've said, that's the lowest of the low. Demanding sex video? Who do you think you are?' Lighten up. I remember using that phrase all the way back in 1989: Lighten up." He later added, "now, at the end of this week, I am the person that the women of AMERICA are to fear the most. What can I do to the women of AMERICA? Do I have the power to raise their taxes? I do not. Do I have the power to regulate their behavior? I do not. Do I have the power to make health care decisions for them? I do not. Do I have the power to withhold birth control pills from them? I do not. Do I have the power to audit their tax returns? I do not. Do I have the power to take their little four-year-old kindergarten student's lunch and throw it away and make 'em eat something else? I do not. Do I have the power to look into their personal life and leak the information to the media? I do not. Is there one bit of freedom that I can deny them? Can I raise their taxes? They want to blame me as being the person they should fear, when in fact the people doing all these things I just said I have no power to do, the DEMOCRAT PARTY (sic) is doing." Once The Dominoes Start Falling.... LIMBAUGH'S rant certainly didn't quell the furor, as LEGALZOOM then tweeted that it "has suspended all advertising on the RUSH LIMBAUGH show." Next to be heard was CITRIX, which went on FACEBOOK to announce, "We have listened to our customers & have decided to cease our advertising on The RUSH LIMBAUGH Show immediately." But that may not be all, as PRO FLOWERS tweeted to its followers: "Rest assured, your feedback is heard. We heard about the comments and we will reevaluate our marketing plan." What's more, CARBONITE CEO DAVID FRIEND posted this open letter to his customers: Over the past two days we have received a tremendous amount of feedback on RUSH LIMBAUGH’s recent comments. I too am offended and very concerned about his comments. LIMBAUGH’s remarks have us rethinking our future use of Talk radio. We use more than 40 Talk show hosts to help get the CARBONITE message out to the public. The nature of Talk radio is that from time to time, listeners are offended by a host and ask that we pull our advertising. This goes for conservatives like LIMBAUGH and progressives like STEPHANIE MILLER and ED SHULTZ. We even get customers who demand that we pull the plug on NPR. As an advertiser, we do not have control over a show’s editorial content or what they say on air. CARBONITE does not endorse the opinions of the shows or their hosts. However, the outcry over LIMBAUGH is the worst we’ve ever seen. I have scheduled a face-to-face meeting next week with LIMBAUGH during which I will impress upon him that his comments were offensive to many of our customers and employees alike. Please know your voice has been heard and that we are taking this matter very seriously. « see more Net News1. SETUP AND CLEANUP jameystegmaier wrote: I think you make some fair points here, but there's just one I wanted to address, because it's something I tried to keep in mind when designing two of the components in Scythe: Point #1 (setup and cleanup). I was worried about this too when designing Scythe, and I wanted to cut down that time through two components: the plastic resource trays in the special versions of Scythe on Kickstarter and the dual-layered player mats in all versions of the game. The trays make resource and coin setup and cleanup MUCH faster, and the the receded slots in the trays make it easier for newbies to figure out where each token goes (it's a matter of fitting a token shape into a same-shaped hole). While there is still the setup of the faction mats and the shuffling of decks, I think those two elements will help reduce setup time. 2. YOU CAN ALWAYS MOVE UNLESS YOU CAN’T Workers can’t move into territories controlled by other players, as well as across rivers and lakes (unless you’re playing the Nordic Kingdoms), unless they’re carried by mechs with Riverwalk so long as they move into farms or villages (of course, lakes can only be accessed by mechs that have the Submerge or Seaworthy abilities). Don’t forget, you must stop as a mech or character if you encounter enemy units, which is fine if you normally move since you can use your movement actions on your other units, but isn’t the case if you use a double-movement from the bottom-row action of your factory card! We’re not including mech abilities like Wayfare, Underpass, or Township, but they’re kinda similar to tunnel movement rules. 3. SIMILAR FIRST STEPS 4. ENLISTING 5. STARS ARE NOT AS COOL AS EXPECTED 6. NOT WITH A BANG, BUT WITH A CALCULATOR 7. A WARMONGER’S WORST NIGHTMARE In Conclusion'Comedy Is Extraordinarily Difficult': John Cleese On Being Funny So, Anyway... by John Cleese Paperback, 392 pages \| purchase close overlay Buy Featured Book Your purchase helps support NPR programming. How? John Cleese is a big, tall, stiff-upper-lipped international symbol of British wit. He's made us laugh in Fawlty Towers and movies including Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Time Bandits, A Fish Called Wanda, and, recently, as the exasperated master of spycraft — Q — who gives James Bond some of his best toys to break. Cleese has written a memoir that brings him from boyhood in a quiet British town called Weston to the footlights of London and screens all over the world. It's called So, Anyway... The title comes from that thing people say when they tell stories but lose track of the main point, Cleese explains to NPR's Scott Simon. "There's always a slightly awkward pause, and then they say, 'So, anyway...'" Cleese says. "So that was just a little private joke, which is now a public joke." Interview Highlights On the surprising advice he gives young comedy writers I tell them to steal, because comedy is extraordinarily difficult. It's much, much harder than drama. You only have to think of the number of great dramatic films and then compare that with the number of great comic films... and realize that there's very, very few great comedies and there are lots and lots of very great tragedies, or dramas. That tells you, really, which is the hard one to do. So at the very beginning, to try to master the whole thing is too difficult, so pinch other people's ideas and then try to write them yourself, and that'll get you started. YouTube On the origins of the dead parrot sketch Python fans know it pretty well, but it was originally a sketch about a secondhand car, which was not a bad sketch because the guy who was trying to avoid responsibility for selling a bum car was a funny character. But then when we started Python, Graham Chapman and I decided that we liked the characters in the sketch, but the secondhand car bit was very stale and cliched. So we had a nice long argument. Eventually we decided it would be best if it was a pet shop. Then we had a long discussion about what the animal was going to be, because the animal was obviously going to be dead — not injured, which wouldn't have been funny... We went through various creatures, and we just decided that the parrot was the funniest one. On writing jokes I think if you start trying to write jokes that you don't think are funny in order to make a sort of theoretical audience somewhere else laugh, I think that's death. I think you've got to do what you find funny yourself and just hope that people find it funny. On strangers' reactions to seeing him When they come up, they usually say, 'Mr. Cleese, I'm a huge fan,' and then, I'm always amused, they then add, 'You know, Monty Python and Fawlty Towers,' just to let me know that they don't think I was in Ben-Hur or anything like that.[This unedited press release is made available courtesy of Gamasutra and its partnership with notable game PR-related resource GamesPress.] Leicester, UK, 23 rd February, 2016 – Kasedo Games and SomaSim are proud to announce the exciting new business simulator Project Highrise, where players will be challenged to build and manage a modern-day skyscraper. In this deep, multi-faceted business sim, you will create a vertical ecosystem from a wide variety of units, including offices and other businesses, with more to be revealed. Your Highrise must become the go-to destination in the city for corporate activities, shopping, restaurants, and more. Managing your sky-scraping empire will be no easy task – growth will require a mastery of the various interlocking systems that are required for each type of establishment to thrive. Office workers will want to grab a quick lunch or coffee. Restaurants and their patrons will value location and convenience. Throw in the challenges of implementing utilities, ensuring easy transport and navigation around the building, and of course managing your finances, and it’s clear that success in Project Highrise will be no easy task. We are also pleased to announce that Project Highrise will be demoed by the developers for the very first time at the Games Developers Conference 2016, in San Francisco, CA. To make an appointment to see the game, please contact Lindsay Schneider. Features · Variety of tenants – A wide variety of business, leisure and utility units are available, with much more to be revealed · Manage your utilities – your building will require a carefully balanced mix of utilities, such as electricity, gas, water, TV and internet access, along with the necessary infrastructures to support these systems · Political and civic challenges – your tower will fall under various restraints (height, population, work hours etc) that you will only be able to overcome by earning political favour in the city · Sandbox or story – start from scratch and create to your heart’s content, or play your way through a set of optional scenarios Project Highrise will launch on PC and Mac in Summer 2016. For more information, please visit the Kasedo Games website here. For a first-look at the game in action at GDC please contact Lindsay Schneider to make an appointment. ENDS For more information please contact: [email protected] Find us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter @KasedoGames About Kasedo Games Kasedo Games is the ‘digital first’ - Division of Kalypso Media. The Kasedo Games label is committed to publishing high quality games in the mid-price range, distributed primarily digitally. Titles already published under the Kasedo label include ‘Blood Knights’ (PC), ‘Hegemony Rome: Rise of Caesar’ (PC) and ‘Mechs & Mercs: Black Talons’ (PC). Upcoming titles include ‘Excubitor’ (PC), Upwards, Lonely Robot (PC) and Project Highrise (PC, Mac). www.kasedogames.com About SomaSim SomaSim is a Chicago-based studio founded in 2013 to create immersive simulation games for modern audiences. Their first game was the Gold Rush-themed 1849, which released for PC, Mac and tablets in May 2014. Lead developer Robert Zubek has previously worked at EA, Three Rings Design, and most recently Zynga, where he was a founding team member on both CityVille and Farmville 2. Writer and art director Matthew Viglione comes from a publishing background and has over ten years of graphic design and communications experience.Learn more at www.somasim.com.An abandoned Russian cruise ship, drifting in the sea with no crew or warning lights, has turned up off the west coast of Ireland. The MV Lyubov Orlova – once used by the Soviet Union for polar cruises and expeditions - was being towed from Canada to a scrapyard in the Caribbean in January when a cable snapped setting it adrift in international waters. At the time, the Canadian authorities said it was decided not to pursue the drifting vessel as there are no people aboard the ship and there was a serious concern for the safety of Canadian sailors involved in the salvage operation, given the weather and dangerous sea conditions. Transport Canada later claimed the ship was no longer Canada's responsibility because it had drifted out of the country's jurisdictional waters. A week or so later on February 1st, the derelict vessel was intercepted by the Atlantic Hawk, a supply craft used by the Canadian energy firm Husky Energy, only to be cut loose once again in response to fears of a possible collision. Following this incident, Transport Canada insisted the vessel no longer posed a threat to "the safety of offshore oil installations, their personnel or the marine environment". “The vessel has drifted into international waters and given current patterns and predominant
after posting $2,500 bail. Burhans was arrested after a joint investigation by the Madison County Sheriff's Office and the Postal Service. The investigation determined she fed the meatballs with nails to at least one dog in the Woody Circle area of the New Hope community, said sheriff's Capt. Mike Salomonsky. The investigation began with a complaint nearly two weeks ago, Salomonsky said. "We gathered intelligence from the Postal Service and put everything together," the captain said. "Right now, we know for sure there's one dog. But there's another neighbor that had a complaint, so there might be two or more." A Postal Service spokeswoman did not immediately return a call seeking comment. Additional details about the allegations weren't immediately available. Court records haven't yet been released with details about attorneys or court dates. Anyone who suspects another animal may have been affected should call the Sheriff's Office at 256-722-7181."All things are subject to the law of cause and effect. This great principle knows no exception." INTRODUCTION Despite the many illustrious forerunners in its six-hundred year prehistory, Carl Menger (1840-1921) was the true and sole founder of the Austrian school of economics proper. He merits this title if for no other reason than that he created the system of value and price theory that constitutes the core of Austrian economic theory. But Menger did more than this: he also originated and consistently applied the correct, praxeological method for pursuing theoretical research in economics. Thus in its method and core theory, Austrian economics always was and will forever remain Mengerian economics. Menger's position as the originator of the fundamental doctrines of Austrian economics has been recognized and hailed by all eminent authorities on the history of Austrian economics. In his eulogy of Menger written upon the latter's death in 1921, Joseph Schumpeter averred that "Menger is nobody's pupil and what he created stands.... Menger's theory of value, price, and distribution is the best we have up to now." Ludwig von Mises wrote that "What is known as the Austrian School of Economics started in 1871 when Carl Menger published a slender volume under the title Grundsätze der Volkswirtschaftslehre [Principles of Economics].... Until the end of the Seventies there was no `Austrian School.' There was only Carl Menger." For F. A. Hayek (1992, p. 62), the Austrian school's "fundamental ideas belong fully and wholly to Carl Menger.... [W]hat is common to the members of the Austrian school, what constitutes their peculiarity and provided the foundations for their later contributions, is their acceptance of the teaching of Carl Menger." While there is no dispute regarding Menger's role as creator of the defining principles of Austrian economics, there does exist some confusion regarding the precise nature of his contribution. It is not always fully recognized that Menger's endeavor to radically reconstruct the theory of price on the basis of the law of marginal utility was not inspired by a vague subjectivism in outlook. Rather, Menger was motivated by the specific and overarching aim of establishing a causal link between the subjective values underlying the choices of consumers and the objective market prices used in the economic calculations of businessmen. The Classical economists had formulated a theory attempting to explain market prices as the outcome of the operation of the law of supply and demand. Yet, these economists were compelled to restrict their analysis to the monetary calculations and choices of businessmen while neglecting consumer choice for the lack of a satisfactory theory of value. Their theory of "calculated action" was correct as far as it went, and was used in demolishing the protectionist and interventionist schemes of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century mercantilists and the statist fantasies of nineteenth-century Utopian socialists. Thus, Menger's ultimate goal was not to destroy Classical economics, as has sometimes been suggested, but to complete and firm up the Classical project by grounding the theory of price determination and monetary calculation in a general theory of human action. In the next section, I give a brief overview of Menger's life and work. In Section 3, I address in more detail the shortcomings of Classical economics that stimulated Menger's creativity, and then, in Section 4, elaborate on his contributions to theory and method and their significance for Austrian economics. LIFE AND WORK Carl Menger was born on February 28, 1840 in Galicia, which is today a part of Poland. He was the scion of an old Austrian family which included craftsmen, musicians, civil servants, and army officers, all of which had emigrated from Bohemia a generation before his birth. His father, Anton, was a lawyer, and his mother, Caroline (née Gerzabek) was the daughter of a wealthy Bohemian merchant. He had two brothers, Anton and Max: the former, an eminent socialist author and fellow professor in the Law Faculty of the University of Vienna; and the latter, a lawyer and a Liberal deputy in the Austrian Parliament. The Menger family had been ennobled, but Carl himself dropped the title "von" in early adulthood. After studying economics at the Universities of Prague and Vienna from 1859 to 1863, Menger went to work as a journalist in the Summer of 1863. The young Menger evidently attained prominence in the journalistic profession rapidly, writing a number of novels and comedies (which apparently were serialized for newspapers) and, in 1865, meeting and sharing confidences with the Liberal Austrian prime minister R. Belcredi. In the Fall of 1866, he left the Wiener Zeitung, an official newspaper for which he was then working as a market analyst, in order to prepare for his oral examination for a doctorate in law. After passing this examination, Menger went to work as an apprentice lawyer in May 1867, receiving his law degree from the University of Krakow in August 1867. However, he soon returned to work as an economic journalist and helped to found a daily newspaper. It was in September 1867, immediately after receiving his law degree, that, reported Menger, he "threw [himself] into political economy." Over the next four years he painstakingly worked out the system of thought that would so profoundly reshape economic theory. Mengerian economics came to fruition in 1871 with the publication of the Principles, indelibly changing the history of economic thought. As an economic journalist, Menger had observed a sharp contrast between the factors that Classical economics had identified as most important in explaining price determination and the factors that experienced market participants believed exerted the greatest influence in shaping the pricing process. Whether or not this observation was the original inspiration for Menger's sudden and deep absorption in economic questions after 1867, it surely is consistent with his ultimate goal of reconstructing price theory. In 1870, Menger obtained a civil service appointment in the press department of the Austrian cabinet (the Ministerratspraesidium), which was then composed of members of the Liberal Party. With a published work in hand and the successful completion of his Habilitation examination in 1872, Menger fulfilled the requirements for an appointment as a Privat-Dozent--basically an unpaid lecturer with complete professorial privileges--in the Faculty of Law and Political Science at the University of Vienna. Upon his promotion to the position of a paid, full-time associate professor (Professor Extraordinarius) in Autumn 1873, Menger resigned from the ministerial press department but continued his private-sector journalistic activities until 1875. In 1876, Menger won an appointment as one of the tutors of the eighteen-year old Crown Prince, Rudolph von Hapsburg. Over the course of the next two years, Menger tutored Rudolph while traveling with him throughout Europe. Upon his return to Vienna, Menger was appointed by the Emperor Franz Joseph, Rudolph's father, to the Chair of Political Economy in Vienna's Law Faculty, where he took up his duties in 1879 as a Professor Ordinarius or Full Professor. Secure in a prominent academic position, Menger was now able to concern himself with formulating a clarification and defense of the theoretical method he had adopted in his Principles. The latter book had been ignored in Germany because, by the 1870's, German economics had come almost completely under the sway of the Younger Historical School, which was led by Gustav Schmoller and was bitterly hostile to Menger's (and the Classical school's) "abstract" style of economic theorizing. The fruits of Menger's methodological research were published in 1883 in a book entitled Untersuchungen uber die Methode der Sozialwissenschaften und der politischen Okonomie insbesondere (Investigations into the Method of the Social Sciences with Special Reference to Economics). Where the earlier book had been coldly ignored, the Investigations precipitated a furor among German economists who heatedly responded with derisive attacks on Menger and the "Austrian School." In fact, this latter term was originated and applied by the German Historicists in order to emphasize the isolation of Menger and his followers from the mainstream of German economics. Menger responded in 1884 with a scathing pamphlet, Irrthumer des Historismus in der deutschen Nationalokonomie (The Errors of Historicism in German Economics), and consequently the famous Methodenstreit, or methodological debate, between the Austrian school and the German Historical school began. In the meantime, Menger's writing and teaching had begun by the mid- `seventies to attract a number of brilliant followers, most notably Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk and Friedrich von Wieser. Between 1884 and 1889 the works of these men, and of numerous others also influenced by Menger, began to pour forth in great abundance, leading to a coalescence of an identifiable Austrian school. By the late `eighties Mengerian doctrines were also being introduced to non-German speaking economists in France, the Netherlands, the United States, and Great Britain. After he retired from active participation in the Methodenstreit in the late 1880's, Menger's interests shifted back from methodological concerns to questions of pure economic theory and applied economics. In 1888, he published a notable article on capital theory, Zur Theorie des Kapitals. Also during this period, Menger served as the leading member of a commission charged with reforming the Austrian monetary system, a role which stimulated him to deeply ponder problems of monetary theory and policy. The result was a spate of articles on monetary economics published in 1892, including Geld (Money), a pathbreaking contribution to monetary theory. Menger continued in academic life until he resigned his professorship in 1903, but, unfortunately, despite the fact that he lived until 1921, he produced no more major works. THE CLASSICAL SCHOOL AND THE STATE OF ECONOMIC THEORY ON THE EVE OF THE PUBLICATION OF MENGER'S PRINCIPLES When Menger seriously turned his attention to economic theory in 1867, there existed a mighty though deeply flawed system of economic theory that had been constructed mainly by the British Classical School, namely David Hume, Adam Smith, and David Ricardo. To their undying credit, the Classical economists were successful in demonstrating that price phenomena--product prices, wages, and interest rates-- were not the product of historical accident or the arbitrary whim of sellers but were determined by universal and immutable economic law, viz., the law of supply and demand. They also showed how prices, through the calculations and actions of profit-seeking businessmen, effectively regulated the production process. They concluded that, in those industries where the selling price exceeded the average cost of the product by a greater than normal margin, business owners were motivated by prospective profits to expand their output from existing enterprises, while additional output was forthcoming from new enterprises initiated by capitalist-investors eager to share in the supranormal profits. Conversely, in those industries where product prices failed to cover per unit costs, the universal quest for profit and aversion to loss among businessmen led existing firms to contract their output or discontinue production altogether, while discouraging entry by new competitors into the industry. Moreover, as the production of goods expanded in those industries where higher-than-normal profits were being reaped, supply increased relative to demand and the profit rate tended to diminish back to a normal level as prices declined toward their "natural" level in relation to production costs. In the case of industries where production was shrinking due to losses, the decrease in supply relative to demand drove prices up toward (and beyond) average costs to their natural level, causing losses to disappear and a normal level of profit to emerge in the process. In the Classical view, then, both prices and production behaved according to definite laws of cause and effect. Prices were determined by the interaction of all market participants, so that the actual price of any good reflected the momentary equilibrium of supply and demand; the allocation of resources to the various processes of production was governed by the calculations and choices of profit-seeking (and loss-avoiding) businessmen, which meant that, in the long run, resources were allocated among the various branches of production so as to ensure a tendency to equalize at some normal or natural level the "rate of profit" or rate of return on all capital investment. Classical economics, therefore, did indeed contain an embryonic theory of human action, but their theory was incomplete because it focused narrowly on the calculating businessman, the proverbial "economic man", who "bought in the cheapest and sold in the dearest markets." In other words, the Classical theory of prices and production was a theory of calculable action only, i.e., of action in the marketplace, a realm where all means and ends, costs and benefits, and profits and losses could be calculated in terms of money. While this was a great achievement and a bold step forward in economic science, it left out of account the subjective and nonquantifiable valuations and preferences of the consumer, the raison d'être of all economic activity. To explain this neglect, we turn to the aforementioned great flaw in Classical economics: its value theory. In attempting to analyze the value of goods as a foundation for its theory of price, the Classical economists commenced by focusing on abstract categories or classes of goods, e.g., bread, iron, diamonds, water, etc., and their general usefulness to humankind. These broad categories that grounded classical value theory were the alternative to focusing on a specific quantity of a concrete good and its perceived importance to a choosing individual. They were thus at a loss to resolve the famous "paradox of value": why the market price of one pound of bread is almost negligible compared to the price of an equal weight of gem-quality diamonds, despite the fact that bread is indispensable in sustaining human life while diamonds are useful only for aesthetic enjoyment or ostentatious display. To proceed any further in their analysis, the Classical economists were thus forced to sever value into two categories, "use value" and "exchange value." The former referred to the importance of a good in serving human wants while the latter indicated simply the market price of the good. Dismissing use value as a given and as an unexplained precondition of exchange value, they went on to concentrate their analysis exclusively on exchange value. This approach to value theory naturally prevented the Classical economists from developing a complete theory of human action that integrated the choices of consumers with the calculations and choices of businessmen. Unable to ground their price theory in the subjective values of consumers, the Classical economists turned to objective costs of production to solidify their theoretical system. This focused attention on the objective costs of production accorded the technical conditions under which goods are produced equal status with human choices as the active determinants of economic activity. As a result, a bifurcated and contradictory price theory was established. According to this theory, as we noted above, market prices--prices that were actually paid in everyday transactions--are determined by supply and demand. However, only supply was actually explained, as the result of the monetary calculations of profit-maximizing businessmen, while the demands for the various consumer goods were taken as given. While human choices determined day-to-day market prices for all goods, in the long run the exchange value of "reproducible" goods was driven inexorably toward the "natural" price established by their costs of production, which themselves remained unexplained. "Scarcity" goods, those whose supplies could not be augmented by the production process, such as antiques, rare coins, paintings of the Old Masters, and so on, were treated as a separate and relatively unimportant category of goods whose exchange values were governed entirely by supply and demand. Thus the split in Classical value and price theory. But there also existed an unresolved contradiction, at least in the case of reproducible goods: although the emergence of actual prices at every moment are completely accounted for by human calculation and action, they also harbor a mysterious tendency to gravitate toward a level determined by factors wholly unrelated to human volition. Regarding the question concerning the determination of the incomes of the factors of production, the Classical analysis was almost completely worthless because, once again, it was conducted in terms of broad and homogeneous classes, such as "labor" "land" and "capital." This diverted the Classical theorists from the important task of explaining the market value or actual prices of specific kinds of resources, instead favoring a chimerical search for the principles by which the aggregate income shares of the three classes of factor owners--laborers, landlords and capitalists--are governed. The Classical school's theory of distribution was thus totally disconnected from its quasi-praxeological theory of price, and focused almost exclusively on the differing objective qualities of land, labor, and capital as the explanation for the division of aggregate income among them. Whereas the core of Classical price and production theory included a sophisticated theory of calculable action, Classical distribution theory crudely focused on the technical qualities of goods alone. This was the unsatisfactory state in which Menger found economic theory in the late 1860's. It is true that a subjective-value school, which traced its roots back through J.-B. Say, A. R. J. Turgot, and Richard Cantillon to the Scholastic writers of the Middle Ages, flourished on the Continent during the whole period of the Classical school's ascendancy in Great Britain. And Menger himself, a renowned bibliophile, was nurtured and steeped in the writings of the German-language branch of this subjective-value tradition. However, while writers associated with this tradition repeatedly emphasized that "utility" and "scarcity" are the sole determinants of market prices and, in some cases, even formulated the concept of marginal utility, none before Menger was able to systematically elaborate these insights into a comprehensive theory of the pricing process and of the economy in general. MENGER'S RECONSTRUCTION OF ECONOMIC THEORY A. The Nature and Scope of Economic Theory As noted above, Menger did not intend to overthrow Classical economics. He was quite comfortable with its emphasis on the universality and immutability of economic law, its theory of short-run price determination, and the laissez-faire policy conclusions it derived therefrom. Rather, Menger's intentions were to reconstruct Classical economics on firmer foundations by grounding the supply-and-demand theory of price and the theory of monetary calculation in the choices and actions of consumers and to repair its superstructure by healing the rift between the theory of price and the theory of distribution. Menger boldly proclaimed his intention of subsuming all the branches of economics under a reconstructed price theory in his Preface to the Principles, writing "I have devoted special attention to the investigation of the causal connections between economic phenomena involving products and the corresponding agents of production, not only for the purpose of establishing a price theory based upon reality and placing all price phenomena (including interest, wages, ground rent, etc.) together under one unified point of view, but also because of the important insights we thereby gain into many other economic processes heretofore completely misunderstood." Menger recognized that at the center of "a price theory based upon reality" and of economic theory in general is human action-and human action alone. As Menger epigrammatically put it in preliminary notes written while the Principles was in preparation: "Man himself is the beginning and the end of every economy" and "Our science is the theory of a human being's ability to deal with his wants." While the centrality of human want satisfaction had been affirmed by earlier writers in the subjective-value tradition, Menger alone was successful in forging a method of economic theorizing--it was later to be dubbed "praxeology" by Ludwig von Mises--that was consistent with this insight. Thus he began his scientific inquiry by meditating upon the nature of human striving to satisfy wants and then deducing its immediate implications. By proceeding in this way, Menger was able to perceive immediately that the process of want satisfaction is not purely cognitive and internal to the human mind, but depended crucially upon the external world and, therefore, upon the law of cause and effect. This explains why Menger began his economic treatise with the statement that "All things are subject to the law of cause and effect." Without reference to this great law of objective reality, the human striving to attain goals is logically inconceivable, because, as Menger argued, subjective states of satisfaction are links in the same causal chain that includes objective states of the world: "One's own person, moreover, and any of its states are links in this great universal structure of relationships. It is impossible to conceive of a change of one's person from one state to another in any way other than one subject to the law of causality. If, therefore, one passes from a state of need to a state in which the need is satisfied, sufficient causes for this change must exist. There must be forces operating within one's organism that remedy the disturbed state, or there must be external things acting upon it that by there nature are capable of producing the state we call satisfaction of our needs." But the direction of causation is not one-way--from objective states of the world to subjective states of satisfaction. For Menger, it is two-way, because, by conceiving the law of cause and effect, man is able to recognize his total dependence on the external world and transform the latter into a means to attain his ends. Man, thus becomes the ultimate cause--as well as the ultimate end--in the process of want satisfaction. In his notes, Menger expressed and emphasized the causal interrelationships between the subjective and the objective aspects of action by means of parallel trinities of linked concepts: "ends-means-realization/man-external world-subsistence/wants-goods-satisfaction." B. The Theory of Goods Menger's emphasis on the law of causality led him to devote the first twenty-five pages of the Principles to explicating "the general theory of the good, " in the course of which he radically reformulated the concept of a good in praxeological terms. For Menger goods are those elements of the external world that are integral to the causal process of want satisfaction and upon which action operates. Once again, passages in Menger's pre-Principles notebooks are illuminating: Our general dependence on the external world: in its entirety the external world is presented to us as a whole in which we live. Dependence on certain portions of this external world, or on some relationships in it, which must be brought into certain relations to us. To this end, these portions must be particularly suited. Such things are called goods, insofar as they have the capacity to satisfy human wants (serving ends amounts to the same thing). [All underlining is Menger's.]## In the Principles, Menger lists four conditions that must exist in order for an element of the external world to have "goods-character": A human need. Such properties as render the thing capable of being brought into causal connection with the satisfaction of this need. Human knowledge of this causal connection. Command of the thing sufficient to direct it to the satisfaction of the need. Now, with the formulation of the second and third prerequisites, Menger's analysis of goods appears to stray from its praxeological foundations, because people often do act on the basis of erroneous knowledge of causal relationships. The prices paid for "miracle cures" and the services of spirit mediums are, after all, real market prices that must be explained by economic theory. In fact, Menger implicitly recognizes this by introducing a distinction between "true" goods and "imaginary" goods, which, in the latter case, "derive their goods-character from properties they are imagined to possess or from needs merely imagined by men." But this is a value-laden and entirely superfluous distinction that is irrelevant to Menger's substantive and praxeological analysis because his price theory is capable of completely accounting for the prices of both categories of goods. To render Menger's definition of goods consistent with his actual economic analysis the two offending prerequisites must be replaced by one, positing an opinion or belief by the actor that there is a causal connection between the thing and the satisfaction of the human need in question. Having identified the nature of a good, Menger proceeds to elucidate what he calls "the causal connections between goods," with the goal of identifying "the place that each good occupies in the causal nexus of goods." "Goods of the lowest order" are consumer goods, like bread for instance, which are used to directly satisfy human wants. In Menger's words, "the causal connection between bread and the satisfaction of one of our needs is... a direct one." Factors of production, on the other hand, are "goods of higher order," having only "an indirect causal connection with human needs." For example, flour and the services of ovens and bakers' labor are second-order goods whose goods-character stems from the fact that, when they are combined in the process of production to yield a quantity of bread, they operate as an indirect cause of the satisfaction of the human want for bread. Likewise wheat, grain mills and millers' labor constitute third-order goods, which attain their goods-character from their usefulness in the production of second-order goods. The same applies to fourth- and fifth-order goods in the production of bread. In short, according to Menger, "The process by which goods of higher order are progressively transformed into goods of lower order and by which these are directed finally to the satisfaction of human needs is... not irregular but subject, like all other processes of change, to the law of causality." It is their position in this causal order of want satisfaction that endows elements of the external world with their goods-character. In a world of kaleidic and uncaused change, human wants would not be sufficient to endow things with the quality of a good, and purposive action would therefore be impossible. Menger draws a further distinction: between those goods whose available quantity exceeds the amount necessary to satisfy all human wants for them and those available in a quantity that is insufficient to fully satisfy human wants for them. The former Menger designates "non-economic goods" and the latter, "economic goods." In the case of non-economic goods, because of their superabundance relative to wants, people need take no definite action with regard to them. With regard to economic goods, however, an individual must undertake to economize them in order to satisfy his wants for them as fully as possible. Economizing involves, among other things, ranking the wants for a particular good according to their greatest urgency or importance and then choosing to allocate units of the good only to those uses that serve the most important wants, while leaving unsatisfied the less important wants. Also, just as in the case of their goods-character, the economic character of higher-order goods also derives from the economic character of the lower-order good which they cooperate in producing. Thus, for example, in a region where pure water is naturally superabundant for all human purposes, neither water nor manmade reservoirs and water pumps, pipes, and filters need be economized. For Menger, then, the operation of economizing is nothing more or less then purposive behavior or action, as this latter term is understood by Mises and the proponents of the modern praxeological paradigm. Both Menger's "economizing man" and Mises's "acting man" apply scarce means so as to attain their most highly valued ends. Inherent in the idea of economizing is the notion of property. For Menger, "human economy and property have a joint economic origin," which is rooted in the condition of scarcity. Thus property is neither "an arbitrary invention" nor merely an aggregation of heterogeneous objects. It is a praxeological category that refers to a purposively created structure of goods that is adjusted through the operations of economizing to serve the structure of ends aimed at by an individual actor. According to Menger, "[A person's] property is not... an arbitrarily combined quantity of goods, but a direct reflection of his needs, an integrated whole, no essential part of which can be diminished or increased without effecting realization of the end it serves." It is no exaggeration to say that Mengerian economics is as much about goods and property as it is about knowledge and expectations. Menger's analyses of the order and of the economic character of goods taken together demolish the foundations of the Classical cost-of-production theory. First, the proposition that the economic character of lower-order goods is derived from the fact that the goods of a higher order employed in producing them possess an economic character established prior to the causal production process, according to Menger, "... contradict[s]... all experience, which teaches us that, from goods of higher order whose economic character is beyond all doubt, completely useless things may be produced, and in consequence of economic ignorance actually are produced...." In other words, the cost-of-production theory is at a loss in explaining how scarce and valuable resources can be and are used to produce products whose market value is zero because they are not useful, directly or indirectly, in serving human wants. This problem aside, the fatal flaw in a theory which seeks to explain the economic character of lower-order goods in terms of the economic character of goods of a higher order is that it is merely a "pseudo-explanation." As Menger argued, "If we explain the economic character of goods of first order by that of goods of second order, the latter by the economic character of goods of third order, this again by the economic character of goods of fourth order, and so on, the solution of the problem is not advanced fundamentally by a single step, since the question as to the last and true cause of the economic character of goods always still remains unanswered." C. The Theory of Value This brings us to the question of value which so vexed, and ultimately defeated, the Classical economists. Because they were tragically unable to grasp that specific quantities and not entire classes of goods were the object of human action, the Classical economists dropped `use value' from their analysis. But Menger, with his unblinking focus on individual action, easily recognized the profound significance of the concept of the marginal unit--the quantity of a good relevant to choice--for the whole of economic theory. In his notes, Menger compared "species value," the value of an abstract class of goods, to the "individual value" or "concrete value" attaching to specific units of a good. Dismissing the former as completely irrelevant to action in the real world, Menger argued that, "In the case of species value, we compare, on the one hand, the properties of a good without considering its quantity, and on the other, human wants without taking into account individuality.... In real life there are only concrete goods and concrete wants." In fact, the subjective ranking of the different satisfactions yielded by a definite quantity of a good is implied by the very notion of action. As Menger explained: "The varying importance that satisfaction of separate concrete needs has for man is not foreign to the consciousness of any economizing man.... Wherever men live, and whatever level of civilization they occupy, we can observe how economizing individuals weigh the importance of satisfaction of their various needs in general, how they weigh especially the relative importance of the separate acts leading to the more or less complete satisfaction of each need, and how they are finally guided by the results of this comparison into activities directed to the fullest possible satisfaction of their needs (economizing)." By cogitating on the essence of economizing or action, Menger was thus able to conclusively demonstrate that the want for any good is actually a series of wants for a definite unit of the good. And, by implication, only actual units of a good are relevant to human choice: "Not species as such, but only concrete things are available to economizing individuals. Only the latter, therefore, are goods, and only goods are the objects of our economizing and of our valuation." Having established that only specific wants and specific units of goods pertain to the valuational process, Menger proceeded to define value as "the importance that individual goods or quantities of goods attain for us because we are conscious of being dependent on command of them for the satisfaction of our needs." In other words, "the value of all goods is merely an imputation of this importance [of satisfying our needs] to economic goods." It follows, then, for Menger, that "... value does not exist outside the consciousness of men.... [T]he value of goods is entirely subjective in nature." One would be wrong to interpret this last statement as a radical subjectivist dismissal of the realm of external reality. For Menger's emphatic distinction between the value of a thing and the thing itself is actually intended as a means of elucidating the indissoluble ontological link between the realm of cognition and the realm of objective causal processes that comes into being by virtue of valuation and economizing. Thus Menger wrote: "The value of goods is therefore nothing arbitrary, but always the necessary consequence of human knowledge that the maintenance of life, of well-being, or of some ever so insignificant part of them, depends upon control of a good or a quantity of goods.... For the entities that exist objectively are always only particular things or quantities of things and their value is always something fundamentally different from the things themselves; it is a judgment made by economizing individuals about the importance their command of the things has for the maintenance of their lives and well-being." If value consists in a judgment about the significance of "concrete" things in producing satisfaction of "concrete" wants, how are such judgments arrived at? That is, what is the value of a specific thing to a person who seeks to employ it to satisfy his wants? It was in his answer to this question that Menger not only solved the paradox of value, but laid the foundations for the reconstruction of price theory, and, hence, of all of economic science. To illustrate his answer, let us examine the case of a hypothetical farmer who has a number of different wants that can be satisfied by a sack of grain. His most pressing want for a sack of grain is for use in producing a quantity of bread necessary to sustain his existence during the forthcoming year. Of next greatest importance is satisfaction of the want for an additional quantity of bread that allows him to preserve his health and vigor for the year. Ranked progressively lower in importance are uses for a sack of grain that satisfy the following wants: 3rd. for seed-grain to ensure a harvest a year hence, and thus his continued existence and health in the future; 4th. for the production of beer and whiskey; 5th. for feed to maintain farm animals whose dairy and poultry products allow him to enjoy a varied diet. We may further assume that the farmer experiences an additional fifteen unidentified wants of progressively lower rank, so that he would be unable to completely satisfy his wants for a sack of grain with a harvest yielding less than twenty sacks. If we now suppose that his current harvest yields five sacks of grain of equal quality, then grain is for him a scarce good that must be economized-that is, used in satisfying only his five most important concrete wants, while foregoing the satisfaction of his fifteen less important wants. What is the value of a sack of grain in this case? Since all five sacks are, by hypothesis, qualitatively identical, they must be equal in value, and, yet, they satisfy wants of manifestly unequal importance. Menger (1981, p. 131) brilliantly answered the question by restating it: "[W]hich satisfaction would not be obtained if the economizing individual did not have the given unit at his disposal--that is, if he were to have command of a total amount smaller by that one unit?" In light of Menger's discussion of economizing, the obviously correct answer to this question is "only the least of all the satisfactions assured by the whole available quantity." In other words, regardless of which particular physical unit of his supply was subtracted, the actor would economize by choosing to reallocate the remaining units so as to continue to satisfy his most important wants and to forego the satisfaction of only the least important want of those previously satisfied by the larger supply. It is, thus, always the least important satisfaction that is dependent on a unit of the actor's supply of a good and, that, therefore, determines the value of each and every unit of the supply. This value-determining satisfaction soon came to be known as the "marginal utility." As Menger formulated the law of marginal utility: "Accordingly, in every concrete case, of all the satisfactions secured by means of the whole quantity of a good at the disposal of an economizing individual, only those that have the least importance to him are dependent on the availability of a given portion of the whole quantity. Hence the value to this person of any portion of the whole available quantity of the good is equal to the importance to him of the satisfactions of the least importance among those assured by the whole quantity and achieved with an equal portion." In our example, the value of each of the five sacks of grain possessed by the farmer is determined by and equal to the importance of the fifth-ranked satisfaction, which he derives from the consumption of milk and eggs. Should one of the sacks be inadvertently destroyed by fire, the marginal utility and, hence, the value of a sack of grain would increase to the satisfaction he expects from a year's provision of beer and whiskey. Should a pack of marauding foxes now leave him with only one sack, its value would rise higher still, to the importance he attaches to his very life. On the other hand, should a bumper harvest yield fifty sacks of grain--far exceeding his hypothesized twenty wants for a sack of grain--the marginal utility and value of a sack would sink to zero, because the satisfaction of none of his wants depends on possession of a fiftieth, or even a twenty-first, sack. Thus by applying the law of marginal utility, Menger was able to provide a straightforward and incontrovertible resolution to the paradox of value that had so bedeviled Classical economics and prevented its development into a full-blown theory of human action. According to Menger, it is because diamonds and gold are extremely rare while water tends to be abundantly available that: "Under ordinary circumstances, therefore, no human need would have to remain unsatisfied if men were unable to command some particular quantity of drinking water. With gold and diamonds, on the other hand
). Despite consuming more food, mice on the 7% PR diet gained less weight than mice on the 21% protein control diet over the course of 2 months ( Figures 1 F and 1G). Body composition analysis suggested that while consumption of a low-protein diet slowed the gain of lean mass, fat mass accumulation was almost entirely blocked ( Figures S1 B and S1C). Mice eating the 7% PR diet had no change in spontaneous activity, but exhibited increased respiration throughout a 24-hr cycle and had increased energy expenditure at night ( Figure S2 ). Discussion Levine et al., 2014 Levine M.E. Suarez J.A. Brandhorst S. Balasubramanian P. Cheng C.W. Madia F. Fontana L. Mirisola M.G. Guevara-Aguirre J. Wan J. et al. Low protein intake is associated with a major reduction in IGF-1, cancer, and overall mortality in the 65 and younger but not older population. Solon-Biet et al., 2014 Solon-Biet S.M. McMahon A.C. Ballard J.W. Ruohonen K. Wu L.E. Cogger V.C. Warren A. Huang X. Pichaud N. Melvin R.G. et al. The ratio of macronutrients, not caloric intake, dictates cardiometabolic health, aging, and longevity in ad libitum-fed mice. Solon-Biet et al., 2015 Solon-Biet S.M. Mitchell S.J. Coogan S.C. Cogger V.C. Gokarn R. McMahon A.C. Raubenheimer D. de Cabo R. Simpson S.J. Le Couteur D.G. Dietary protein to carbohydrate ratio and caloric restriction: comparing metabolic outcomes in mice. Understanding how dietary choices impact metabolic health is an area of significant research interest, but until recently this has largely focused on one’s choice of foods—e.g., caloric intake of foods or choosing between vegetable, fish, and red meat as a protein source. Recently, diets with altered macronutrient ratios have received significant attention from the public as a potential means to combat obesity, while evidence suggesting that a lower protein intake is positively associated with increased health, survival, and insulin sensitivity has continued to mount (). However, an understanding of the specific dietary components altered in a low-protein diet that promote metabolic health has been lacking, and it has been unclear if humans will receive immediate benefits to metabolic health. Laeger et al., 2014a Laeger T. Henagan T.M. Albarado D.C. Redman L.M. Bray G.A. Noland R.C. Münzberg H. Hutson S.M. Gettys T.W. Schwartz M.W. Morrison C.D. FGF21 is an endocrine signal of protein restriction. Here, we demonstrate that a moderate reduction in total dietary protein or selected amino acids can rapidly improve metabolic health in both humans and mice. Reduction of dietary protein or total amino acids decreases fasting blood glucose levels and improves glucose tolerance in both species in less than six weeks, while also decreasing BMI and fat mass in humans and decreasing weight and fat mass gain in young growing mice. A moderate reduction of total dietary protein/amino acids increases circulating FGF21 in both species just as efficiently as more severe forms of protein restriction (). Lees et al., 2014 Lees E.K. Król E. Grant L. Shearer K. Wyse C. Moncur E. Bykowska A.S. Mody N. Gettys T.W. Delibegovic M. Methionine restriction restores a younger metabolic phenotype in adult mice with alterations in fibroblast growth factor 21. Importantly, we have now found that altered dietary quality—the precise amino acid composition of the diet—regulates metabolic health. Specifically, reducing the three branched-chain amino acids (leucine, isoleucine, and valine) to the same level as found in a low-protein diet is sufficient to improve many aspects of metabolic health, including glucose tolerance and body composition, as effectively as a two-thirds reduction in total consumption of dietary amino acids. The three BCAAs contribute uniquely to the overall effect of dietary protein restriction on glucose tolerance, as a two-thirds reduction in the other six essential amino acids is not sufficient to improve glucose tolerance ( Figure 2 C). This also clearly demonstrates that the effect of BCAAs on glucose homeostasis is independent from changes in body composition, as diets reduced in either the three BCAAs or the other six essential amino acids have similar impacts on body composition ( Figure S4 ). However, not all of the effects of a low-protein diet are attributable to reduced BCAAs; a specific reduction in dietary BCAAs does not induce hepatic Ppargc1a, increase circulating FGF21 and adiponectin, increase energy expenditure, or decrease hepatic Gck, effects we observe exclusively in mice fed a Low AA diet ( Figures 2 and 5 ). It remains to be determined if these other effects are attributable to a reduction in total amino acids, the greater impact of a Low AA diet on body composition, or if other specific amino acids are responsible; for instance, recent research suggests that methionine restriction is sufficient to induce FGF21 (). Solon-Biet et al., 2014 Solon-Biet S.M. McMahon A.C. Ballard J.W. Ruohonen K. Wu L.E. Cogger V.C. Warren A. Huang X. Pichaud N. Melvin R.G. et al. The ratio of macronutrients, not caloric intake, dictates cardiometabolic health, aging, and longevity in ad libitum-fed mice. Solon-Biet et al., 2015 Solon-Biet S.M. Mitchell S.J. Coogan S.C. Cogger V.C. Gokarn R. McMahon A.C. Raubenheimer D. de Cabo R. Simpson S.J. Le Couteur D.G. Dietary protein to carbohydrate ratio and caloric restriction: comparing metabolic outcomes in mice. Laeger et al., 2014a Laeger T. Henagan T.M. Albarado D.C. Redman L.M. Bray G.A. Noland R.C. Münzberg H. Hutson S.M. Gettys T.W. Schwartz M.W. Morrison C.D. FGF21 is an endocrine signal of protein restriction. Laeger et al., 2014b Laeger T. Reed S.D. Henagan T.M. Fernandez D.H. Taghavi M. Addington A. Münzberg H. Martin R.J. Hutson S.M. Morrison C.D. Leucine acts in the brain to suppress food intake but does not function as a physiological signal of low dietary protein. Notably, while some recent studies have suggested that a low-protein diet improves metabolic health due to a high carbohydrate to low protein ratio (), we have determined that reduced dietary BCAAs improves metabolic health even in the absence of significant alterations in the dietary carbohydrate:protein ratio. An interesting question left unanswered by our work is if a Low BCAA diet is (like a low-protein diet) most efficacious at promoting metabolic health when accompanied by elevated dietary carbohydrates. Other significant unanswered questions also remain, including the role of other essential amino acids in the response to a moderate PR diet and understanding the full biochemical basis for the effect of reduced dietary BCAAs on hepatic gluconeogenesis. We also observed several other significant physiological effects that are ripe for future exploration, including alterations in pancreatic β cell metabolism and body composition. Notably, mice on the Low AA and Low BCAA diets ate significantly more than mice on the Control diet, yet gained less weight. In mice placed on a Low AA diet, this may be explained in part by an FGF21-mediated increase in energy expenditure (), but mice eating a diet specifically reduced in the BCAAs do not have increased FGF21 or increased energy expenditure; the mechanism for this remains to be determined. Interestingly, a recent study in Sprague-Dawley rats determined that diets with reduced dietary BCAAs do not stimulate hyperphagia (); whether this reflects differences between mice and rats, or experimental differences in the length of diet feeding and the degree of BCAA restriction remains to be determined. Bergman et al., 2006 Bergman R.N. Kim S.P. Catalano K.J. Hsu I.R. Chiu J.D. Kabir M. Hucking K. Ader M. Why visceral fat is bad: mechanisms of the metabolic syndrome. Cannon and Nedergaard, 2011 Cannon B. Nedergaard J. Nonshivering thermogenesis and its adequate measurement in metabolic studies. Kasza et al., 2014 Kasza I. Suh Y. Wollny D. Clark R.J. Roopra A. Colman R.J. MacDougald O.A. Shedd T.A. Nelson D.W. Yen M.I. et al. Syndecan-1 is required to maintain intradermal fat and prevent cold stress. Du et al., 2012 Du Y. Meng Q. Zhang Q. Guo F. Isoleucine or valine deprivation stimulates fat loss via increasing energy expenditure and regulating lipid metabolism in WAT. Jang et al., 2016 Jang C. Oh S.F. Wada S. Rowe G.C. Liu L. Chan M.C. Rhee J. Hoshino A. Kim B. Ibrahim A. et al. A branched-chain amino acid metabolite drives vascular fatty acid transport and causes insulin resistance. While we determined that mice fed a diet specifically reduced in leucine did not eat more than control mice, we observed a dramatic effect of leucine reduction on white adipose tissue mass and distribution. In addition to increased visceral adipose tissue, which is associated with poor metabolic health (), we observed increased intradermal adipose tissue, which has been proposed to be key to thermal insulation (). Thus, thicker dWAT could potentially decrease the energy required for thermogenesis. As we did not observe increased dWAT or eWAT in mice restricted in all three BCAAs, it is plausible that the phenotypes we observed could result from an imbalance between the levels of leucine and either isoleucine or valine; both of these amino acids have been implicated in lipid and fatty acid metabolism (). However, the ultimate molecular mechanism that drives the effect of a leucine reduced diet on white adipose tissue is as yet unknown. If altered dietary levels of a single amino acid can also regulate adipose mass in humans, it suggests that the obesity epidemic sweeping the world could be impacted by relatively subtle changes in dietary quality at the level of amino acid composition. Our findings highlight an important new avenue of investigation—specifically, how dietary quality at the level of individual amino acids, not simply the quantity of food consumed, regulates metabolic health. Our findings may be highly translatable to the clinic through the use of diet plans or through the prescription of already FDA-approved medical foods lacking specific branched-chain amino acids. Our human clinical trial data suggests that even a quite modest PR regimen may have significant clinical benefits. In the long term, further investigation of the molecular mechanisms and biological pathways regulated by specific dietary amino acids may permit the development of pharmacological agents to target these pathways to promote metabolic health and to combat obesity and diabetes.My students need atlases and books to help them see and understand the world around them. The middle school students at my school are working towards college and career readiness. My goal is to prepare my students with how to deal with the world around them when they leave my classroom, whether it is in the United States or another country they may visit. In my class, we do a lot of research about different continents, countries, and cultures around the world. In order to be successful, my students need to have access to materials that will help guide them in a deeper understanding of the world in which they live in. The students at my school come from a variety of ethnic backgrounds and living situations. Approximately 75% of the students qualify for free and reduced hot lunch and breakfast. The students at our school are high achieving and the school has been the recipient of several state and local awards for academic achievement. In one year alone, we have moved our school from being 64th in the district to 11th in the district! Many long hours of outside resources have allowed me to increase my students academic knowledge, but having these additional resources will take that one step further.BREAKING REPORT: Obama Admin Forces Border Patrol To Alter Stats Hiding Release of Criminal Aliens New Report Shows More Corruption Under Obama Thursday afternoon a brand new report was released from Judicial Watch that indicates that under the Obama Administration the U.S. Border Patrol alters statistics involving the apprehension of criminal illegal aliens to “conceal that thousands are being released” according to a new federal audit. The Border Patrol is the front line defense for the United States and is charged with stopping terrorists, criminals, and illegals from entering the country along with any weapons, drugs, and other harmful items that they may bring with them. The report also details that the Border Patrol skews numbers to “drastically deflate” the high recidivism of illegal aliens caught entering the U.S. For those who don’t know what recidivism means, Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the term to mean: tendency to relapse into a previous condition or mode of behavior; especially : relapse into criminal behavior From Judicial Watch: The distressing details of this crucial agency’s crafty record-keeping practices are outlined in a scathing report issued this month by the investigative arm of Congress, the Government Accountability Office (GAO). The probe focuses on a Border Patrol system developed to address a smuggling crisis along the southwest border. It’s officially known as Consequence Delivery System (CDS) and is used to identify the most effective and efficient consequences to deter illegal cross border activity in each of the agency’s sectors. For the system to work, the Border Patrol must report accurate information involving illegal aliens who are apprehended. Instead, it appears that federal agents on the ground are being ordered to fudge the numbers as part of a broader Obama administration effort to protect illegal immigrants and falsely portray the Mexican border as safe. The GAO report suggests that Border Patrol headquarters directed agents to misclassify criminal illegal aliens, presumably to hide the fact that they were being released instead of prosecuted. Officials interviewed as part of the probe “said that agents received oral direction from headquarters to reclassify criminal aliens who cannot be given a consequence of federal prosecution, and that written data integrity guidance to sectors did not include activities for checking the accuracy of alien classifications,” the GAO report states. The misclassification of apprehended illegal immigrants resulted in nearly 4,000 criminal aliens being returned to their home country rather than prosecuted between 2013 and 2015, the GAO found. After analyzing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) data, congressional investigators determined that an astounding 94% (109,080) of the 116,409 aliens given a consequence of warrant or notice to appear still had an open case and “may remain in the United States.” Thousands more escaped criminal prosecution because they were not properly classified. “Specifically, of the approximate 15,000 apprehensions of criminal aliens who were not classified according to CDS guidance between fiscal years 2013 and 2015, 8 percent were recommended for criminal prosecution (3,912 apprehensions) compared to 47 percent of all criminal aliens during that timeframe,” the GAO writes. In some cases, Department of Justice (DOJ) restrictions limit the number of illegal aliens that can be referred for prosecution, the report says. This leaves agents in a bind and hesitant to apply consequences that require referral to federal partners. Here’s an example: “Rio Grande Valley sector officials said that while agents apprehended over 129,000 aliens in fiscal year 2015, the sector can only refer about 40 immigration-related cases each day to the corresponding USAO District (Southern District of Texas) for prosecution. Once this daily limit is reached, agents must apply an alternative consequence that is not the Most Effective and Efficient as defined by the CDS guide.” During his Presidential Campaign, Donald Trump was mocked by the mainstream media for insinuating that thousands of criminals were pouring into the country, well it looks like the President-Elect Donald Trump. Border Patrol Backs Donald Trump The union representing Immigration and Customs Enforcement also known as ICE threw its support behind Trump during the Republican nomination race. This is the first time ever that ICE has ever endorsed a candidate for President. From Politico: It’s the first time ever that the National Immigration and Customs Enforcement Council has endorsed a candidate for president, according to a statement posted on Trump’s campaign web site Monday. “Donald Trump reached out to us for a meeting, sat down with me to discuss his goals for enforcement, and pledged to support ICE officers, our nation’s laws and our members. In his immigration policy, he has outlined core policies needed to restore immigration security — including support for increased interior enforcement and border security, an end to Sanctuary Cities, an end to catch-and-release, mandatory detainers, and the canceling of executive amnesty and non-enforcement directives,” its statement says.Please support us by disabling your ad blocker on our site. Medical student's death ruled a suicide DP File Photo Second-year medical student Ari Frosch’s death on Sept. 22 was declared a suicide, The Sun Chronicle in Attleboro, Mass. reported this week. Frosch was on a leave of absence at the time. He was 26 years old. An investigation by local and state authorities in Massachusetts determined the cause of death, a spokesman for the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office told the Chronicle. Students at the Perelman School of Medicine were alerted of Frosch’s death on Sept. 26 in an email from Vice Provost for University Life Valarie Swain-Cade McCoullum. The email was co-signed by Senior Vice Dean for Education at the Perelman School of Medicine and was sent on behalf of President Amy Gutmann and Provost Vincent Price. CAMPUS RESOURCES: Perelman School of Medicine Advising: 215-898-7190 Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS): 215-898-7021 (Nights and weekends, ask for CAPS counselor on call.) Division of Public Safety: 24/7 “HELP” line, 215-898-HELP (215-898-4357) Student Health Service: 215-746-3535 Student Intervention Services: 215-898-6081 University Chaplain’s Office: 215-898-8456 Medical Education Administration Gail Morrison, MD: Senior Vice Dean for Education: 215-840-4963 Stanley Goldfarb, MD: Associate Dean for Curriculum: 610-716-5820 Jon Morris, MD: Associate Dean for Student Affairs: 215-313-6990 “In sadness and with affectionate reflection, we write today to share that Ari Frosch, a second-year Medical student, died suddenly last week at home with family in Newton, Massachusetts,” the email said. Frosch completed his undergraduate studies at Colorado College in 2012, and went on to work at Bryn Mawr College and the National Cancer Institute before enrolling at Penn. Cade’s email also detailed Frosch’s dedication to community service. “Ari spoke fluent Spanish, had worked in Mexico, and volunteered at Puentes de Salud (“Bridges of Health”), a nonprofit dedicated to improving the health of Philadelphia’s Latino community. He loved rock climbing and also gave his time and talents to Habitat for Humanity,” she wrote. Frosch’s father and brother also attended Penn, each earning their medical degree from the Perelman School of Medicine in 1976 and 2014, respectively. Frosch’s death is the eleventh of a Penn student since February 2013 to be ruled a suicide. City News Editor Dan Spinelli contributed reporting. PennConnects Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. Disqus Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.The project was poised to star Robert De Niro and Julianne Moore. Meanwhile, Matt Weiner's 'The Romanoffs' will be produced fully by Amazon as the retail giant/streamer cuts ties with The Weinstein Co. Following rape and sexual harassment allegations against producer Harvey Weinstein and the suspension of Amazon Studios head Roy Price after an allegation of harassment, Amazon has scrapped its pricey David O. Russell drama and taken over Matt Weiner's The Romanoffs. Both shows were being produced by The Weinstein Co., and the retail giant/streaming outlet has now completely cut ties with the company. "Amazon Studios no longer plans on moving forward with the David O.Russell project. As for The Romanoffs, Amazon intends to move forward without the involvement of The Weinstein Co.," Amazon Studios said Friday night in a statement. The news comes days after Amazon Studios said it was "reviewing" its options on The Romanoffs — the eight-episode anthology from Mad Men creator Weiner — as well as the untitled Russell drama that was to star Robert De Niro and Julianne Moore. "We support Amazon’s decision as in light of recent news and out of respect for all those affected we have decided together that it is best to not move forward with this show," De Niro, Moore and Russell said in a joint statement. In a Tuesday morning meeting presided over by head of television business affairs Dan Scharf, sources say, executives said they believed Amazon should be proactive and move quickly to extricate both shows from The Weinstein Co. without harming the projects or talent relationships. Sources told The Hollywood Reporter at the time that The Weinstein Co. had not put up any money for either of the shows, despite the company having committed to co-finance both. Production on The Romanoffs, which comes with a $75 million price tag, has been going smoothly. The first four episodes of the individual anthology show have been filmed, drawing a collection of former Mad Men stars including Christina Hendricks and John Slattery. A source said Weiner's reps had conveyed to Amazon that the showrunner expected the Weinstein name to be eliminated from the series. The Russell project — which was shopped with a $1 million per episode price tag before ending up at Amazon in what is said to be a deal worth $160 million for two seasons — has not gone as smoothly as the Weiner show. Sources say the mystery drama — which was Price's top priority — has already cost Amazon $40 million with only a handful of scripts turned in. Amazon Studios head Price brought The Weinstein Co. into the Russell project to co-finance but from the start, Weinstein was contractually excluded from creative input. Price on Thursday was placed on an indefinite suspension hours after Isa Hackett, a producer on Amazon's The Man in the High Castle and Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams, detailed in an exclusive interview with The Hollywood Reporter her "shocking and surreal" experience with the programming chief in July 2015. "You will love my dick," Price said, according to Hackett, who relayed her account to others. The producer says she reported the incident immediately to Amazon executives. An outside investigator, Public Interest Investigations Inc.'s Christine Farrell, was brought in to speak to Hackett as well as Amazon execs. Hackett says she was never told the outcome of that inquiry, but notes that she hasn’t seen Price at any events involving her shows. (Price, through a spokesperson, declined comment.) In a company-wide memo Friday, Amazon vp business development Jeff Blackburn noted that "Amazon does not tolerate harassment or abuse of our employees or our business partners. If a concern is brought to our attention, we investigate it quickly and thoroughly." Friday's memo arrived more than a month after the existence of the alleged incident and subsequent investigation were previously reported by website The Information. The decision to scrap the Russell drama comes as Amazon is in the process of a strategy pivot. Looking ahead, the streamer will turn its focus to more global event series a la Game of Thrones. In preparation, the company has enlisted Sharon Tal Yguado to lead the push for genre programming and has been busy axing a series of pricey dramas already on its service, including The Last Tycoon and Z: The Beginning of Everything, the latter of which was canceled after a surprise season two renewal. The Russell drama becomes the latest TV project to be scrapped in the wake of the Weinstein scandal. Apple this week scrapped an Elvis Presley miniseries that was part of a four-show deal with TWC. Other cable networks are erasing the Weinstein name and company card from existing and upcoming series.Update – Thanks to our German reader, we now know that AMD was using the Oculus Rift Virtual Reality set to demonstrated their Kaveri APU graphics capabilities. AMD has officially confirmed that their fourth generation Kaveri APU would be headed to desktop PCs in 2013. It was previously reported that Kaveri APUs might have been postponed till 2014 however the desktop APUs arrive officially in 2013. AMD Kaveri APU Arriving For Desktop PCs in Q4 2013 AMD recently had a press conference where they detailed their next generation Steamroller, Jaguar + and ARM based embedded devices. Aside from the embedded products, AMD did a small Q/A session with tech journalists where Computerbase got to ask some questions regarding any possible delays for the Kaveri APU platform. AMD replied that Kaveri APU is headed to desktop PCs in 2013 while notebooks based on the Kaveri APU would launch around spring 2014. The Kaveri mobility APUs would be showcased during the CES 2014 event in January but the actual products would launch in late Q1 2014 or early Q2 2014. So this much is settled that PC enthusiasts would finally get to meet the Kaveri APU in this year bringing the new x86 Steamroller cores, GCN (Volcanic Islands) integrated graphics processors and full support of HSA features. It would be compatible with the new FM2+ socketed boards which would start arriving in the markets shortly and we have already got to see a few lineups from ASRock, Gigabyte and ASUS. Rest assured, more motherboards would be unveiled prior to Kaveri’s launch. Aside from the press conference, AMD also brought along with them a desktop PC which was running a Kaveri APU. No specifications or details were mentioned but Computerbase did mention that they were able to demo a game using the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset. The press was able to only use the virtual reality set and AMD didn’t even attach a keyboard to the PC possibly due to fear of some journalists sneaking into the technical specs and details of the PC.It is also said that the PC was using a large ATX sized development board and the cooling system was the common AMD box cooler which we have seen shipped along with AMD’s FX processors and A-Series APUs.'Bigger Than The 6th': Voters Head To Polls In Georgia Race That Hinges On Trump Enlarge this image toggle caption Joe Raedle/Getty Images Joe Raedle/Getty Images It was supposed to be an easy win for Republicans. But the more than four-month-long bitter special election fight in Georgia's 6th Congressional District has been anything but simple. Democrat Jon Ossoff and Republican Karen Handel are locked in a tight contest that has obliterated spending records, with tens of millions pouring into the critical contest in the northern Atlanta suburbs with major national implications. Democrats in Georgia and across the country are hoping a victory on Tuesday by Ossoff, a 30-year-old documentary filmmaker and former congressional aide, would send a message to President Trump and the GOP-controlled Congress. "It's bigger than the 6th," said Holly Simmel, a volunteer for the Ossoff campaign, who admitted to neglecting her job to spend more time canvassing. Trump and Republicans in Congress need to take notice, Simmel said, hoping that an upset by Ossoff would portend a coming Democratic wave in the 2018 midterm elections. "They need to get used to the idea of no safe seats, because people are fed up. People are fed up everywhere," she said. GOP races to fend off an upset Republicans know the stakes are high and are calling the race a "must win." "I do feel that it's a referendum on Trump.... I think it's that pivotal," GOP voter Val Douis said outside a recent rally for Handel, a former Georgia secretary of state who has run unsuccessful statewide campaigns for both governor and the U.S. Senate. Handel and Ossoff are vying to succeed former Rep. Tom Price, whom Trump picked as his health and human services secretary. Before he changed jobs, Price won re-election in 2016 by about 24 percentage points. Trump just barely won the district in November, and the rapidly changing and diversifying Atlanta suburbs are like many other districts in the country where Democrats hope that frustration with the president can lead to wins in 2018 and possibly flip the House. The Georgia contest has been a key trial balloon of that theory. But as Democrats have come close to victories in other special elections, the outsize attention and money involved has made the race a near must win for Democrats, too, in order to keep their base motivated and show they can put points on the board amid the uncertainty of the Trump administration. There is another special election happening Tuesday, in South Carolina's 5th District to replace Trump's Office of Management and Budget director, Mick Mulvaney, but GOP nominee Ralph Norman is expected to easily best Democratic nominee Archie Parnell in an area where support for the president remains strong. But in Georgia's 6th District, even Trump's allies have acknowledged he is not exactly a boon to the party. And while Handel hasn't entirely distanced herself from Trump, she certainly hasn't fully embraced him, either. "Some Republicans may even be turned off by our president," Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, a former Georgia governor, said at a rally with Handel and Price over the weekend. "There are really two groups of people out there today, politically, there's the 'turned off' and the 'turned on,' " said Perdue, encouraging the crowd of mostly GOP elected officials and party activists to tell their neighbors, friends and family to vote. The never-ending, expensive election The race officially began in February with 18 candidates, including 11 Republicans. Ossoff got 48 percent of the vote in an April all-party "jungle" primary. The GOP vote was divided, but Handel drew 20 percent of it, sending her and Ossoff into a runoff. Overall, more than $50 million has poured into the race from the candidates and well-heeled outside groups, nearly double the previous record for spending in a House contest. While the bank accounts of local TV stations filled up, many voters said they were tired of flyers filling up their mailboxes and repeated phone calls and visits from volunteers. "The earlier you vote, the sooner they stop coming to your house (and) hopefully stop calling your house," said an exasperated Bridgett Fields, outside a polling place. More than 140,000 people voted early ahead of the deadline last Friday, and overall turnout is expected to surpass that of the 2014 midterms. In an attempt to appeal to the district's moderate voters, both candidates have sounded bland at times, as they try to avoid stepping into the political fights embroiling Washington. But the race has not been immune from national news, taking on a dark tenor in the final stretch after last week's shooting in Alexandria, Va., during a congressional GOP baseball practice. Five people were injured, and House Majority Whip Steve Scalise remains in the hospital in serious condition. An ad by a little-known super PAC sought to tie Ossoff to the alleged gunman, who appeared to be motivated by anger at the GOP and Trump. "When will it stop?" a narrator asks in the ad. "It won't if Jon Ossoff wins on Tuesday, because the same unhinged leftists cheering last week's shooting are all backing Jon Ossoff. And if he wins, they win." Both Ossoff and Handel have condemned the ad. And there have been security concerns among both candidates after the shooting. Handel and her neighbors recently received letters with a white powder, but it was later determined not to be hazardous. Ossoff said that his campaign has received threats and that he has hired a security detail. But at least one local Republican official told The Washington Post that last week's tragedy could end up boosting the party's base turnout. "I'll tell you what: I think the shooting is going to win this election for us," Brad Carver, the GOP chairman of the neighboring 11th Congressional District, said. "Because moderates and independents in this district are tired of left-wing extremism. I get that there's extremists on both sides, but we are not seeing them. We're seeing absolute resistance to everything this president does. Moderates and independents out there want to give him a chance. Democrats have never given this president a chance." In an effort to save the seat, several top Republican politicians have made stops in the district. Trump held a fundraiser for Handel in April. More recently Vice President Pence and House Speaker Paul Ryan joined her on the campaign trail. "Georgians are going to help determine the direction of this country. You know what we're going to do this summer, we've got to repeal and replace Obamacare," Ryan said when he visited the district last month. "We need [Handel]. We need her help." Ossoff and Handel are clearly divided in their positions on health care, and that issue alone could be a deciding factor for many voters. Handel has cheered Republicans in the House for passing the controversial American Health Care Act, while Ossoff said he would have voted against it. A poll last week by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which gave Ossoff a slight lead, found that 62 percent of voters in the district had an unfavorable opinion of the AHCA and that 81 percent called health care a very important issue in deciding whom to vote for. Enlarge this image toggle caption Joe Raedle/Getty Images Joe Raedle/Getty Images Abortion has also been a central issue in the race. In 2012, Handel was vice president of the Susan G. Komen Foundation, a breast cancer nonprofit. She pushed for the group to stop funding Planned Parenthood, and Handel resigned after the move ignited backlash. Democrats and Ossoff, who is backed by Planned Parenthood, have made that a key issue in the contest, and he is banking on heavy turnout by female voters to help him win. Ossoff's out-of-district support bolsters his campaign Despite the national attention the race has received, big-name Democrats haven't shown up in the Atlanta suburbs to support Ossoff. While some of his early ads touted how he would stand up to Trump, the first-time candidate has tried to cut a centrist profile, calling for "cuts to wasteful spending" and high-tech job creation in his TV ads, which often don't say he is a Democrat. On the campaign trail, Handel has repeatedly painted Ossoff as an outsider and a carpetbagger, tying him to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. GOP attack ads have echoed that message, which Republicans believe is an effective one. Although he grew up in the 6th District, Ossoff won't be able to vote for himself because he currently lives just south of the district with his fiancée while she attends medical school. Much of Ossoff's record $23 million fundraising haul came from liberal states like New York and California, bolstering the Republican attacks. One super PAC ad featured actors in San Francisco sarcastically thanking Ossoff, "their congressman." Ossoff's campaign has been boosted by an army of volunteers from inside and outside the state, many of whom had never been involved in politics before or were looking to be more involved after the 2016 election. The news around that time was making Laura Phipps' stomach turn, so she signed up to ride on an Ossoff campaign bus from North Carolina with her son to volunteer in Georgia. "It's much less frustrating when you're working, when you're doing something," Phipps said. Whoever wins the 6th District race will only have a few months before the 2018 election campaign begins, and he or she will be the most junior member of Congress. But clearly the election is about much more than that. "This is a harbinger of national politics," Perdue said Saturday. "And the world is looking; the nation is looking." NPR's Jessica Taylor contributed.BEIJING, June 11 -- The Chinese Communist Party has disciplined 28 officials and promoted 50 as a result of their performances during rescue operations after the devastating May 12 earthquake in Sichuan province, the party said Tuesday. The personnel changes, including the firing of 15 officials for "doing nothing" during the catastrophe, represented the first public accounting of government actions after a prominent warning by a senior party leader that officials' careers would depend on how well they responded to the crisis. In a sign the party intended the decisions to serve as examples, they were reported prominently in the party's Sichuan Daily newspaper and relayed nationwide by the official New China News Agency. The party has defined the disaster as a major test of its leadership, from local party secretaries tending to victims on the front lines to the highest-ranking party mandarins directing recovery from Beijing. President Hu Jintao, Premier Wen Jiabao and other members of the party's elite Politburo Standing Committee have made repeated and widely reported visits to the quake zone. Their response has generated widespread praise among Chinese. "The performance of officials in rescue and rebuilding operations will be an important basis for deciding on their rewards, punishments and future roles," said a directive from the party's national Organization Department. "Those who perform in an outstanding way will be promoted boldly. Officials who do not work well will be shifted to other positions." According to official counts, the Sichuan temblor killed more than 69,000 people and left 17,000 missing. About 12 million were left homeless, and a large number of towns and villages were so badly destroyed they will have to be rebuilt from scratch. Officials said Tuesday that Beichuan, one of the hardest-hit towns and the seat of Beichuan county, would be rebuilt about 20 miles to the southwest, in an area known as Bandengqiao. Urban planners described the new site as safer because it is farther from earthquake-prone fault lines and lies on flatter ground, making it less exposed to landslides, according to the New China News Agency. Many Beichuan residents have taken refuge in tents in nearby Mianyang city, unable even to return to view the ruins of their town because of the danger of flooding from waters of the Jian River, backed
immigrant to this country and you show up at a workplace and they tell you, 'Look, put on a blue suit jacket and a tie, and burgundy shoes.' I mean, don't you feel immense relief at that, actually? Russ Roberts: Yeah, of course. Yeah, for sure. Tyler Cowen: Whatever else might be thrown at you. And that's really just the point right there. And once you get that intuition, just apply that logic more broadly. 55:44 Russ Roberts: You mentioned de Tocqueville a few minutes ago as might be being your only library book. But you spent quite a bit of time on him in your book. Talk about what he meant by pantheism and how you see it relating to transcendence and the current situation in America. Tyler Cowen: Tocqueville's notion of pantheism, I'm not sure I understand. And I haven't read Tocqueville in the original French. But at least, as I read him, Tocqueville as a theorist saw America was headed in a direction of greater complacency, much greater mediocrity--noting, and indeed insisting that mediocrity is greatly underrated or undervalued. Like, a mediocre life is a wonderful thing to have. But nonetheless markers of social status would ossify, and through a kind of indirectly enforced conformity change in this country would slow down. And de Tocqueville arguably was the first theorist of the complacent class. And I try to give him full credit for that. I think it's remarkable how much of that he saw in advance. Now, he calls it pantheism, by which he does not seem to mean the Spinoza notion of identifying God with the material universe. For him, I think it's a way of thinking about how idolatry works in this new society--that people copy each other to an extreme degree. In a way he's the forerunner of Rene Girard in his passages still. Russ Roberts: What's the concept of transcendence and why is that important? Tyler Cowen: Transcendence gives us something beyond ourselves to aspire to, gives us external standards. It gives us a kind of hierarchy or rigidity, even if we use it just to rebel against. And that's very useful. You know, another group in American life that I view as not very complacent, and that would be Mormons: They have a robust middle class, high income growth, a lot of mobility; very good social indicators. There's a new Megan McArdle piece on this on Bloomberg today. And they're also the group--they have a lot of hierarchies in various ways yet in other ways are highly egalitarian. Very entrepreneurial and dynamic. Very religious, of course. And I think there are lessons in the Mormon experience, too. Russ Roberts: You also have some praise for immigrants and the dynamism that they had. Tyler Cowen: You know, I think immigrants are more neurotic than average. And that's very useful. You actually want a country in some ways filled with neurotics or partial neurotics. They are driven or they are motivated. And immigrants have so often in the past refreshed this country's dynamism. They are doing it now again to some extent, to the extent that's happening. And, life as an immigrant is extremely uncomfortable. I think those of us who are not immigrants forget that. My wife was not only an immigrant, but a refugee from Soviet Russia. And when she came here, it was a long, long time before she fit in again or knew how things worked, or, you know, started her second career. It's very difficult. And we now have this view like people born here shouldn't have to go through something like that. That, again, is another way of framing this complacency. Immigrants rarely think that. They all know they are in for big adjustments. And even if they don't know it at first, it hits them over the head. Russ Roberts: You say something, which I found really provocative in the book about politics. You say, "Elections these days often seem more about who is to blame than who is to govern." What do you mean? Tyler Cowen: Well, Trump has turned out to be the master of that. You know, I wrote that sentence when I had no inkling Trump would win. But if you look at his tweet stream, it's remarkable how much he's still blaming Hillary Clinton for this, that, and the other. He now likes to blame Paul Ryan. I'm not saying there's nothing you can blame those people for. But, look: He's President. Actually, one might expect he takes responsibility for governing and getting something done. But he's rather obviously wallowing in blame. And the two parties blame each other. So, the Republicans vote to repeal Obamacare, what, 60 times or so? And then they get in power; and it doesn't seem they can do it? What does that tell you about complacency? Most parts of the Budget, the two parties for all of their symbolic differences are very much in agreement about, and probably even Obamacare will not fundamentally change or go away. That to me is an underappreciated truth. It's been pointed out before. But I don't think we've really internalized how much of a stronghold that has over what happens or doesn't happen in this country.Salvia divinorum (salvia) is an intense, short-acting hallucinogenic plant gaining popularity among adolescents in the United States. There has been little scientific documentation of salvia's effects. The popular video-sharing website YouTube has received literally thousands of video-posts of people using salvia. The objective of this study was to assess the effects of salvia use through systematic observations of YouTube videos. A sample of salvia videos was obtained using the search term "salvia." The videos were further screened and only videos that captured the entire drug "trip" without video edits were included in the analyses described here (n=34). Three trained research assistants independently watched the videos and rated their observations on 42 effects in 30-s intervals. Onset of symptoms was quick (often less than 30s) and tended to dissipate within 8min. Further, there was a relationship between salvia dose and effect duration. Since salvia's effects on humans are largely undocumented, this study provides the look at users in a non-laboratory environment (e.g. self-taped videos) exhibiting impairments and behaviors consistent with this powerful hallucinogen. Also, this study demonstrates the feasibility and shortcomings of using YouTube videos to assess emerging drugs and drug effects. Copyright 2009 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.EFF has been among several groups following the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the threatening ramifications it would have for the future of the open Internet, access to knowledge, and innovation. Based on what we know from the leaked intellectual property chapter (IP chapter) proposed by the US, it carries many of the restrictive copyright provisions that already exist in US law. From what we have seen, however, this agreement is even more extreme, going beyond ACTA and DMCA rules: it does not export the many balances and exceptions that favor the public interest and act as safety valves in limiting rightsholders’ protection. One of the most problematic aspects of the TPP’s IP chapter, as we know from the leak, is its proposed language regulating temporary copies. As currently drafted, the related provision creates chilling effects not just on how we behave online, but also on the basic ability of people and companies to use and create on the Web. Article 4.1 of the leaked TPP’s IP chapter on Copyright and Related Rights addresses temporary copies. It states: Each Party shall provide that authors, performers, and producers of phonograms have the right to authorize or prohibit all reproductions of their works, performances, and phonograms, in any manner or form, permanent or temporary (including temporary storage in electronic form). [Emphasis our own] This language reveals a profound disconnect with the reality of the modern computer. In fact, all routine computer functions rely upon the regular creation of temporary copies of programs and files. Temporary copies are files that are automatically copied by computers into their random access memory (“RAM”) during the course of routine operations. “Temporary copying” of data is fundamental to how computing works in general. However, this is especially true on the Internet: videos are buffered in memory in order to play smoothly, browser cache files are stored on servers to speed up the loading of websites, and copies of visited pages are stored in a temporary Internet files folder on your hard drive, speeding up the loading process for those websites the next time you visit them. Since it’s technically necessary to download a temporary version of everything we see on our devices, does that mean—under the US proposed language—that anyone who ever views content on their device could potentially be found liable of infringement? For other countries signing on to the TPP, the answer would be most likely yes. The United States has grappled with this problem for years through the judicial system. US courts have considered whether the literal copy made by ordinary operation of a computer is sufficiently fixed in place to be subject to copyright, and—if it is —whether other exceptions and limitations allow the operation without giving veto power to the copyright holder. To bring all temporary copies under copyright without the exceptions and limitations is bad policy, and it’s at the heart of the TPP provision. Twenty years ago, in MAI Systems Corp. v. Peak Computer, Inc. a US appeals court held that temporary copies in RAM were infringing when a third-party computer repair technician loaded a computer program into memory. The US Congress quickly reacted, creating a new exception for copies necessary to run a computer program (17 U.S.C. § 117). However, over the following years, several courts relied upon this notion to find that temporary copies, like local caches of webpages, were subject to the Copyright Act. Recognizing that a strict interpretation of this rule would lead to unintended consequences, many courts correctly applied other exceptions and limitations, like the fair use doctrine or implied licenses, which greatly helped prevent unjust results. More recently, a line of cases has clarified the law for temporary copies. In CoStar v. LoopNet, another appeals court found that temporary copies that where qualitatively transitory were not subject to the Copyright Act. Subsequently, in the Cablevision remote DVR case, a different appeals court applied this reasoning to permit video buffering copies. Thus, through the judiciary, the US legal system has provided the space for users and innovators despite the notion that a RAM copy would be subject to the Copyright Act. The TPP seeks to undo these years of positive development, and impose the controversial rule without requiring the accompanying exceptions and limitation that are necessary to balance the law. Worse yet, it is hard to say that other TPP negotiating parties will have the same ability to carve out such exceptions and limitation. Neither the content, the footnotes, nor any part of the accompanying Side-letter requires any of those doctrines that have provided the US with the flexibility that has allowed the ordinary operation of computers, websites and video streaming to operate. And this is not only potentially disastrous for users within TPP countries, it would have a nasty effect on technological innovation aimed at providing users with new ways of exploring and accessing content. A definitive and inflexible international standard on temporary copies would not only create a new intricate layer of copyrights, it would impact the cost of accessing licensed content, as well as raise concerns about how this provision could affect privacy. Without further clarity, the TPP proposal could require licenses for every single copyrighted file that passes through a device. This is currently impossible to monitor with existing software and hardware, and developing the technology to monitor all transient copies of files would have profound negative effects on user privacy. The US Congress has recognized the importance of creating escape valves to allow innovation to occur. For instance, it created a safe harbor for Internet services providers within the DMCA. This protection is vital for companies hosting and storing others’ content including user-generated content, such as Wikipedia and open educational resources, such as Connexions. However, no such safe harbor has so far been included in the TPP’s IP chapter. In other words, this proposal is an example of the content industry fighting for not just the right to profit from their content, but to do so by retaining the right to shut down the innovation of others. This proposal may seem absurd to you. It should. Given how crucial the storage of “temporary copies” of digital files is to the functioning of our devices, the inclusion of unfettered provisions to regulate it is purely backward, especially given the supporters’ failure to justify a legitimate purpose for imposing a burden without a balance. The content industry is losing the debate in the US courts, as more cases are finding applicable exceptions and limitations. But if the proposed strict temporary copies provision were to be adopted by another country that does not have similar fair use safeguards, it could play out much worse for the users. What is clear is that such an abusive expansion of copyright restriction could easily pave the way for regulations and technological standards that are massively abused to block innovation and oppress users. Additional resources:There are few three word phrases that can get me as excited as: New Djrum record. Over the years the guy has released music that is unique in its feel and its ability to convey powerful emotion. Trawling through his discography leads you only to find music that marries stunning production with even better composition; Ode/Tailing, the Mountains pt. 1/2, Watermark, the Seven Lies album. It’s no surprise that looking at the prices of any of those records on discogs will bring a tear to your eye. Djrum records are rare, which means that new releases will have me drawing for the Paypal details almost instantly, few artists have ever reached buy on sight status with me, but this guy is definitely one of them. After his most recent offering on Samurai Music, Plantain, and little news of any forthcoming represses since the demise of his former home 2nd drop records, Djrum has found a new home in the form of the Zenker brothers’ label Ilian Tape and his first release here a mixed 12 with the sounds of newcomer Struction on the flip. Djrum’s track Untitled 9 has the feelings of an instant classic about it. The transition from broken beat hyper-techno to introspective instrumentally driven ambience is a common theme in Djrum’s music, with the odd perfectly selected cinematic quote in there too. In this track we are taken from the dancefloor at peaktime to being curled up in bed with a spliff and a deepening sense that you’re not sure why you exist, all in the space of 10 minutes. On the B-side are two tracks by relatively unheard Struction. The first Don’t Blame adds just a hint of a garage feel to the techno, evoking memories of early Joy O releases. While Strukture takes on a fully experimental turn, beatless and raw, with a gritty acid bassline to boot. Definitely worth keeping an eye on this guy and seeing what he turns out in the future.ROCKFORD, Mich. (AP) - A Michigan couple who already had 12 sons have kept the all-male streak alive with the birth of boy No. 13 on Wednesday. Jay Schwandt told The Associated Press that his wife Kateri gave birth Wednesday morning, four days after her due date. The couple had said they were sticking to the tradition of not knowing the baby's sex ahead of time. The 40-year-old father confirmed the birth in a text message to The Associated Press, saying the family will release details Thursday on ABC-TV's "Good Morning America." "Ok, so the boys know now!" Schwandt said in a post on Facebook. "It's a BOY! Now we need to choose a name! BLESSED beyond belief!" 8 PHOTOS Michigan woman gives birth to 12 boys See Gallery Michigan couple with 12 sons already welcome boy No. 13 (Photo via FOX17) (Photo via FOX17) (Photo via FOX17) (Photo via FOX17) (Photo via FOX17) (Photo via FOX17) (Photo via FOX17) (Photo via FOX17) Up Next See Gallery Discover More Like This HIDE CAPTION SHOW CAPTION of SEE ALL BACK TO SLIDE The Schwandts live in Rockford, north of Grand Rapids. Kateri Schwandt, 40, says she has a lot of experience with large families, as one of 14 children herself. In an interview last week, she said she finds motherhood to be "very rewarding." "Your children are a little piece of you. Every day is Mother's Day," she told The Grand Rapids Press. "They will bring me flowers that they pick in the yard. Even if it's a dandelion, it's special because they were thinking of Mom." More on AOL: House approves bill banning late-term abortion Report: Amtrak train didn't have safety system US citizen killed in Taliban attack on Afghan hotelThe biggest question in the Trayvon Martin shooting—whether killer George Zimmerman was motivated by race—-could be answered by new FBI reports set to be released by the Florida state attorney Thursday. The shooting came to U.S. Department of Justice as a civil-rights case after it was alleged that Zimmerman shot the unarmed teen because of his race. The official conclusion of this investigation is not yet ready to be released, but evidence such as interviews with over 30 people—friends of Zimmermans and members of the local police department where the shooting took place, as well as interviews with Florida Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco who arrested Zimmerman back in 2005—will be. Last week, Zimmerman was released on $1 million bond after the judges initial $150,000 bond was revoked. Martin's shooter and his wife had apparently received over that amount in public donations and did not inform the court.Japan is expected to pass security bills that would allow troops to fight on foreign soil for the first time since World War II, despite fierce criticism it would fundamentally alter the character of the pacifist nation. The legislation, backed by Shinzo Abe's ruling coalition, was expected to go to a vote in the full upper house some time on Friday, following days of heated debate that at times descended into scuffles and and shouting matches between parliament members. Opposition lawmakers on Thursday pushed and shoved in a failed bid to stop a committee approving the bills. Abe has faced fierce criticism for his handling of the bills and there are growing signs the campaign has taken a political toll. Opinion polls show the vast majority of the public is against the changes, and Abe's once sky-high approval rating is dropping. Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets in almost daily rallies, in a show of public anger on a scale rarely seen in Japan. On Friday hundreds gathered again outside the parliament in Tokyo. Opponents argue that the new laws - which would allow the tightly restricted military to fight in defence of allies - violate Japan's constitution and could see the country dragged into US-led wars. Abe wants what he calls a normalisation of Japan's military posture, which has been restricted to narrowly defined self-defence and aid missions by a pacifist constitution imposed by the US after World War II.Vanessa DeLeon delivered her fourth child in an elementary school. (Photo11: Malini Basu, KHOU-TV) A pregnant Texas mother went to register her son for pre-K at an elementary school Thursday and ended up walking out with two kids. "At first, I was like, 'Oh, my God. I can't believe I'm one of those ladies that has a baby at one of those weird, random places,'" said Vanessa DeLeon of Pasadena, Texas. "I walk in there and tell the lady, 'Here is the immunization and the package filled out. Is there anything I'm missing? Because I have to go now. I'm in labor.'" The new school nurse at Fisher Elementary School, Ashleigh Morris, was on her second day of her job when she was faced with delivering a baby. "This is our makeshift labor and delivery room for the day," Morris said. "She laid down right here. She was screaming." With the help of the principal and school officer, she delivered DeLeon's baby. They used a string to cut the umbilical cord. Vanessa DeLeon with her four children. (Photo11: Malini Basu, KHOU-TV) With no towels or blankets in school, they needed something to wrap the baby in. "Ashleigh is over there, and she is saying 'I need T-shirts.' We are just grabbing them and throwing to her," said Principal Libby Escalante. Geovani Ezekiel Deleon weighed in at 6 pounds, 3 ounces. Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1oA7NTAThe house in which Adolf Hitler was born is seen in Braunau am Inn, Austria, October 22, 2016. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger/Files VIENNA (Reuters) - Austria’s lower house of parliament has approved the compulsory purchase of the building Hitler was born in, a step towards changing the site beyond recognition to reduce its appeal as a pilgrimage site for neo-Nazis. The text approved late on Wednesday did not specify what form the planned overhaul of the building will take, which some deputies who voted against the bill cited as their reason for opposing it. Opponents included some members of the small, liberal Neos party, according to a statement by parliament, but a count of votes was not immediately available. The bill must now be passed by the upper house, which is expected to be a formality. Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka has said the government supports a planned “thorough architectural rearrangement” of the house Hitler was born in near the border with Germany in 1889, which could include demolishing the building. The compulsory purchase of the house in the town in Braunau am Inn should put an end to a long-standing dispute with its owner, a retired woman who has turned down previous offers by the state to acquire the site. Sobotka has said the three-storey building could be used by the town of Braunau for “charitable or official purposes” after its conversion. The Interior Ministry has been renting the building since 1972 and sublet it to Braunau.?The name Deep Roy (for my money, the most awesome name in Hollywood) may not be immediately recognizable to everyone here, but if you call yourself a science fiction fan, odds are you’re familiar with his work, if not his name or face (which is oft buried under layers of SFX make-up). Born Mohinder Purba in Nairobi, Kenya, to Indian parents in 1957, the 4′ 4″ Roy started his career as a stand-up comedian in England before his big break in 1976, playing the role of the “Italian Assassin” in The Pink Panther Strikes Again. Since then, he has worked steadily as an actor, stunt man, and puppeteer–appearing in some of nerd-dom’s most popular films and franchises. In fact, Deep Roy (occasionally credited as Gordeep Roy or Roy Deep) has achieved a status unique in nerd-dom — he is the only actor to have appeared in Star Trek, Star Wars, and Doctor Who! (Sorry, Simon Pegg, but you only did a voice in Clone Wars.) That’s right, the Nerd Sci-Fi Franchise Hat Trick! As for what those roles were — well, read on. 8) Egyptian Guard, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen ?Relax; there is nothing wrong with your computer; you are indeed seeing a reference to Revenge of the Fallen on a TR list that isn’t 100% negative. But hold your nerd rage for a moment, if you would. Please understand how deeply I hate this movie: I’m pretty sure that seeing it actually erased my memories of one or two good films, the way cancer turns healthy cells into malignant tumors. That’s why I was so happy when Mr. Roy appeared in a brief cameo as a diminutive Egyptian military officer… at that point I was seconds from chewing off my own foot to escape, like an animal in a trap. Deep Roy’s appearance reminded me that there was still good in the world… that there were things beyond the hell that was this movie… things worth living for. His cameo didn’t allow me to enjoy ROTF, but it did help me survive it. 7) Mambino, Alien From L.A. Known best for the marvelous MST3K episode it was made into, Alien From L.A. stars a squeaky voiced, pre-Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue Kathy Ireland as a girl from Los Angeles who winds up at the center of the Earth in the lost city of Atlantis, which is populated entirely by mimes, new wave bands, and Australians. Roy plays a mobster/circus freak called “Mambino, Boss of Bosses.” Awful as the film is, for once, Roy got to speak and wasn’t hidden inside a costume, and he did the best he could with the laughably weak writing. If nothing else, he at least appeared to be having fun. 6) Teeny Weeny, The Neverending Story ?Though his lines were few (and overdubbed by Alan Oppenheimer) and his character only appeared in two scenes, anyone who has seen The Neverending Story remembers the top-hatted little man on the racing snail, called “Teeny Weeny” according to IMDB (fun fact: Roy’s production company is called “Teeny Weeny Productions”). The character is best remembered for his journey to the Ivory Tower on his beloved snail with the Rock Biter, the Night Hob, and the stupid bat. 5) Fellini, Flash Gordon Not a great deal to say about this character, I’m afraid: Fellini was the little red-faced man Princess Aura kept as a pet. What exactly Fellini is, how he came to be a pet, how well or poorly he’s treated… none of this is explained. He has no lines, and the closest he comes to communicating is when he jumps up and down in excitement as Flash uses his Football-Fu to whale the piss out of a bunch of Ming’s guards (30 years later and I still don’t understand that scene: What was he hoping to accomplish? Even if Zarkov hadn’t beaned him, Ming would just keep sending in guards until even Flash’s Jedi football tricks wouldn’t be enough to save him)… but I digress. 4) Keenser, Star Trek ?This was the role that granted Deep Roy the singular status of “Nerd Icon Cubed.” You all remember watching J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek, wondering where the heck Scotty is, and then running into him on an abandoned outpost verbally abusing a horned toad in welding goggles, right? Well, that’s Keenser, and if you saw the movie, you know as much about him as I do. Seriously, I was shocked: I expected once I went online I’d find out not only the name of his species, but their home planet, history, language, mating habits, religious practices, etc. But nope — nada. Not one scrap of background information, not even on Memory Alpha, the Star Trek wiki. Nevertheless, I was not so desperate for info as to seek out fan fiction detailing just how Scotty and Keenser spent those lonely months together. If anyone wants to open that can of worms, be my fucking guest. 3) Mr. Sin, Doctor Who‘s “The Talons of Weng Chaing” One of Deep Roy’s most well-known (if not most easily recognized) roles, Mr. Sin was a villain during the tenure of Tom Baker’s Fourth Doctor, specifically in “The Talons Of Weng Chiang.” The character is a cyborg from the 51st Century with the cerebral cortex of a pig — he looks like an exhibit from the world’s most racist wax museum. Mr. Sin is in the service of Li H’sen Chang, a stage magician/tong boss who believes he’s doing the will of the god Weng Chiang when he’s actually the pawn of 51st century despot Magnus Greel. Designed as a toy and originally called the “Peking Homunculus,” Mr. Sin nearly started World War Six when his organic cerebral cortex gained control of his functions. 2) Droopy McCool, Return of the Jedi Quick question: What do Deep Roy and James Earl Jones have in common? Give up? Both were (at least originally) uncredited for their roles in the Star Wars trilogy. Of course, Jones provided the unmistakable voice of one of history’s most iconic villains, while Roy played a shaved Shar Pei in boxer shorts that plays clarinet… but the principle’s the same. As was often the case, Roy was silent and unrecognizable in this role, but any Star Wars fan immediately knows Droopy McCool, woodwind player for the Max Rebo band, even if they don’t know who’s likely sweating to death under all that foam rubber. Droopy wasn’t the only character in ROTJ Mr. Roy helped bring to life; as a stuntman he also played an Ewok, and occasionally stood in for Kenny Baker as R2-D2.Dr Lis Kirkby, our 93-year-old graduate At 93 years of age, Dr Lis Kirkby has become Australia's oldest graduate. She was the state leader of a major political party, played a lead role in a primetime television drama, fought for social change and worked at a radio station in a newly decolonised Malaysia. Now at 93 years of age, Dr Lis Kirkby is Australia's oldest PhD graduate. Dr Kirkby's PhD thesis, 'Will we ever learn from history: the impact of economic orthodoxy on unemployment during the Great Depression in Australia', was completed in late 2013 through the University of Sydney Business School's Discipline of Work and Organisational Studies. "A love of learning is essential," Dr Kirkby told the Australian. "I say that to people, that you really have to have an enthusiasm or passion for something. You can't believe that when you retire you just play golf or bowls or sit round with your mates. You always have to do something." Dr Kirkby decided to pursue her PhD after watching conservative governments determined to reduce spending, repeat the same mistakes they made in the Great Depression after the GFC took hold. "The importance of linking the 1930s to the GFC is to ensure that past mistakes are not repeated. It is now more important than ever for people to realise that the economy cannot be run to suit the needs of the most privileged at the expense of the least privileged", she says. "As long as you have a financial system that only looks at how banking interests can make profit without any consideration of how this affects ordinary people, or even other countries, the world is going to get in a worse and worse state." Acting Dean of The Business School, Professor David Grant, congratulated Dr Kirkby on her accomplishment: "Her graduation marks another special achievement in her life. She is an inspiration to us all in the Business School, and we are proud to have had her carry out her doctoral studies with us." Unlike many of her fellow students, Dr Kirkby has the advantage of being able to draw on a lifetime of experiences. She saw first-hand the effects of the Great Depression while growing up in England, and served in the Auxiliary Territorial Service in World War II. She lived in Malaysia during the Malayan Emergency and stayed on in her role as a radio producer following independence. After working for ABC Radio in Sydney, Dr Kirkby became a television celebrity, starring as Lucy Sutcliffe in the hit series Number 96. However, it was Dr Kirkby's work in politics that really supported her postgraduate studies. As a member of the Legislative Council of New South Wales and state leader of the Australian Democrat party from 1981 to 1998, Dr Kirkby campaigned tirelessly to decriminalise homosexuality, improve workers' rights, improve conditions for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and establish equal rights and opportunities for women. Prior to entering Parliament, she had opposed the Vietnam War, and was a member of the Women's Electoral Lobby (WEL). Her research became increasingly linked to these endeavours for social justice. "I am more and more involved in this thesis as a matter of putting forward what I believe are principles of social justice, and it is not some airy fairy idea of total equality. There's no such thing as total equality, but a progressive society has to be fair, and it is not fair when a financial firm in New York can make a profit that is greater than the gross domestic product of a small country," she says. Even after all she faced as a political leader, media personality and social rights campaigner, Dr Kirkby found commencing university as daunting as any other new student. "After leaving school I didn't go on to university, which was what had been expected, and it wasn't until 2002 that I thought okay, I'll go back to it! Why not?" "Of course I had to do public exams at the end of every year and go and sit in a room and write. The first time it was terrifying because I hadn't done it for 70 years!" While Dr Kirkby is aware that her age has set her apart from her fellow PhD candidates, she doesn't see it as a disadvantage. In fact, she believes the collective youth and inexperience of major finance corporations was a significant factor in the emergence of the GFC. "When Goldman Sachs was in trouble in 2007-2008 there was no corporate memory. There was nobody who had any real knowledge of what had happened to Goldman Sachs prior to 1980," she says. "I believe that people should be judged in old age on their capacity, not on their chronological age. I think it is terribly wrong that as soon as a person reaches a certain age they are automatically written off as too old. It really is infuriating that people assume you can't do something because of your age." Media enquiries: Trevor Watson, 9351 1918, 0418 648 099, [email protected] Nadine Haynes, 9114 1136, 0423 748 815, [email protected] DELHI: Congress is likely to move amendments to the GST bills, but the leadership has advised its MPs that they should not come across as blocking the tax reform.At a strategy meeting presided over by Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, Lok Sabha MPs shared their concern over jurisdiction issues, “federal issues” and some other provisions in the GST bills which they felt required improvement. It was decided that Congress will register its reservations on the bills.However, Rahul is learnt to have told the MPs that the criticism should be constructive and the party was in favour of the tax reform which was initiated by the UPA. Former Union minister Veerappa Moily will open the Congress’s arguments over the GST bills and is likely to touch upon the questionable provisions.Sources said there were clauses which took away the power of taxation from Parliament and vested them in the GST Council which was not acceptable. Also, the party is against the tax slab ceiling of 40% and wants a low rate.By Dave Hone Pterosaurs have been around in popular fiction in all kinds of different media almost as long as the dinosaurs. In many ways they have always been in the shadows of their more illustrious cousins, but despite this have repeatedly been represented in all manner of books, films, comics and TV shows over the years. One notable feature of these various appearances are the hugely limited number of species on display. While dinosaurs of all kinds abound (Tyrannosaurs, Diplodocus, Triceratops, Stegosaurus and now Velociraptor seem to make it into every film), the only pterosaurs we ever see are Pteranodon and the occasional Rhamphorhynchus. To make matters worse (for me anyway) the reconstructions are often very poor and rely on outdated ideas about pterosaurs. One can hardly complain about the early films and books, but dinosaurs on the big screen especially have changed dramatically several times over the years reflecting the latest (well relatively recent) ideas in palaeontology, yet the pterosaurs stay the same. Pterosaur research has been no less intense that that on the dinosaurs and our ideas about how they lived have changed as we discover new fossils and new ways of analysing them, but we are left with tooth-y Pteranodons, ‘pterodactyls’, and 5 meter wing-span rhamphorhynchoids! This section is not meant as a nit-pick of every pterosaur that has ever made it into print or film (if it did, this would be a very big page!) but an attempt to look at some of the various incarnations of pterosaurs over the years and how they reflect our changing knowledge of them through our research. The Early Days: The first reconstruction of a pterosaur as a living animal (rather than just a skeleton) was way way back in 1800 by the Frenchman Jean Harmann. The public did not actually see this drawing as it was passed between two scientists, but in many ways it was quite accurate. The pterosaur (a Pterodactylus – at the time the only pterosaur known) was portrayed as having almost circular wings and was covered in fur. Clearly Harmann thought it was a mammal, but it did at least stick closely to what was known about the skeleton. The public first got to grips with pterosaurs in the mid 1800s with a number of reconstructions circulating in the scientific literature of the time and either being seen by the public, or copies made by artists for various popular books and articles. Most ‘famous’ of these was Newman’s flying possums. Undaunted by the famous Baron Cuvier’s assertions that these were reptiles (and a fair few other eminent scientists too) he doggedly depicted them as small furry insectivores that frankly did not even match the skeletons so were hard to take seriously even then. However, there were plenty of more realistic efforts from artists working from the advice of famous palaeontologists such as William Buckland and Richard Owen. The latter inspired the first known models of pterosaurs, constructed by W.B. Hawkins for the Crystal Palace exhibition in London in 1853. Other portrayals of the time showed small pterosaurs (generally rhamphorhynchoids) clinging to cliff faces or gliding over seas as marine reptiles waged war on each other. Other made the first of a long-running mistake – the assumption that a membrane for a wing would require support and thus bat-like fingers. These bat-wings are a reccuring theme in pterosaur reconstructions and they still turn up even today (very occasionally) by those who have not bothered to check a skeleton or any scientific research. Pterosaurs on Film: Pterosaurs made what was probably their first appearance in fiction in Arthur Conan Doyle’s 1912 masterpiece – The Lost World. Doyle was actually a keen amateur scientist
into two extremes. There are very few middle-market brands and retailers and everything has become very cheap or irrationally expensive on the other end. It’s interesting to me because it really has followed the decline of the middle class in the U.S. as well. Q. I think the phrase you used was “recession brands.” A. Now that we’re in the middle of a global economic downturn, it’s making people even cheaper. It’s a huge problem because one of the reasons why I think we’re in this economic crisis is because we don’t have a manufacturing base anymore. … The garment and textile trades were two of the fastest-dying industries of the last 10 years. Those are a lot of really crucial jobs that are just gone now. People don’t think about that when they’re in these stores buying $10 dresses. Q. What are the environmental impacts of cheap clothing? A. The way I approached it in the book was to talk about the dramatic increase in our consumption because I think people infer what that means for the environment. One of the more astonishing figures from the book was that our fiber consumption has leapt from 10 million tons to 82 million tons [annually] in the last 60 years. It’s far outpacing population growth. I also get into the waste that’s created. We throw away 68 pounds of textiles per person per year. On top of that, we’re using thrift stores and charity shops as dumps for an incredible volume of clothes that we don’t wear anymore. [The average charity shop is able to sell a mere 20 percent of what comes in.] Q. With the economy being what it is, how much do you think we’re going to be able to change if wages stay flat? I feel like we could run into the same problems as the food movement: It’s easy for the wealthy to buy with their conscience, but difficult for most people to make a big change. A. I think it is similar to the food movement in that people in this country don’t have a lot of money yet they’re obese. It’s so similar to fashion. We are drowning in cheap clothes. Even people who don’t have a lot of money have overflowing closets. I think it’s about how people spend the money they do have. The national average of spending on clothing is around $1,100 per year. Instead of going out and buying another two pairs of jeans when you already own 10, think about using that money this year to instead invest in something that you’re going to keep for longer. Or invest in something that you don’t already own that’s actually really unique. I think it’s about changing the way you shop and not necessarily increasing your overall spending. … In so many ways, in our lives and in this world right now, people are looking for ways to reconnect. And clothing is such a fundamental part of our culture, part of our economy, and part of our everyday lives that I think people are really going to embrace figuring out a different way to clothe themselves. Get Grist in your inbox Always free, always fresh. The DailyThe BeaconThe Weekly Ask your climate scientist if Grist is right for you. See our privacy policy Q. I thought it was interesting that buying vintage isn’t the solution. It’s part of the solution, but there’s a limited number of pieces out there. A. Right, if the whole world started shopping vintage tomorrow, by the end of the day it’d probably all be dried up. Q. We’d all look really cool for a little bit, though. A. Yeah, at least we wouldn’t all be wearing acrylic and polyester. [Synthetic fibers are now 63 percent of the global output.] Q. What’s the best way to make a difference? A. Support local and independent fashion designers when you can, and that includes people who are using sustainable fabrics but also people who make their clothes domestically. Support fair trade clothing and living wage clothing when you can. … In terms of online resources, there’s this newer site called Fashioningchange.com. You input what brands and stores you shop at now and it gives you a comparable alternative that’s sustainable. [Editor’s note: Oh my god.] … Also, ask yourself, “Do I really need another tank top, pair of jeans, pair of shoes?” Look at what you already own and take care of it. I’ve really gotten into using seamstresses and tailors and getting back into altering and customizing the things that I already own. I just think that that’s enormously satisfying and it really stops that obsession with needing something new. I think a lot of that comes out of the fact that everything in our closet is just a little bit off. So I think that it’s really cool to be able to go to a tailor and say, “Please take my pants in, take in the side seams, cut off this weird bow.” Whatever it is. Make it work for you.Mission Reports For 14 years, Spaceflight Now has been providing unrivaled coverage of U.S. space launches. Comprehensive reports and voluminous amounts of video are available in our archives. Space Shuttle Atlas \| Delta \| Pegasus Minotaur \| Taurus \| Falcon Titan NewsAlert Sign up for our NewsAlert service and have the latest space news e-mailed direct to your desktop. Enter your e-mail address: Privacy note: your e-mail address will not be used for any other purpose. Advertisement Space Books SpaceX rocket prototype explodes in test flight BY STEPHEN CLARK SPACEFLIGHT NOW Posted: August 22, 2014 Updated with details A SpaceX rocket prototype designed to fine-tune vertical landing technology for reusable launchers exploded in a test flight in Central Texas on Friday, according to multiple eyewitness reports. Photos posted to social media showed a fireball above SpaceX's rocket development facility in McGregor, Texas, about halfway between Dallas and Austin. Videos apparently depicted debris falling from the sky and firefighters responding to grass fires at the test site. #spaceX rocket blew up :( pic.twitter.com/u41286gstr — Mandy (@EthansMommy17) August 22, 2014 There were no injuries from the mishap, according to John Taylor, a SpaceX spokesperson. The Falcon 9R rocket testbed, a modified version of a Falcon 9 rocket's first stage, was supposed to take off from a concrete pad on the power of three Merlin 1D engines, reach a predetermined altitude, then descend back to the ground and touch down using four landing legs. "During the flight, an anomaly was detected in the vehicle and the flight termination system automatically terminated the mission," Taylor said in a statement. A video released by the CBS television affiliate in Waco shows the mishap. The video shows the explosion occurring during the rocket's climb. The engines on the Falcon 9R can be throttled to control the rocket's vertical motion. "Throughout the test and subsequent flight termination, the vehicle remained in the designated flight area. There were no injuries or near injuries. An FAA representative was present at all times," Taylor said. The Federal Aviation Administration licenses SpaceX's commercial launches and test flights. SpaceX uses the 900-acre facility in McGregor for Merlin engine tests, Falcon 9 stage testing, post-flight servicing of its Dragon space station supply ship, and short hops of the Falcon 9R testbed. Space X's rocket falling out of the sky in pieces!! pic.twitter.com/Kf1rS12WNR — Heath Huffman (@huffman_heath) August 22, 2014 The Falcon 9R testing in Texas is one part of SpaceX's strategy to demonstrate the feasibility of returning Falcon 9 rocket first stages to precision landings. Once SpaceX is able to recover a Falcon 9 first stage intact, engineers plan to refurbish the rocket and fly it on another mission. SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk says "rapid and complete" reusability of the Falcon 9 rocket will cut launch costs to a fraction of today's prices. Musk posted an update to his Twitter account following Friday's rocket explosion: "Three engine F9R Dev1 vehicle auto-terminated during test flight. No injuries or near injuries. Rockets are tricky..." Sources said Musk was in McGregor to view the test flight Friday. "With research and development projects, detecting vehicle anomalies during the testing is the purpose of the program," Taylor said. "Today's test was particularly complex, pushing the limits of the vehicle further than any previous test." SpaceX planned to fly another Falcon 9R vehicle from White Stands, N.M., for high-altitude testing. Officials have said flights from McGregor are limited to approximately 10,000 feet in altitude due to nearby populations. File photo of a previous Falcon 9R test flight. Credit: SpaceX Videos of previous Falcon 9R tests showed the rocket flying up to 1,000 meters, or nearly 3,300 feet, over McGregor this spring. "F9R test flights in New Mexico will allow us to test at higher altitudes than we are permitted for at our test site in Texas, to do more with unpowered guidance and to prove out landing cases that are more-flight like," SpaceX wrote in an update accompanying a video release from an earlier Falcon 9R test flight. The Falcon 9R was a follow-up to the Grasshopper vehicle, a smaller testbed that conducted initial vertical takeoff and landing tests before it was retired last year. "As is our practice, the company will be reviewing the flight record details to learn more about the performance of the vehicle prior to our next test," Taylor said. "SpaceX will provide another update when the flight data has been fully analyzed." A Falcon 9 rocket was scheduled to lift off early Tuesday from Cape Canaveral with the AsiaSat 6 telecommunications satellite. The prototype rocket lost Friday and the Falcon 9 use the same type of engines. SpaceX declined to say if the launch could be delayed after Friday's Falcon 9R mishap in Texas. Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.Warner Brothers had been trying to develop a Speed Racer film for nearly two decades, but the project never really launched until it was suggested that perhaps the Wachowskis should direct something beneath an R-rating to introduce them to family audiences. The movie wasn’t very well received, and that’s wrong. Cosmically wrong. Speed Racer is brilliant. This was the only Wachowski film I hadn’t seen before starting this rewatch (2008 was a busy year). So this was actually a first watch for me, and I had no idea what I was in for. Per instructions from my colleague Leah, I went to Hulu first to watch an episode of the 1960s cartoon for reference. This proved to be useful for a few reasons; I now know the theme song; I had an idea of what I was in for in terms of characters and plots and relationships (the Racer family littlest brother has a pet chimpanzee that he likes to pal around with, for example); I walked in knowing that Speed Racer was an actual name, not some cute nickname or callsign. Having watched that episode, I was considerably more nervous about the film—what about this show could possibly make for entertaining cinema? About ten minutes in, I found myself shouting: “Why don’t people like this movie? Why don’t I hear anyone talk about it? This movie is AMAZING.” I took to Facebook to demand an explanation, and found that many of my friends love Speed Racer, which gives me hope that it will enter the realm of cult classic sooner rather than later. My most profound reaction was, explicitly: I want to eat this movie. And when I say that, I don’t just mean wow it’s full of pretty colors and everything looks like candy om nom nom. I mean I literally want to ingest this film and somehow incorporate it into my being, have it leak out through my pores, and then coat the world in its light. I want to feel the way that movie makes me feel every damn day. I’m pretty sure that’s the highest compliment I can give a movie. That isn’t to say that Speed Racer is the paragon of cinema, or that it is the greatest piece of art ever produced. But in the realm of uniqueness, there is absolutely nothing like it in American cinema, nothing that even tries. It is cheeseball and violently colorful and blatantly anti-capitalist and so very eager it makes me want to cry. And like every other Wachowski film, it is about love and family and supporting one another and making the world a better place. Look, I’m not a race car person. I’m also not a sports movie person because they all feel roughly the same to me—the emotional beats all add up to the same peaks and valleys every time. But Speed Racer is a race car movie and a sports movie, and I would watch every sports movie in the world if they were all like this. Did I mention that the villain was capitalism? Yup. For the uninitiated, the Racer family is in the car business (through their small independent company Racer Motors), and Speed’s older brother Rex used to be the one who raced family cars in various tournaments. He died in a dangerous race, the Casa Cristo 5000, and Speed took up the family mantle—driving his brother’s old cars, clearly every bit as talented as his brother was. His success prompts E.P. Arnold Royalton of Royalton Industries to take interest in sponsoring Speed, promising to take him all the way to Grand Prix in style and privilege. Speed decides not to take the spot, and Royalton reveals that the Grand Prix has always been a fixed race to help corporate interests, then vows to destroy Speed’s racing career and his family for turning down the offer. Speed is contacted by Inspector Detector of the corporate crimes division, who wants Speed to help him expose criminal activity in Royalton Indutries. Speed agrees, but Royalton does as promised and wipes him out during an important qualifying race, shortly after suing Speed’s father for intellectual property infringement and dragging their family business through the mud. Speed decides to join the dangerous rally that his brother died racing in because Inspector Detector says it could get him to the Grand Prix—Taejo Togokahn wants him and the mysterious Racer X (who Speed suspects is truly his brother, Rex) on his team for the Casa Cristo 5000 to prevent his family’s business from being bought out by Royalton. Speed’s family is horrified that he’s entered the rally, but choose to stand by him and help. Their team wins the race, but the Togokahn family turns around and simply sells their company to Royalton at a higher price, their true plan all along. Taejo’s sister feels this is wrong, so she gives Speed her brother’s invitation to race in the Grand Prix. Speed wins the race against all odds, exposing Royalton’s racer for cheating in the process and ruining his company. It sounds simple as can be, but this film is startlingly bright for such a hammer-heavy premise. A lot of that comes down to the cast, who are so earnest in their cartoonish roles that it’s hard to be bothered by how over-the-top everything is. Speed’s parents (whose first names are literally Mom and Pops) are Susan Sarandon and John Goodman, for crying out loud, so there’s really no way that the movie was aiming for jovial mediocrity. Emile Hirsch plays Speed with such a serious brand of goodness that you can’t help but like him even when his character is as Stock Hero as they come. Christina Ricci is so forcefully wide-eyed as his girlfriend Trixie that the strangeness of the character loops back around into a completely enjoyable figure. This is not a film for the faint of concentration. I can’t help but wonder if this movie didn’t do well initially because it was billed as a family affair, something fun and easy that required little investment. In reality, the plot is awfully complex and so is the timeline. (The very first race we witness flashes back and forth between Speed’s race and one of Rex’s old races, and the integration is so seamless that it can be hard to track, if gorgeous.) If you’re only in the market for mindless action, Speed Racer will not fit the bill. But if you are in the mood for some of the most glorious car racing sequences in film history, go no further. The action in Speed Racer is top notch in every sense, as though everything the Wachowskis worked on in the Matrix trilogy was simply a warm up. The hand-to-hand combat scenes are also a treat for fully absorbing anime stylization into a live-action setting. (I’d argue that it’s better than Tarantino’s work in Kill Bill, if only because the choice to go full camp is beautiful.) This is even more pronounced whenever Speed’s little brother Spritle wants to join the fray—all fights essentially occur in his head, where he can emulate his favorite television heroes. The film also does an excellent job of showing the world from a child’s perspective on more than one occasion, and it prevents Spritle and his pal chimpanzee Chim Chim from becoming an irritating kiddie distraction throughout the movie. The anti-capitalist commentary is just plain scathing, and it’s great fun to watch. Royalton (Roger Allam, back from V for Vendetta) lands in front of the Racer home in a helicopter, basically invites himself in, and when he tastes Mom Racer’s pancakes, he insists that he wants to buy her recipe. Mom tells him that she’d be happy to give it to him for free, but Royalton is adamant, talking about getting his lawyer to draw up the paperwork. The meaning here is clear—Mom’s cherished, comforting family recipes, willingly given out to appreciative guests, mean nothing to Royalton but capital. He tells her “pancakes are love,” but everything is meant to be exploited, everything exists for potential gain, even that love. When he tries to woo Speed over to his company for sponsorship, Pops makes a point of saying that Racer Motors has always run as a small independent in these races. He gives a sharp line about how the bigger a company gets, the more power it amasses, the more the people in charge of it seem to think that rules don’t apply to them. And Speed, being a good kid, listens to his Pops. Royalton is every inch the mustache-twirling cardboard cut-out that he needs to be. In a world where we’ve seen how well money and power corrupts on a corporate level, it’s far more enjoyable to view it from the distance that such a comical portrayal provides. But more to the point, it’s jarring when you finally realize that this is an anti-capitalist blockbuster film bankrolled by Hollywood. While it’s doubtful that the studio execs failed to notice, everyone involved still ultimately voted in favor of this angle, and that all by itself is weirdly heartening to see. The theme of the day is family, and while that is a constant in all Wachowski works, here it is showcased on a more fundamental level. Rather than dealing with the concept of created or found families, Speed Racer is primarily concerned with given ones. This is a story about relationships between parents and children, between siblings and significant others. But rather than making a single-room drama showcasing the complexities of those family networks, the Wachowskis cut it down to essence, to an ideal, and blow it up to marquee size—family are the people who are there for you no matter what. Family doesn’t put you down, family doesn’t make you feel small or less than you are, family doesn’t walk away when you need their support. Family is capable of articulating their failures and working on past mistakes. Family is all you need to succeed. On the other hand, with parents named “Mom” and “Pops,” these characters are clearly meant as stand-ins for everyone’s family, and they enact those roles at every turn, extending themselves to Sparky the team mechanic, and Trixie as well. It doesn’t come without any struggle whatsoever—Pops takes Speed aside halfway through the film to acknowledge his failings with Rex, and how he plants to do better by giving Speed the space he needs to take his own journey—but this crew never gives up on one another. The Togokahn family is meant as a juxtaposition to this. Yu Nan, Taejo’s sister, has her opinion and efforts repeatedly ignored by the brother and father, resulting in her betrayal when she gives Speed the Grand Prix invitation. She tells him that she suspects he won’t need luck with all the wonderful people surrounding him, continuing to highlight the importance of the support Speed receives from those closest to him. The film is largely affirming on the theme of identity. The entire plot revolves around Speed coming to understand his legacy as a racer, one that heralds from his family and has defined him his entire life—the opening sequence features Speed as a little boy, unable to concentrate on a test in school as he imagines himself behind the wheel of a race car in his own technicolor cartoon world. We come to understand that the death of Speed’s brother has ultimately held him back from his destiny—a desire to respect Rex’s career as a racer has made Speed hesitant but also humble. He needs a push to recognize that he deserves to embrace this part of himself. But the best part of this legacy? There is no true “greater” meaning behind it. Speed simply loves to race. It makes him happy, it drives him, it means something more than track and wheels and awards. That’s good enough. But there is one place where the question of identity takes a sharp and sad turn, particularly for a film filled with so much color and joy. Racer X is eventually revealed to be Rex after all; in an effort to protect his family while he took on the corrupt racing world, he staged his own death and had massive plastic surgery. When Speed finally confronts Racer X about his suspicions regarding his identity, he cannot recognize the man, and Racer X tells him that his brother is definitely dead. By the end of the film, Inspector Detector asks him he made a mistake, leaving his family, never telling them that he’s still alive. Rex’s reply is simply: “If I did, it’s a mistake I’ll have to live with.” It’s hard to dismiss the idea of Rex’s changed physical appearance being something that bars him from returning to his family. It’s hard to dismiss that although they win the race and expose the corruption, although they win the day, Rex still doesn’t believe that he can return to the people who love him. It’s the one true moment of pain in the entire film, and it’s impossible to ignore the fact that it deals with a character who has essentially transitioned into a new person. All of these themes and thoughts come together in the no-holds-barred phantasmic explosion that is the Grand Prix. Like I said, I’m not a fan of sports films in general, and the “final game” is a thing with very specific beats and shifts—I expected to get bored at this point. But as the race commenced, my eyes only grew wider and wider. The theme song suddenly wove its way into the soundtrack: Go, Speed Racer! Go, Speed Racer! Go, Speed Racer, go! I could feel myself grinning hard enough to make my cheeks ache. Big bang action sequences that make up the end of movies are anxiety-filled affairs; we love to watch them, but the experience isn’t typically pleasant in the truest sense of the word. We endure them. It’s what we pay for enjoying those sorts of high-octane thrills. Go, Speed Racer, go! That anxiety was completely missing as I watched the end of this film. Instead I felt the strangest emotion come over me in its place: Delight. It doesn’t matter that you know Speed has to win, it doesn’t matter that that you’ve seen dozens of car chases and races in all across the big screen, it doesn’t matter that you’re accustomed to feeling cynical at these sorts of stories. Like I said, I want to eat this movie. I want it pumping through my veins at all times. I want to feel exhilarated just by walking down the street, like I’m driving the Mach 5. Who wants to live in a perfect rainbow with me? Emily Asher-Perrin will be singing that theme all week. You can bug her on Twitter and Tumblr, and read more of her work here and elsewhere.Video: Chinese man breaks world record for tightest parallel park, think you could do better? Sure we had to do this finding a parking spot this morning... It's been a while since JOE bribed our driving test examiner passed our driving test with flying colours, but we do remember having a wee bit of difficulty when attempting the dreaded parallel park. Thankfully, we managed to nail it when it counted most (unlike this unlucky Belfast lady), but we'll all agree to say nothing about the time we set off the alarms of both the car in front AND behind us after we 'gently tapped' both of them with our vehicle and then drove off, right? Right. HAHAHAHAHAHA. But seriously, try not to hit other cars. Chinese driver Han Yue managed to not hit any other cars when he broke the Guinness World Record for the tightest parallel park in style, squeezing into the space with just 8cm (3.15in) to spare. That is toight. Toight like a toiger. We'd like to think that the Chinese papers all ran with the headline 'Han Yue believe it!?', but we don't subscribe to any of them so we can't be sure. Clips via Guinness World Records and aarzz.Syrian Kurdish fighters observing Semalka crossing on the Syrian side of the border. File photo Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window) Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window) Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window) Click to print (Opens in new window) Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window) Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Syrian Kurds denounce Turkish propaganda, say US weapons only to be used in fight against ISIS US special forces commander discusses support for Kurds in Iraq and Syria LGBT unit joins Kurdish forces in fight against ISIS extremists in Syria Senior Kurdish official says Kurdistan independence referendum going ahead despite opposition ARA News KOBANE – The US anti-ISIS envoy Brett McGurk on Thursday welcomed the opening of the Semalka border crossing between Syria’s Kurdish region [Rojava] and Iraqi Kurdistan. “[We] welcome the opening of the border between the Iraqi Kurdistan Region and northern Syria for badly needed humanitarian trade and commerce,” the US envoy said. On Tuesday, Iraqi Kurdistan’s authorities decided to reopen the Semalka crossing with Syrian Kurdish region. after three months of border closure, caused by political differences between the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in northern Iraq and the Democratic Union Party (PYD) in Syria. The KDP-led Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) accused the Democratic Union Party (PYD) of monopolizing the revenues of the border gate, and refusing to share power with the rival Syrian Kurdish bloc, the Kurdish National Council (KNC). On the other hand, the PYD blamed Turkey for pressuring Iraqi Kurdistan’s government led by president Masoud Barzani to close to border, after they declared the preparations for establishing a federal region for northern Syria and Rojava on 17 March. The border closure and tensions between the Kurdish parties affect the lives of ordinary Syrian Kurdish citizens, and raised the prices and resulted in a lack of vegetables, medicines, and spare parts for reparation of vehicles and machines. McGurk’s statement might indicate that the US-led coalition was involved in trying to solve the differences between the local self-administration in the Kurdish areas of Syria, and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq. “Yes, I think so,” member of the Kurdish Unity Party Majdal Delli told ARA News. “The border is now open because of US pressure,” he added. “I think it was one of the conditions of PYD to continue their war in Manbij and Raqqa.” Reporting by: Wladimir van Wilgenburg Source: ARA News For the latest news follow us on Twitter Join our Weekly NewsletterImmigration officials have dropped their plans to relocate dozens of transgender detainees who identify as women to a remote detention center in Southern California, a spokesperson for Immigration and Customs Enforcement told Fusion. The facility in Adelanto would have been the first U.S. immigration detention center to house trans women alongside other female detainees. Currently, transgender women are locked up alongside men, where they report disproportionate instances of sexual abuse. Officials had been planning to relocate at least two dozen transgender women, many of them asylum seekers detained under the agency’s mandatory detention guidelines. “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is no longer pursuing Adelanto as a location to house transgender women on a long-term basis,” agency spokeswoman Virginia Kice wrote in an email to Fusion. Fusion Immigrant-rights advocates had condemned the plan from the start, calling instead for ICE to end the detention of vulnerable populations. They held several protests in front of the proposed facility and called attention to a number of formal complaints about the prison submitted to the Department of Justice by civil-rights groups and members of Congress. ICE officials did not explain why the plans were cancelled. But the privately run facility in Adelanto—about two hours northeast of Los Angeles by car—has become the subject of increased public scrutiny in recent months. In October, advocates claimed more than 300 men there had stopped eating to call attention to demands for better medical care and their long waits in detention. An ICE spokesperson claimed it was 22 of the facility’s 1,400 detainees “who went on a hunger strike to protest what the detainees perceived as delays in their immigration proceedings.” Immigrant-rights advocates say there are currently nine men at the Adelanto facility on a hunger strike. The detainees are protesting being locked up for months or even years during immigration court proceedings. ICE officials said facility personnel are monitoring the detainees’ health as well as their food and liquid intake. In July, 29 members of Congress wrote to the directors at Homeland Security and the Department of Justice because they said they were “concerned by reports indicating the Geo Group, Inc. is failing to provide adequate medical treatment to detainees in their custody at the Adelanto facility.” Immigrant-rights advocates say there are currently nine men at the Adelanto facility on a hunger strike. The letter noted the April 2015 death of Raul Ernesto Morales-Ramos, a Salvadoran immigrant who died “after GEO failed to diagnose and treat his intestinal cancer.” He was in ICE custody for more than four years. ICE’s own Office of Detention Oversight in 2014 discovered the “Adelanto Detention Facility does not report all allegations of sexual abuse and assault to [Enforcement and Removal Operations] and case files are not properly maintained.” ICE said the issues cited in the 2014 report related to the reporting of sexual abuse allegations have been addressed and corrective action taken. A spokesperson for The GEO Group facilities said its facilities “provide high quality services in safe, secure, and humane residential environments, and our company strongly refutes allegations to the contrary.” “Our facilities adhere to strict contractual requirements and standards set by ICE, and the agency employs several full-time, on-site contract monitors who have a physical presence at each of GEO’s facilities,” Pablo E. Paez, vice president of corporate relations at The GEO Group, said in an email sent to Fusion. The decision to cancel the Adelanto transgender pod comes five months after immigration officials rolled out new policy guidelines that would allow the agency to detain transgender women in women’s facilities for the first time. When ICE unveiled the new guidance in June, officials said it was the most comprehensive for transgender individuals in any custodial entity. ICE said it is still looking for a facility that can adopt the agency’s new standards that will allow it to house transgender detainees with the population that matches their gender identity. “ICE continuing to communicate with its facility partners to determine if any of them are interested in adopting the agency’s Transgender Care Contract Modification,” said Kice, referring to the guidance that was unveiled in June. A 2014 Fusion investigation found some 75 transgender detainees are held by ICE every night, less than one percent of the estimated 34,000 people held in detention. Yet trans detainees made up 1 out of 5 confirmed instances of sexual assault in immigration detention facilities.Recently, I was on Reddit.com and asked the readers on the Atlanta Braves page to give us a list of their favorite venues to watch Braves games, other than Turner Field. With the season looming just months away, and Braves fans planning road trips, I figured it was time to list the places you may want to go to catch a game, and where to stay away from. ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex’s Champion’s Stadium is one of the best venues, and where the Braves call home February through March. If you are thinking of following them around, according to the members on Reddit, Steinbrenner Field is a nice place to catch a game, so look for when the Braves play the Yankees. Once the season begins, there is a clear favorite as to where to watch an away game according to Braves fans, and it should come as no surprise: 1. Wrigley Field – The celebrity singing of Take Me Out To The Ballgame, the bleacher bums, the ivy covered wall, the rooftop seats, and the fans’ hospitality are just some of the many reasons that Braves fans enjoy watching a game in the ‘Friendly Confines’. The Braves travel to Wrigley as their last road series in 2013 (Sept 20-22), so not only will you get to see your Braves in a great venue, but you also might get a chance to support them during a key series in the National League East race! 2. Busch Stadium – The sea of red is widely known for their knowledge and hospitality, but while some Braves fans will argue their extent of hospitality, none can deny the atmosphere at the park. Even though most Braves fans dislike the Cardinals because of the outcome over the past two years, Busch Stadium is still a must see destination if you are wanting to catch the Braves on the road. They will visit St. Louis for a four game series, August 22-25. 3. Marlins Park – While the team may stink, the newest park in in all the land is nothing short of amazing. The art, the scoreboard, the fish tank backstop, and the Clevelander in left field make this ballpark feel more like a vacation itself. While you are there, don’t forget that there is also a ball game going on down on the field. The Braves open up their road schedule in Miami April 8-10, then visit two more times, July 8-10 and a four game series September 9-12. 4.-6. Great American Ballpark; AT&T Park; Chase Field – If you can swing a three city road trip, these three ballparks are all visited by the Braves May 6-15. San Francisco wins out the fourth spot on our list, and while the integrity of the fans is up for dispute (a nice way to say they are dicks), the beauty of the park was never questioned. The Braves make their trip to San Fran May 9-12. The Giants’ series is sandwiched in between number 5 Cincinnati and number 6 Arizona. Braves travel to Great American Ballpark (how conceited of a name is that?) May 6-8 and Chase Field May 13-15. Both parks are notorious for homerun balls, so grab bring your glove or hit it here sign and grab a seat down in the outfield bleachers, where the view’s ok, and the beers are warm. 7. Nationals Park – No series will be bigger for the Braves this season, especially on the road, than those with the Washington Nationals, and if this park belonged to any other team, it would have been higher on the list. The park is modeled after the old Griffith Stadium, where the Washington Senators used to play, and has the intimate feel of the old ball parks that more and more stadiums are being designed to capture. Needless to say the site seeing in the area is incredible, with DC right around the corner. The Braves make their way up north on their first road trip, April12-14, August 5-7, and what promises to be a critical series to open the Braves final road trip September 16-18. 8. Kauffman Stadium – The Braves’ inner-league schedule includes a trip to Kansas city this year, the home of great barbeque, good music, and a 40 year old ballpark with fountains and a crown atop it’s scoreboard. While the park may be older, the atmosphere is great, there’s not a bad seat in the house, and the food is as cheap as the Royal’s ownership. The Braves make their way out west to visit the Royals for a quick two game series June 25-26. 9. Coors Field – The only reason the diamond in Denver ranks number nine on our list is because of when the Braves visit the Rockies. The series in still in April, so it will feel more like you are riding the ‘Coooooooooold Train’ than watching a baseball game (see what I did there?). Never the less, the beauty of Denver and her surrounding Rocky Mountains make this a must see destination for any Braves fan. Just, maybe see it a different season, when the chance of snow will be a little less. The Braves head for the mountains April 22-24. 10. Citi Field – The team stinks, the city is overrated, the fans will have nothing to chant now that Chipper is gone, and I can’t even say the nickname given to the home of the Mets, because doing so would surely get me fired. Citi field makes this list because if something is THIS bad, you have to see it, right? (Kind of like when someone says ‘Ew, smell this’ you lean in and take a whiff) Plus, you should never miss an opportunity to let a Mets fan know exactly how bad their team is. The Braves make their way to fight the mighty Metropolitans May 24-26, a four game set July 22-25, and a two game series August 20-12 Honorable Mention – Comerica Park would have made our list if it wasn’t found in Detroit, or if the Braves were going there later in the season. They do, however, feature a ferris wheel, a nice water feature in center field that is choreographed to music, and a decade by decade museum in the ‘fan walk’ concourse. Besides, this is the only time for a while the Braves are going to play in Detroit, so you might as well, right? That trip will happen April 26-28 so you can tie that trip in with the one to Coors Field if you want to.
breathe new life into police theories about whether their deaths were related to the other unsolved cases. Wingo told the Chronicle he never was sure whether one or several killers were responsible for the all the murders. Now retired, he's frustrated that he didn't assemble enough evidence for an arrest, though there were promising suspects, including a sheriff's son from Hondo, a Florida drifter and a murderer jailed for a different crime. Little remains of the groovy surf-and-ski enclave just north of the 61st Street bridge in Galveston from which Johnson and Shaw disappeared. The girls lived in Webster, then a sleepy bay town of 1,500, and were among the first to disappear. Glenda Willis, now 56, was friends with the 14-year-olds and says they went to Wix water ski school on Aug. 4, 1971, but the wind had made the bayou too rough for skiing. She later saw the girls at the beach, but told the Chronicle they weren't ready to go home when Willis packed up the orange Cougar XR7 she was known for back in the day. "I was the one with the credit card and the hot rod car that hauled everybody around," she remembers. Instead, her friends headed back to Wix and the island party scene on the shores of Offatts Bayou. That was the last she saw of them. The surf-and-ski area where the girls were headed has since been wiped out by waves of redevelopment and hurricanes. Gone are Jericho Surf Shop, Wix water ski school and cheap weather-beaten rentals that attracted perpetually partying crowds of surf dudes, beach bunnies and trick skiers. But in 1971, the pair hung out there, often hitchhiking home on the two-lane coastal highway that then linked the beach to Webster and other towns around Clear Lake. When Shaw and Johnson disappeared, their parents reported them missing. Willis and other friends assumed they'd run away to California. "They were tomboys and totally fearless," Willis said. Two tropical storms hit the coast that fall, battering the marshes and sending silt and floodwaters spiraling through the bayous around Clear Lake. In September 1971, only a month after the girls disappeared, the first teen's corpse was found floating in Taylor Bayou headless and clad in a Jericho Surf Shop T-shirt. Investigators for nearly a year believed the body was that of a missing Pasadena boy, until he unexpectedly came home. He'd run off and enlisted in the military under a false name. The so-called John Doe's estimated date of death was early August: the same month Shaw and Johnson vanished. Willis and Johnson's family members told the Chronicle they didn't know about the body, nor did they ever view it. Willis said she would have recognized the faded purple T-shirt as one of Johnson's. A review of autopsies and forensic reports from 1971 and 1972 show that an assistant Harris County medical examiner apparently never considered that the first corpse might be Johnson's. In a sworn statement later, though, he conceded that decomposition was so advanced he could not rule out the possibility that the surfer might be a girl. In November 1971, Maria Johnson and Debbie Ackerman, Galveston Islanders and regulars at Wix ski school, disappeared. Their bodies turned up in a bayou in Texas City. They had been raped and shot to death. Wingo and other investigators wondered if the killer they sought had deliberately targeted girls in pairs. In January of 1972, youths trolling the shallow waters of a coastal bayou north of Taylor Lake in boats spotted what looked like a volleyball. One waded over and found a skull. About a month later, a passer-by found more bones in the same marshy area. By late February, dentists and forensic experts had identified Shaw's remains and Johnson's skull using dental X-rays. Johnson, who preferred "Renee," was well-known in Webster at the time she vanished. Her grandfather was a city councilman who later became mayor. In June 1972, Webster police announced they had solved the case, blaming her death and Shaw's on Michael Lloyd Self, a brain-damaged mechanic who lived in Clear Lake. But from the start, the murder investigation was tainted. Two Webster officers who arrested Self were later convicted of bank robbery. One obtained Self's two conflicting confessions through Russian roulette and threats, court records and testimony from other officers shows. Several of Johnson's family members are convinced of Self's guilt. Others are not. "There was a great concern the system had blamed the wrong person," said Clinard J. Hanby, a defense lawyer who worked on Self's federal appeals and at one point persuaded a federal judge to set Self free. His release was later overturned by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, and Self died in prison in 2000. Even former Harris County prosecutor Douglas O'Brien, who worked the case, became convinced the wrong man went to prison and the true killer remained unpunished. It was after Self's death that Galveston police officer Paige began re-investigating the 1971 disappearances. Paige believes a serial killer committed the murders of the four girls abducted from Galveston in 1971, and likely others. Willis, their friend, just wishes they'd gotten in her Cougar that day: "There's never been closure for me." [email protected] female Border Police officer died of her wounds late Friday, soon after she was critically injured in a coordinated stabbing and shooting terror attack in two areas near Jerusalem’s Old City on Friday evening. She was identified as Hadas Malka, 23. Malka was stabbed in the upper torso by a Palestinian assailant on Sultan Suleiman Street near Damascus Gate while responding to gunfire nearby which later turned out to be the site of the first part of the attack. Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up She was transferred to Hadassah Hospital Mount Scopus in Jerusalem where she underwent emergency surgery and later succumbed to her injuries. Her attacker was shot and killed. Malka was part of a group of Border Police officers making their way to Zedekiah’s Cave in the Muslim Quarter where two Palestinian attackers, one of them armed with a knife and another with a homemade Carlo-style submachine gun, attacked a separate group of Border Police officers. The two were shot and killed. Authorities said the firearm held by the attacker jammed, averting a possibly much deadlier attack. Malka was attacked by a third assailant while en route to the scene and stabbed repeatedly before her attacker too was shot and killed. At least four more people were injured in the attacks, including another cop. They all sustained light to moderate wounds and were being treated in hospital. BREAKING: Multiple border police wounded, at least 1 critically after coordinated terror attack by 3 Arabs in Jerusalem. All neutralized. pic.twitter.com/5NpLfM5Hv6 — Israel Breaking (@IsraelBreaking) June 16, 2017 The attacks took place as Muslims were marking the end of the third Friday of the fasting month of Ramadan, during which tens of thousands of Palestinians from East Jerusalem and the West Bank attended prayers at the nearby Al-Aqsa mosque compound, Islam’s third-holiest site. The Shin Bet security service named the three assailants as Adel Ankush, 18, from the West Bank village of Deir Abu-Mash’al near Ramallah, Bra’a Saleh Atta, 19, from the same village, and Usama Ahmed, 19, from the nearby village of Tsatfa Ata. All three had previously been arrested for terror-related activities. An earlier report, citing Palestinian media, mistakenly identified the third attacker as Amar Bedui, 31, from Hebron. Hamas dismissed a claim of responsibility for the attack by Islamic State, and said all three assailants were members of Palestinian terrorist organizations. The attack was carried out by “two Palestinians from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and a third from Hamas,” Hamas said early Saturday. Security forces were preparing to raid the homes of the attackers late Friday, the Hebrew-language website Ynet reported. The raids were intended to reveal if the attackers’ family members knew of their intentions to carry out the attack and to determine where the firearm was acquired. Jerusalem police chief Yoram Halevi said in a briefing with reporters that police suspect the three Palestinian assailants arrived from the West Bank earlier in the day for Ramadam prayers and suggested that one or more of them did not have permits to cross into Israel. “During Ramadan there are large numbers of (Palestinian) youths who enter without permits. They take advantage of Ramadan to be in Jerusalem,” he told media at the scene of the attack, adding that in some cases “this is what we get,” in reference to the coordinated attack. Israel last month announced that it was relaxing restrictions on the movement of Palestinians to and from the West Bank and Gaza Strip during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, including easier access to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, issuing more travel permits and allowing some to travel abroad. The measures were similar to those of previous years. Over the past 18 months the Old City, and the Damascus Gate in particular, have seen several attacks by Palestinians, and in two cases by Jordanian nationals. The Hamas terror group said in a statement Friday evening that “the attack in Jerusalem is new proof that the Palestinian people continue their revolution against the occupiers and that the intifada will continue until complete freedom is achieved.” AFP contributed to this report.The Gramercy Duplex Residence in New York is a wonderfully renovated duplex apartment, reinvented by NYC design firm Slade Architecture for a single mother who wanted a healthy and friendly environment for her daughter. Combining two already existing apartments into one two bedroom duplex, the architects cleverly divided the space so as to suit the needs of the mother and young child. The lower level is composed by a living space together with a kitchen, a powder room and a master bedroom, while the upper level consists in the child’s space: a bedroom for the daughter and a guest room whose main function is both a study and a playroom. The architects made use of everything the space had to offer for storage purposes, with the idea of giving the place a sense of openness. As one enters the apartment, a long wall of millwork spans on the left, having several functions. At the entrance it is an entry closet, with space for shoe storage, then it is integrated in the kitchen furniture, and as entering the living room, it is used for living room storage, finally having a bench cut out. The kitchen is part of the living space from downstairs and makes use of a wide range of materials with the purpose of creating and reflecting as much natural light as possible. Millwork, replenishable materials, richlite from recycled paper and satin etched glass give this kitchen an environmentally friendly side. The “hidden” storage space is also explored in the kitchen, when creating the stairs, which start directly on the kitchen cabinets. The master bedroom is not anywhere upstairs like you would imagine, it is “almost” part of the living room, with only a wall of cabinets and a sliding glass door to separate it from the rest of the space. The bedroom explores the idea of simplicity, having only a bathroom in the back wall of the space and the usual sleeping utilities. The storage space is again creatively integrated in the headboard of the bed. The upstairs level, dedicated entirely to the daughter is designed accordingly to the needs of a little child. Sliding doors are employed again to create brightness and conceal the storage space.The other room was initially designed as a guest room but it is mainly used as is a study or playroom. Abundant light is filtrated in this room through another pair of sliding doors which separate it from the bedroom. The lovely bright colors, environmentally friendly materials and the hidden storage spaces make this apartment very pleasurable to live in. It’s amazing what openness, natural light and smart storage spaces can do with a space. What do you think of the ideas used in renovating the apartment? Would you take inspiration from it for your own apartment? Photos by Slade Architecture.Over in the Totalitarian Corporate Plutocracy of Fitzwalkerstan, formerly Wisconsin, Scott Walker has been sipping some heavy duty whine. He is claiming massive voter fraud, wasted resources and more in an attempt to discredit the snowballing recall effort from patriots trying to restore Wisconsin. Of course Walker is lying. In fact, there’s little Walker and his Koch sucking thugs won’t to save his job. Western Wisconsin volunteers collecting signatures for the effort to recall Gov. Scott Walker have allegedly again been met by aggressive opponents. On Monday, a group of volunteers in Hudson said they were approached by a man who knocked over and tore their signs before urging a member of the group to "take a swing" at him, according to a police report. Hudson police cited Donald Rindo, 51, of Hudson with disorderly conduct and destruction of property. Reached by phone Tuesday, Rindo declined to elaborate on the accusations. "I’m terribly upset that they would smear my name like that," he said. "I’m not going to smear their name and say anything about what they did or did not do." The incident comes on the heels of similar episodes elsewhere. On Dec. 18, a 32-year-old woman was arrested in River Falls for allegedly spitting on a woman who was collecting signatures for the Walker recall… [emphasis added]Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. June 10, 2016, 1:30 PM GMT / Updated June 10, 2016, 1:30 PM GMT By Associated Press The U.S. government is taking a key step in relinquishing control of the internet's addressing system, fulfilling a promise made in the 1990s. The Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration said Thursday that it endorses a March proposal to turn full control over to a private international organization. All that remains is completing some contracts and operational testing. That's expected to be done in the coming months. Read More: U.S. to Cede Control of Internet Regulating Organization The organization deals with matters including the assignment of internet suffixes such as ".com" and ".org" and the operation of the internet's "root servers," the master directories for telling web browsers where to find websites. Without them, users would have to remember a set of four numbers rather than "ap.org" to reach The Associated Press' website, for instance. This system has already been managed by a private organization, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. But the U.S. government, which funded much of the internet's early development, has retained veto power. Although the U.S. role has been minimal over the years, many foreign governments have complained that the internet can never be truly international if the U.S. retains veto power. They have sought instead to shift responsibility to an inter-governmental body such as the U.N. International Telecommunication Union. Read More: Will Fear Change the Internet? Self-Policing Has Already Started But business, academic and civil-society leaders balked, worried that U.N. involvement would threaten the openness that has allowed the internet to flourish. Concerns were also raised that U.N. control would give authoritarian states like China and Iran equal votes among other countries in influencing policies that affect free speech. Lawrence E. Strickling, assistant secretary for communications and information at the Commerce Department, said the endorsed plan won't replace Commerce's role with a government-led or inter-governmental solution. Rather, ICANN will take full control after creating additional mechanisms to resolve disputes. ICANN has participants from business, academic and other communities in addition to governments.On the morning of the next day, four girls and a dog were waiting for the time the airship bound to Patch would leave. The girl in white's voice could be heard from afar. "Are you sure you want to go? You could stay here, I'm sure they'll understand." Yang sighed at the unusual display of affection. "Weiss, we can't let our dog when we're not here, and I'm sure Blake will be happy to not have him around." "He has the best behavior of you three." Yang rolled her eyes at the heiress words. "Anyway, I hope you'll both have a great time with your dad." Weiss shared one of her rare genuine smile with her friends, happy that at least some of them could spend time with their family without drama. Blake shared a hug with the sisters, putting an end to it when Yang's hand went a little too low for her liking, and Weiss waved them goodbye, not being the hugging type. Except that Ruby was and wanted to say goodbye to her best friend her way, so the younger girl jumped in Weiss' arms, leaving her slightly annoyed and blushing. Ruby ran back to her sister and the two girls boarded the airship as it closed its doors, preparing for departure. Blake and Weiss saw Ruby wave at them until she got out of sight. "Finally some peace and quiet." Weiss was the first one to speak on the way back to their dorm. "You know you will miss them." "Of course, but not right now. And don't tell me that you're not happy that Zwei went away. Why do you dislike him so much by the way?" Blake's expression grew serious as she looked around, trying to see if anyone could hear them. "Not here," she whispered. They got back to their room in silence. Weiss was hoping that she had not upset her friend and Blake was mentally preparing for what she knew was coming. As they arrived in front of their door, Weiss looked on the opposite side of the corridor and realized that it had been a few days since she had seen –or heard, as was usually the case with Nora– any members of the team living there. "What happened to team JNPR? I haven't seen them recently." "They went camping into forever fall. Why, are you missing Jaune's attempt at wooing you?" Blake opened the door with her scroll and the two girls entered the room. "Urgh, please. He tried serenading me. Where did he saw that anyone liked that? In a novel?" Weiss let herself fall on her bed, letting out a sigh of pleasure when she felt herself sink into her soft, beloved bed. They had to wake up early because the only airships to patch ran in the morning and in the evening and Ruby and Yang wanted to see their father as soon as possible. The heiress always had trouble falling asleep and usually slept later than her teammates, and as much as she would like to go back to bed, she knew it would only make things worse. Blake shrugged. "I would like it. Speaking of novel…" Blake went to one of her bookshelf and took a book that she brought to Weiss. Before handing it to her, she had something to say. "I didn't get to say it earlier, but I'm sorry for yesterday, that we had to cut the photo shoot short because of me." "It's okay. Are you feeling better?" "Yes, thank you. Do you want to know what it was?" Blake hoped that she wouldn't as she wasn't ready to talk about it with her, but felt she had to explain her behavior. "Don't force yourself." Weiss had heard in her voice that she didn't want to talk about it. "If you want to talk about it, I'm here, but if you don't, you don't have to." "Thanks. Here, I said I'd lend it to you. It's the first volume of 'Ninjas of love'." Weiss stretched an arm to take the book from Blake's hands, but felt some resistance as she tried to move it. She turned her head and saw that the other girl didn't want to let the book go. "Blake, don't worry, I'll take good care of it." Blake reluctantly let the book go, never removing her eyes from it as Weiss looked at the cover and put it next to her pillow. "I know, just… please promise me you'll be careful." She sounded more desperate than she would have liked, but this book was very important to her. "Of course, I promise." Weiss sighed internally. What is it with that girl? It's just a book. But I have to admit that she is pretty cute when she is like that. "So, about you and Zwei?" Weiss was determined to find out what her friend had against the cuddly ball of fur. "Is it because you are part cat?" Weiss realized as she said it that it was maybe not the best way to put it. Her suspicions were confirmed when Blake started screaming at her. "I'm not an animal!" Even knowing it was coming, Weiss couldn't help but be surprised by how vehement Blake's reaction had been. "I-I'm sorry Blake, that's not what I meant." Blake sat down next to Weiss, her head in her hands. "I know, I'm sorry. It's just… It hurts a lot hearing that, especially from you." Weiss, hearing the tears in Blake's voice, sat on her bed and awkwardly put an arm around Blake. "You really do make me think of a cat, and I mean that as a compliment. You're usually very calm but when you get going, you're graceful and silent." Also you like tuna a lot, can't help but go after laser pointers and I'm almost certain you're stopping yourself from hissing when you're scared. "I didn't mean it in a bad way. I'd really like you to teach me about Faunus so something like that doesn't happen again." Blake touched the cold hand on her shoulder. She was getting used to the heiress' low body temperature and thought that, once she would be able to stop thinking that Weiss was sick, she would get to find it reassuring. She had a little smile when she answered. "I did say I would teach you." Blake stood up and started walking around the room. She wanted to give the impression she was thinking, while in reality she was trying to put a little space between her and the heiress, still confused about her feelings. "The thing with Zwei is—" She was interrupted by a knock on the door. The two girls looked at each other, wondering who it could be. Blake opened the door, revealing a girl they both spent a lot of time with recently. Velvet was there, a smile on her face. "Hi. I hope I'm not waking anyone up?" Weiss found that she had a lot of energy in her voice for someone up so early. Maybe too much. Closer inspection revealed that her eyes were red and puffy, that her clothes had been thrown on hastily and that her hair had barely been taken care of after waking up. She came to the conclusion that Velvet had been crying and had left her room without taking the time to prepare for the day. As Blake let her in and closed the door behind her, Weiss left her bed and went to see the older girl. "Are you okay?" Velvet chuckled lightly, trying to appease the worries of the heiress. "I'm fine, I'm fine. Can I just borrow your bathroom for a few moments?" Weiss nodded and Velvet went to freshen up, closing the door behind her. Waiting for Velvet to finish, Weiss and Blake were whispering to each other, trying to talk without being heard. "What happened to her?" "I don't know. Maybe something with her team. Or… something with CRDL?" Blake clenched her fists at the idea that team CRDL could have done something to her friend. "I don't think so. Seeing how Fox reacted to my name, I don't think he'd let something like that pass. Since she came to our room, I'd say it's something with her team." Before they could speculate further, Velvet came out of the bathroom, her face a little wet but looking better. "Thank you guys. Do you think I could stay a little longer?" Velvet looked embarrassed, not wanting to bother them. Blake was the one answering her. "Of course, you can stay as long as you like. Ruby and Yang went to see their father so we even have free beds if you want to stay the night." Velvet nodded, thankful. She saw that Weiss wanted to say something but couldn't bring herself to do it. "Is there a problem? I can leave if I bother you." "Don't be stupid." Weiss' answer was a little snappier than she intended, but leaving someone alone when they were like that hit a little too close to home for her. "I just wondered what happened. If you want to talk about it of course." Velvet thought for a moment about how much she wanted to tell while the three girls sat on Blake's bed, making themselves comfortable. "No matter how cool other people find Coco, I can tell you that she is not like that all the time, and we sometimes have… disagreements on certain things about living together. Long story short, we had an argument this morning, I wanted to get some space, thought 'Hey, I should visit my favorites first year' and here I am." Velvet was talking quicker than usual, eager to change the subject but understanding the curiosity. Blake was looking concerned. "Was it a big argument? I mean you were…" She trailed off, thinking that Velvet might not want to go into more details. "Crying?" Velvet had a small smile, trying to show the younger girls that she was all right. "It's a little embarrassing to say, but I cry very easily after things like that. Yatsu almost threw Coco through the window because of that." Velvet had a small chuckle at the memory. "It was only a few days after our team was formed. Coco, Fox and I were in our room while Yatsu was still in the cafeteria. Coco and I started arguing, I don't remember about what. I left the room and was crying in the corridor when Yatsuhashi found me. When I told him it had to do with Coco, he assumed she hit me or said something about me being a Faunus. Yatsu has always been very protective of me, so he ran to the dorm, grabbed Coco and tried to throw her and her things through the window. It took me and Fox to convince him that it wasn't her fault I cried." "I didn't know things could go that badly between teammates." Blake looked at her teammate, her expression tinted with annoyance. "Really Weiss? You had no idea someone could butt heads with their teammates and make things difficult for everyone?" "Like you were any better—" "Anyway," Velvet interrupted Weiss, not letting her escalate the matter, "That incident actually helped us break the ice and we now get along very well." Velvet smiled at her friends, not intending to let them continue taking jabs at each other. "Sorry, I didn't mean to talk so much. What were you talking about before I came in?" "We were about to talk about Faunus since Weiss want to know more about us. Maybe you could help?" "With pleasure." Velvet was happy to have something to take her mind of Coco, and maybe she would have an opportunity to help Blake and Weiss get closer. She would not admit it, but she enjoyed playing matchmaker. Surely the fact that that most of the people she tried to help get together were now on bad terms was just bad luck. Weiss nodded to Velvet, happy to have someone else willing to teach her, and turned toward Blake. "So, You and Zwei?" Blake sighed at the Heiress' insistence. "Fine. I'm not a fan of dogs because they usually don't like me. Faunus smells a little like the animals we have attributes of, so real animals tends to treat us as if we really were them and I've had very bad experiences with dogs." Blake clenched her fists at the thought. She knew it was not out of malice, but she had been treated like an animal too many times for it not to hurt. Weiss frowned. "I never noticed anything like that." Blake shook her head. "It's very faint, only animals smell it in most case. That's why the great majority of Faunus will use perfume, it's enough to hide it." "Then Zwei shouldn't have any problem with you, right?" Blake hung her head. It was not something she wanted to talk about, especially with Weiss. "I… don't have the money to buy perfume." "Oh." Weiss didn't know what to say. She was afraid anything she would say could be misinterpreted given that she had more money than most people made in their lifetime. "I offered her to lend her some of mine or Coco's but she refused. I guess she did not want to make friend with the cute little doggie." Velvet, affecting deep sadness, was trying to lighten the mood. I guess I better be prepared, I'm sure it won't be the last awkward moment of the day. "First, It's not against Zwei but dogs in general and two, I don't want to be seen as one of yours or Coco's conquest." Blake saw the questioning look Weiss was throwing at her. "When people who are not on the same team have a similar smell, Faunus will assume they have been… getting very close." "H-how close?" Weiss had a good idea of the answer, but she wanted to be sure. If she was going to learn about Faunus, she was going to do it well and make sure she didn't make bad assumptions. "That they have been having sex." Velvet answered the heiress question, keeping a straight face while the other two girls blushed. "Thanks for your… straightforwardness Velvet." Blake was still blushing while trying to continue her explanation. "That and the fact it's these two, there would be lots of rumors and I'd rather not deal with this." "I can understand that." Weiss was very familiar with rumors, their births and the effects they could have on people. "But what do you mean about Velvet and Coco?" Blake looked at Velvet, not wanting to make her uncomfortable. Velvet shrugged. "It's okay, it's something we choose to do knowing the consequences." Blake turned toward Weiss, who was starting to get annoyed to be kept out of the loop. "About them… maybe you heard some rumors?" Weiss scoffed. "The ones were Velvet is a saint sent by the gods or the ones were her and Coco sleeps with people for money to pay for their drugs addiction?" Weiss shook her head. "Seriously, who came up with that?" Velvet looked at her wide-eyed. "That's a little excessive. And I think the first one as more to do with fetishists than anything else." Velvet sighed. She had heard some of those rumors herself but she didn't know it went that far. "First, we don't do drugs. Coco might have a little problem with clothes, but it's mostly under control. And I don't get paid for sex." Velvet thought for a few moments about the best way to explain the situation. "What I'm about to tell you is very personal for Coco and I, so if you could avoid spreading it around…" Blake and Weiss nodded immediately, curious about what she wanted to talk about. "Coco and I are actually together. We don't act like it in public because I don't want her to deal with all the crap people will throw at her for dating a Faunus. I… like sex and I don't like limiting myself to one person, so we talked about it and agreed that I could go see other peoples if I wanted as long as it wasn't serious, just a one-time thing. I think that's what started some of those rumors." Weiss was the first one to break the silence that met the end of Velvet's speech. "That's… an interesting way of doing things. I don't think I would be able to." "I was afraid she wouldn't either, but she was okay with it. She doesn't do it herself, but I'm really glad that she accept that." "Would you still say you love each other?" Velvet thought for an instant, trying to find the best way to answer. "Yes. I suppose some would disagree, saying that it's not love if I sleep with other peoples and that I am a cheating whore who doesn't deserve her. More reasons to keep our relationship private." "People aren't allowed to tell you how do things like that!" Weiss' exclamation was met by surprised look from her friends. "Sorry. I just mean that if it's the way you like it, then other people should just shut up and leave you alone." "Thank you Weiss. Most people find it weird." Weiss blushed a little and avoided Velvet's gaze. "I actually do find it a little weird, I wouldn't be able to have a relationship like that, but it doesn't mean I have the right to tell you you're doing it wrong and certainly not to tell you don't deserve her." Weiss stood up and started walking in circle in the room. "You two are the only ones who get to make decisions about your couple. Maybe close friends could give you their opinion, but total strangers should mind their own damn business." She sat down next to Blake, still angry. Blake looked at her teammate. "I'll be honest, I didn't expect you to react like that." Weiss looked at the ground, anger leaving place to sadness. "I… know a lot about other people trying to tell you how to be, who to like and trying to control you." Velvet was getting ready to try and lighten the mood again, but Weiss was the one changing the subject this time, as she didn't want to dwell on her problems. Velvet's were more important right now. "I also heard things about you wanting to... you know… due to being a rabbit Faunus? Are your tastes and personality influenced by your…" Weiss stooped, thinking. "Is there a better way to say it than 'animal part'?" Velvet shrugged. "I don't mind, but I think some Faunus would. Thing is, whatever you come up with, you'll piss someone off, so I wouldn't worry too much if I were you. Does it influence us? Yes and no. It does on average but when you look at the individual, it doesn't. Most Rabbit Faunus would tell you that they don't have a higher than usual sex drive, but I do. Is it because I'm a Faunus? I don't know and honestly, I don't care. It's a part of me, that's all that matters. And being a 'cute' Faunus doesn't hurt my chances either." She winked at the two younger girls, who immediately turned red, before continuing her explanation. "Another example, cat Faunus tend to like fish more than the average, but there are some that hate it. Not that Blake is a good example." Velvet threw a grin at Blake, who blushed slightly as her… predilection to eat tuna was pointed out. "I'll have you know that fish is very good for you and that a balanced diet should contain fish every day." "As you can see, there are also those that like it a lot more than usual." Blake frowned at being the butt of a joke, but soon started to smile when she saw her two friends laugh. She knew they meant well and she was glad to be able to talk so freely. The White Fang was not the best place to make jokes about Faunus. "So Blake, what are your thoughts about 'animal part'?" Weiss was curious about her friend opinion on the matter, and even if Velvet said not to worry, she wanted to know what Blake thought of it. Blake thought about it. She wasn't a big fan of the term, but they needed something simple for the sake of discussion. "I wouldn't say I like it, but I now you're not trying to insult us, so I'd say it's okay if it's you." Hearing that, Velvet used Blake's pillow to avoid making too much noise due to her uncontrollable laughter. Weiss and Blake looked at each other, not understanding what she found so funny. "Is this some Faunus thing?" Blake shook her head. "No, I think she just has gone mad." "N-No…" Velvet was finally starting to calm down. She was trying to explain herself, being out of breath made it a little difficult. "I-It's… You just… You just quoted 'Ninjas of love'." Hearing that, Weiss decided to tease Blake a little. Maybe it would give her an opportunity to know more about her tastes. She got closer to Blake and looked at her in the eyes with a little smirk. "Quoting your favorite romance novel. Are you flirting with me kitty?" Blake felt her stomach drop as her fear of Weiss thinking she was trying to seduce her was becoming reality in front of her and averted her gaze, unable to look Weiss in the eyes. "N-No… I didn't mean to…" Her voice was barely audible for Weiss' human hearing. Blake suddenly stood up and went to the bathroom, mumbling a quick "Coming back". Weiss felt a little sad has she saw her teammate lock herself in the bathroom. "Blake, not again." Velvet saw Weiss' face betray her sadness. She did not like the way things were between the two girls and decided to try and help fix it. She turned toward Weiss. "I know we're in your room and I don't like asking you that, but do you think you could leave me and Blake alone for a few minutes?" Weiss didn't even try to discuss and left the room, asking for Velvet to message her when it was okay for her to come back. I hope she'll manage to get to Blake. I wonder what her problem is. Weiss walked through the empty halls of Beacon, her footsteps echoing in the silence left by the absence of the students. Maybe it's something I said? I tried to avoid offending her, but I guess I still hurt her. I guess 'kitty' was too much. I thought it would be fine, but clearly I was wrong.She was now at Beacon's entrance and sat down on a bench, under the shade of a tree. She allowed herself to relax, as there was no one around to see her, and decided to lay down on the bench, putting an arm over her eyes. Why am I always hurting her? I know we see some things differently, but if she just stopped running away… No, I shouldn't blame her. It's me. The cold, unfeeling Weiss Schnee, unable to talk with her teammate without hurting her. After a few minutes, Weiss heard a message notification from her scroll. It was a message from Velvet asking her to come back. She stood up from the bench and went back to her dorm, half-walking half-running, wanting to see if the girl that refused to leave her mind felt better. When arrived, she saw that Velvet was waiting for her in front of the door. "Blake is inside, she has something to
idiot like Trump," while Page called Trump "a loathsome human." "God, Hillary should win 100,000,000-0," Strzok said in another message to Page. Rep. Jim Jordan James (Jim) Daniel JordanFive takeaways from McCabe’s allegations against Trump Jordan says Oversight should be more focused on McCabe, Rosenstein ahead of Cohen testimony White House, GOP defend Trump emergency declaration MORE (R-Ohio) revealed on Saturday that he received an assurance from House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte Robert (Bob) William GoodlatteIt’s time for Congress to pass an anti-cruelty statute DOJ opinion will help protect kids from dangers of online gambling House GOP probe into FBI, DOJ comes to an end MORE (R-Va.) that subpoenas would be issued for various senior FBI and Justice Department officials, including Strzok and Page. However, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy Harold (Trey) Watson GowdyThe family secret Bruce Ohr told Rod Rosenstein about Russia case Trey Gowdy joins Fox News as a contributor Congress must take the next steps on federal criminal justice reforms MORE (R-S.C.) said on Sunday that the courts are responsible for handling complaints against Mueller. Despite the outrage from Republicans, Trump’s lawyer presiding over his response to the Russia probe dismissed rumors last week that Trump would fire Mueller. "As the White House has repeatedly and emphatically said for months, there is no consideration at the White House of terminating the special counsel,” Ty Cobb said in a statement.Setting up PHP debugging in an IDE with a local development environment has gotten so easy it can be done in a few automated steps. In this post I will demonstrate how to get step debugging functioning with PhpStorm and Zend Debugger when the server is set up on a local environment. To begin with, I had the following: Local installation of Zend Server 8.5.+ (basic LAMP stack, but with Zend Debugger included in the Zend Server installation). Alternatively I could have had a vanilla LAMP environment with Xdebug. Ensure that Z-Ray is active in the Zend Server settings. A local project set up on PhpStorm, without the server set up in the PhpStorm project configuration. (in this example I have a Zend Expressive Skeleton ready) The local project set up as an Apache virtualhost. With the project open in PhpStorm I click the icon to inform the IDE to start listening for debugging sessions. (Usually in the upper right corner, looks like a telephone receiver with a red indicator that it is not listening, and turns green when you click it) Then a browser with the application rendered I click the debug icon in the Z-Ray toolbar at the foot of the window, and select the desired debugging action. This will cause PhpStorm to prompt after it receives the debug connection from Zend Debugger. In most cases we can simply click Accept and let things happen normally. That’s about it, we are debugging! Behind the scenes, PhpStorm created a site and associated it with the project. Of course we could have created the server ahead of time and not be prompted to Accept the incoming connection, but what is the fun in that? Closing This was a very simplistic local development environment setup. We didn’t have a firewall to contend with, and the server was set up locally rather than inside a virtual machine. I have other posts, linked below, to help with some of these alternative setups. Happy Debugging! Other posts on Debugging you may find helpful:Serbian PM Aleksandar Vucic. Photo: Beta. Following an emergency session of Serbia’s Council for National Security, Serbian Prime Minister Aleksander Vucic on Saturday accused Kosovo of sending special forces to attack the first train in 18 years from Belgrade to the northern, Serb-run part of the Kosovo town of Mitrovica. “They sent a unit … compromised only of the most loyal Albanians with rifles to Jarinje [the border crossing] where they were to arrest the train driver and passengers,” he said, adding that the overall aim was to cause “a great conflict”. “The [Kosovo] Albanians, without the approval of NATO or anyone else, sent 17 armoured vehicles with special units … to the north with the aim of provoking a conflict of broad proportions,” Vucic claimed. Photo: Beta/Emil Vas. Vucic ordered the train stopped at the Serbian border town of Raska claiming that Kosovo’s Albanians had tried to mine the railway. Kosovo police strongly denied such accusations and said they had checked the railway and found no explosives. The Serbian Prime Minister also sent “an unambiguous warning” to Kosovo “not to try to attack the Serbian people in Kosovo with arms, because Serbia will not allow such attacks. “Peace is in everyone’s interest, they should not play and destroy what we have long been building. A train with just passengers is not a threat to anyone … I am not threatening anyone, I am just begging them not to kill Serbs because we will protect our people,” Vucic said. Vucic said Kosovo – which declared independence from Serbia in 2008 – had been preparing “war games” for some time, adding he was not sure if they “had anyone’s blessing” – presumably meaning outside powers. The train painted in the colours of Serbian flag and words “Kosovo is Serbian”. Photo: Beta/Emil Vas. The train in question, painted in the colours of the Serbian flag and bearing the words “Kosovo is Serbian” in 21 different languages, including Albanian, set off from Belgrade to northern, Serb-run Mitrovica on Saturday morning – the first train from Belgrade to Mitrovica in 18 years. The announced reopening of the line from Serbia to Mitrovica – as well as the decorations on the train – raised tensions in Kosovo, where officials deemed it as a provocation and called for it not to enter Kosovo. In the event, the train did not enter Kosovo. Vucic said that he decided to stop the train in Raska, in southern Serbia, just before the border, “to save freedom and lives and avoid conflict and show everyone we want peace”. He added that he already discussed the situation with the EU foreign policy chief, Frederica Mogherini, and would inform Russia, China and and US Vice President Joseph Biden about the “war games that Pristina was preparing.” Kosovo Prime Minister Isa Mustafa meanwhile told reporters in Pristina that Kosovo had mobilized state institutions to deal with the situation but did not refer to special police actions. “I think the reversal of this train is the right action because its entry would not be allowed,” he said. “If it entered the country, this train would be treated by the laws of Kosovo. The Republic of Kosovo will not allow such provocations which would turn Kosovo and the region towards a dark and unpredictable conflict.” Media reports confirmed that all the passengers left the train in Raska, just before the border, after it stood in the station for more than an hour-and-a-half. The passengers continued their journey to Mitrovica by bus. The interior of a train is decorated with posters of Serbian saints and Serbian Orthodox Church monasteries in Kosovo, with explanations of the pictures in both Serbian and English. Serbian authorities said the aim was to promote Serbian heritage in Kosovo. Hashim Thaci, the President of Kosovo, on Saturday said Kosovo “respects free movement of people and goods. But the entry of a train covered in nationalist posters from Serbia, which are contrary to the constitution and laws of Kosovo, is totally unacceptable. “Furthermore, there are passengers and high officials of Serbia on the train who do not have permission to enter Kosovo,” Thaci added, calling on the authorities to ban the train from entering the country. Passagers in the train. Photo: Beta/Emil Vas. Edita Tahiri, Kosovo’s Minister for Dialogue, called on the EU to intervene and halt “the provocation of this train with its ultra-nationalist symbols, in the name of keeping the peace, stability and the principles of dialogue”. However, Maja Kocijancic, EU spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Security, said issues between Belgrade and Pristina must be resolved through dialogue. The US ambassador to Kosovo, Greg Delawie, wrote on Twitter that he was “concerned about train issue.” “Call for restraint from all parties. Need normalization not confrontation,” Delawie wrote. The Belgrade authorities previously said the test line would operate between January 20 and February 26, after which the authorities would decide if the line is profitable.Buy Photo Detroiters demonstrate downtown during the 1960s to boycott a chain’s segregated lunch counters down South. Some Republicans want to protect business owners’ right to discriminate against gay people. (Photo: Detroit Free Press file photo)Buy Photo Don't want to serve gay people? Fine. But be straight about it. That's what some equal rights advocates are saying, as state lawmakers consider passing laws to protect business owners who don't want gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender customers: Those business owners should post signs, stating who they'll not do business with. There's a threefold benefit: Business owners with strongly held beliefs can state them loud and proud. Prospective LGBT patrons can avoid the frustration and inconvenience of being denied service. And those of us who want to can spend our money elsewhere. It's a practical suggestion advanced around the country by state lawmakers, and here in Michigan by the Satanic Temple of Detroit — get past the name, their points are well-made and valid — and it's difficult to imagine on what grounds any business owner could object. If you believe it's OK to deny service to individuals based on sexual orientation or gender identity, why not say it? And if the idea of saying it, publicly and definitively, makes you uncomfortable — if the idea of hanging a sign in your business saying which groups of people aren't welcome — well, maybe you should indulge in a little self-examination. In Michigan, it's legal to discriminate against customers based on sexual orientation or gender identity. A push last year to expand the state's civil rights law to include protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender Michiganders failed. So did a bill that would carve out overarching protections for businesses that discriminate, but piecemeal efforts to preserve different components of discrimination are under way in Lansing. Advocates for state-level religious freedom restoration acts like to say that it's a sensitive balance between a free and equitable society and respect for sincerely held beliefs. But this is where things get real — if protecting your sincerely held religious beliefs required you to advertise them on a sign, how virtuous does that feel? The Satanic Temple calls it "discrimination transparency." They've even made downloadable, printable signs for local businesses, offering two distinct messages: "Due to sincerely held religious beliefs, service is denied to ______," and its opposite, "Due to sincerely held beliefs, all are welcome." The proverbial example given, when social conservatives illustrate the need for such protections, is a baker whose religious beliefs prohibit making a wedding cake for a gay couple. But as we saw last month, when a metro Detroit pediatrician refused to see an infant with lesbian parents, the implications reach further than baked goods. But beyond that, what we're talking about is legally protected discrimination. Before the civil rights movement, businesses could also choose their customers: No minorities, no Irish, no Italians. Noxious, but honest. Today's discrimination cloaks itself in religious virtue, masking bigotry as a belief worthy of respect. So say it. If you're out and gay, you live your authentic self every day. If you're transgender, your very existence is political. If you're a business owner who doesn't want to do business with gay or transgender Michiganders, you should be as brave as those you refuse to serve. Read or Share this story: http://on.freep.com/1MOPnrbintitle: Searches within the title of the note. intitle:coffee searches for notes whose title contains "coffee". notebook: Searches for notes stored in the specified notebook. notebook:Finance will only search for notes within the 'Finance' notebook. any: Searches for notes that match any of the search terms listed. 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Friend of the kids Marco Rubio took a dive, and deficit hawk Bob Corker followed him into the tank. The vastly unpopular—and economically disastrous—tax bill likely will pass the Senate because senators come pretty cheaply these days, and accommodations are easily made when you know the only constituency worth your time is your donors, and when you know all the math in the monstrosity is 90 percent fudge anyway. From The New York Times: The unexpected support from Mr. Corker, who had opposed the initial Senate legislation over concerns about its impact on the deficit, put the Republicans on the one-yard line in the final seconds of the tax bill debate. Lawmakers plan to vote next week with the aim of getting a bill to President Trump by Christmas. On Friday, as details emerged about the final bill, it became clear that the agreement would provide slightly more generous tax breaks to low- and middle-income Americans by reducing some benefits for higher earners, one of several tweaks intended to solve the budget problems standing between the bill’s passage and President Trump’s desk, according to people briefed on the final plan. With the finish line to their first legislative victory in sight, Republican negotiators agreed to provide a more generous child tax credit in the final bill to shore up support from Mr. Rubio, who said he would not vote for the legislation unless it provided more help to lower-income Americans. It’s a sham and a con, and it was a sham and a con when Rubio and Corker were pretending to be so very bothered about what a sham and a con it is. There has been some tinkering, because senators come cheaply these days, but it’s still a vaporous collection of unmoored nostrums in search of a magic asterisk. I mean, listen to Corker. A Swiss Army Knife looks less like a tool. Mr. Corker, a longtime deficit hawk, said he was swayed to support the bill as the result of “many conversations over the past several days with individuals from both sides of the aisle across Tennessee and around the country.” Mr. Corker said the bill “is far from perfect, and left to my own accord, we would have reached bipartisan consensus on legislation that avoided any chance of adding to the deficit and far less would have been done on the individual side with items that do not generate economic growth.” Shut up. Just shut up. You know that “bipartisan consensus” always was impossible on this dog’s breakfast and you know why, too. Your party and its owners didn’t want any part of it. Go back to Tennessee and explain to your former constituents where their healthcare went. New details from the text, shared with The New York Times on Friday, reveal that lawmakers offset other last-minute changes to the bill — such as eliminating the corporate alternative minimum tax and lowering the top individual tax rate to 37 percent from 39.6 percent today — through slight adjustments, not sweeping changes. And it was still unclear how they were going to pay for the entire package, which can add no more than $1.5 trillion to the deficit if it is to pass without Democrat support. Christamighty, they’re not even trying hard any more. Just get a big truck and deliver the cash on pallets to the only people in this country who really matter to you. If you’re lucky, they won’t make you use the servant’s entrance. But get it while you can, fellas. Beggar’s Day is coming, and right soon. Another week, another story about financial deceit and brigandage on the part of Wells Fargo. This time, our scene is set among the Navajo people in Arizona. From WPIX News: The tribe alleges employees at Wells Fargo branches on the vast reservation "routinely misled customers into opening unnecessary accounts and obtained debit and credit cards without customers' consent." They also allege Navajo elders "were purposely confused and deceived into purchasing products to help employees meet banking quotas." The lawsuit, filed in a federal court in New Mexico, said "since at least 2009 and continuing through 2016, Wells Fargo employees at branches on the Navajo Nation routinely opened unauthorized savings and credit accounts, misled customers into opening unnecessary accounts, obtained debit cards without customers' consent, and enrolled customers in online banking without proper consent." The suit alleges Wells Fargo employees told elderly Navajo citizens who didn't speak English that in order to have their checks cashed, they needed to sign up for savings accounts they neither needed nor understood. The tribe also alleges Wells Fargo representatives stalked basketball games and flea markets to sign up consumers for unnecessary accounts and "opened accounts for underage Navajo citizens, going so far as to falsify birthdates to avoid obtaining necessary parental consent." All of these allegations sound like business as usual for Wells Fargo, which seems to have a vulture’s instinct for other people’s money and the ethics of your basic Gaboon viper. The L.A. Times got a quote from the consigliere of this particular entity. Wells Fargo spokesman Jim Seitz said in a statement that the bank could not comment on ongoing litigation, but he reiterated steps the bank has taken to compensate consumers and change practices in the wake of last year’s accounts scandal. “Over the past year we have taken significant steps to make things right for our customers, including members of the Navajo Nation, who may have been affected by unacceptable retail sales practices,” he said. Why is this company still in business? I mean, I know why, but still… As happy as I am that Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Nina Simone made the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, inducting The Cars before the J. Geils Band is an insult to every rock and roll fan inside the Route 128 corridor. Live performance has to count for something. But that’s just me being unacceptably provincial. But what I still do not get is why Little Feat, Link Wray, and Warren Zevon get stiffed, year after year. Did Lowell George once refuse to pose for Annie Leibovich? Did Zevon eat Jann Wenner’s puppy? None of this makes sense. Link Wray. Little Feat. Zevon. Come on. This ain’t right. Yes, I saw it. Yes, it’s good. Yes, you should see it. (The Porgs are just tiny, wet-eyed, uninteresting Tribbles, though.) I’m more interested in this new Spielberg about The Washington Post and the Pentagon Papers. I may be wrong but, if you’re going to make a movie about a newspaper and the Pentagon Papers, it really ought to be The New York Times, no? (Apparently, this has occurred to some NYT vets, too.) It has been explained to me that this is really a character study of Katherine Graham. (Meryl!) If so, I hope it ends with her famous warning to the press not to get too nosy about government secrets, because that would be bad. The redoubtable Dave Neiwert has finally finished his magnum opus about the alt-right and the rise of modern neo-fascism. I’m about a third of the way into it, and it’s quite typical of Dave’s work: lucid, impeccably researched, and damn scary. It’s an important book because, I think, all hell is going to break loose next year and it would be nice to know as much as possible about the people who opened the door for hell to break loose. Weekly WWOZ Pick To Click: “Savannah Mama” (Blind Willie McTell): Yeah, I pretty much still love New Orleans. Weekly Visit To The Pathe Archives: Here are some Finns having fun in the 1920s. Let’s all do the Greasy Pole Dance. Not so fast there, Farenthold! History is so cool. Is it a good day for dinosaur news, AP? It’s always a good day for dinosaur news! Fossils from New Zealand have revealed a giant penguin that was as big as a grown man, roughly the size of the captain of the Pittsburgh Penguins. The creature was slightly shorter in length and about 20 pounds (9 kilograms) heavier than the official stats for hockey star Sidney Crosby. It measured nearly 5 feet, 10 inches (1.77 meters) long when swimming and weighed in at 223 pounds (101 kilograms)… The newly found bird is about 7 inches (18 centimeters) longer than any other ancient penguin that has left a substantial portion of a skeleton, said Gerald Mayr of the Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum in Frankfurt, Germany. A potentially bigger rival is known only from a fragment of leg bone, making a size estimate difficult. I think measuring prehistoric fauna by units of hockey player goes a long way to explaining things to the uninitiated, and is another way that dinosaurs lived then to make Sidney Crosby, and us, happy now. (Yes, I know it’s not technically a dinosaur. Shut up, he explained.) The Committee was impressed by Top Commenter Nathaire Carcossa’s question for the stubbornly loony ol’ Jedge Roy Moore. Any word on whether Moore has decided to concede to General Grant's terms? Sometimes, I am completely convinced that those terms were far too generous. Anyway, well-asked, and 80.17 Beckhams to you. I’ll be back on Monday after a weekend in which I am sure there will be some GOP’s Big Win gobshitery flying through the air. Be well and play nice, ya bastids. Stay above the snake-line, or off the greasy pole you go. Respond to this post on the Esquire Politics Facebook page.By Alex Bregman Many Democrats on Capitol Hill are now demanding that a special prosecutor look into Russia’s meddling into the 2016 election in the wake of President Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey. It’s even something Trump threatened Hillary Clinton with in a presidential debate. But what are special prosecutors, and why are they so special … and feared? Broadly speaking, they’re lawyers appointed to conduct investigations on behalf of the federal government. They’re often referred to as “special counsels” or “independent counsels” because they’re brought in from the outside, so that you don’t end up having the government investigating itself. The drumbeat for one starts when some sort of scandal is brewing. It makes sense that the idea originated during what was perhaps the biggest scandal in modern American history: Watergate. In 1973, members of the Senate threatened to hold up the nomination of then-Defense Secretary Elliot Richardson to be attorney general unless he assured them he would appoint a special prosecutor to look into the break-in at the Democratic National Committee’s Watergate offices in Washington, D.C. His pick: Harvard law professor Archibald Cox. President Richard Nixon, however, was not a fan, and when Cox demanded that Nixon hand over the famous White House tapes, Nixon demanded that Cox be fired. That clash ultimately led to what became known as the “Saturday Night Massacre” on Oct. 20, 1973, when both Richardson and his deputy resigned after refusing to fire Cox. Nixon ultimately got his way, getting Solicitor General Robert Bork to fire Cox. Facing impeachment over the Watergate matter, Nixon would resign less than a year later. This all led Congress to put the role of a special prosecutor into law, in the Ethics in Government Act of 1978. However, that law expired in 1999, leaving it up to the attorney general to appoint one when he or she wants to. Even before Comey’s ouster, a majority of the American people said a special prosecutor should be appointed to look into Russia’s meddling in the U.S. election. That, however, will be left to Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ deputy, Rod Rosenstein, because Sessions has recused himself from any investigations related to the Trump campaign. If and when that happens, when it comes to the role of a special prosecutor, at least you can say, “Now I get it.”Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers a speech during a state awarding ceremony at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, March 10, 2016. REUTERS/Pavel Golovkin/Pool LONDON (Reuters) - Russia scolded Britain on Friday for saying that Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin dreamed of weakening the West with a British exit from the European Union. Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said last week that the only country wanting Britain to the leave the EU was Russia and Prime Minister David Cameron has said what he termed Putin’s aggression makes this no time to drop out of the EU. “Russia is being dragged into the domestic debate on Brexit,” the Russian embassy in London said in a statement. “Why is the wicked Russia thesis used to explain a Government policy?” “We’d like the British people to know that those pronouncements have nothing to do with Russia’s policy,” the embassy said. “As a matter of fact, our Government doesn’t have an opinion on Britain’s place in the EU.” Putin has made no public remarks about Britain’s June EU referendum, though U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping have indicated they support Britain’s membership of the world’s biggest trading bloc.We recently had another interview, this time with Reggie Vickers, he is an EMS Coordinator out of the San Juan Mountains in Colorado, and a County Representative for the Regional Trauma and Advisory Council, who has been in the industry just shy of 20 years. We spoke at some length and when I do these interviews, I try to focus on the person I am interviewing and the issues they face on a daily basis. For One, I want to find out what matters, and my other reason is I’m hoping that will cover up my lack of interviewing and writing experience. This interview was held a few days after the horrific shooting in Dallas that took the lives of five officers. Of course our conversations started with these events and Reggie said it best “I am disappointed in my countries situation and in the behavior of my fellow Americans.” He was actually surprised some sort of retaliatory shooting hasn’t happened sooner within all of the venom and discourse being sewn about the Law Enforcement Community. He also mentioned the 2012, Webster N.Y. ambush shooting of four fire fighters, two of whom, who lost their lives, saying it wasn’t just the brothers in blue who have something to fear, and this point has been amplified with the recent random shoots fired at various Fire Fighters. Reggie lives in an area that still gets along and so for him, as of now, these recent events aren’t the issues that hit home, unlike the heroin epidemic that has found its way to ski slopes and ranches he responds to calls at. The issue he faces is the mental health of his guys, they recently lost a fire fighter to suicide, so this issue is very real to him. Reggie said “We are shovelers, we love to shovel stuff under the rug, we love to help people and we are great at seeing pain in others and trying to help, but we are really good at making sure, ours is buried.” He continued “As a group we have had some bad incidents we had to deal with over the last couple of years, and have had varying degrees of success (sic), we used local mental health resources, to do group debriefings and group decompressing, individual mentoring etc.” Most recently, it was his stations ambulance who responded to their fellow firefighter who committed suicide, as you can imagine, it was a difficult experience. We discussed our original Blog Post about PTSD and First Responders and how general awareness by the community, is still lacking. After some discussion we both agreed it would be a good idea to focus on this issue again. I also want to point out that we are not trying to say “Oh those poor First Responders, pity them!”, we want to help raise awareness about an issue that affects a large portion of our Customers. PTSD in the First Responder Community First Responders see things on a daily basis, that would make us civilians go weak in the knees, and I for one would consistently lose my lunch while we are at it. While it may be part of their job, there’s no way they can be completely desensitized to it. The things they see, can lead to quite a bit of damage to their mental health, if left unchecked. From traumatic, heart wrenching, car accidents to intense, inferno like fires, it can be a very stressful environment. The macho bravado nature of these guys and girls is amazing, they throw themselves in harm’s way to save strangers, and one of the side effects of this Macho job is talking about your feelings makes you look weak. Currently in the US, in some areas, there is a ton of frustration and anger towards First Responders and Law Enforcement personnel, and this makes it even more stressful and dangerous for the men and women just looking to help. First Responders act as a family, no matter where they’re from, so it effects each and every one of them to see each other in peril. If you were in an industry where the people you worked with were getting singled out and attacked, you’d probably feel like you were in a traumatic situation too. It’s easy to understand why mental health is suffering but it can be hard to know what to do. Thankfully, there are more resources available for First Responders. The unfortunate part is that it is not widely available to the general community and the First Responder community tends to see getting help as a sign of weakness, a luxury they can’t afford. Most people in the medical industry don’t want to have to seek medical help for any mental illnesses and it can affect them even more. PTSD Stigmas and Misconceptions Sadly, one of the biggest stigma towards mental health leans towards PTSD sufferers. Many civilians view people with PTSD as dangerous, like they might “snap” and hurt someone at any time, even if the PTSD did not occur from a violent situation such as a combat veteran. This is a stigma that could easily be remedied if people were actually educated on what PTSD is and how to help their loved ones cope with it. Someone with PTSD will not just suddenly go on a crazy killing spree, common symptoms are more along the lines of irritability, nightmares, triggers which cause flashbacks and panic, anxiety, depression, and change the way a person thinks. There is no sudden cure for PTSD as it is not the easiest mental illness to treat. Having such a stigma surrounding victims of PTSD actually make it more dangerous and hard for people to get better. Instead of being afraid of someone with PTSD, just treat them like normal people, that’s what they truly need. I know there are a million other points I could write about, however keep in mind, I am not a writer or blogger by trade, so this is still a new outlet for us here at Emergency Safety Supply. We just hope this helps someone out there. Emergency Safety Supply We aren’t here to just sell you stuff, we’re here to make a difference in the community. If you’d like to get notified when we release new Blog Posts, feel free to sign up for our Newsletter. We’ve got all the news from the First Responders’ world to keep you updated on current events and the troubles in the community. At Emergency Safety Supply, we want to spread awareness about the inner workings and problems with the First Response community. From the abuse of the 911 system (which you can find out more in another post) to the mental health of the community, we want to help educate the public and hopefully in some way, help these brave and noble, Men and Women.Cinemax has given a 10-episode straight to series order to “Warrior,” from creator Jonathan Tropper and fellow executive producers Justin Lin and Danielle Woodrow. The drama is inspired by an idea from the late martial-arts star Bruce Lee. “Warrior” is an action series set against the backdrop of the Tong Wars of San Francisco’s Chinatown in the second half of the 19th century. It tells the story of Ah Sahm, a martial arts prodigy who immigrates from China to San Francisco and becomes a hatchet man for one of Chinatown’s most powerful organized-crime families. The series is set to begin production in Cape Town, South Africa. “’Warrior’ follows in the spirit of the tradition of adrenalized Cinemax dramas that we established with ‘Strike Back’ and ‘Banshee’,” said Kary Antholis, president, HBO Miniseries and Cinemax Programming. “We are brimming with excitement for this unique martial arts series combining Bruce Lee’s inspired conception with the immense storytelling talents of Jonathan Tropper and Justin Lin.” “Warrior” is produced by Perfect Storm Entertainment, Tropper Ink Productions and Bruce Lee Entertainment. Executive producers are Tropper, Lin, Woodrow and Shannon Lee. “As a show that proudly bears the imprimatur of Bruce Lee, it’s our intention to deliver not only explosive martial arts action – which we will – but also a powerful and complex immigration drama that is as relevant today as it was in the 1870s,” said Tropper. “I’ve always admired Bruce Lee for his trailblazing efforts opening doors for Asians in entertainment and beyond,” said Lin. “So I was intrigued when Danielle told me about the urban legend of his never-produced idea for a TV show and suggested we bring it to life. Then, when Shannon shared with us her father’s writings – rich with Lee’s unique philosophies on life, and through a point of view rarely depicted on screen – Danielle and I knew that Perfect Storm had to make it.”Find the right combination! ChessBase 15 program + new Mega Database 2019 with 7.6 million games and more than 70,000 master analyses. Plus ChessBase Magazine (DVD + magazine) and CB Premium membership for 1 year! The "Mega" is the database every serious chessplayer needs. The database contains 7.6 million games from 1500 to 2018, in highest quality standard, full of top level analyses and completely classified. 3/1/2017 – In a list with several notable results, including an important one as Wesley So moves to world no. 2 as a result of Fabiano Caruana's subpar performance at the Gibraltar Masters, the most important one is without question Ju Wenjun's leap to 2604, thus becoming the fifth female to crack 2600, following Judit Polgar, Humpey Koneru, Hou Yifan, and Anna Muzychuk. Here is the report with results of the new ratings list. FIDE March 2017 – Top 100 Players If this picture looks familiar (as in: the last ratings article started with it as well) it is because in spite of not having played any games this month, the games from the Gibraltar Masters were computed, leading Fabiano Caruana to drop 10 points, ceding the no. 2 spot to Wesley So. It should also be noted this is the first time the list has ever shown five players at 2800, though in contrast the number of 2700 players has not changed. What has changed is just how competitive the top six or eight are. Another point worth making is that the entry to the Top 100 jumped 4 Elo this month alone, meaning that instead of 2655, the minimum now is 2659, but it might be a statistical blip, and the next months will show whether this is to stay. It has swung up and down more than once in the past years. Top climbers and descenders The list below already tells much of the tale: with a huge list of players who experienced gains or losses of at least 10 Elo. David Anton Guijarro earned a fantastic 27 Elo, leaping from 2640 to 2676 in a single bound after his superb result in the Gibraltar Masters, tied for first with a 2859 performance. Sandro Mareco (pictured above in the American Continental) was another big winner as he scored a perfect 9.0/9 in the Montevideo tournament "Copa Marcel Duchamp 2017". It's true that most of his opponents were rated roughly 150-200 Elo less, but it still takes doing to score a perfect 100%. FIDE Top 100 Women Of all the results among
eged. Strategic patience, in the words of Robert M. Gates, the former defense secretary, grew out of a desire not “to buy the same horse twice.” Critics say that while the policy has allowed the United States to weather multiple rounds of belligerence by Kim Jong-il and his son, Kim Jong-un, without making concessions, it has done little to curb the development of North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. “At the moment, it has no effect whatsoever. However, my husband and I did talk about what actions we should/shouldn't take when the missiles are actually launched. Just in case. Pretty much the same as planning ahead for a future massive earthquake...” — Housewife, Tokyo Q. What sanctions are currently in place? A. David Guttenfelder/Associated Press Under Resolutions The Nothing in the American sanctions prohibits American travel to North Korea or the export of food and other types of humanitarian aid, although there are some restrictions. The sanctions leave room for considerable trade in many types of goods and services. China, which supplies much of North Korea’s basic needs, is not in any violation of the United Nations resolutions. The United Nations Security Council has passed four resolutions since 2006 aimed at penalizing North Korea for its nuclear weapons program. In addition, the United States, which remains in a technical state of war with North Korea, has imposed its own regimen of strict economic sanctions. The combined effects have severely squeezed but not crippled North Korea’s economy.Under Resolutions 1718 (2006), 1874 (2009), 2087 (2013) and 2094 (2013), the United Nations has prohibited the North from conducting nuclear tests or launching ballistic missiles, requested that it abandon all future efforts to pursue nuclear weapons and urged it to return to negotiations with China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States, the so-called six-party talks. The resolutions have also imposed embargoes on large-scale arms, weapons-related research and development materials, and luxury goods; banned many types of financial transactions including transfers of cash; placed new restrictions on diplomats; and created monitoring mechanisms for enforcement.The American sanctions freeze all North Korean property interests in the United States, ban most imports of goods and services from the North, and prohibit American dealings with any names on a blacklist of North Korean businesses and individuals suspected of illicit activities including money laundering, counterfeiting, currency smuggling and narcotics trafficking.Nothing in the American sanctions prohibits American travel to North Korea or the export of food and other types of humanitarian aid, although there are some restrictions.The sanctions leave room for considerable trade in many types of goods and services. China, which supplies much of North Korea’s basic needs, is not in any violation of the United Nations resolutions. “There is more news coverage and attention is higher, but we're living normally. We do worry and care but it seems like more fear and worry exists abroad. We don't really think a war is going to happen. The probability is highly unlikely because North Korea has so much to lose.” — Student, Incheon, South Korea Q. What is the human rights situation in North Korea? A. David Guttenfelder/Associated Press In January 2013, Navi Pillay, the chief human rights official at the United Nations, expressed concern that international preoccupation with North Korea’s missile and nuclear weapons programs had diverted attention from human rights abuses that have “no parallel anywhere in the world.” North Korea, Ms. Pillay said, operates an “elaborate network of political prison camps” that hold more than 200,000 prisoners, according to human rights organizations. The camps not only punish people for peaceful activities, but also employ “torture and other forms of cruel and inhumane treatment, summary executions, rape, slave labor and forms of collective punishment that may amount to crimes against humanity.” Even outside the camps, North Koreans endure “extreme forms of repression and human rights violations,” according to Amnesty International. They may be subject to arbitrary arrest, and lack recourse to legal rights and protections, an independent news media or independent civic organizations. There are no known opposition political parties, and those who criticize the government are severely punished. Government policies have contributed to food shortages and famine. Food insecurity and chronic malnutrition remain widespread, and millions are still dependent on food aid, according to the United Nations. In March, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that more than a fourth of all North Korean children are stunted from chronic malnutrition, and that two-thirds of the country’s 24 million people struggle to find food from day to day. Q. How is the South Korean government responding to the North's threats? A. “I consider the current North Korean threats very serious,” Ms. Park told the South’s generals on April 1. “If the North attempts any provocation against our people and country, you must respond strongly at the first contact with them without any political consideration.” And her government has said that if the North followed through on its threats to mount a nuclear attack, its government would be “erased from the earth.” At the same time, she believes in building trust with the North, and has continued to offer it aid. Ms. Park’s father, who ran the country as a dictator during the cold war, also held a firm line on North Korea, but the South began taking a much more conciliatory stance in the 1990s. From 1998 to 2008, they pursued a “sunshine policy” of reconciliation and economic cooperation that sent billions of dollars in business investments, goods and humanitarian aid to the North. Ms. Park’s immediate predecessor, Lee Myung-bak, said the North would need to give up its On April 11, Ms. Park’s government softened its tone on the North, issuing a call for dialogue to resolve the tensions. The current president, Park Geun-hye, who was sworn in at the end of February, has taken a strong stand against the North in recent weeks, parrying its threats with warnings of her own. She has told her top generals to respond immediately to any provocative acts.“I consider the current North Korean threats very serious,” Ms. Park told the South’s generals on April 1. “If the North attempts any provocation against our people and country, you must respond strongly at the first contact with them without any political consideration.”And her government has said that if the North followed through on its threats to mount a nuclear attack, its government would be “erased from the earth.”At the same time, she believes in building trust with the North, and has continued to offer it aid.Ms. Park’s father, who ran the country as a dictator during the cold war, also held a firm line on North Korea, but the South began taking a much more conciliatory stance in the 1990s.From 1998 to 2008, they pursued a “sunshine policy” of reconciliation and economic cooperation that sent billions of dollars in business investments, goods and humanitarian aid to the North. Ms. Park’s immediate predecessor, Lee Myung-bak, said the North would need to give up its nuclear weapons to receive any more aid. But he was criticized for what many saw as a weak response after the North shelled a South Korean island in 2010, killing four people.On April 11, Ms. Park’s government softened its tone on the North, issuing a call for dialogue to resolve the tensions. “Personally I am pretty concerned, but people around me in the office and my family do not look like they are nervous or affected by the North Korean threats.” — Sachiko, Saitama, Japan Q. Why hasn’t China stopped North Korea from its campaign of threats? Is there any other country that has enough influence on North Korea to stop it? A. China, the North's patron, has long feared that a collapse of the North Korean government could lead to a unified Korea allied with the United States. China helped write and did vote for the most recent round of United Nations sanctions, but has been loath to push the North too hard. Q. Why are relations so bad between North and South Korea? A. After the United States and the Soviet Union divided the Korean Peninsula at the end of the World War II in 1945, they helped install rival governments in Seoul and Pyongyang. Each asserted claims to the whole of Korea. The two fought the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended not in a peace treaty but a truce. Mutual mistrust runs deep, although there have been intermittent attempts at political reconciliation and economic cooperation. “Nearly half my classes are international students, and they have been getting calls and emails from families back home and their embassies. One Japanese student skipped class today, because she may prepare to return home. Any loss of foreign students, now or in the future because of inter-Korean tensions, would cause great damage to the education of Korean students and to the global aspirations of Korean universities. People in my school and community feel anger and hostility to North Korea and, by extension, China, which is unfortunate. On the positive side, I sense less anti-American and anti-Japanese prejudice.” — Joseph Yi, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Hanyang University, Seoul, South Korea Q. When was the last armed confrontation between North and South? A. In November 2010, North Korea carried out an artillery attack on a South Korean border island that killed two Marines and two civilians. South Korea countered with an artillery barrage on the North Korean gun positions. The number of North Korean casualties is still unknown. Q. What happened to the nuclear talks between North Korea and China, Japan, South Korea, the United States and Russia? A. The six-party talks started in 2003 after earlier bilateral negotiations between the United States and North Korea failed to stop the North's nuclear weapons program, and North Korea announced its withdrawal from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The aim of the talks was to persuade North Korea to dismantle its nuclear weapons facilities. The six nations signed an agreement in 2005 in which North Korea agreed in principle to dismantle all its nuclear weapons facilities in return for economic aid and security guarantees. In 2007, they reached a follow-up deal. Despite such strides, the talks were marred by differences over how to implement those agreements and by deep-seated mistrust between Washington and Pyongyang. There was progress: the North blew up a cooling tower for a five-megawatt nuclear reactor at Yongbyon, whose spent fuel could be reprocessed into plutonium, and the North was removed from State Department list of state sponsors of terrorism in 2008. But the talks collapsed the next year because of differences over the nuclear inspections. A critical stumbling block was the North's refusal to come clean on American suspicions that it was running a clandestine uranium enrichment program for alternative nuclear fuel. In 2010, North Korea unveiled a uranium enrichment plant. “My brother goes to college on Guam and the rest of my family lives on Saipan, which is just a couple islands north. They all seem largely unbothered by the threats, but I worry about them, especially my brother, every time I read about these threats.” — Henry Chan, Accountant, Silver Spring, Md. Q. Are foreign governments taking North Korea’s threats more seriously than those in the past? Why? A. David Guttenfelder/Associated Press North Korea’s latest bellicose behavior has rattled nerves more than previous episodes because of the youth and inexperience of the North’s new leader, Kim Jong-un. While South Korea and the United States have said the provocation appears to be following a familiar script – one that will stop short of a wider war – Mr. Kim’s motives are largely a mystery. For that reason, the United States has mounted an unusually muscular display of deterrence, sending a guided-missile destroyer and B-2 stealth bombers to the Korean Peninsula – all to send a message that it will defend the United States and its allies in the region. South Korea’s new president, Park Geun-hye, has also pledged a robust response to any attack. China, which has long frustrated the West with its unwillingness to curb the North, may be growing impatient with Mr. Kim. President Xi Jinping said recently, “No one should be allowed to throw a region and even the whole world into chaos for selfish gains.” “My family at home (in the US) worries but understands that Koreans are living life as usual because they cannot constantly fear war. However, many students have started considering leaving either for a short period or permanently.” — Tamar Herman, Student, Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea Q. How did the North get nuclear weapons? A. It took a long time, a lot of work — and repeated decisions by several American presidents, of both parties, to kick the North Korea problem down the road because the risks of confronting the North were too high. The project started under Kim Il-sung, the country's founder and the grandfather of the current leader, Kim Jong-un. Kim Il-sung knew that Gen. Douglas MacArthur wanted Washington to allow the use of nuclear weapons against Chinese and North Korean troops during the Korean War. By the 1980s, American intelligence satellites were watching the nuclear complex at Yongbyon come together. Relations between the United States and the North grew especially tense over the issue in 1994, and some in the White House feared a war could break out. A pact was eventually hammered out that year, the Agreed Framework, but it fell apart in 2002, during the George W. Bush administration, partly over allegations the North was cheating on its agreements and developing another path to a bomb. In 2006, the North conducted its first nuclear test, a partial fizzle. But the subsequent tests, including one this year, were more successful. Now the country has an estimated 6 to 10 weapons, or the fuel for them, and a pathway to many more. “I am extremely nervous about the situation. All of my family is in South Korea except for me; I am so scared that one day I will wake up and learn that I am an orphan now and my home country is gone. I find myself keep checking the news every second.” — Hanna, New York Q. Would the North ever give up its nuclear weapons? A. The North committed to doing so eventually in 1992, and again under an agreement in 2005. But many now doubt the North has any incentive to give up its weapons. After all, the country saw Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi give up Libya's nuclear weapons development project -- only to be ousted from power, with American help. After its third nuclear test in February, North Korea declared that it would never join talks on giving up its nuclear weapons until the entire world became weapons-free. “Almost nothing has happened. Nobody cares because almost all people think North Korea's actions are just fakes. Of course nobody evacuates Japan, even if they are foreign visitors or workers. The situation is much less serious than during the Fukushima disaster. (At that time all of my friends from abroad evacuated.)” — Takashi J. Ozaki, Data scientist, Tokyo Q. Have foreigners started evacuating South Korea, as North Korea urged? A. So far, they have largely dismissed the warning as a bluster aimed at increasing a sense of crisis in what appears to be an attempt to force the United States and South Korea to engage. The State Department has not issued any warnings of imminent danger for its citizens in the region. The North is also seen as trying to rattle the South's economy, and its government, by scaring away foreign investors. “I am not too concerned about the situation. However, my girlfriend, who is also Irish, is a little concerned and is under huge pressure from her family to come home. So much, in fact, that it is possible that we might leave next week, six weeks before our contracts finish.” — Christopher Browne, English teacher, Seoul, South Korea Q. How have North and South Korea managed to jointly run the Kaesong industrial complex at the border for years? A. The isolated North is profoundly impoverished. With little access to hard currency, it embraced the creation of the Kaesong industrial project as a good source of money. The South believed that the economic cooperation would gradually chip away at political mistrust and pave the way for eventual reunification of the divided peninsula. The factory park paired cheap North Korean labor with South Korean manufacturing savvy. The North has now blocked access to the South, robbing North Korean workers of wages paid by the South, but has not announced an absolute closure. “Everyone is going about their daily lives as usual. Students attend school, companies remain open, and foreigners and natives alike continue working or traveling around the nation. The only people who seem to be worrying the most are citizens overseas who aren't exactly sure of what is going on.” — Cheleen, Student, Seoul, South Korea Q. What exactly is the demilitarized zone?My definition of bipolar urban areas are those that have two principal cities at their core, but they have each taken nearly opposite paths socioeconomically. The two cities posses an almost Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde-like qualities – one being quite healthy and prosperous while the other may suffer from poverty, economic distress, or environmental degradation. While every significant urban area has its areas of poverty, distress, and degradation, a bipolar region varies in the fact that one of two primary core communities is the site of concentrated problems. Unfortunately, in some cases the socioeconomic differences can be so stark that it is almost like a third-world city has developed directly adjacent to a first world city, even though in many cases they exist in the same country. Here are some examples of bipolar urban areas from here in North America. I would curious to know if this kind urban land form takes place in other parts of the world as well. Please feel free to send me your examples. Thanks! El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico Kansas City, Missouri and Kansas City, Kansas (Thank you Basil) Niagara Falls, Ontario and Niagara Falls, New York Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Camden, New Jersey St. Joseph and Benton Harbor, Michigan St. Louis, Missouri and East St. Louis, Illinois A bipolar urban case study: Of the listed places above, the differences can be easily observed by both residents and millions of tourists alike in the Niagara Falls region of New York and Ontario. In addition, since we are celebrating both Canada Day and the 4th of July this week, Niagara Falls seems like a natural topic to write about. The Niagara Falls region has been a tourist and honeymoon destination for many decades due to the awesome natural wonders there – not just the waterfalls themselves, but the whirlpools, rainbows, nearby Great Lakes, and the impressive gorge below the falls. Combine those with numerous tourist attractions and historic sites and you have a recipe for long-term economic success on both sides of the border. But, Niagara Falls New York and Niagara Falls, Ontario have followed two different paths since World War II and ended up at nearly opposite ends of the socioeconomic spectrum. Niagara Falls, Ontario is a busy tourist destination with a pleasing mix of modern and stately hotels, gorgeous and carefully manicured parks and gardens, scenic parkways, lovely neighborhoods, and busy commercial centers. Granted, it can be argued that Ontario has the better overall view of the American and Canadian (Horseshoe) Falls, but that alone should not lead to such a vast and visible difference right across the river. For many years, parts of Niagara Falls, New York seemed virtually desolate compared to its vibrant Canadian neighbor. A much different path was blazed here. Instead of relying largely on tourism as Canada did, Niagara Falls, New York also used the enormous raw power generated by the falls to become an industrialized city. As a result, when those industries began to falter, the city declined too. Downtown has seen a number of revitalization schemes put in place, some successful, others not. Much of the city’s breathtaking riverfront was marred by the limited access Robert Moses State Parkway, which also cut the city off from its source of fame and fortune. While the state parks abutting the falls remain busy, access to the heart of the city was impeded. Power plants and chemical plants were built (and in some cases abandoned) in the city, while electrical transmission and distribution lines crisscross the landscape. Among the most heartbreaking legacies are the remnants of industrial indiscretions which have left visible scares – Love Canal being the most infamous. Niagara Falls, New York has never fully recovered from the industrial course and today remains a symbol of Rust Belt decay and dismay. The city’s population loss reflects this decay as it has fallen from a high of 102,394 in 1960 to a mere 50,193 in 2010. On the other hand, Niagara Falls, Ontario is simply a delight to visit. Beautifully landscaped parks and gardens, neat and trim neighborhoods, prosperous business and shopping districts, a growing and very impressive skyline for a city its size, well-maintained infrastructure, and a healthy and appealing ambiance all garner kudos. Each time I have visited Niagara Falls, Ontario I have been more impressed by the pride evoked by its citizens and business community. As a result, Niagara Falls, Ontario’s population has grown over the same decades, increasing from 22.874 in 1951 to 82,997 in 2011. Are there ways to reverse the decline facing these urban Mr. Hyde’s without displacing those who have struggled to weather decades of socio-economic distress? Only time will tell. But, as urban planners, I believe part of our social, ethical, and moral responsibility is to seek viable solutions to such problems and do our level best to see them implemented. We should not just be there following a Katrina’esque disaster, but whenever any urban areas has befallen hard times. Do I profess to have the solutions? Of course not, I would never be so vain. But I do know this, the status quo does not work. As Daniel Burnham so aptly said – “Make no little plans.” In Niagara Falls, New York’s case, the first thing I would consider is demolishing/converting the limited access Robert Moses Parkway into a landscaped grade level boulevard with an adjacent/but physically separated scenic bicycle trail overlooking the river/gorge. Apparently, I am not alone in the idea of removing the limited access highway. The multi-purpose bicycle trail would extend from one end of the city to the other and hopefully all the way to Lake Ontario. Once the boulevard and bike trail have been established, a series of attractions could be developed along with a mix of low-mid rise ecologically friendly lodging and entertainment venues overlooking the lush surroundings. Linking these with already existing attractions such as the Niagara Gorge Discovery Center and Trailhead, Prospect Point, Terrapin Point, Cave of the Winds, Goat Island, a proposed Nikola Tesla Science Museum in the world’s first hydroelectric plant, the planned restoration of the Niagara Gorge Rim and the very successful ArtPark. Most important would be to incorporate a variety of residential options along and near the boulevard/bike trail and provide direct connections from downtown, existing residential areas, and other parks. The inclusion of residential options will assist in building a local client base for area businesses as well as provide new housing options within the city itself. Unlike many cities, Niagara Falls, New York has numerous great natural, scenic, ecological, and historical elements from which to build a strong economic base. From the list provided above, it is evident that they are working diligently to re-establish a thriving community. Kudos on their efforts to date and continued best wishes to Niagara Falls for the future. AdvertisementsPosted: Wednesday, May 18, 2016 \| Views: 8206 From Louisiana State Police HAMMOND --- Troopers have identified a person of interest in a fatal hit and run crash that occurred on LA 3234 (University Ave.) west of US 51 in Hammond on May 11, 2016. Troopers believe this individual may have information related to the crash. He is described as a black male driving a dark colored four-door sedan, possibly a Pontiac Grand Prix. He was last seen at a gas station in the area shortly after the crash. Anyone with information pertaining to this individual’s identity is encouraged to contact Louisiana State Police Troop L at 985-893-6250. Original ReleaseTroopers in Hammond Seek Public’s Help in Fatal Hit and Run CrashHammond, LA- Troopers from Louisiana State Police Troop L are requesting assistance from the public in investigating a fatal hit and run crash. The crash occurred shortly after 10:00 pm on Wednesday May 11, 2016 on LA 3234 [University Ave.] west of US 51. The crash has claimed the life of 26 year-old Erin Gerhard of Independence, LA.The preliminary on-scene investigation led Troopers to determine that Gerhard was riding a skateboard in the right westbound lane of University Ave, when he was struck by an unknown vehicle. After the impact, Gerhard was thrown into the left westbound lane, where he was struck by another vehicle. Both vehicles fled the scene after the crash. Gerhard was severely injured in the crash and was pronounced deceased on-scene by the Tangipahoa Parish Coroner’s Office. As part of the on-going investigation, Troopers obtained blood samples. The samples will be sent to the Louisiana State Police Crime Lab for analysis.Presently, Troopers are seeking a truck and a dark colored sedan. Anyone with any information pertaining to the crash is encouraged to contact the Louisiana State Police Troop L at 985-893-6250.The scene will be familiar to anyone who has sat through a Hollywood romcom-by-numbers. A glossy American couple fight over an alleged infidelity, and at one point the hunk involved says something unacceptable in a pique of anger. Our heroine responds with a slap, right across the face, and the argument ends there. We've seen Meg Ryan do it, Jennifer Aniston do it, and the most recent example of a whack across the chops I saw was in hipster-com Girls, where friends Elijah (Andrew Rannells) and Marnie (Allison Williams) trade insults over his sexuality before he calls her a bitch and she slaps him, hard. The couple follow up this charming seduction scene with, as is the series' custom, coitus that is swiftly interruptus by a character's punctured ego. In short, pop culture gives the impression it is cute, or empowering, or even sexy when women hit men. The scene reversed would carry a single connotation of misogyny and out-of-control male aggression, but here we are expected to laugh, or even to be turned on by these characters' resort to the grim shortcut of violence to deal with problems. And young women are clearly taking note. It was revealed this week that one in seven women aged 15-22 in the US admits to hitting their partner, compared to just one in twenty men. Buzzfeed reports: "When the researchers, commissioned by the NO MORE anti-domestic violence campaign, asked young people why they'd lashed out, almost 60 per cent of all respondents said their partner had hit them first. Given this, it's possible that young women are just more likely to admit to hitting a partner than men were." Women in violent relationships were most likely to hit back, and to say publicly they had done so, a worrying element of the survey that should not be overlooked. However, it is thought that as much as a third of domestic violence in the UK is female on male, according to the most recent British Crime Survey, and not all of it in retaliation. Most domestic violence is carried out by men Domestic violence remains a problem that is perpetrated primarily by men, a fact of which I think most are aware. But how many of us have seen women "playfully" slap their boyfriends after a few drinks, or knee them in the genitals, or joke about how they will beat them up? It is the sort of dialogue conducted by young women all the time, when the same words would (rightly) be thought of as repellent coming from the mouth of a man. Violence does not make relationship problems go away, but increases the chance of a similar incident reoccurring, whether a man is hitting a woman or a woman is smacking him back. Young women are internalising messages that dominance is the only way to conduct a relationship successfully, in keeping with the individualistic streak that feminism has acquired in recent years, where to be empowered means getting what you want, not working together for what you can both accept from each other. The casual female on male violence that we accept on our screens is also sexist, as it presumes that women cannot do men any real harm. The size of bruises and the amount of blood spilled is not the only way one measures the effect of violence, as any man or woman who has been belittled or controlled or intimidated by their partner will tell you. Some of the very same critics who rail against the treatment of women in internet pornography, where slapping and hitting are common titillating elements, would not think twice of condemning their friends for the same if it were directed at their boyfriends. The philosopher Hannah Arendt wrote in 'Reflections on Violence': "Violence appears where power is in jeopardy, but left to its own course it ends in power's disappearance." Women are not empowering themselves when they hit men intentionally, but simply reaffirming their lack of power in a situation they can no longer control. Violence, therefore, certainly isn't a weapon in the feminist arsenal or a way to tackle domestic abuse. It undermines the efforts of domestic violence campaigners and it gives abusive young men, who have made headlines of their own, an easy modus operandi if they can claim they were simply responding to attack. Call domestic violence for what it is, regardless of gender: abuse. How cute is that?She would also love to do a spoof feature of the TV and film franchise. SYDNEY -- Gillian Anderson is ready to reprise her iconic role as Dana Scully in a third X Files film. Speaking after the world premiere in Sydney of Universal’s Johnny English Reborn, in which she plays the head of fictional MI7 opposite Rowan Atkinson, Anderson said that there is definite talk of X Files 3. “I hope it will happen, there’s talk of it,” she told Australian breakfast TV program Sunrise. “I don’t know who’s writing it but I hear there’s something going on,” she said. And she indicated that there could be more life in the franchise, saying she wants to do a film spoof of the hit Fox TV series. “I’ve always wanted to do a spoof of the X Files as a film,” she said. “We talked about that for a long time but maybe after three features we could get to do a spoof feature.”Find out what's new in the latest release of Phaser. Article by Richard Davey. Posted on 17th Jun 2016. @photonstorm Phaser 2.5.0 is the latest release of Phaser, and represents another significant milestone in the evolution of the framework in 2016. It was previously released as 2.4.9. However we appreciate that we haven't been following the semver code strictly enough, and that this version (and most before it!) actually contains some significant MINOR level functionality, not just PATCH level. So we've bumped the version number accordingly. We have updated the GitHub README with a brand new layout, which should help those new to Phaser. The Phaser Sandbox and all Phaser Examples are also now running under 2.5.0. As well as fixing a number of issues, there are some genuinely useful new features added in this release. Not least of which includes the new Weapons Plugin, making creating bullet pools a couple lines of code. Don't worry, it's also easy to exclude from custom builds too. There are also some subtle but significant updates to Groups. The createMultiple method has had a nice overhaul, now able to take Arrays of image keys and frames. Group.align allows you to align the children of a Group in a grid formation, with the dimensions and spacing of the grid under your control. Continuing from that theme: all Game Objects (such as Sprites and Text) now have a two new methods. alignIn allows you to easily align Game Objects within another Game Object or Rectangle. This is a great way to easily align a Sprite into the corner of the world, or another Sprite. To go with this is alignTo. It works in a similar way, but lets you align Game Objects next to each other. It's small changes like this that reduce the overall code of your game, and let you focus on just building it quicker. Of course there are lots of other enhancements in this release, so be sure to check the Change Log to see what else is in store. Read MorePresident-elect Trump has made it clear that he disapproves of how the U.S. defense department has overpaid for weapons. These sentiments mimic those of military reformers, who have complained that the Pentagon’s procurement of weapons involves too many delays and outrageous costs. “To say the least, we are a bit stunned, albeit pleasantly so,” said Thomas P. Christie, a former top weapons tester at the Pentagon who advocates for more cost-effective big weapons systems Trump plans to put the $619 billion defense budget this year to much better use. On December 21, he met with the senior officers who will be managing the budget Before the meeting, Trump spoke out about his disapproval of a few of the ongoing disasters by the current weapon procurement team at the defense department. “Mr. Trump tweeted a cancellation warning to Boeing Co. about the long-term costs of two new Air Force One planes. Then he took on the costliest weapon system in U.S. history: the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II. The procurement history of the joint strike fighter jet is so pocked with trouble that Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain, Arizona Republican, has called it a “scandal and tragedy,” writes The Washington Post. “The F-35 program and cost is out of control,” tweeted Trump on Dec. 12. “Billions of dollars can and will be saved on military (and other) purchases after January 20th. Then, Trump met with Boeing’s CEO about the F-18 Super Hornet as an alternative to the F-35. But, Trump also said that the Boeing’s Air Force One crafts’s cost were out of control. Trump has also implied that his Defense Secretary-nominee James N. Mattis will be making this a top priority of his. Both, Lockheed Martin Corp. and Boeing are at the top of the list of weapons contractors receiving the most funding from the Defense Department, according to Defense News. Heading up the military reform movement is the Project On Government Oversight in Washington, an organization that exposes malpractice in the defense industry and offers less costly options. “It’s refreshing to hear someone taking on the military-industrial-congressional complex this way, because this is something we haven’t seen for many, many, many years,” said Dan Grazier, who is encouraged by Trump’s responses. “The fact that he’s able to at least get Boeing and Lockheed working to reduce cost, it’s a good shot across the bow. But there’s a big difference between words and action. He’s talking a really good game now. Now let’s see if he can actually translate it into action.” But, the root of the problem is poor planning. “Planners for the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps were wildly off base when predicting its price and schedule. The $379 billion total acquisition cost is double their initial estimates. The military was supposed to be flying more than 1,000 F-35s by now but has received fewer than 200,” writes The Washington Post. “In April, GAO examiners concluded that the F-35 may not be affordable because budget restraints limit yearly production, driving up per-plane costs. Soon, the Pentagon will need to spend more than $12 billion a year on procurement until 2038 to purchase 2,457 planes,” writes The Washington Post. So will Trump be able to reform this industry? Trump is being strategic about what he decides to focus on first and this is one of the areas he plans to pay attention to. It’s about time because this has been overlooked for much too long by past presidents. Editor’s note: Mr. Trump seems to be setting up his battles well. It may be that he has more power now than after he takes office, at least as far as setting the national agenda. Of course not all of this is the fault of the contractors. Milltary threats are tough to forecast and the long development times means weapons systems become obsolete within the development cycle. Better management is needed. perhaps Trump is tha man to bring it to the table.Though more than a month has passed since ice coverage on the Great Lakes reached a near-record high, the amount of ice that still remains could have a big impact on the environment in the months -- and years -- ahead. As of Wednesday, 37.1 percent of the lakes remain covered in ice. While that's way down from a high of 92.2 percent in early March, pictured above -- and the second-highest ice cover since recording began in 1973 -- it's still an unprecedented amount of ice to have at this time of year, as an Environment Canada bar graph illustrates: @nynjpaweather @BigJoeBastardi Environment Canada shows Great Lakes ice cover in completely unprecedented territory. pic.twitter.com/DfA0S478U0 — Steve Goddard (@SteveSGoddard) April 17, 2014 The historic ice coverage is causing some problems. U.S. Coast Guard cutters were needed to create a route to Marquette, Mich., along the shores of the 64-percent-frozen Lake Superior, so that coal could be delivered from Duluth, Minn., allowing the local mining industry to continue operations, CBS Chicago reports. In Marquette Harbor, the ice is reportedly up to 2 feet thick, according to CBS. A formation of ice on Lake Superior in late March, as documented from a Coast Guard cutter. More Lake Superior ice seen from a Coast Guard breaker, followed by two cutters, in late March. Meanwhile, in Menominee, Mich., some truly epic "ice shoves" -- free-floating ice being pushed onto land by high winds -- are another dramatic result of the ice coverage. Giant ice slabs are pushed ashore near Great Lakes due to high winds: http://t.co/N6FZk2bQ8u #weather pic.twitter.com/nMTV9umfW3 — Weather Underground (@wunderground) April 16, 2014 On the plus side, the ice coverage did make for increased tourism to the Apostle Islands sea caves in northern Wisconsin, so it hasn't been a total business killer.Fallout: New Vegas 1.3 This update contains optimizations and stability improvements, as well as the following balance changes: Guns Changes: • Automatic Guns - SMGs, the Assault Carbine, and the LMG are more accurate across the board. They're also more durable. 12.7mm SMG mag capacity increased to
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What's more, it's far easier to put together than a cheesecake and the ingredients are all good for you. No, really! Yes, there's sugar and fat, but they come from all natural sources: dates, nuts and coconut oil. The subtle scent of lavender and the tart flavor of lemon bring this delightful cake to a new level of elegance. It's a beautiful dish to provide for an upscale gathering — or just make a cake for yourself to enjoy all week long! This recipe is inspired by One Green Planet with just a few of my own adjustments. You can make your own adjustments as well. While I think the mix of almonds and hazelnuts for the crust add a light and sweet flavor, you may want to try pecans or walnuts or something else entirely. Feel free to get creative with this dish, or keep it simple. Either way, it's a winner.20 SHARES Facebook Twitter If you’ve seen the brand new fireworks show at Hollywood Studios, Star Wars: A Galactic Spectacular, you noticed one big departure from other fireworks shows at the park. There is a new fireworks launch site that is across World Drive and its location leads to off-center fireworks in relation to Hollywood Blvd and the Chinese Theater. Let’s take a look at why that is. First off, where exactly is the launch site? We first took a look at the new launch site back in February where aerial imaging, combined with permits, gave us this first look at how off-center the fireworks really would be. Note that a straight line down Hollywood Blvd is drawn in red. So why there? Why so off-center, leading to really terrible views of the fireworks if you’re standing along Hollywood Blvd? For reference, here’s what the new show looks like from just past the entrance hub (near the start of the red line on the right). https://twitter.com/WDWShutterbug/status/743987643348881408 The answer is that Disney had no other choice. The old fireworks launch point sits right in the middle of what will soon become Toy Story Land. As construction and clearing is already taking place, Disney had to find a new location. They chose the above location across World Drive. Ok, so new construction forced their hand, no problem, but why didn’t they just center them across World Drive? Once again, their hands seemed to have been forced. As part of the wetlands permits that we first laid eyes on in late October 2015, they have to build a new retention pond to relocate the water that they’ll offset due to raising of already low-lying areas (depicted in yellow below). Here’s a look at that pond on the left side of this page of the permit. Comparing the above permit with the pictures of the new launch site further up in the post, we can see that they couldn’t have built the launch site any further south than they already did due to this yet-to-be-built lake. Now, we don’t know enough about the location or sightlines from Star Wars Land or Toy Story Land to know if there might be some great views, but for the time being it looks like you’re going to have to devote an hour or two of standing in the hub at Hollywood Studios to ensure that you have the best view of the brand new show.I expected this to happen, California Won’t Accept Its Own IOUs: Small businesses that received $682 million in IOUs from the state say California expects them to pay taxes on the worthless scraps of paper, but refuses to accept its own IOUs to pay debts or taxes. The vendors’ federal class action claims the state is trying to balance its budget on their backs. Lead plaintiff Nancy Baird filled her contract with California to provide embroidered polo shirts to a youth camp run by the National Guard, but never was paid the $27,000 she was owed. She says California “paid” her with an IOU that two banks refused to accept – yet she had to pay California sales tax on the so-called “sale” of the uniforms. The class consists mostly of small business owners, many of whom rely on income from government contracts to keep afloat. They say California has used them as “suckers” as it looks for a way to bankroll its operations while avoiding its own financial obligations. “Instead of seeking funds through proper channels, the State has created a nightmare,” the class says. “Many of these businesses will not survive if they are required to wait until October 2009 to have these forced IOUs redeemed by the State.” The class claims the state is violating the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments. It demands that California be ordered to honor its own IOUs, plus interest. They are represented by William Audet.The scientific poll was created by the filmmaking team behind 'The Young Messiah,' based on an Anne Rice novel. Jesus was apparently a socialist who would support Bernie Sanders for president. At least those are the implications of a poll taken by those who are marketing the June 14 DVD release of The Young Messiah, based on an Anne Rice novel about Jesus as a child. The scientific poll from Barna Group asked Americans whether capitalism or socialism align better with the teachings of Jesus, and socialism won 24 percent compared to 14 percent, with the rest answering “neither” or “not sure.” When asked which presidential candidate’s policies aligned closest to the teachings of Jesus, Sanders was on top with 21 percent, compared to 9 percent for Hillary Clinton and 6 percent for Donald Trump. Eleven percent answered Ted Cruz, an evangelical Christian who has dropped out of the race, while 22 percent weren’t sure and 37 percent said none of the candidates. When broken down by various demographics, millennials were the group that most often compared socialism and Sanders to Jesus Christ, and college graduates, non-Christians and those who were never married weren’t far behind. "Our film is not about politics nor was Jesus. But he is a fascinating and compelling historical character and people are always looking at him through the lens of their own experience and beliefs," said Cyrus Nowrasteh, the film’s director. The Young Messiah, based on Rice’s book Christ The Lord: Out of Egypt, stars Sean Bean, Rory Keenan and Jonathan Bailey and was distributed domestically by Focus Features. Watch the trailer below and read The Hollywood Reporter's review here.The landlord/tenant relationship can create a wide variety of conflicts, and states have responded by passing laws to govern those disputes. States vary widely on how they choose to resolve landlord tenant issues. Some are more friendly to the tenant, while others are more friendly to the landlord. Before you rent your next apartment, check out these eight states where rental laws favor landlords. Texas Texas has a reputation for being very pro-landlord and not as kind to its tenants. Texas landlords can evict a tenant for not paying rent, and they wield other powerful advantages over the tenant that they can take advantage of with little or no notice. Before renting in Texas, be sure to know your rights so you can protect yourself. Indiana Indiana's rental laws definitely favor landlords rather than tenants. For example, before 2002 it was completely legal for landlords to withhold tenants' security deposits past the standard 45 days. Now, landlords can only be sued for the deposit amount and certain legal fees if they exceed the 45-day due date. Colorado Colorado is known for being very pro-landlord. The rental laws here are strict and have little tolerance for delinquent tenants. In addition, a landlord can enter the property at any time without providing notice to the tenant. Colorado tenants, beware of your landlord making a surprise visit! Arizona Arizona has strict laws regarding noncompliance with rental agreement and nonpayment of rent. For example, if a tenant provides false information on the rental application, Arizona landlords have the right to deliver a written notice to the tenant and terminate the rental agreement within 10 days. Florida One primary reason Florida seems to favor landlords is the lack of rent control laws in Florida. Florida also does not require a written lease, which can sometimes create problems when disputes arise. While recent legislation has been proposed to help better protect tenants, tenants should still be careful before renting in Florida. Kentucky Kentucky handles security deposits a little differently than other states. According to Kentucky rental laws, landlords are allowed to withhold security deposits anywhere from 30 to 60 days, depending on tenant disputes regarding deductions. Other than the states that have no statutory deadline, Kentucky has the longest waiting period for tenants to get their security deposits back. Georgia Georgia courts are the primary reason why the landlord is favored. Regardless of the reason, tenants who do not pay rent typically lose their eviction cases in Georgia courts. That means, if you feel that your rights have been violated in Georgia, chances are you will lose if you take the matter to court. Let's hope Georgian tenants can find a way to reverse this troubling trend.There are few traditions in New York like the Thanksgiving Day Parade. Since 1924, it has delighted spectators and today it draws 3.5 million people from around the world. But did you know there is another New York tradition involved in the parade? Lobbying! New York State has only released lobbying data back to 2009, so we don’t know how long it has truly been part of the tradition, but data from this time period shows $48,000 spent on lobbying about the parade by one group. Who is doing the lobbying? Well it seems that George Lence from Nicholas & Lence Communications has been the lobbyist and firm behind this since records started. Each year, the lobbying involves the “location and route” of the parade. Which brings me to the next question. Why are people lobbying over the parade route? Could it be safety concerns? Traffic? Doubtful. The client is always the Times Square Advertising Coalition, an organization that has a lot to gain given all the cameras on the parade route and all the billboards seen by those cameras. And who exactly are they lobbying? The lobbying is directed at government offices including the Department of Transportation, the City Council and the Manhattan Borough President. Lastly, where does Macy’s sit in all of this? Records show they seem to have more important things to lobby about. Since 2009, they have spent $65,193 on lobbying over zoning changes at their flagship store with the firm Akerman. Well, is this all a lot of money? Here is a fun fact which puts these amounts into perspective. Columbia University, the local university that has spent the most on lobbying, paid $5.2 million over that same period. So is the lobbying as big as those floats? No. But if you see the parade take a funny turn one day, you might just notice an extra billboard or two. —- Data can be found here on NY State Open Data PortalAnother federal judge has now ruled that the provision of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) that precludes recognition of same-sex marriage for any federal-law purpose is unconstitutional. This provision of DOMA has taken several bullets in the last year, but the ruling in Pedersen v. OPM is even more damaging, as it carefully refutes every conceivable argument made in defense of the law, and identifies multiple theories on which it could be invalidated. The Beginning of DOMA Congress enacted DOMA in 1996, with little deliberation, in anticipation that Hawaii, and perhaps other states, would soon legalize same-sex marriage. DOMA passed both houses of Congress by a wide margin—342-to-67 in the House, and 85-to-14 in the Senate. President Bill Clinton signed it into law. DOMA does two things. Section Two of the Act purports to give states the right to refuse recognition to same-sex marriages that have been celebrated in other states. And, Section Three, which is the subject of Pedersen and several other recent rulings, provides that, for any federal-law purpose, the word “marriage” means only a legal union between one man and one woman, and a “spouse” refers only to someone of the opposite sex. DOMA was thus an effort to “defend” traditional marriage against the potential legalization of gay marriage in Hawaii, and in any other state that might see fit to legalize it. The defense was two-fold: (1) DOMA allowed states to avoid compelled recognition of same-sex marriages celebrated in other states (as set forth in Section Two); and (2) DOMA allowed the federal government to ignore same-sex marriages celebrated in any American state, or anywhere abroad (as set forth in Section Three). The Havoc DOMA Wrought Hawaii, the catalyst for DOMA, never did legalize same-sex marriage. But Massachusetts did, in 2004, and it was then followed by several other states over the subsequent eight years leading up to the present. And, once some states and foreign jurisdictions began to authorize same-sex marriage, the federal-law provision of DOMA began to do its dirty work. Section Three means that the members of a same-sex couple, despite being legally married in the state or country where they were wed, are not deemed married for purposes of Social Security, federal estate and income taxation, immigration, Medicaid, veteran’s benefits, and so on. Section Three thus puts these couples in an unusual conundrum where their family status differs in a crucial way depending on the context. It is unusual because Congress typically defers to state-law definitions of family status when crafting and enforcing federal laws, rather than adopting its own. DOMA has an incredibly broad sweep because of the many federal laws that turn on marital status. In Pedersen v. OPM, for example, the plaintiffs were same-sex couples who had legally married in Connecticut, New Hampshire, or Vermont and were denied benefits under five different federal statutes and regulatory schemes. The benefits of which DOMA deprived them related to family leave, health insurance, Social Security benefits, retirement, and death. And those five benefit schemes, the Pedersen court noted, represent “merely a brief sampling of the myriad federal laws and regulations impacted by DOMA.” The Beginning of the End of DOMA As more couples began to encounter problems created by Section Three of DOMA, many lawsuits were filed. Several of these lawsuits have resulted in a federal-court ruling that DOMA’s Section Three is unconstitutional, and several more such suits are pending. In addition to the flurry of litigation over this provision, Section Three—and DOMA as a whole—have also been attacked from the legislative and executive branches of the federal government as well. A bill to repeal DOMA, the Respect for Marriage Act, is pending in the U.S. Senate. (I have discussed this proposed legislation here and here.) Moreover, the Obama Administration declared in the “Holder Memo,” in February 2011, that it will no longer defend Section Three challenges in court, at least in jurisdictions where there is no binding precedent regarding the appropriate level of scrutiny for sexual-orientation classifications. (In most pending DOMA challenges, including Pedersen, the law is now defended by the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group of the United States House of Representatives (BLAG), which is comprised of certain members of Congress who support DOMA.) The federal government has also weakened DOMA by allowing exceptions to the law to be made in specific administrative situations, or in individual cases. In just the past six months, four federal courts have ruled that Section Three of DOMA is unconstitutional. In Golinski v. OPM, the plaintiff sued because her employer, the federal government, refused to add her new wife to the health insurance plan, which generally covered spouses. This litigation was notable because not only did the Department of Justice refuse to defend DOMA, just as it had promised in the Holder Memo, but it also filed a brief arguing affirmatively that Section Three is unconstitutional because it discriminates against gays and lesbians. A federal district court in California agreed, ruling in March 2012 that sexual orientation classifications merit heightened scrutiny under the equal protection component of the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause. (Because DOMA is a federal, rather than a state, law, the Fifth, rather than the Fourteenth, Amendment is the applicable constitutional provision for both equal protection and due process challenges.) The California-based federal district court found the traditional test for heightened scrutiny to have been easily met, and then went on to conclude that the government’s justifications for the law were insufficient under heightened scrutiny. The court also concluded that heightened scrutiny wasn’t necessary—Section Three, it reasoned, would fail even the lowest level of judicial scrutiny, rational basis review. (I discuss this ruling in detail here.) Just a few months later, two more federal courts ruled similarly in Section Three cases. In Windsor v. U.S., a federal district court in New York invalidated the application of DOMA to an estate tax return. (Spousal transfers are tax-free; most other transfers are not.) The judge declined to adopt heightened scrutiny for sexual orientation classifications, but applied a toothier version of rational basis review when examining the government’s proffered justifications. Noting the utter lack of connection between any legitimate federal interest and a law that singles out same-sex couples for adverse treatment, the judge invalidated the law and ordered a $350,000 refund of estate taxes. In Commonwealth v. U.S. Dep’t of Health and Human Services, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit also held that Section Three runs afoul of equal protection principles. (I discuss the rulings in Windsor and Commonwealth in detail here.) This case involved the consolidated appeal of two cases in which a lower federal court had invalidated Section Three of DOMA. In the appellate ruling, the court did not, despite the plaintiff’s urging, apply heightened scrutiny given that the U.S. Supreme Court has not yet taken that step (despite having had opportunities to do so.) As in Windsor, the court in Commonwealth applied a strict form of rational basis review, in which it required that “the federal government interest in intervention be shown with special clarity,” and that the justifications offset the burdens imposed. Under this somewhat unconventional test, the appellate court ruled that Section Three was unconstitutional. The Endgame: How Pedersen v. OPM Advances the Ball Last week, on July 31, 2012, a federal district court in Connecticut joined the growing chorus trumpeting DOMA’s unconstitutionality. Notably, the judge, Vanessa Bryant, is a George W. Bush appointee. Pedersen advances the endgame not only by ruling, as several courts now have, that Section Three violates equal protection doctrine, but also by suggesting that it might violate due process protection for the fundamental right to marry as well. In its discussion of the appropriate level of judicial scrutiny that ought to be applied to DOMA, the Pedersen court gives BLAG a thrashing. It rejects and finds unpersuasive virtually every aspect of every argument made in defense of DOMA. It chastises BLAG for relying on out-of-date authority, for taking historical conclusions out of context, and for ignoring or underplaying the very significant history of discrimination suffered by gays and lesbians in this country. It ultimately concludes that “homosexuals display all the traditional indicia of suspectness and therefore statutory classifications based on sexual orientation are entitled to a heightened form of judicial scrutiny.” Despite this conclusion, however, the court, like the court in Golinski, also held that Section Three could not survive even the most lenient form of scrutiny. Even rational basis review, the court explained, is not “indiscriminately deferential” and still requires a showing of some reasonable connection “between the classification adopted and the objective to be attained.” Careful to refrain from scrutinizing ‘the wisdom, fairness, or logic of legislative choices,” the court simply found it to be irrational for Congress to believe that denying federal recognition to already-legalized same-sex marriages would do anything to promote any of its proffered justifications—to “employ caution in the face of a proposed redefinition of the centuries-old definition of marriage;” “to protect the public fisc;” “to maintain consistency and uniformity with regard to eligibility for federal benefits;” “to avoid creating a social understanding of bearing, begetting, and rearing children separate from marriage;” and “to recognize an institution designed to ensure that children have parents of both sexes.” How does Section Three serve any of these objectives? The court concluded that it doesn’t, and thus further concluded that the law fails to pass constitutional muster even under the most deferential form of review. In the midst of its equal protection analysis, the Pedersen court notes in a footnote that it does not reach the question whether Section Three violates due process protection for the right to marry, because the court invalidates the provision on other grounds. However, it notes, “the Supreme Court has recognized the existence of a fundamental right to marry” and the analysis of it “has not depended upon the characteristics of the spouse.” Most damning to Section Three, the court further observes that the Supreme Court’s recognition in [Lawrence v. Texas] that the ‘right of homosexual adults to engage in intimate, consensual conduct’ is also an essential part of the liberty protected by the Constitution like the right to marry suggests that the liberty interest in marriage should not be restricted by sexual orientation. Although not the subject of this Court’s opinion nor the Parties’ briefing, this Court notes that this line of reasoning could serve as an alternative basis for the application of heightened scrutiny to classifications based on sexual orientation. None of the DOMA rulings so far rest on this basis, but it may well be the most appealing argument that is raised when/if the issue reaches the U.S. Supreme Court. The Court has avoided holding that sexual- orientation classifications merit heightened scrutiny, even in cases in which it ultimately struck down such classifications as unconstitutional. But it has reached out more broadly, under the Due Process Clause, to find protection for same-sex relationships, most notably in Lawrence v. Texas. The End of DOMA? There is, of course, no crystal ball we can consult to divine DOMA’s fate, but it’s hard to predict any future other than one in which DOMA will disappear—sooner, rather than later. Perhaps Congress will repeal DOMA through the Respect for Marriage Act. Perhaps the Executive Branch will stop enforcing it altogether. Perhaps the Supreme Court will ratify the growing consensus among lower federal courts that Section Three simply cannot survive constitutional scrutiny under equal protection principles, due process principles, or both. In the meantime, however, the tens of thousands of same-sex married couples are still being harmed by the inconsistent legal treatment of their unions, an insult and inconvenience that they should not have to endure as part of legally authorized family units.by Michael DeLaney and Mark Mitchell This article contains SPOILERS. If you haven’t read the issue yet, proceed at your own risk! Michael: As Drew and I suggested in our discussion of this series’ first issue, Batman/The Shadow is absolutely a Batman-centric book featuring The Shadow and not the reverse. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it just proves how strong Batman’s hold is on the heart and mind of Scott Snyder. The finale — Batman/The Shadow 6 — underlines that statement as the fantastical elements of The Shadow’s world only strengthen Batman’s very human legend. It’s the grand finale, which means that our heroes must battle against near-impossible odds to save the day. The Stag and The Joker are trying to destroy the sanctum-sanctorum that is Shamba-La, while Batman receives yet another offer to take The Shadow’s place as supernatural crimefighter. Batman is inside the heart of Shamba-La discussing this proposal with its unnamed entities, which will henceforth be referred to as “The Celestials.” Maybe it’s their dark red eyes, their green hues or their cosmic influence, but the Celestials really remind me of Swamp Thing’s Parliament of Trees. It’s as if artist Riley Rossmo got a specific note that said “Swamp Thing squids.” The Celestials tell Batman that since he honed and perfected the skills that The Shadow taught him, he would be an even more successful version of The Shadow. I find this part to be a little contradictory, however. Throughout Batman/The Shadow, the two titular heroes have the classic — albeit predictable — debate over Batman’s no killing rule. Given the promise that they give Batman, does this mean that the Celestials believe that Batman will be a better Shadow because of his no killing? Or are they just shining him on, making him empty promises? Rossmo’s glimpse of the future shows Batman in The Shadow’s flowing red cape firing off pistols, implying that Batman would have to give up the very discipline that the Celestials were praising him for. That’s not what stops Batman from accepting their offer, however. What comes next is probably my favorite moment in this entire miniseries: Batman is given the chance to continue his one-man war on crime for the rest of eternity as the immortal Shadow. The Celestials are trying to tap into Batman’s vanity, his single-minded determination that he is the only one who can punch crime in the face. And yet he refuses. Batman will always be Bruce Wayne for the rest of our eternity, but in the 2-D world, we’ve become familiar with the idea of Batman living on through his legacy. Batman knows that he will eventually fall and one of his disciples will take his place. But more importantly: A lot of the time the greatest Batman moments are the ones that are so damn obvious yet simultaneously revelatory. You could argue that part of Batman’s constant struggle is to beat back death one day at a time, but at the same time he respects death. Death is what bore the Batman, as the Waynes bled out in Crime Alley in time immemorial. Batman may run in the same crowd as aliens, gods, and Plastic Men, but ultimately, one of Batman’s most defining character traits is that he’s only human. He will die. At least for a while. Later on, The Shadow laments how Batman could’ve freed him from his eternal prison
videos and photos as evidence) a whopping 70% of all the male lead singers in Copenhagen will be sporting a beard and/or moustache. 3)...And so do 4% of the female leads. Austria’s Conchita Wurst is a bearded lady and will surely (short of a major lifestyle change) be rocking her trademark look in Copenhagen. 4) Hipsters are sooo 2010 Never one to jump on the bandwagon when it first passes through town, Eurovision is regularly a reflection of all the latest trends – assuming, of course, that all those trends have already been proven popular by years of cultivated fan bases across the continent. Just like this year features a noticeable amount of dubstep (or dubstep-esque) music, 2014 marks the year the hipster generation has finally made it to Eurovision. Because retro is sooo (un)cool. 5) Copenhagen and Beards are a perfect match Apparently the Danes love their facial hair. Maybe it’s their proud Viking heritage. Maybe it’s that the average max temperature in May of just 15 degrees requires a little facial fauna to keep out the cold. We don’t really know. Regardless, in Copenhagen the beards are (apparently) everywhere and if host Pilou Asbæk is anything to go by, then beards and Danes seem to be a perfect match. And that, ladies and gentleman, is why you should be using Facial Hair as a way to pick your winner for Eurovision 2014. Feel free to add your own opinions on why a moustache might be the key to success in the comments.Syria challenges West to offer proof of chemical weapons use DAMASCUS, Aug. 27 -- Syria's Foreign Minister Walid al- Moallem challenged the Western powers Tuesday to provide their evidence on the involvement of the Syrian troops in chemical weapons use. Al-Moallem said at a press conference held Damascus that his government has interest in revealing the reality of the chemical attack that supposedly took place in Damascus' countryside, stressing that the Syrian government has lived up to its part of the deal with the UN but the rebels hindered the mission of the UN inspectors. Regarding a possible U.S. military attack on Syria, the Syrian top diplomat said that any possible military strike will not affect the government troops' advancement against the rebels. "Syria will defend itself with all available means if the U.S. decided to attack the country," he stressed. （Editor：DuMingming、Liang Jun）Well, not a duel exactly, but a one-on-one debate. I think it would be good for Bernie Sanders, it would be good for the Democratic Party, and it would be good for the political health of the American democracy. Here's why. 1. Bernie Sanders is now seen as at the far end of the political spectrum. He's climbing in the polls by inspiring the progressives in the Democratic Party (who are less than enthralled with the centrist history of Hillary Clinton). The fact that he has described himself as a "democratic socialist" -- using a word that's been used in this country for a century as a term of political abuse -- compounds Sander's vulnerability to being dismissed as the candidate of "the left." A debate with Trump would offer Sanders an opportunity to show that his populist message can appeal to independents and people generally seen as on the right. 2. Trump and Sanders have widely been tied together in the media, represented as the two insurgent campaigns disrupting the expectations of the two parties. This media narrative signals that the media would be predisposed to take an interest in the idea of such a contest between the "insurgents." 3. More important than what Sanders and Trump have in common is the profound difference between them. Demonstrating this difference publicly could be of vital importance, and a Sanders-Trump faceoff could accomplish this. Both men are appealing to the dissatisfied. But while Trump's diagnosis and treatment are bogus, Sanders' speaks directly to what truly ails the United States. Trump is a demagogue using peripheral issues and phony arguments -- e.g. about immigration -- to distract people from what is really disempowering them and to their anger and frustration against scapegoats. Sanders, meanwhile, is calling attention to the real problems facing America's middle class and its citizenry in general-- the stacked deck that's leading to growing economic inequality and to the theft of our democracy by Big Money. It would serve the Democratic Party well -- regardless of who the Democratic nominee turns out to be -- to have this vital difference exposed to the American people. 4. Bernie Sanders is the Democrat best able to expose the way Trump -- and the GOP generally -- are betraying their followers. Bernie has two relevant strengths here. First, he is clearly authentic, which provides an important contrast to the Donald. Sanders ability to take on this task is not diminished by having the public free associate with his name the word "liar" (as it does, whether rightly or wrongly, with his main Democratic rival). The fact that throughout his career he has been outspoken and articulate on the issues of economic justice, and of people power versus Big Money power surely adds to his credibility. And second, his considerable strength in argument and his temperament seem likely to make him especially effective in cutting through the blather and nonsense in which Trump specializes. It might be objected that Trump -- now dominating the Republican field -- would have no incentive to share a stage with Sanders. But Trump might be the prisoner here of the chronically belligerent posture he has cultivated. It would not be easy for Trump to walk away from a fight. Not the man who has gotten such mileage from showing himself prepared to take a swipe at anyone -- belittling John McCain's war record, going after Fox News and one of its signature reporters, throwing put-downs at Jeb Bush, Rick Perry, and Lindsey Graham. And if merely challenge Trump doesn't flush the Donald out, Bernie could turn to goading him. He could provide the equivalent of a dueler's slap with a glove by characterizing that vital difference between them -- the difference between the phony and the real, the distraction and the real issues. He can talk about the phoniness of Trump's political solutions, and castigate Trump for how he misleads and betrays the rightfully angry citizens who support him. Even if that doesn't succeed in getting Trump to join Sanders on a debate stage, it could get an equivalent of a debate going on in the media. (Can one imagine Trump not responding at all to such jabs?)Göppingen (ots) - Building open area solar parks is mostly manual work. Identical processes are repeated hundreds of thousands of times, so PV-Kraftwerker have been looking into automation options for some time. At the Intersolar exhibition, the company will present "Momo". The mobile assembly robot "Momo" can tackle the whole building process. It is particularly suitable for large area assemblies, where installers face difficult terrain and have to cover large distances. The robot moves to the designated site, supplied with all the necessary photovoltaic modules, assembles the PV unit and moves on to the next one. Listing the benefits, Eberhard Schulz reckons that "with Momo, hardly any modules suffer breakages, programming eliminates assembly errors and fitters no longer suffer from assembly related injuries". The Managing Director of the PV-Kraftwerker GmbH & Co. KG believes that this should equate to an 80 percent improvement in efficiency. Maintenance and cleaning work, as well as system removal, could also be carried out in similar fashion. The gripper system, equipped with sensors, enables the fully automated assembly of modules on support racks in any terrain. A 3-D camera, mounted on the gripper or a support tool, captures the complete assembly process of the modules and adjusts any deviation from the defined standard with millimetre accuracy. These deviations may originate from inaccurately drilled holes in the framework or slightly offset support racks in open terrain, for example on difficult ground. Highlighting the level of skill and product knowledge incorporated in his development, Schultz maintains "Momo can cope with tricky terrain and gradients with great accuracy". Special interface software converts the data captured by the sensors into coordinates which Momo interprets. Gripper and camera are coordinated with each other, so that they quickly and reliably capture the position on the support rack, enabling accurate assembly of each module. Subject to the size of a PV power generator, this process may be repeated 100,000-times. In the course of the work, the assembly robot can cover up to 70 kilometres per assembly. When removing a PV power generator, the assembly system operates in reverse order. This enables modules to be reused, as they will be protected from damage. Another version of the gripper system can also continuously maintain the modules. The robot, including its digital technology, operates either by battery or generator power. Momo can position modules of more than six square metres and 140 kg in weight. A standard interface is available to change the gripper quickly, making Momo a flexible option for all sorts of applications. In addition, this unique solution from PV-Kraftwerker enables assembly around the clock, regardless of weather conditions. Originaltext: PV-Kraftwerker GmbH & Co. KG digital press kits: http://www.presseportal.de/pm/105620 press kits via RSS: http://www.presseportal.de/rss/pm_105620.rss2 Contact: PV-Kraftwerker GmbH & Co. KG Markus Gattenlöhner Phone +49 (0)71 61/61 99 8 - 26 Mobil +49 (0)17 61/61 99 8 - 26 [email protected] More informationen: www.pv-kraftwerker.comgatorkram Need for Speed Premium Member join:2002-07-22 Winterville, NC 1 edit gatorkram Premium Member My experience with the new 1gig internet plan. Anyway this will be the new home of everything I can say about the new 1gig service. Installation set for 8-10am Aug 3rd... Stay tuned... edit: typo/spelling mistake already.. Reminds me of my old topic about my quest for 200mbit speeds at home... » My plans for >200mbit speeds at home. Anyway this will be the new home of everything I can say about the new 1gig service.Installation set for 8-10am Aug 3rd... Stay tuned...edit: typo/spelling mistake already.. gatorkram 1 recommendation gatorkram Premium Member Little bit of an update, was just looking at my data usage, and noticed they already bumped me up to the new 550gig cap included with the 1g plan gatorkram 1 edit 1 recommendation gatorkram Premium Member Suddenlink is currently using a 32x4 configuration with the As a side note I'd like to point out anyone is free to post in this topic, discussing their own feelings or results etc with the package, but I would like to limit it to just covering the 1gig package. My thanks again to Chubbzie Thanks to Chubbzie we have some more information to add to the topic.Suddenlink is currently using a 32x4 configuration with the Hitron CDA3-35 modem. As Chuubbzie pointed out, this modem is capable of being used in a 32x8 configuration.As a side note I'd like to point out anyone is free to post in this topic, discussing their own feelings or results etc with the package, but I would like to limit it to just covering the 1gig package.My thanks again to Chubbzie for sharing some technical details a lot of us have been waiting to hear about. Al3sinth Trippin' Premium Member join:2003-07-08 Charleston, WV ·Suddenlink Al3sinth to gatorkram Premium Member to gatorkram said by gatorkram: Little bit of an update, was just looking at my data usage, and noticed they already bumped me up to the new 550gig cap included with the 1g plan 550GB on 1Gb O.o that's what I get on my 150Mb line... I'm assuming this is just where it's a trial run? gatorkram Need for Speed Premium Member join:2002-07-22 Winterville, NC gatorkram Premium Member The new 1gig plan is replacing the old 150 plan here, so I guess that is where the cap comes from. Still have some confusion on the price though, as I talked about in another topic, I need to go over some of my old bills and try and figure out what I was paying for the 150 plan, but it seems to me the new 1gig plan isn't a simple drop in replacement for the 150 plan, when it comes to price. I think it's $30 more, and I wouldn't call that a free upgrade like the other plans saw. My 100 plan went to 200 for free. gatorkram gatorkram Premium Member After much research and concerns with being able to achieve full speeds with my current router (srx 5308) I have decided to eliminate it in my setup and connect the modem directly to my pc. I installed my old usb2 nic I used in my old dual wan setup which is referred to in my first post in this topic to setup internet connection sharing. Its working fine, and at this point I don't expect the speed limitations of the usb2 port to come into play as my wireless setup can only link at 300mbit over 5ghz N. Speed tests on my tablet at this point are the same as with my other setup. At some point I might swap out the usb2 nic for a standard internal nic. The whole point here is to get the new speeds up and running with little to no new equipment. moldypickle Premium Member join:2009-01-04 Haughton, LA 1 recommendation moldypickle Premium Member Time for a dedicated routing box, sounds to me gatorkram Need for Speed Premium Member join:2002-07-22 Winterville, NC gatorkram Premium Member Might be true. Just trying to keep it simple for now. Chubbzie join:2014-02-11 Greenville, NC Hitron CDA3 (Software) OpenBSD + pf 1 recommendation Chubbzie to gatorkram Member to gatorkram gatorkram Seriously though, we need at least 2TB with the Gig service. My apologies for the delay in getting back to the SL forum. Unfortunately I was home only briefly last week due to a family crisis. Hope to get more testing performed moving forward.gatorkram, you're only a week a way from blowing through the cap in just a few hours, congrats.Seriously though, we need2TB with the Gig service. gatorkram Need for Speed Premium Member join:2002-07-22 Winterville, NC 1 recommendation gatorkram Premium Member What router, if any are you using with the new gig service? Have you run any tests on the speedtest server here? We all know how I feel about the caps. I am still surprised how bad the caps are, and how low the upload speeds are. Frankly it feels like a rush to market. I hope in time they get it reworked with better caps (or how about no cap) and higher upstream speeds and 8 channel bonding on the upstream. As it pertains to the upstream, they might end up leaving it 4 channels and reworking the whole thing when docsis 3.1 comes out. Chubbzie join:2014-02-11 Greenville, NC Hitron CDA3 (Software) OpenBSD + pf 1 recommendation Chubbzie Member Using a RT-AC66 with Merlin's firmware for a good while, extremely stable and high level of performance. Have used other 3rd party firmware previously on this router and while they included more features they lacked high throughput and stability. I think I've run a handful of speedtests here. Most only reach a little over 800. I'll try running more and posting the results. I agree with you about the rushing to market. More of a "Look we've got gigabit!" stance from SL. Like a stopgap measure until they can rollout D3.1. Whoever decided on the 550GB cap should really get their mental acuity tested. moldypickle Premium Member join:2009-01-04 Haughton, LA 1 recommendation moldypickle Premium Member Do you have a link for that firmware? If you're routing wan to lan at 800+, they've somehow got their hands on the proprietary driver for their nat chip. Would be awesome, needless to say. tvsjr Premium Member join:2004-10-09 Dallas, TX tvsjr Premium Member bfy.tw/11Ow moldypickle Premium Member join:2009-01-04 Haughton, LA 1 recommendation moldypickle Premium Member How supremely helpful. ).) Anyways, that's the asus made firmware (just tweaked a bit), so sadly won't get that performance from any other third party firmware. If you have one of those routers though, good to go! Chubbzie join:2014-02-11 Greenville, NC Hitron CDA3 (Software) OpenBSD + pf Chubbzie Member While Tomato & DD-WRT gave me a plethora of options the open source drivers performance were iffy at best. Merlin is fantastic about patching security issues and building performance optimizations directly in his firmware releases. He is highly active in the smallnetbuilder forums and communicates directly with users to help remedy any problems that might pop up. I've installed and integrated Entware into this router for some features that aren't available via AsusWRT. Have used the custom scripting feature quite a bit in the past. This router also supports dual WAN interfaces.While Tomato & DD-WRT gave me a plethora of options the open source drivers performance were iffy at best. gatorkram Need for Speed Premium Member join:2002-07-22 Winterville, NC gatorkram Premium Member Having a good fast router with this service is important for sure. Still trying to decide my next move in that department. StR join:2009-11-10 College Station, TX 1 recommendation StR to Chubbzie Member to Chubbzie said by Chubbzie: I think I've run a handful of speedtests here. Most only reach a little over 800. I'll try running more and posting the results. Watch out, you might exceed your cap just with the tests! StR join:2009-11-10 College Station, TX 1 recommendation StR Member said by Chubbzie: Sad but true, truth is a hard pill to swallow sometimes... ... and it doesn't come in a sweetened children's version. :)... and it doesn't come in a sweetened children's version. gatorkram Need for Speed Premium Member join:2002-07-22 Winterville, NC 2 recommendations gatorkram Premium Member But.... for just $10 you can add 50 more gigs of yummy yummy data transfer. I was just looking at my linode account, they charge 2 cents a gig for overages. That sounds more resonable.. moldypickle Premium Member join:2009-01-04 Haughton, LA 2 recommendations moldypickle Premium Member Hey, I'd have no problem with $10/50 gigs,,,, if they didn't charge me the full standard bill at the same time. lcornejo join:2014-03-20 367.3 39.2 Netgear CM600 Turris Omnia 2 recommendations lcornejo to gatorkram Member to gatorkram They should at least have the common decency and return the bytes that you payed for but don't use at the end of every month. If you are going to charge it like a precious non-renewable resource then give it back you thieves! At this rate it might be more economically to connect over LTE on T-mobile soon. gatorkram Need for Speed Premium Member join:2002-07-22 Winterville, NC 1 recommendation gatorkram Premium Member The big day comes tomorrow, so excited to enter the 1gig club... gatorkram 2 recommendations gatorkram Premium Member And my first speed test 32 x 4 Here is the speed test from this site. Here is the speed test from this site. Here is the channel configuration on the new 1gig plan. The quality isn't the best because the page is so long its hard to fit everything on. If anyone needs some info and can't read the image, I'll take more screen shots.And my first speed test gatorkram gatorkram Premium Member A quick image of what the speeds show inside your account tools on the download test. gatorkram gatorkram Premium Member This is a speed test using the tools on the suddenlink site. This is the DC server. gatorkram 1 edit gatorkram Premium Member If anyone has any questions or wants me to run a particular test or download something, just post it. edit: This result is using the new modem and new gigabit plan (cda3-35) Here is a run of the jitter test on this site.If anyone has any questions or wants me to run a particular test or download something, just post it.edit: This result is using the new modem and new gigabit plan (cda3-35) adamg join:2013-03-01 7501 adamg to gatorkram Member to gatorkram Now, show us all how you can hit your cap in an hour and 10 minutes. Chubbzie join:2014-02-11 Greenville, NC Hitron CDA3 (Software) OpenBSD + pf Chubbzie to gatorkram Member to gatorkram Did you ever purchase a new router or are you directly connected? Looking good gatorkram! We should team up and do all of our testing in tandem to see what kind of draw it puts on particular servers (like the Greenville speedtest server).Did you ever purchase a new router or are you directly connected?With her position firmly consolidated as the new Delhi Commission for Women chief, Swati Maliwal hauled up Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi on the issue of women's safety in the capital, on Saturday. Maliwal shot off two letters to Bassi taking note of increasing crime rates against women, and asking for the status of safety measures. The catalysts for her actions seem to be the recent horrific, public murder of a 19 year old girl in Delhi's Anand Parbat area, which went ripples of outrage and shock through the city, and the latest data by the National Crime Records Bureau that, according to Maliwal's letter shows five cases of rape and twelve cases of molestation of women in Delhi, everyday. Maliwal,a former RTI activist, has informed Bassi that Anand Parbat will be the pilot area in a study on crime against women, and to further this end she has sought details of such crimes from the locality's police station. These details include whether an FIR was registered for the complaint, what you current status of the case is and what the duration of the trial was and whether the accused was convicted. In her second letter, Maliwal has expanded the scope of her enquiry, asking for similar data from all police stations, along with police protection provided to complainants, from 2012 onwards. She has sought to.know the strength of the police force in Delhi, out of which, rank wise how many are women. She has asked for the police stations with the highest number of complaints of crimes against women, spots with the highest cases of such crimes and their proximity to schools and colleges. This extensive data is purportedly for a comprehensive study on the status of such crimes in Delhi, one of the tasks Maliwal had promised to undertake upon her appointment. It remains to be seen how cooperative the Delhi police is in this exercise, given the history of animosity between Bassi's force and any arm of the AAP led government, where both parties have sought to undermine and undo the other's work.Amendments to the I-T laws do not seek to tax inherited gold and jewellery as also those items that are purchased through disclosed or agriculture income, the government said today. The Lok Sabha earlier this week passed the Taxation Laws (Second Amendment) Bill, which proposes a steep up to 85 per cent tax and penalty on undisclosed wealth that is discovered by tax authorities during search and seizure. Dispelling rumours that jewellery would be covered under the amended law, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said the government has not introduced any new provision regarding chargeability of tax on jewellery. "The jewellery/gold purchased out of disclosed income or out of exempted income like agricultural income or out of reasonable household savings or legally inherited which has been acquired out of explained sources is neither chargeable to tax under the existing provisions nor under the proposed amended provisions," the CBDT said. NO SEIZURE OF GOLD FROM MARRIED WOMEN During search operations, conducted by I-T Department, there would be no seizure of gold jewellery and ornaments to the extent of 500 grams per married women, 250 gm per unmarried women as also 100 gm per male member of the family, it said. "Further, legitimate holding of jewellery up to any extent is fully protected," it added. The Bill, which is currently under consideration of the Rajya Sabha, will amend Section 115BBE of the Income Tax Act to provide for a steep 60 per cent tax and a 25 per cent surcharge on it (total 75 per cent) for black money holders. READ: What happens after 500, 1000 rupee notes scrapped: 10 things you must know Another section inserted provides for an additional 10 per cent penalty on being established that the undeclared wealth is unaccounted or black money, taking the total incidence of levies to 85 per cent. CBDT said: "Tax rate under section 115BBE is proposed to be increased only for unexplained income as there were reports that the tax evaders are trying to include their undisclosed income in the return of income as business income or income from other sources. "The provisions of section 115BBE apply mainly in those cases where assets or cash etc. are sought to be declared as 'unexplained cash or asset' or where it is hidden as unsubstantiated business income, and the Assessing Officer detects it as such." PENALTY The Bill also proposes to raise penalty under I-T Act for search and seizure cases by 3-fold to 30 per cent, a move aimed at deterring black money holders, from 10 or 20 per cent currently. Once the amendments are approved by Parliament, there would be a penalty of 30 per cent of unaccounted income, if admitted and taxes are paid. This would take the total incidence of tax and penalty to 60 per cent. While proposing to amend Section 271AAB, the government has decided to retain the provision of levying penalty of 60 per cent of income in "any other cases". That would raise the incidence of tax and penalty to 90 per cent. READ: Going to exchange your old notes? Keep these 10 points in mind During 2015-16, the I-T Department conducted 445 searches which discovered undisclosed income of Rs 11,066 crore. Total assets seized were Rs 712.68 crore. Also 545 searches conducted in 2014-15 have led to admission of undisclosed income worth Rs 10,288 crore. Total assets seized amounted to Rs 761.70 crore. Besides, 569 searches in 2013-14 saw admission of undisclosed income of Rs 10,791.63 crore and asset seizure of Rs 807.84 crore. This took the total undisclosed income which was admitted during searches to Rs 32,146 crore. Search and seizure operations are conducted by the tax department when the Assessing Officer believes that the assessee is unlikely to produce books of accounts or likely to suppress books of account and other documents which may be useful and relevant to an income tax proceedings. GOVERNMENT CLARIFICATION Government clarifies that the apprehension sought to be created that the jewellery with the household which is acquired-out of disclosed sources or exempted income shall become taxable under the proposed Taxation Laws (Second Amendment) Bill, 2016, is totally unfounded and baseless. In the wake of Taxation Laws (Second Amendment) Bill, 2016 which has been passed by the Lok Sabha and is under consideration with Rajya Sabha, some rumours have been making rounds that all gold jewellery including ancestral jewellery shall be taxed @75 per cent plus cess with a further penalty liability of 10 per cent of tax payable. It is hereby clarified that the above Bill has not introduced any new provision regarding chargeability of tax on jewellery. The Bill only seeks to enhance the applicable tax rate under section 115BBE of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (the Act) from existing 30 per cent to 60 per cent plus surcharge of 25 per cent and cess thereon. This section only provides rate of tax to be charged in case of unexplained investment in assets. The chargeability of these assets as income is governed by the provisions of section 69, 69A & 69B which are part of the Act since 1960s. The Bill does not seek to amend the provisions of these sections. Tax rate under section 115BBE is proposed to be increased only for unexplained income as there were reports that the tax evaders are trying to include their undisclosed income in the return of income as business income or income from other sources. The provisions of section 115BBE apply mainly in those cases where assets or cash etc. are sought to be declared as 'unexplained cash or asset' or where it is hidden as unsubstantiated business income, and the Assessing Officer detects it as such. It is clarified that the jewellery/gold purchased out of disclosed income or out of exempted income like agricultural income or out of reasonable household savings or legally inherited which has been acquired out of explained sources is neither chargeable to tax under the existing provisions nor under the proposed amended provisions. In this connection, a reference to instruction No.1916 is also invited which provides that during the search operations, no seizure of gold jewellery and ornaments to the extent of 500 grams per married lady, 250 grams per unmarried lady and 100 grams per male member of the family shall be made. Further, legitimate holding of jewellery upto any extent is fully protected. In view of the above, the apprehension sought to be created that the jewellery with the household which is acquired out of disclosed sources or exempted income shall become taxable under the proposed amendment is totally unfounded and baseless. With PTI inputsOttawa Rabies outbreak prompts vaccine air drop in eastern Ontario Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share by Email Aircraft will drop 30,000 vaccine baits on eastern Ontario in August The Ministry of Natural Resources will drop about 30,000 vaccine baits like these on the Kingston and Cornwall areas this summer to curb rabies. (Hannah Yoon/The Canadian Press) Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry planes will drop up to 30,000 rabies vaccine baits over the Kingston and Cornwall areas next month, in hopes that raccoons, foxes, and skunks eat them to prevent the spread of the disease. The goal is "eventually to eliminate rabies from the landscape" by building up enough immunized animals, according to MNR rabies operations supervisor Kevin Middel. ADVERTISEMENT A recent outbreak of rabies in raccoons in southern Ontario is believed to stem from an infected raccoon that came from New York state. (CBC) "We have a proactive baiting campaign that we do annually along our borders with the U.S.," said Middel. "There are a number of cases every year on the other side of the border, and we will distribute baits in close proximity to those, or as close as possible to those cases, and in areas where there's potential for crossing. So around the Kingston/Ivy Lea area, around Wolfe Island, and in the Cornwall/Akwesasne area." The bait drop is part of a wider rabies control program that's largely focused around the Golden Horseshoe area of southern Ontario, where aircraft will drop up to 1.4 million vaccines to control a recent outbreak there. There have been 331 reported cases of raccoon rabies in that region dating back to December 2015. Prior to that, the disease hadn't been seen in Ontario since 2005, according to Middel. Infected raccoon from the U.S. "We suspect that it was an animal that was moved from an infected region in the United States," he said. "Genetic analysis of the rabies virus ties it most closely to an area in eastern New York, and we believe that an infected animal was most likely brought into the Hamilton area." The vaccine baits are coated with a flavoured wax substance that's attractive to wildlife, and animals are vaccinated when they consume them. "I'm very happy that they have decided to do this again," said Leah Birmingham, assistant director of the Sandy Pines Wildlife Centre in Napanee, west of Kingston. The centre treats wild animals from Oshawa through the Highway 401 corridor all the way up to Ottawa, which Birmingham calls a "high-risk zone" because of its proximity to the border with New York state, where rabies is an ongoing problem. But staff there haven't seen an animal with rabies in 15 years, and Birmingham credits the air drop program. The rabies vaccine baits are coated with a flavoured wax substance that attracts wildlife. (Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry) Baits effective "I think the effectiveness is the fact that we didn't see rabies in Ontario for such a long time when they were putting these baits out," she said. Leah Birmingham is the assistant director of the Sandy Pines Wildlife Centre in Napanee. (Supplied) Still, the province is advising people stay away from animals behaving strangely in high-risk areas, and report them to a local health unit or animal rehab centre. Owners should also keep their pets' vaccinations up to date. Even though rabies was absent from Ontario for a long time, Birmingham believes people should always beware of the disease in animals for their own safety. "Let's face it, the reason why they're doing this isn't to protect raccoons from rabies — it's to protect humans, ultimately, because we can also be infected by rabies," she said. "And when you are infected, if left untreated, you die."South Independent Rugby Conference D1 Florida State University (1-3) at University of Tennessee (0-4) Florida State came out with the upset as they defeated Georgia Tech, last week. University of Tennessee has struggled this entire season. University of Tennessee hasn’t been competitive in any games, at home or away. They have scored twice the entire season and allowed 320 points. Though Florida State has not been significantly better this season, but they’ve shown some ability to score. Look for Florida State to take this game as both teams close the regular matrix season. Georgia Tech (2-2) at Life University (3-0) This will be the top match up for the SIRC this week. Life University has been the best team in the league in offense and defense. While Georgia Tech has been proficient this season, they have shown to be inconsistent, topped with an upset loss against Florida State. In this situation, Georgia Tech will be the underdog in the match up. Life University has shown themselves to be too consistent and too efficient. Look for Life University to take this game. Share this: Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Reddit WhatsApp Tumblr Print More PinterestA lost play once claimed to be by Shakespeare but subsequently poo-pooed as a forgery, is now “strongly” believed to be genuine according to new research. The play, which is appropriately titled Double Falsehood, was published in 1728 by Lewis Theobald, who claimed to have adapted the piece from three original Shakespeare manuscripts which were subsequently lost in a library fire. Set in Andalusia in Spain, the play has many of the hallmarks of the Bard’s work: sexual intrigue between a Duke and peasant girl; women disguised as men; intercepted letters and tragedy laced with comedy. Join Independent Minds For exclusive articles, events and an advertising-free read for just £5.99 €6.99 $9.99 a month Get the best of The Independent With an Independent Minds subscription for just £5.99 €6.99 $9.99 a month Get the best of The Independent Without the ads – for just £5.99 €6.99 $9.99 a month Following three centuries of dispute, researchers at the University of Texas claim to have been “surprised” to have identified Double Falsehood as Shakespeare’s work. By combining psychological theory and text analysing software on his known plays to build up a profile of Shakespearean characteristics and linguistic patterns, academics claim to have “strongly identified” him as the author of the contested play. Thirty three plays by Shakespeare, twelve by Theobald and nine by Shakespeare's collaborator John Fletcher, were examined in the study published in Psychological Science. Shape Created with Sketch. Shakespearean sayings you use without knowing it Show all 8 left Created with Sketch. right Created with Sketch. Shape Created with Sketch. Shakespearean sayings you use without knowing it 1/8 "Green-eyed monster" Meaning jealousy. This phrase was first used by Shakespeare to denote the powerful emotion in 1596's The Merchant of Venice when Portia refers to "green-eyed jealousy". More well known is Iago's usage in 1604's Othello: "It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock / The meat it feeds on." 2/8 "As good luck would have it" This phrase is regularly shortened to "as luck would have it". It originates from Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor in 1600. Falstaff utters the line. PA 3/8 "The be-all and end-all" Meaning "the whole thing" or "the last word". Shakespeare coined this well-used phrase in
ud-powder moment, Romantic Lead Face, and prolonged eye contact. Advertisement Good luck, Katrina. It's unclear if Andy perishes in the blast. I almost hope he has, if only because this show has a clear love of homage and a pretty high comfort threshold with the absurd, and I can just see Andy being resurrected every episode from last week's gruesome demise, to follow even more otherworldly orders as reluctantly as he possibly can. Advertisement But this week's best scene is yet to come, as Ichabod takes a break from reminding Abbie that their road can only be traveled together (and not with Luke, the prophecy demands especially not with Luke, George Washington said so), to go get them some coffee as "morning cheer," because snuff is hard to come by these days. Distracted by light, Abbie opens Sheriff Clancy Brown's office to find his ghost ready to chat. Abbie, being Abbie, starts with, "If you're going to haunt me, be helpful?" and ends up more unguarded than we've yet seen her, near tears as she admits how much she misses him. Advertisement I will be honest; right now, despite the minimal screen time, this is the most resonant relationship in the show. Nicole Beharie and Clancy Brown do a fantastic job of implying a lengthy relationship that's shaped them both. Fingers crossed it continues. Good news is, it probably will. How else will you get hints like, "Don't be afraid of Number 49; that's where you'll find you're not alone"? Say, what's behind door Number 49? Advertisement Jenny Mills IS Sarah Connor! (This show knows you know your tropes; when you have ten seconds to introduce somebody, homage the crap out of them and get to the rest next week.) The rest includes: Advertisement THIS JUMP-SCARE ASSHOLE. Next week, Jenny gets recruited to the cause, a creepy dude with no mouth hunts Abbie in the woods, and apparently everybody takes their shirts off. This show is the gift that keeps on giving.Paul Ryan’s new fiscal blueprint doesn’t balance the budget until sometime between 2030 and 2040, and racks up more than $14 trillion in new debt by then. By Ryan’s own reckoning, his plan adds $5.7 trillion to the debt in the next decade alone, while more than tripling interest payments, from $212 billion this year to nearly $700 billion in 2021. The only way such a profligate plan can be called “fiscally conservative” is by comparison to Barack Obama’s budget, which never comes close to balance and loads on more debt even faster. Meanwhile, both the House budget chairman and the president shortchange needed investments in America’s future. The question sane citizens should ask in the face of these dueling disappointments is: Why are these the only choices? There will be plenty of overheated reactions to Ryan’s budget, declaring him to be either a savior or the devil incarnate. Since neither is the case I want to give folks who are amenable to reason a few facts and perspectives to make sense of it all: Paul Ryan proposes that the federal government spend $40 trillion over the next 10 years, as opposed to Barack Obama’s $46 trillion. The first thing to note is that there is thus about a 15 percent difference in the size of government envisioned by our two major parties. This difference matters greatly, of course, but shouting aside, this is a fight taking place between the 40-yard lines on either side. If, in addition, you assume, as I do, based on private- and public-sector experience, that there’s rarely been a budget that couldn’t stand an aggregate 10 percent cut, then the real gap between the parties may be smaller still. Ryan’s choices within these totals are unwise and deeply unfair for reasons I’ll explain. But this overall magnitude of change can’t be called “radical.” Doing so is just a way of underscoring how timid and incremental the debate usually is. Ryan wants the federal government to spend about 20 percent of gross domestic product. Obama wants it to spend 23 to 24 percent. (One percent of GDP is worth about $150 billion today.) For context, recall that Ronald Reagan ran the federal government at 22 percent of GDP, when America’s population was much younger, when we weren’t about to double the number of seniors on Social Security and Medicare, and when per capita health costs for all age groups were much lower. To run government at smaller levels than Reagan did with an older population in an era of higher per capita health costs, Ryan’s plan would thus substantially shrink the portion of federal spending devoted to things besides senior citizens. For example, while Ryan’s budget increases spending on Social Security and Medicare by $929 billion a year by 2021 (an increase of 72 percent over today’s levels), it would cut nonsecurity discretionary spending (from which funding for such things as research and development, infrastructure, and recruiting and retaining better teaching talent would come) by $143 billion, or 25 percent, in that year. Ryan would thus exacerbate the already dramatic tilt in federal spending toward current consumption for seniors and away from investment in the future. If you’re under 40, and especially if you’re under 25, these (bipartisan) priorities should be a call to arms. State and local governments spend around 12 percent of GDP today, so in Paul Ryan’s America government at all levels would represent 32 percent of GDP, and in Barack Obama’s it would represent 35 or 36 percent. Interestingly, this means Ryan’s and Obama’s visions resemble each other more closely than they resemble what other rich nations do. For context, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the 14 countries in the Eurozone spent 50.7 percent of GDP in 2010; Finland, Sweden and Denmark are in the mid to high 50s; Britain, 51 percent; Germany, 47 percent. Canada spent 43.5 percent; Japan 40.6 percent; Switzerland, 34 percent; South Korea, 28 percent. (The OECD does these calculations in ways that leave the spending numbers higher than we do in the United States; they show the United States at 42 percent vs. our 37 percent for 2010, for example — but the gap between us and most wealthy nations remains sizable.) My own view is that unless we can find a politically viable way to shrink our radically inefficient health sector’s claim on American output, we won’t be able to retire the boomers, provide decent coverage to the uninsured, shift health costs from corporate payrolls to government budgets (which would be good for business and for workers), and invest in the nonelderly priorities I’ve cited for less than 40 percent or so of GDP as the boomers age. This would still leave us with a government much smaller than those in Europe and Scandinavia, conservative cries to the contrary aside. Instead, Paul Ryan’s “path to prosperity” would leave America with 50 million or 60 million uninsured (as he’d repeal Obama’s health-care plan while funding no alternative coverage extension), and with decrepit roads, bridges, sewers and airports, lagging R&D and a middling teacher corps. Apart from 30 million fewer uninsured, Obama’s plans don’t adequately address these nonelderly priorities either. My verdict on Ryan: By including only token defense cuts in his plans, by excluding higher-income Americans from playing any role in deficit reduction, and by shortchanging investments in the public goods that would promote future growth, the Wisconsin Republican’s plan fails every reasonable definition of shared sacrifice, fiscal conservatism and vision. By pretending, moreover, that we can retire the baby boomers without raising overall taxes (his original and continuing sin), Ryan disingenuously betrays his assertion that the American people are ready for “honest talk.” In addition, the way his budget flatlines Medicaid (via block grants) while nearly doubling Medicare spending in the next decade seems to cynically distinguish between the poor folks who’ll never vote Republican and the seniors the GOP desperately hopes to woo. Ryan’s proposal to convert Medicare to a system of “premium support” takes courage, however, because the GOP will be demagogued mercilessly for the idea. What’s the right way to think about it? For starters, Ryan is right that no one is “cutting” Medicare; it will grow under his plan from $563 billion to $953 billion over the next 10 years. In any other country this would be enough. As would be his proposal to slow the growth of the federal contribution to Medicare thereafter at rates lower than recent rates of health-care cost inflation. This appears to be the source of virtually all his budget savings in the long term. The key thing to recognize about premium support — under which Medicare would become a defined contribution to assist folks in the purchase of private insurance, rather than a defined-benefit plan — is that it can “solve” the federal government’s budget problem without necessarily doing anything to solve the country’s excess health-cost problem. Capping Uncle Sam’s exposure is easy (and gives Ryan the pretty long-term charts he likes to tout). The trillion-dollar question is whether premium support can be part of broader reforms that help change the overall trajectory of health costs in the United States, or whether it will instead simply shift costs to millions of people who can’t afford them. No one knows the answer today, but it’s possible that premium support may well be part of a sensible broader response to our macro health-cost woes. It’s an idea supported not just by Ryan & Co., after all, but by Alain Einthoven, whose “managed competition” concept formed the centerpiece of Clintoncare back in the early 1990s, as well as by my former boss Alice Rivlin, budget director under President Bill Clinton, who I can attest is both a fiscal conservative and a progressive (though, to be clear, Rivlin said Wednesday she doesn’t support the specific way Ryan implements premium support in his plan). So it’s worth taking very seriously. (Premium support was at the center of the 1999 Breaux-Thomas Commission’s report on Medicare’s future; I wrote a long piece on the proposal for the New Republic back then. In the end, the most intriguing thing about Ryan’s blueprint may be the ideological blindspot he inadvertently reveals when he talks about the future. “We are at a moment,” Ryan said in his State of the Union response earlier this year, sounding a theme he reprised again Tuesday, “where if government’s growth is left unchecked and unchallenged.... we will transform our social safety net into a hammock, which lulls able-bodied people into lives of complacency and dependency.” (My emphasis.) As I’ve argued before: “My question is: What hammock is he talking about? The only thing slated to grow the size of government in the years ahead is the retirement of the baby boomers. The doubling of the number of people eligible for Social Security and Medicare is what is driving all the increase in federal spending — along with the spiraling of systemwide health-care costs, which afflict Medicare along with all privately financed health care. But if those programs for seniors haven’t been a “hammock” until now, simply doubling the number of people eligible for them can’t turn them into a “hammock” tomorrow. When it comes to fiscal policy, we have an aging population challenge, and a health-cost challenge. We don’t have a “hammock” challenge. “I suppose it’s possible Ryan thinks all those 70-something slackers living large on their $14,000 in annual Social Security benefits should get off their complacent, dependent butts and start pulling their weight. But I think his comment is more likely a tic of the conservative mind — which unthinkingly views any increase in spending as putting us on the slippery slope to European-style decadence. Or maybe its just a rhetorical ploy to invoke that slippery slope. Either way, Ryan’s “hammock” is a charade, and the data I’ve shared above proves it.” The bottom line is that there remains a huge void in the debate. President Obama punted on long-term debt and deficits, while pretending that his modest new investments in areas such as education are enough to “win the future.” They’re not, though he plainly hopes they’re enough to win him reelection. Now, speaking for his party, Paul Ryan has offered a plan that stiffs the poor, gives fresh breaks to the wealthy, shortchanges needed public investment, yet still adds trillions in new debt and doesn’t balance the budget for decades because Republicans won’t come clean on taxes. As if to punctuate the lunacy, our fearless leaders may now let the government shut down to boot! As Peggy Lee once sang, “Is that all there is?” America desperately needs a third choice if we’re ever to get serious about national renewal. I’ll try in the period ahead to flesh out what it should sound like (I’ve written two books that were meant to be a start in this direction; time now perhaps to distill them into the “stump speech” the country needs). Your thoughts welcome. Watch this space. Matt Miller, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and co-host of public radio’s “Left, Right & Center,” writes a weekly column for The Post. He can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @mattmillernow.With the start of the Stanley Cup Playoffs five weeks away, NHL.com is taking a division-by-division look at the race for the coveted spots in the postseason. Here is how the Metropolitan Division stacks up: The Metropolitan Division has been the most competitive in the NHL all season, with the Washington Capitals, Columbus Blue Jackets, Pittsburgh Penguins and New York Rangers also being the top four teams in the Eastern Conference. Although those four are locks to qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs, they'll have a lot on the line during the remainder of the regular season in terms of determining seeding and home-ice advantage for the Eastern Conference First Round. The New York Islanders and Philadelphia Flyers are among five teams separated by three points in the battle for the second wild card into playoffs from the East. They play against each other one more time at Wells Fargo Center on March 30. Washington Capitals Record: 44-13-7 (95 points) Where They Stand: The Capitals are in first place in the division and the conference. They lead the Blue Jackets and Penguins by seven points in each race. What's left: The Capitals have 18 games remaining. They play eight at home, where they are 27-5-1 and haven't lost since Dec. 29, and 10 on the road, where they are 17-8-6. 3 Key Games: March 9 at San Jose Sharks. It's the start of a three-game California trip which also will see them play at the Los Angeles Kings and at the Anaheim Ducks; March 14 vs. Minnesota Wild. A matchup of two of the top teams in the League, who also play again in Minnesota on March 28; March 23 vs. Columbus Blue Jackets. The Capitals are seven points ahead of the Blue Jackets for first place. They play them again in Columbus on April 2. Key injuries: Right wing Andre Burakovsky is recovering from a right hand injury that has kept him out since Feb. 9. He is eligible to come off long-term injured reserve March 9 and is expected back before the end of the regular season. He no longer has a cast on his hand and has been skating on his own in full equipment but has yet to return to practice. Player to Watch: Defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk is beginning to feel comfortable after being acquired in a trade with the St. Louis Blues on Feb. 27. His right-handed shot and passing skill on the power play could make him a difference maker in the playoffs. The outlook: Trading for Shattenkirk when they already were in first place signaled the Capitals are all-in this season and know this is their best chance to win the Stanley Cup for the first time. Video: PHI@WSH: Backstrom snipes game-winning PPG in OT Columbus Blue Jackets Record: 41-17-6 (88 points) Where They Stand: The Blue Jackets are in second place in the division and conference. They trail the Capitals by seven points in each race. What's left: The Blue Jackets have 18 games remaining. They play eight at home, where they are 23-9-1, and 10 on the road, where they are 18-8-5. 3 Key Games: March 13 at Philadelphia. The first of three games remaining against the Flyers. They also play each other in Columbus on March 25 and in Philadelphia on April 8 ; March 23 at Washington. If the Blue Jackets are going to have a chance to catch the Capitals, they'll probably need to win this game and their game in Columbus on April 2; April 4 at Pittsburgh. A possible preview of a first-round series. Key injuries: Left wing Matt Calvert and center Lukas Sedlak, who are out because of oblique strains, have resumed skating on their own. Player to Watch: Rookie Zach Werenski has helped transform the Blue Jackets defense with his puck-moving and offensive skill (39 points, 20 on power play). But this is his first time through the long NHL season and the pressure of the stretch run. The outlook: The Blue Jackets have been one of the best stories in the NHL this season and are closing in on qualifying for the playoffs for the third time. Their reward could be a first-round series with either the defending Stanley Cup champion Penguins or the Rangers. Video: MIN@CBJ: Saad jams own rebound past Dubnyk in 3rd Pittsburgh Penguins Record: 40-16-8 (88 points) Where They Stand: The Penguins are in third place in the division and conference. They are tied in points with the Blue Jackets in each race, but have one fewer regulation/overtime win. What's left: The Penguins have 18 games remaining. They play seven at home, where they are 27-4-3, and 11 on the road, where they are 13-12-5. 3 Key Games: March 10 at Edmonton Oilers. It's the second game of a five-game trip. It's also the second time Penguins captain Sidney Crosby will face Oilers captain Connor McDavid; March 31 at Rangers. This and a rematch in each team's regular-season finale at Madison Square Garden on April 9 could be pivotal in determining first-round playoff matchups. April 4 vs. Columbus, a game that also will factor into playoff seeding and could be a first-round playoff preview. Key injuries: Coach Mike Sullivan said Saturday that defenseman Kris Letang's upper-body injury, which has kept him out since Feb. 21, no longer is a day-to-day situation but the Penguins are "hopeful that it's nothing long-term." Defensemen Trevor Daley (knee) and Olli Maatta (hand) possibly could miss the remainder of the regular season. Forward Bryan Rust has resumed skating and is working his way back from an upper-body injury that has kept him out since Feb. 9. Player to Watch: With Letang, Daley and Maatta out, defensemen Mark Streit, who was acquired in a trade with the Tampa Bay Lightning (previously acquired in a trade with the Philadelphia Flyers) on March 1, and Ron Hainsey, who was acquired in a trade with the Carolina Hurricanes on Feb. 23, will have to help carry the load on defense during the stretch run. The outlook: With Crosby and Evgeni Malkin at the top their games, the Penguins are set to make a strong bid to become the first Stanley Cup champion to repeat since the Detroit Red Wings in 1998, but will need a healthy Letang. Video: BUF@PIT: Schultz finds Sheary for late go-ahead goal New York Rangers Record: 41-22-2 (84 points) Where They Stand: The Rangers are in fourth place in the division and conference and hold the first wild card. They trail the Blue Jackets and Penguins by four points. What's left: The Rangers have 17 games remaining. They play six at home, where they are 19-14-2, and 11 on the road, where they are 22-8-0. Their 22 road wins are the most in the League. 3 Key Games: March 22 vs. the Islanders. The Rangers are 1-2-0 against the Islanders this season. That the Islanders are making a push to try to make the playoffs will add to the intensity in this rivalry game; March 25 at Los Angeles Kings. The start of a difficult three-game California road trip; March 31 vs. Pittsburgh. The first of two games remaining against the Penguins and a potential first-round playoff matchup. Pittsburgh and the Rangers play again in their regular-season finales April 9. Key injuries: Defenseman Kevin Klein has missed the past six games because of back spasms and won't accompany the Rangers on their four-game road trip that begins against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Monday. Right wing Michael Grabner, who leads the Rangers with 26 goals, remains day-to-day because of a sore hip that has kept him out the past two games. Defenseman Dan Girardi is expected to miss another week because of an ankle injury. Right wing Jesper Fast (upper body) is out 2-3 weeks. Player to Watch: The Rangers got goaltender Henrik Lundqvist through a stretch earlier this season when he was struggling. Now they need him to carry them for a while with their injuries piling up. The outlook: The Rangers have hit a lull (4-4-1 in their past nine games) while they've dealt with a recent rash of injuries. They'll need to find their best game again before the start of the playoffs. Video: MTL@NYR: Kreider cashes in on his own rebound New York Islanders Record: 30-23-11 (71 points) Where They Stand: The Islanders are in fifth place in the division and hold a one-point lead on the Toronto Maple Leafs in the race for the second wild card. What's left: The Islanders have 18 games remaining. They play seven at home, where they are 20-8-6, and 11 on the road, where they are 10-15-5. 3 Key Games: March 11 at St. Louis Blues. This wraps an Islanders-record stretch of nine consecutive games on the road. They are 3-2-1 through the first six games; March 22 at Rangers. Their last scheduled game this season against their New York rivals; March 30 at Philadelphia. The Flyers are one of the teams the Islanders are trying to hold off in the battle for the second wild card. Key injuries: Center Casey Cizikas has been out since Feb. 23 because of an upper-body injury and is expected to miss another two weeks. Center Alan Quine has missed the past three games because of an upper-body injury. Player to Watch: After getting off to a slow start this season, left wing Andrew Ladd has nine goals in his past 18 games and ranks third on the Islanders with 17. His continued production would be a big boost to the Islanders' playoff hopes. The outlook: The Islanders already have come a long way, going 14-6-3 in their past 23 games to climb from last place in the conference into a playoff spot, but have a lot of work left to hold their position with 11 games remaining on the road. Video: NYI@CGY: Tavares slams home rebound from the doorstep Philadelphia Flyers Record: 30-26-8 (68 points) Where They Stand: The Flyers are in sixth place in the division and trail the Islanders by three points for the second wild card. What's left: The Flyers have 18 games remaining. They play eight at home, where they are 19-10-4, and 10 on the road, where they are 11-16-4. 3 Key Games: March 9 at Toronto Maple Leafs. To get a playoff berth the Flyers need to climb ahead of the Maple Leafs, Lightning, Florida Panthers and Islanders; March 15 vs. Pittsburgh. The first of two remaining games against their Pennsylvania rivals. They also play at Pittsburgh on March 26; March 30 vs. the Islanders. This probably will be a must-win for the Flyers if they're going to come back to qualify for the playoffs. Key injuries: Left wing Michael Raffl injured his left knee against the Colorado Avalanche on Feb. 28 and is expected to miss 6-8 weeks, according to general manager Ron Hextall. Player to Watch: Goaltender Steve Mason has played well recently, allowing three goals while going 2-0-1 in his past three starts. He'll have to play consistently at that level for the Flyers to have any chance to qualify for the playoffs. The outlook: The Flyers went 15-5-3 in their final 23 games last season to overcome a five-point deficit and make the playoffs. They'll need a similar run and some help to do it again this season. Video: FLA@PHI: Mason denies Huberdeau to seal shootout win Carolina Hurricanes Record: 26-26-10 (62 points) Where They Stand: The Hurricanes are in seventh place in the division and trail the Islanders by nine points for the second wild card. What's left: The Hurricanes have 20 games remaining. They play 11 at home, where they are 18-10-2, and nine on the road, where they are 8-16-8. 3 Key Games: March 11 vs. Toronto. The Hurricanes have been dangerous at home and can hurt the Maple Leafs' playoff chances with a win in this game; March 13 at Islanders. The first game of a home-and-home series with the Islanders, who visit PNC Arena on March 14. They also play at PNC Arena on April 6; April 9 at Philadelphia. The Hurricanes might be in positon to be playoff spoilers in their regular-season finale. Key injuries: Left wing Brock McGinn has missed the past three games because of an upper-body injury and remains day-to-day. Player to Watch: Left wing Bryan Bickell hopes to return to the NHL after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis Nov. 10. He has three assists in five games with Charlotte of the American Hockey League since being assigned there Feb. 24 to resume playing. The outlook: The Hurricanes have some promising young players such as Noah Hanifin, Sebastian Aho, Elias Lindholm, Teuvo Teravainen, Brett Pesce and Jaccob Slavin, but will miss the playoffs for the eighth consecutive season. Video: CAR@TBL: Ryan rips one-timer through screen for PPG New Jersey Devils Record: 25-28-12 (62 points) Where They Stand: The Devils are in eighth place in the division and trail the Islanders by nine points for the second wild card. What's left: The Devils have 17 games remaining. They play nine at home, where they are 13-13-6, and eight on the road, where they are 12-15-6. 3 Key Games: March 16 vs. Philadelphia. The Devils have a chance to be spoilers in the playoff race with two more games against the Flyers after this one. They play again at Philadelphia on April 1 and in New Jersey on April 4; March 31 at Islanders. A win at Barclays Center would hurt the Islanders' playoff chances; April 9 at Detroit Red Wings. Expected to be the final game at Joe Louis Arena with the Red Wings unlikely to make the playoffs. The Red Wings move into Little Caesars Arena next season. Key injuries: Center Jacob Josefson is day-to-day because of an upper-body injury. Left wing Michael Cammalleri is expected to be out for at least a week because of an upper-body injury. Left wing Miles Wood (lower body) and defenseman Damon Severson (upper body) did not play against the Blue Jackets on Sunday, but coach John Hynes said neither is expected to be out long-term. Player to Watch: With the Devils unlikely to make the playoffs, the continued development of rookie center Pavel Zacha, who returned from a concussion Sunday, can help lay the groundwork for him to take the next step in 2017-18. The outlook: Facing the reality that they're likely to miss the playoffs for the fifth consecutive season, the Devils are looking toward next season. Video: MTL@NJD: Palmieri snaps home opening goal late in 1stA couple decades and a few art movements down the road from steampunk lies the world of decopunk. Drawing from the sleek, streamlined, futuristic aesthetic of the art deco movement, decopunk takes the glitz and glamor of the Roaring ’20s in science-fictional directions, frequently sprinkling in glittering elements of the weird and pulp fiction of the era. Decopunk worlds are sleek and stylish, full of danger, awesome gadgets, strange magic, and high-flying action. More than that: the best of them go beyond the glimmer and gloss to provide elements of satire and social commentary that drawn a line between the world of today and a past that walked the line between social and scientific revolution and a fearful attempt to maintain the status quo at any cost. As decopunk experiences something of a retro-resurgence, we thought we’d run down five outstanding examples of the form. Radiance, by Catherynne M. Valente One of the few books to actually use the word “decopunk” to describe its mix of 1920s glamour and New Weird elements, Radiance follows the career of Severin Unck, a filmmaker who decides not to continue in her father’s footsteps making gothic romances, and instead travels to other planets in our solar system to document the various cultures she finds there. This leads her to investigate a sect of divers on Venus who commune with the mammoth native creatures that swim its seas, but she never returns from that voyage. Through magazine articles, transcripts, and narrative sections, the novel recreates the circumstances of her disappearance and the odd mystery at the center of the Venus expedition, leading to several startling revelations. But the real star of Valente’s novel is the grand and gorgeous world design, a thoroughly impossible recreation of a Victorian era imagining of the universe, painstakingly assembled through transcripts, film treatments, magazine articles, and even the odd commercial jingle. It’s a celebration of classic film and planetary romance in one elegant, unifying package. Pirate Utopia, by Bruce Sterling Bruce Sterling’s raucous, satirical alternate history has a leg up on most decopunk novels, seeing as it’s both set during the rise of art deco, and focused on the futurist movements that invented the aesthetic in the first place. But while he makes use of the trappings of the genre, his aim is more to demystify the time period and deconstruct the usual gee-whiz trappings of super-science. Instead, Sterling presents the terrifying, still slightly comic and cartoonish fable of Fiume, a tiny post-World War I republic whose quick rise to power as an anarcho-syndicalist nation leads them first to form a military dictatorship, and then get swept up in the worldwide rise of fascism. The result is a ruthless, pinpoint satire that keeps the “punk” in “decopunk,” and overflows with cool technology and occult intrigue. Empire State, by Adam Christopher In an alternate version of New York City shrouded in omnipresent fog, private detective Rad Bradley takes what should be a simple missing persons case: finding a lost young woman who may have fallen into the clutches of a cult. The job takes on new dimensions when Rad is haunted by a long-dead superhero, accosted by sinister gasmasked men who claim to be government agents, and manipulated by a friend who definitely knows more than he’s letting on. Christopher blends an incredible number of genres together to create this retro-futuristic science fantasy, building a deep world in which his characters can live, breathe, and double-cross each other. It’s an art-deco nightmare of skyscrapers and mysteries so dense, the publisher encouraged fans to create their own works to be showcased on the book’s (sadly now defunct) website. Amberlough, by Lara Elena Donnelly In a fictional world of cabarets and intrigue modeled after Weimar-era Germany, Amberlough follows secret agent Cyril; Aristide, Cyril’s lover, who works as a cabaret emcee and smuggler; and Cordelia, Aristide’s top dancer and most trusted runner. With the rise of the fascist One State Party, tensions are on the rise, but Cyril and Aristide are more or less content with things as they are, until Cyril’s latest, disastrous assignment inflames tensions all over the city and the Ospies begin to take advantage of the unrest. Donnelly’s sparkling prose and eye for political intrigue and colorful characters make it an exhilarating read, despite the bleakness of a narrative that follows the rise of an authoritarian conservative government. Johannes Cabal the Detective, by Jonathan L. Howard Howard’s pitch-dark comedy series about a morally ambiguous necromancer and his various friends and enemies may have straddled steampunk and dieselpunk in the beginning, but in Cabal’s second outing, he takes to the skies aboard a luxury airship, and the book marches right into art-deco territory. Detective finds Cabal fleeing his numerous enemies, both natural and supernatural, by stowing away on an airborne version of the Orient Express. While onboard, an old nemesis and a grisly murder force our reluctant hero to play Hercule Poirot. He must unravel a conspiracy, solve a murder he can’t fix with necromancy, and avoid being arrested by the actual detective who wants to bring him to justice. Detective features note-perfect comic timing, a lavish airship full of eccentric characters, and the best snarky response to a big mystery reveal in recent memory. There’s more than enough to recommend it to Cabal fans and neophytes alike. What’s on your list of swell decopunk stories?Jim Shaw. Picture: BBC South East Today A MOTORCYCLIST has told how he threw himself off his bike to avoid a collision with a collapsed footbridge on the M20. Jim Shaw, 73, broke five ribs as he slid under the bridge, which came down after being struck by a lorry carrying a digger. The school bus driver from Thamesmead, South East London, was riding at 70mph when "chaos broke loose" and "bits were flying everywhere," he said. Speaking from a hospital bed, he told the BBC: "The bridge was coming down, almost like in slow motion, because it's eating its way through the lorry. "But then it tore away from the other side. As that came down, it was a matter of throw the bike on the floor and go for it. "I've a few broken ribs, but they mend." He added: “I moved to the outside lane. There was only one place to go. I threw the bike on the floor and went under.” His Yamaha MT-07 was left trapped under the bridge, which came down on the London-bound carriageway between junctions three and four, near Maidstone, Kent, shortly after noon on Saturday. He told The Sun newspaper: “I had a split second to think, it was more survival instinct. I made a snap decision to lay the bike down and slid right under the wreckage. “My first thought when I came to rest was, ‘Oh well, there goes my bike’. It was a great bike.” The M20 was closed in both directions as cranes cleared the debris and didn’t fully re-open until Sunday.ISIL suspect blows himself up during police raid in Turkey’s southeast GAZIANTEP A suspected militant from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) blew himself up during a police raid in the southeastern province of Gaziantep on May 19, a Turkish official has said.Gaziantep Gov. Ali Yerlikaya told the state-run Anadolu Agency that another suspect was taken alive late May 19 during the counter-terrorism operation.“No citizens or security forces were hurt in the incident,” Yerlikaya added.Yerlikaya provided no details on the identity or nationality of the ISIL suspects.Turkey, which is part of the U.S.-led coalition against ISIL, has witnessed a series of suicide bombings linked to ISIL in recent months.May 19 was a national holiday in Turkey and police had issued a warning over possible ISIL attacks.Also on May 19, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg assured Turkey of ongoing support in the fight against ISIL.Addressing a press conference in Brussels before a meeting of NATO foreign ministers on security challenges in Afghanistan, the Middle East, North Africa and Russia, Stoltenberg vowed that NATO would continue to “stand in solidarity with Turkey.”“We have increased our presence and continue to implement our assurances given to Turkey,” he said, referring to the delicate situation in the southeastern province of Kilis, which has been subjected to deadly shelling in recent month by ISIL from across the border in Syria.The Independent Investigation of Ibragim Todashev’s Death Will Be Out Soon Under pressure, the Florida State Attorney finally has a date for the release of its investigation into a Boston FBI agent’s shooting of Ibragim Todashev. Get a compelling long read and must-have lifestyle tips in your inbox every Sunday morning — great with coffee! Following months of delays, the Florida State Attorney has promised to release, by the end of March, the results of his independent investigation into the death of Ibragim Todashev—the man a Boston FBI agent shot and killed just as, the agency claims, Todashev was about to implicate himself and suspected Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev in the gruesome killings of three Waltham men on September 11, 2011. Florida State Attorney Jeffrey L. Ashton’s announcement comes nine months after Todashev’s death, and one day after Boston magazine’s publication of “The Murders Before the Marathon,” an extensive investigation by reporter Susan Zalkind that delves into the failure of local police to solve the Waltham murders—perhaps missing an opportunity to prevent the Marathon bombings. The Boston magazine investigation, conducted in collaboration with public radio’s This American Life (which will air a broadcast version of the story on March 7), also shines new light into a previously under-explored area of the case: the FBI’s actions in the aftermath of Todashev’s killing. Several of Todashev’s friends were subsequently deported or prevented from re-entering the United States—including his live-in girlfriend, who was told she was being thrown out of the country for speaking with Boston magazine. Ashton
spheres. But does the Brotherhood as an organization have to be comprehensive? Modern life has become exceedingly complex. The increased specialization of knowledge has only accelerated with the advent of the modern state and its ability to mobilize heretofore unprecedented power and resources. In short, is it better to be a jack-of-all-trades, yet a master of none? The Brotherhood’s brief experience of being in power and its subsequent removal by military coup has served to strengthen the idea of separating the Brotherhood’s role as a social institution from its role as a political force. The two functions now operate in tension and even opposition, and the Brotherhood’s traditional practice of grouping them together has only served to weaken both. The notion of Islam as “comprehensive” can still be maintained as an ideal, while organizationally, one may choose to focus on certain aspects of this comprehensiveness (such as social, religious, or cultural programming) and eschew others (such as forming a political party or directly participating in elections). In this way, the group would be able to effectively leverage a strong and principled constituency to influence the political sphere. In hindsight, it appears that the Brotherhood’s direct participation in competitive politics has done substantial damage to decades of social and religious institution building. Despite its problematic aspects, focusing on Islam’s “comprehensiveness” has made the Brotherhood’s activities quite diverse, providing it a number of ways to connect with varied sectors of society and helping it to maintain an impressive membership base. It was this myriad of factors acting in concert that carried the Brotherhood to power in the 2011 elections, and not its reputation as a trustworthy and experienced political party, as is normally the case. Despite criticisms within the Brotherhood of its political performance, the diversity of its areas of focus and its intertwining of social, religious and spiritual activities continue to motivate members to work toward the realization of Hassan al-Banna’s vision. The state and the organization: the struggle over the Brotherhood’s social base With the Muslim Brotherhood’s second phase (from the mid-1970s until around 1987), the leadership introduced several core features, such as increased centralization and organizational interdependence (to which a greater atmosphere of secrecy was added, contrary to Hassan al-Banna’s organization, which worked as an official, known group). They also ratcheted up the group’s activities in the political and economic spheres. Moreover, they set to work on the construction of a broad network of social institutions, including schools, service projects, charitable groups, and hospitals. These changes produced a complex institutional structure that prioritized more direct engagement with society and lent itself to a heightened focus on a more “comprehensive” organizational model as described above. This produced both a strong interconnected organizational structure, as well as a wide social base that could be relied upon to embrace the group during its intermittent conflict with the state in the years of Mubarak’s rule. The 2013 coup sought to eliminate these two sources of the group’s power and resilience. Events first kicked off with an aggressive anti-Brotherhood media campaign, designed to impair the performance of President Morsi and his government, isolate the Brotherhood from its social base, and remove any excuse the general populace may have had to maintain sympathies with the organization. By the end of June 2013, the state succeeded in “factionalizing the Brotherhood,” by portraying them as fifth-columnists separate from the rest of the population with self-serving goals. The message was clear, that the Brotherhood doesn’t have Egypt’s best interests at heart, only its own. This was followed by a rapacious security campaign that continues to the present day. Many have fled or otherwise gone into hiding, including most members of the Guidance Office9, around half of the members of the general Shura Council, those in charge of the Brotherhood’s administrative offices in the provinces, and most leaders of the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party. The targeting of the Brotherhood’s social base required eliminating the group’s civil and economic organizations. The state officially announced that the assets of 1,370 individuals had been confiscated, along with the assets of 81 companies, including 19 currency-exchange companies. A total of 1,125 associations, 105 schools, and 43 hospitals were confiscated, in addition to the Brotherhood’s medical association, which has 27 branches, as well as the Rabia Adawiya Association, which has two branches.10 A widespread campaign of arrests, resulting in the apprehension of over 40,000 prisoners, occurred alongside a vengeful security crackdown, which included acts of torture, public killings, and sexual assault. All these actions have made violent action easier to countenance to Brotherhood members. Violence found easier justification in a regional context beset by instability, civil war, and the success of fanatical Islamist groups such as the Islamic State organization, or ISIS. A climate of violence and chaos The armed Islamist group Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis (ABM) strengthened its influence in the Sinai after the military coup. In its calculus, the collapse of Islamists’ gamble on democracy proved the impossibility of change through standard political mechanisms. In short, it was a victory for those advocating force as the only effective route to change. This small group in the Sinai exploited events to press the need for directly confronting the state, and was able to attract members from outside the Sinai. The rise of ISIS and the subsequent military campaign in the Sinai against ABM led to additional popular support for the group, which would go on to formally affiliate itself with the Islamic State, rebranding itself as ISIS’s “Sinai Province.” This compelled Hisham Ashmawy, a prominent ABM leader and former officer in the elite Egyptian Special Operations “Thunderbolt” Force, to break off and form the group Al-Murabiteen.11 Ashmawy’s actions opened a wider arena for attracting members from Cairo and the delta provinces.12 At the same that Sinai jihadists were escalating their activities and seeking to expand their reach into the heart of the country, Egypt’s largest civic Islamic organization was being crushed. The Brotherhood was cast out from all of the “pillars of democracy” – the parliament, the presidency, and the constitution. In this context — and after the greatest instance of mass killings in Egypt’s modern history — it is not a surprise that armed groups sought to capitalize on these events and use them as a pretext for violent action. Pointing to the Brotherhood’s aborted reign as primary evidence, armed groups argued that democracy would never permit an Islamist victory, even if fairly earned. It then became simple to paint the picture of a supposed “war on Islam” that could appeal to disillusioned individuals. There are a number of cases where members of or those close to the Brotherhood and members of those revolutionary Salafi groups that participated in political life after the January 25 revolution chose to take up arms within the ranks of ISIS’s Sinai Province. A small number even travelled to fight in Syria or Iraq, either to join ISIS or Syrian armed opposition groups. Their letters and other statements reveal the degree of hostility towards the Brotherhood’s peaceful, gradualist program and its disgraceful “surrender” to the state’s crimes at the Rabaa sit-in as well as cases of rape of female prisoners. Sinai Province’s media discourse churned out messages directly aimed at young Islamists, particularly members of the Brotherhood, lambasting the ineffectiveness of nonviolence and democracy, and advocating jihad and armed resistance to the state as the only viable path forward.13 Is violence the Brotherhood’s inevitable choice? Harvard University’s Steven Brooke, one of the contributing authors to Brookings’ Rethinking Political Islam initiative, argues that the restriction of the Brotherhood’s social activities and the shuttering of the group’s social institutions has left the organization with only one choice: holding demonstrations.14 He argues moreover that demonstrations will eventually hit a wall and fail to achieve the Brotherhood’s goals, pushing the group towards violence. Additionally, the destruction of the group’s social service infrastructure strengthens the attraction of other, more violent models, such as those of ISIS or al-Qaeda in Yemen. Despite the strength of this hypothesis (particularly its compelling claim that violent approaches may find supporters among broad segments of society), there are a number of factors that limit the applicability of Brooke’s argument to today’s Muslim Brotherhood. First, one’s motivation for joining the Brotherhood cannot be reduced to a desire to be involved in the social sphere. There are many complex motivations that drive an individual’s desire to be a member of the Brotherhood. Eliminating one sphere or aspect of the group’s activities does not necessarily mean that members will inevitably look for alternatives, whether a violent approach that rejects the state or one accepting of state authority. A field study that I conducted from October to December 2013 revealed that, for many members of the Brotherhood, the group’s top priority was not social work. Rather, it involved providing the support and care to the families of the victims of the coup and those imprisoned, as well continuing protests against the coup.15 In the current environment, it will be difficult to pursue social activities for a number of reasons. First, Brotherhood members and cadres are subject to far-reaching surveillance by state security, making it almost impossible to carry out any activities unnoticed. Second, the group’s social institutions have been almost entirely confiscated by the regime. Third, due to the large number of people who have been arrested, disappeared, or made to flee the country, it has become necessary to focus internal efforts of the group on supporting those bearing the brunt of repression inside of Egypt, as well as on activities aimed at delegitimizing the coup. Though there has been no decision to suspend the group’s religious or social activities, they are simply not the priority. Such activities have instead been left to individuals and smaller, more local units to decide what headway can realistically be made in these areas. Second, there is no doubt that the line between peaceful revolutionary protest and the use of more violent means is sometimes “blurry,” as described by Steven Brooke. However, over two years have passed since the Rabaa massacre, and the major trend within the Brotherhood (and the anti-coup movement in general) remains committed to peaceful political action. All groups that have tried to adopt some form of violence continue to be marginal with limited appeal. The adoption of violence clearly contradicts the reigning cultural model within the Brotherhood. It is of course true that, theoretically, any dominant culture can undergo change, but this requires a conducive environment for doing so. For example, there were ample opportunities in the 1960s to adapt the group’s culture in response to Nasserist oppression, but the Brotherhood leadership was able to successfully challenge those pressures and maintain the group’s position on violence and takfir (accusing a fellow Muslim of apostasy).16 The current debate inside the group reflects similar questions. When rumors began to circulate that some leaders were moving towards violent options in their opposition to the coup, this was met with broad rejection within the group, both inside and outside the country. Later, it became clear that the question of violence is not, in fact, the central dispute. Rather, disputes appear more related to a clash between an older, traditional leadership unwilling to give up their positions and a new leadership that came to prominence after the coup, which rejects the “old” administrative model and seeks to implement leadership changes. Change in the organization’s culture as a result of the military coup and its aftermath is possible, but, at the time of writing, the essential requirements for such a shift are not present. One such requirement is the emergence of legitimate and charismatic leadership with a clear strategy and vision to manage internal conflicts within the organization. A legitimate, charismatic leadership is necessary to effect radical change of this kind, not only on an intellectual level but also on a practical one. In a centralized, conservative organization like the Brotherhood, reshaping the organization’s structure and hierarchy of is a considerable challenge. Decentralization within the Brotherhood has been limited to organizational and administrative activities and the allocation of resources. Political decision-making, or the crafting of a vision for handling internal conflict, remains extremely centralized. One reason for the recent exacerbation of internal disagreements is the fact that of those who remain from the old Guidance Office (three individuals inside Egypt), two of them are insistent that major decisions must remain solely the purview of the acting General Guide Mahmoud Ezzat — a position rejected by a number of recently elected provincial leaders. Likewise, the Brotherhood’s Shura Council still maintains a palpable level of administrative control, as around half of its members are still active, whether from inside or outside Egypt. The Brotherhood has demonstrated a considerable level of flexibility in adopting different methods under difficult circumstances to achieve its top priorities (protesting the coup and taking care of families of victims and the imprisoned). However, major political decisions, the setting of overarching organizational strategies, and the management of financial resources within the group remains highly centralized. It should be noted that many older leaders who have not been arrested have been willing to give substantial roles to younger members. However, these roles are confined to mid-level administrative positions and seats on technical committees. In effect, the Brotherhood’s centralized character remains, making it extremely difficult to effect major changes to its intellectual trajectory. Third, other models for social service provision do not necessarily represent alternatives to the Brotherhood, as the group adopts a very specific approach to social work. The Brotherhood in Egypt considers social activities to be one of its primary roles and has historically carried them out transparently and under the authority and laws of the government. On the one hand, the Brotherhood, from an Islamic perspective, sees social work as a necessity in and of itself. Social work builds solidarity with local communities, and is connected to Islamic teachings on showing kindness to the poor and the downtrodden. Yet on the other hand, the Brotherhood is well aware that its social activities help it achieve a wider reach within the country and strengthens its social base. In contrast, armed Islamist groups are not motivated to carry out social activities in cooperation with the state, since their goal is to bring about the state’s demise. As a result, these groups do not undertake social work to win over constituents. Rather, they enter into such projects as a “ruling authority” that seeks to present a model for “Islamic rule,” which comes about after taking control of certain areas or when the state’s hold on these areas weakens. This is the current situation in the Sinai, parts of Yemen, and in the territory controlled by the Islamic State. However, where the state is clearly present, such groups have little interest in the provision of social services, as the elimination of the state through armed action takes priority. The difference between these two models is fundamental. The Brotherhood, like other Islamic organizations such as al-Jam’iyya al-Shar’iyya and al-Jami’yya Ansar al-Sunna, provides social and charitable services for goals primarily related to Islamic values, which encourages caring for the poor, the weak, and the hungry. Additionally, the Brotherhood’s social and charitable activities have elicited increased popular support for the group’s political activities. This “model” carries out social services through official institutions subject to the law and operates under the authority of the state. The other carries out social services only to further the direct replacement of an absent or failed state with “Islamic rule.” Of course, one could argue that the Brotherhood is, in a similar but less confrontational way, trying to present an attractive picture of its own vision for Islamic rule. However, the alternative it seeks to establish is a new political regime with different ruling elite, but emerging from the extant structures of the current state. In contrast, armed groups do not recognize the legitimacy of the state at all, and therefore do not concern themselves with social activities unless they are able to replace the state’s authority with their own. Only then would these armed groups — acting as the ruling power — exert their authority in all areas of governance, including social welfare. For example, ISIS’s Sinai Province does not provide social welfare in Cairo or in the city of Arish in Sinai, simply because these areas are not subject to its rule. It only provides a network of social welfare in the limited areas where it has strengthened its influence, or where the state’s authority is practically absent. This does not rule out the possibility that the harshness of the political climate in Egypt may compel more individuals or unorganized groups to embrace violence. Armed groups may exploit the current environment to attract new members from beyond the Sinai, into the Nile valley and delta. However, as mentioned earlier, this expansion would not be based around the goal of providing social services. Rather, these armed groups’ top priorities are directly political and related to rejecting the current regime, and are powered by a belief in the impossibility of challenging it through peaceful means. An uncertain future The number and size of Brotherhood-linked demonstrations has greatly decreased over the past year for various reasons, including the violent security response to demonstrations, widespread arrests, and mass prosecutions by kangaroo courts. This has led tens of thousands of people to become either prisoners or outlaws forced to flee their homes, or even Egypt altogether. Likewise, the long-term continuation of protests requires a clear political vision, especially since the cost of participating in a protest could be death or years of imprisonment. Generic slogans and platitudes, however enthusiastic, will not do the trick. The Brotherhood has yet to offer an alternative strategy to protesting and mobilizing opinion against the regime. Many in the group wager that the revolutionary moment has not passed, as the factors which inspired the revolution have yet to be addressed (poverty, unemployment, a lack of social justice, oppression by the security forces, smaller numbers, can still encourage others and help them maintain a mindset of protest within society until a new spark takes hold, snapping the spell of fear and frustration that has settled over the 2011 revolution’s supporters. This theory is plausible, since the revolution’s initial impetus did not come from the Brotherhood, and was driven instead by years of built-up grievances in the population at large. However, reproducing such a mobilization in the face of the security force’s unprecedented repression will prove difficult. First, it requires building alliances based around broad demands, slogans, and programs that go beyond the tired dichotomies of the Brotherhood versus the Egyptian military, or a legitimately elected government versus a regime that came to power though a coup. In other words, the animating premise of the Brotherhood’s continuing protests and demonstrations is unlikely to appeal to wider audiences or recreate the conditions of the January 2011 revolution. As long as the Brotherhood’s political imagination is unable to overcome the mindset of “coup versus legitimacy” and develop an alternative political discourse that meets the demands of the disaffected social segments that ignited the January revolution, then the Brotherhood itself may be an obstacle in its efforts to build a new culture of protest. Such attitudes will hinder attempts to build wider political alliances between different, non-Brotherhood forces that also reject the military coup and Sissi’s rule. Likewise, the group has not been able to adopt a clear plan, nor does it have clear answers regarding the possibility of coexisting with the current Egyptian state. The Sissi regime has taken a hostile position towards the Brotherhood through every means available to it, from the police, to the judiciary and the bureaucracy. If coexistence is not possible, does the group have recourse to any alternative scenario? Does the group truly seek, through its anti-coup protest activities, to exert pressure with the end goal of reaching a sort of modus vivendi? What would be the limits of such a settlement, and what are the concessions that the group can give without affecting its internal cohesion? The current internal conflict within the Brotherhood mainly revolves around phrases such as “leadership change,” “institutionalization,” “amending the bylaws,” and “rejecting individualism,” but more conceptual and foundational questions and discussions over the group’s long-term vision remain absent from the debate. Some hypothesize that leadership change – if it occurs – is what will lead to the beginning of an internal discussion on these issues, as a new leadership would be more keen on reversing the current state of intellectual stagnation. In any case, attempting to categorize the different trends within the Brotherhood by age or generation will be of little use. Though it may not seem immediately obvious, particular ideas do not remain the single purview of a specific age group. Different points of view find supporters among all age groups and at all organizational levels. As always, there are those who adopt a radical vision of the current struggle, considering it to be a zero-sum conflict in which there can be no compromise. There are also those who are more willing to offer concessions with the aim coming to a sort of deal, which would redraw the relationship between the Brotherhood and the state. However, there is unanimous agreement within the Brotherhood that it is impossible to achieve any meaningful progress as long as Sissi remains in power. It is very unlikely — at least in my opinion — that this basic fact will change. In my view, the coup and the unexpected repression that followed it, produced a change in the nature of the conflict at hand and complicated opportunities for compromise with the regime. The conflict has shifted from a political conflict between the Brotherhood as an opposition group and the ruling regime into a conflict between the Brotherhood and the idea of the Egyptian state itself. This “transition” occurred after the involvement of the state’s various apparatuses — such as the police, the military, the judiciary, and the bureaucracy — which had not been directly involved in the conflict with the Brotherhood since its re-establishment in the 1970s. Additionally, for the first time in its history, even the Egyptian Coptic Church has become directly involved in the state’s war on the Brotherhood and the Islamists. This has made church leaders, in the view of many, abettors to the killings and ongoing repression perpetrated by the authorities after the coup. These complications require a comprehensive settlement, and not a token one. Likewise, they necessitate painful concessions and defined commitments. At this point, there is no justification or capability for either side to do these things. Conclusion Why hasn’t the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt resorted to violence? Examining this question can lead to a better understanding of the consequences of the ongoing unprecedented security crackdown. This paper has used a socio-cultural approach that acknowledges the complicated relationship between individual members of the Brotherhood and the character of the organization as a whole. It also relied on the definition of the Brotherhood and its various roles, as understood by its members. The group fulfills different roles and carries out diverse activities to meet the needs and interests of its members. This is what gives the group the ability to maintain a portion of its internal work even if its external activities directed toward society are suspended for the time being. This is not to say that the Brotherhood will be able to contain the anger of all its supporters, or even that it is the best model available for those Islamists who reject the military coup. Armed groups are still very much able to capitalize upon this delicate moment. The military coup affected the Brotherhood in ways that could substantially change the face of the group in the coming years. This could open the door for a redefinition of the nature of its political, social, and religious role. Can the Brotherhood coexist with the current state, regardless of whether Sissi stays or goes? Answering this question is the Brotherhood’s central challenge. Until now, the group has not formed a clear political vision. Nor does it have the tools to remove the military from its political calculus. Therefore, the group must work with other forces that reject the policies of the current regime. Such an alliance can form a broad national front whose goals and programs are based on the priorities of the revolution at large. This national front could also delineate pragmatic plans to coexist with the political and economic influence of the military for the foreseeable future. Some Brotherhood members have grappled with these questions and presented possible visions, but the group is yet to hold an internal dialogue to develop and adopt a unified stance. Likewise, military leaders have not shown any inclination to reach a settlement with the Brotherhood, which could end to their reliance on continuous levels of repression. This makes it likely that the status quo will persist, with all its tragic consequences.This week I hand over the keyboard once again to Moonshadow. He has a particularly interesting article prepared for us about some of his adventures in restoring World War II Vehicles. In this case it’s a tale of his encounter with a particularly rare and upgraded Japanese Type-97. Type 97 "Shinhoto Chi-Ha" Restoration By: Mike "Moonshadow" Maloney (3rd ArmyGroup) One of the most produced and little understood of the Imperial Japanese armor that saw action in World War II was the Type 97 "Chi-Ha" and its upgraded sister, the "Shinhoto Chi-Ha." This article is about the strengths and weakness of the "Shinhoto." Type 97 Tank with Shinhoto Turret The Type 97 "Chi-Ha" was introduced in 1937 as the main tank in service with the Imperial Japanese Army. First seeing action in the China campaign, it was armed with a type 97 57mm short barrel main gun and two 7.7mm machine guns, with a third mounted on the top of the turret for AA use. The crew consisted of four men: a driver, radio/hull machine gunner, gunner, and tank commander who doubled as the loader. In 1941, when the Imperial staff was planning their next moves against the United States, they realized that the low hitting power of the 57mm Infantry gun would not do against American tanks at the time, namely the M3 Stuart. So, the higher velocity Type 1 47mm anti-tank gun was adopted and put into a redesigned turret; the word "Shinhoto" means "New Turret." Type 1 47mm Anti-Tank Gun The Shinhoto had a basic layout, still retaining the four man crew; the driver sat on the forward right side, and the hull machine gunner on the left. The hull machine gunner had a close defense pistol port located just to his left, underneath the track, slightly forward of the front support roller. Neither man had a hatch of his own. Entry and exit of the vehicle was through the turret. The turret was had a two man configuration: the gunner sat to the left of the gun with elevation done by means of a shoulder rest and no elevation wheel provided, and at his 11 o'clock position was a turret traverse wheel. Sighting of the gun was established by means of a single telescopic sight and firing of the gun was done by means of a solid brass pistol grip in the shape of the Nambu pistol located to the left of the breach. The gunner was provided a double split hatch on top of the turret. The tank commander, who doubled as the loader, sat to the right of the gun, having a split hatch copula above his position, and a single monoscopic periscope sight housed in an armored dome just forward of the copula. Just to the commander's right and placed by his feet mounted on the right bulkhead of the chassis was a ready rack holding eight rounds for the 47mm gun. A main ammunition bin was located to the left rear of the vehicle holding a further 40 rounds. No turret basket was provided for the turret; the two men in the turret sat on folding seats mounted on the turret ring. The entire fighting compartment of the hull and turret was insulated in asbestos sheets held in place by aluminum strips. A portion of the final drive and drive shaft from the engine was exposed in the fighting compartment with the drive shaft running forward to the transmission was located at the front. Only the drive shaft was covered by an aluminum shield. The engine was a Mitsubishi eight cylinder diesel engine providing 170 hp at 2,000 rpm and located to the rear of the vehicle, producing a top speed of 38 km/h and had dual squirrel cage-style cooling fans located on either side of the engine. It is interesting to note that the fans were connected by means of drive shafts. Not one belt was ever used in or on the engine. The entire vehicle was produced by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. and the rubber on the road wheels was provided by the Yokohama Rubber Company. A total production run of both types of "Chi-Ha" reached 2,208 vehicles during the war. The above information came from first hand experience when, back in the mid '80s, I had the rare opportunity to begin the conservation efforts on one of the very few Shinhoto Chi-Ha's left in the world. The vehicle that I am talking about resides at the Nimitz Museum in Fredericksburg, TX, birthplace of Adm. Nimitz. I was approached by the director of the museum at the time because of my love of history, armor experience, and knowledge of World War II armor. Now, this particular tank is locally known as the "mystery tank" for a couple of reasons. First, records show that before the Nimitz Museum, the vehicle came from San Clemente Island, CA firing range, which in turn came from Aberdeen Proving Grounds, MD, which in turn came from its initial shipping point of Ogden AFB, UT in 1946. Anything before that, there are simply no records anywhere to be found. Second, this Shinhoto has mounts for smoke dischargers mounted on the turret roof. The perplexing thing here is that there were only three Japanese tank regiments that had tanks equipped with smoke dischargers on the turret roof, those tanks being regular Type 97 Chi-Ha's, and those regiments were never issued with the Shinhotos. Now, you know why it is called the "Mystery Tank of Texas." The following are excerpts from an article that I had written for a friend of mine who runs and maintains a website about the Imperial Japanese Forces of World War II. After work, I loaded my car with reference books, clothes and several tool boxes and I headed out toward Fredericksburg. I awoke early that Saturday morning and inspected the Shinhoto Chi-Ha close up. On the exterior of the right side hull, two of the return rollers were broken off, the right track separated, several impact holes of various calibers all over the vehicle, left muffler completely missing, exterior completely rusted, turret rear access hatch and turret right side vision hatch completely missing. I then consulted the museum records to trace the origins of this vehicle and that itself became a puzzle. My first task was to try to open the turret hatches as both were rusted shut. After six hours, I was able to open both hatches. I then climbed inside to survey the interior. Decay and rust had settled in, several items such as driver's levers, pedals and such had completely rusted off, a layer of compost dirt of about three inches deep had accumulated on the floor. Before any work was to be done inside, all dirt had to be removed. I constructed a sifter of a wood frame and fine mesh wire over an empty 55 gallon drum. All dirt was removed with a small shovel, brush and other small tools and then dumped into the sifter. Sifting the dirt took up the remainder of the day, but the rewards were just. In the dirt there was an aluminum engine data plate, a wood handle tooth brush broken in 3 places with Japanese writing, and several remnants of an Imperial Japanese Forces soft cap. All items were recorded, tagged, and stored in the museum's artifact room. An asbestos panel located on the lower left Next came removing the most dangerous parts of the tank: the asbestos panels. Now, I do not know about the other tanks produced by Japan for the war, but the Shinhoto Chi-Ha was insulated in this manner. Average thicknesses of these panels were half an inch thick with an average size of two by three feet. Each panel was held in place by an aluminum strip framework similar to ceiling tiles, which was a good idea but a bad choice of materials. Having to wear a respirator, I spent that day removing these panels after making a detailed diagram showing size, shape and location. Due to age and being open to the elements, 75% of all panels I removed crumbled at the touch. After removing the panels in the turret, I noticed some Japanese writing had been left intact. This writing appears to be a maker's mark or worker's proof mark. These were found just to the right of the gun mount. The primer color found inside of the vehicle appears as an orange/red and the writing in white. The next three months of straight weekend work gave me insight into the design of Japanese vehicles. Even though this vehicle was badly damaged by time and weather on the inside, several things still worked such as the turret traverse wheels and gun breech. The Mitsubishi engine, in my opinion, was of a very good design as there were no belts of any kind found; everything ran off drive shafts including the'squirrel cage' fans mounted on either side of the engine. The major downfall of this vehicle that I could find was that the turret was not provided with any turret basket, whereby the commander and gunner had to walk with the turret as it traversed, having to step over the drive shaft and engine as part of it was exposed. Also, the driver and hull machine gunner had to pass through the turret to reach their positions as no hatches were provided for them. The turret was found frozen in the 11 o'clock position. Turret is traversed by means of two hand crank wheels - one located at 11 o'clock for the gunner, the other at 3 o'clock for the commander who also acted as the loader. One revolution of the wheel would rotate the turret two and a half inches. There was also a flip latch located atop the gearing mechanism to secure the turret in traveling mode. The gunner was provided a shoulder rest to elevate or depress the gun; no mechanism was used. The triggering device was a simple pistol grip in the shape of the Nambu pistol made entirely out of brass. Sighting was done by means of a single telescopic sight. Inside the turret The driver sat in the forward right side of the hull; steering was done by means of the steering levers, and these were equipped with locking levers located at the gripping point. A parking brake was located just to the left of the driver, with accelerator and clutch pedals mounted on the floor. The vision port for the driver swings outward and is held in place via a locking arm prop. A rubber pad measuring approximately 4" x 8" x 1.5" thick is provided on the vision port for the driver’s forehead. The hull machine gunner sitting on the left side of the hull had one vision slit provided forward and a pistol port located just to his left on the lower hull, which viewed from the outside, was located behind the first return roller. It was covered by a 'tear-drop' shaped swing plate. Atop the vehicle The two hatches located on the upper bow forward are not hatches for the crew. These are access to the transmission gears for maintenance. The main transmission was located between the driver and bow machine gunner. The main ammo bin holding 30 rounds for the 47mm gun was located on the lower left side hull which has a double door opening hinged in the middle and painted a light sky-blue. Another ammo rack holding 8 rounds was located on the right side lower hull, rounds pointed downward. A good portion of the engine was located inside of the fighting compartment exposed showing several fittings and drive shaft mounting, the drive shaft being covered by a thin aluminum shield. Wiring shows internal communication, but no evidence of a radio mount or wiring for such could be found on this vehicle. All vision ports were covered with one inch thick glass plates that were removable. After four months of work, the director of the museum informed me that work to the Shinhoto Chi-Ha must come to a halt due to policy changes from park officials. I turned in all reports, findings, documents and such, loaded my tools into my car and as I stood in front of this vehicle with its barrel looming over my head, I had the immense pleasure knowing that I preserved a piece of history for future generations to see. Today when you see it, it is bursting out of a grove of bamboo, freshly painted with generic markings to represent all of the Japanese tank formations that served during World War II with pride.The impact of increased youth voter turnout on fiscal policy: Evidence from the US Graziella Bertocchi, Arcangelo Dimico, Francesco Lancia, Alessia Russo Voter turnout in modern democracies tends to be lowest among the young, and politicians are likely to be less responsive to their demands as a result. This column focuses on preregistration, a reform aimed at facilitating voter registration among young Americans. Examining the link between the political participation of various age groups and policy decisions, it shows that adopting preregistration has shifted government spending toward higher education and increased student financial aid, and has promoted an episode of youth enfranchisement. In the UK referendum on Brexit, turnout was lowest among young voters (Becker et al. 2017). This is not surprising in view of the increasing tendency towards lower voter turnout among the young than the old in modern democracies. In the US, 18-year-olds were first given the vote in 1972. In the election that year, voter turnout was 52% in the 18-24 age group and 68% in the 25+ group. Since then, the gap has only widened. By the 2012 presidential election, the corresponding figures were 41% and 65%.1 A similar trend has been observed in Europe, with less than half of under-25s turning up to vote at general elections in many countries. Low civic engagement among young voters is not just a democratic problem. It also carries relevant economic implications, since low electoral turnout leads to scarce interest of governments to meet the youth’s needs. This has long been recognised in the political economy literature (Meltzer and Richard 1981, Acemoglu and Robinson 2000, Lizzeri and Persico 2004). The main prediction of this literature is that increased electoral participation by a politically disadvantaged group is a precondition for the advancement of policies to its benefit. While the evidence supporting this claim is abundant for the case of conflict between rich and poor, or along racial and gender lines, the case of conflict between age groups has so far been neglected. This is surprising in view of the evolving demographic situation. In modern democracies, public spending favours pensions and health care (which benefit the old) over education expenditure (which benefits the young) (Economist 2016). This has become the focus of a policy debate and has raised concerns about the reluctance of the young to cast their ballot, and whether it is still the most effective way to make politicians responsive to a group’s demands. In order to devise solutions to low civic engagement among young voters, several countries have reformed or are debating whether to reform their electoral system. For example, Austria, Germany, New Zealand, Norway, and the UK are currently considering whether to lower the voting age from 18 to 16. While the declared aim of reform is to promote more active social and political engagement among the young, what should we expect in terms of its impact on policy decisions? While the above question is pressing in all democracies, in a new paper we provide an answer within the US context (Bertocchi et al. 2017). A contributing factor to low voter turnout among young Americans is a peculiar
that Hua Guang Liu operated. (CBC) Savo-Sardaro said she knew who the victim was when police revealed details about what they had found. "As soon as I heard it was yellow toenails, I knew it was her," she said. On the weekend, Toronto police were alerted to the discovery of body parts on back-to-back days in the West Highland Creek, just blocks away from Liu's home. Forensic tests have determined all of the body parts belonged to Liu, but police still do not know how she died. They estimate the body parts had been in the water between five to seven days. Police have finished searching the park in Mississauga, and Toronto police were expected to wrap up their creek search on Tuesday. After Liu was reported missing, Toronto police issued a news release with her description on Aug. 14. She was described as being 5-1", weighing 108 pounds and having "thin eyebrows that are tattooed and long, straight auburn/brown hair." Peel police are asking for anyone with information on Liu, her activities or movements in the days leading up to her death to call them.Most people probably think of the debate over whether Canada is in a recession as one of those glass-half-full versus glass-half-empty things. Pessimists look at five months of declining GDP and call it a “recession,” while optimists look at increasing employment and say that we’re not in a recession. Yet, the real pessimists are the ones saying we’re not in recession. Making the case that we’re in a recession is basically optimistic: the problems we’re currently experiencing in the economy will be over soon (if it’s not already) and all that is needed it for policymakers to employ the usual array of countercyclical policies. The “no recession” camp is the home of the pessimists: saying that we’re not in recession is the same thing as saying that what we’re seeing now is about as good as we’re likely to see for many years. According to this view, low growth rates are not a passing phase; they’re the new normal. As it happens, I subscribe to the view that we’re not in a recession, at least based on available data. To the extent that recessions represent a significant, prolonged and generalized reduction of economic activity, the current situation does not meet the criteria. Recessions lasting six months are not unknown, but I don’t find the decline in activity to be significant or generalized. Saying that we’re not in recession is the same thing as saying that what we’re seeing now is about as good as we’re likely to see for many years The effects of the drop in oil prices have been largely confined to the energy sector and Alberta, and haven’t been severe enough to affect employment at the national level: 180,000 more Canadians were employed in July 2015 than when oil prices peaked in June 2014. And employment increased by more than 100,000 in the first five months of 2015, even as GDP was falling. (I should note here that I am a member of the C.D. Howe Institute’s Business Cycle Council, which decided on the basis of information available on July 22 that there wasn’t yet enough evidence to conclude that Canada had fallen into recession.) The problem is that while economic activity is holding steady, these activities aren’t generating as much revenue as they used to: estimates for gross domestic income (GDI) — which capture the changes in income produced by changes in the prices of exports and imports — fell by 1.2 per cent in the first quarter of 2015. As far as purchasing power and real incomes go, that reduction in GDI was a much bigger deal than the 0.1 per cent drop in GDP that has generated so much recession chatter. There’s little point in blaming the Conservative government — or the Liberal government that preceded it — for “betting the farm” on high oil prices. In volume terms, energy and resource exports have remained steady over the past 15 years. The only effect of higher oil prices was to increase the income generated by Canadian exports. No government would have — or should have — tried to deprive Canadians of that windfall. The end of that windfall is not even the worst of our problems. Let’s put things in terms of a single worker. There are two ways workers can increase their incomes: work more hours or obtain a higher hourly wage. Lower oil prices are the equivalent of a pay cut: less income for the same amount of production. This is bad enough, but our aging population is compounding this wage cut with a reduction in the number of hours worked. Fewer and fewer youths are entering working age (defined by the Labour Force Survey as those 15 and over) and the “prime” 25 to 54 working-age population is shrinking in all of the provinces east of Ontario. The only age groups showing strong growth are those 55 and over; those 65 or over accounted for more than two-thirds of the growth in the working-age population over the past year. Episodes of weak or negative growth are likely to become more frequent as more workers continue to retire. There is no quick fix to all of this. The standard countercyclical tool set is of little help here: neither expansionary monetary policy from the Bank of Canada nor fiscal stimulus from the Department of Finance is going to offset the effects of a fall in global oil prices, much less population aging. The problem isn’t the cycle in the short term, it’s the long-term trend. If there’s a silver lining, it’s that we’re not in unfamiliar territory: low commodity prices, a depreciating dollar and sluggish income growth were issues faced by former prime ministers Brian Mulroney and Jean Chrétien. We have also learned some things about the determinants of long-term growth since then: growth economics wasn’t yet a well-established field of economic study 25 or 30 years ago. Some of these lessons have even made their way into policy: the shift away from corporate income taxes and towards consumption taxes (i.e., the GST/HST) in Canada and elsewhere was a direct result of this work. So it’s disappointing — if not surprising — that in an election campaign in which the economy is said to be the most important issue, we’ve heard almost nothing about policies to encourage long-term growth. Much of the economics portion of the Maclean’s leaders’ debate, for example, was dominated by bickering over whether or not Canada was in recession. The most intriguing proposal for promoting economic growth came from the Green Party’s Elizabeth May: that the federal government should use its existing powers to reduce barriers to interprovincial trade. This focus on the short term is probably to be expected in an election campaign. But if — as the various election prediction models currently suggest — the next government does not have the support of a majority in the House of Commons, the dynamics of minority government are unlikely to produce much serious thought about the long term. Things would be much simpler if only Canada were in recession. It’s our bad luck that we aren’t. National PostBitcoin MasterCard Closing In On Facial Scanning for Approving Online Purchases Now, ‘Scan Your Face to Pay Your Bill’ will be a reality as MasterCard is exploring and experimenting with a new program: approving online purchases with a facial scan. For the purpose, it is testing a Smartphone app that uses facial recognition to verify online purchases. Also Read: IdentityMind Appoints Ex MasterCard CEO to Board of Advisors When facial recognition system, a computer application for automatically identifying or verifying a person from a digital image or a video frame from a video source, is becoming popular for privacy and security, MasterCard too is willing to explore the tech. The company says that it is experimenting with the facial scanning technology where at checkout; users will be asked to hold up their phone and snap a photo. Thus, they won’t need to remember their password that is a hassle for many of them. Talking about the project, Ajay Bhalla, who’s in charge of coming up with innovative solutions for MasterCard’s security challenges, says that the new generation, which is into selfies will find it cool to embrace. Apart from reducing the hassle for users who find it difficult to remember passwords, the company also aims to reduce the likelihood of fraud when transactions are being carried out. Taking Cue from iPhone’s Fingerprint Scanner It appears MasterCard is inspired from iPhone’s fingerprint scanner that started a security revolution in 2013. Apple Pay showed that customers are willing to use biometrics to prove their identity. The company says that currently customers are using “SecureCode,” which requires a password when shopping online. Though this stops credit-card-number-stealing hackers from actually using users’ card on the Web, passwords get forgotten, stolen, or intercepted. To solve the issue, MasterCard is going to launch a small pilot program that uses fingerprints but also facial scans. Initially, the company will experiment with 500 customers; however, once it works out all the kinks, there will a public launch. For the purpose, it has partnered with every Smartphone makers like Apple, BlackBerry, Google, Microsoft, and Samsung (SSNLF). The talks are also going on with two major banks; however, no names have come yet. Modus Operandi of the Facial Recognition Technology Enabled App The customers need download the MasterCard phone app which once installed will ask for authorization after they pay for something. If they choose fingerprint, all it takes is a touch; however, if they go with facial recognition, they stare at the phone, blink once and that’s it. The security experts at MasterCard believe that blinking is the best way to prevent a thief from just holding up a picture of the users and fooling the system. MasterCard is promising for utmost privacy and security during and after the facial recognition as it doesn’t actually get a picture of users’ finger or face; rather, all fingerprint scans create a code that stays on the device. The company informs that the facial recognition scan maps out user’s face, converts it to 1s and 0s and transmit that over the Internet to MasterCard. Bhalla clarified that MasterCard won’t be able to reconstruct user’s face. A major concern, however, is that the information would transmit securely and remains safe on the company’s computer servers; however, from a privacy aspect it’s awful i.e. keeping this kind of information in one location makes it more tempting to hack. Some Issues with Facial Recognition Tech Experiments by Google MasterCard is not the first company to experiment with facial recognition tech; Google tried it on Android phones, and there were a lot of problems in the early days. For instance, soon it was found that anyone could take a photo of somebody and present it to the camera, and the phone would unlock. However, MasterCard cannot afford to compromise on security as it is dealing with money. Therefore, it is important for it to add extra layers of security. For instance, if an ordinary password gets compromised users can simply revoke it or change; however, there will be an issue when facial recognition data gets stolen. To address such issues, MasterCard says it is also exploring fingerprint security and voice recognition, which could make life easier for customers. Image source: MasterCard Disclaimer: The author of the news is not associated with MasterCard nor has he any vested interest with the firm. What do you think about MasterCard’s Facial Recognition App? Let us know on the comments bellow!The Parker Hill Branch of the Boston Public Library (BPL) on July 1 will close for a year to undergo a $2.4 million renovation that consists mostly of repairs and improvements. The library was originally supposed to close June 1, but after pushback from the community, including over wanting it open through the school year, it was pushed back, according to Eamon Shelton, BPL director of operations. When asked about the community outreach, he said that he thinks “it would have been better if there was more notice” about the project. BPL will host a meeting on May 17 at 6 p.m. at the library to discuss the project. Shelton said the renovations include waterproofing the infrastructure of the building; repointing, and in some cases replacing, the masonry; interior plaster repairs; interior painting; and replacing all of the windows, which are original. He said the year timeline includes breaking the library down and moving all the books and repeating the process when the construction has ended. The timeline also factors in any unforeseen obstacles. Shelton said it is possible the library reopens before the year timeline. When asked if the project could have been done piecemeal with the library remaining open, Shelton said that it was considered, but closing the library was deemed the most effective way to get the project done as quickly as possible. When asked what will happen to the programs currently at the Parker Hill Branch, Shelton replied that BPL is “working on that now” and suggested some will go to the Dudley Branch Library. The Parker Hill Branch began in 1907 as a small reading room at a storefront at 1518 Tremont St. It became an official BPL branch in 1924 and moved to its present location at 1497 Tremont St. when Mayor James Michael Curley opened the building in 1931. The 10,200-square-foot, two-story Gothic building was designed by the famed architect Ralph Adams Cram. The library was closed for a year in 2005 to undergo a renovation, including installing a ramp and elevator, to make the building handicap accessible. A few years before that, the Friends of Historic Mission Hill filed a petition with the Boston Landmarks Commission (BLC) to landmark the building. The BLC voted unanimously to accept the petition, which is still pending. That requires any work to be done on the building be approved by the BLC. Shelton said that the BLC recently approved the proposed renovation project.To satisfy fans between each large set release (and to cash in on media releases) Wizkids has been releasing Team Packs for its Dicemasters game. We last looked at the Dr. Strange pack which was timed to the release of the hit Marvel movie, and now we get the Defenders right as the hype for the Netflix series nears its climax. However, I should note that the license is clearly based on the comics so the characters you may expect from the shows are not all present. The set comes with eight characters each getting two dice and three cards, and true to being a team pack the majority share an affiliation with seven Defenders heroes and one villain from Hydra (Loki) included. However, the synergy of the team isn't obvious as only Luke Cage and a single Clea card have specific Defender specific abilities. This set is also heavy on expensive characters, and I expect a lot out of any character costing 6 or more as I expect them to turn the tide in a battle. So if you are looking for some heavies to weave into your decks check this team out.Research studies published in respected scientific journal Nature are now free to read online, publisher Macmillan announced today. The studies are free to read using a software platform Nature describes as "similar to Apple's iTunes," but only accessible if you have a direct link provided by a subscriber, and kept in a format that prohibits copying, printing, or downloading. Nature says the shift comes as those who offer scientific funding are demanding that research is made free to read. Open-access project PLoS and its journals, such as PLoS ONE, have championed such an approach, and the scientific community has pushed for access to journals seen to profit off research that should be available to the public. Timo Hannay, managing director of the Digital Science division of Macmillan, says that the move will simply make it easier for researchers to do what they're already doing. "We know researchers are already sharing content," Hannay said in a statement, "often in hidden corners of the Internet or using clumsy, time-consuming practices." The papers can be annotated, but can't be printed or copied Institutional subscribers get access to every paper dating back to Nature's foundation in 1869, but personal subscribers can only view the archive as far back as 1997. Both groups can provide links for any papers to anyone they choose, and although the files can't be printed or copied, they can be annotated and viewed in the ReadCube desktop program. Annette Thomas, chief executive of Macmillan's Science and Education division, says that the new scheme is a pilot that would be evaluated over the coming year, but that she thought the subscription system would co-exist with more open business models for a long time. But despite her statements and the caveats to true open access in Macmillan's new policy, this move by one of the biggest scientific journals in the industry means that anyone can technically get their hands on 140 years of peer-reviewed research — a definite win for the scientific community at large.Just to be clear at the outset, we’re not going after kale. Or kale juice. Or juice of any sort. It’s easy enough to prove that pretty much anything you can put in your body will do weird things to various organs if you consume too much of it. That doesn’t mean everything is bad for you; it just means that moderation is advisable. Or, as Melissa McEwen put it, “Maybe you shouldn’t juice a pound of kale and drink it for breakfast every day.” But, uh, that’s what Jennifer Berman did, basically. Berman, who “was into health food before it was cool,” writes in the New York Times: Imagine my shock, then, at my last physical, when my doctor told me I had hypothyroidism, common in women over 40. When I got home I looked up the condition on the Internet and found a list of foods to avoid. Kale, which I juiced every morning, tops the list, followed by broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, Brussels sprouts and collard greens — the cruciferous vegetables I consumed in large quantities because they are thought to prevent cancer, which runs in my family. And flax — as in the seeds — high in omega 3’s, that I sprinkled on cereal and blended in strawberry almond milk smoothies. [Emphasis added.] A daily dose of kale juice wasn’t just bad for Berman’s thyroid, she writes, but, when coupled with water with lemon, bad for her teeth, too: I went to the dentist, who said I had five cavities and asked if I snacked on candy and sodas all day long. I was insulted. Indignant. What did he take me for? No, I answered. I don’t eat sugar and drink only fresh vegetable juices — no longer kale, of course, but carrot and celery, which I’m still allowed. And filtered water with lemon. “You’d be better off with chocolate and cola,” he said. At some point, sugar is sugar, whether it comes processed in a soft drink or extracted from a leaf or a fruit. And acid is acid, whether it comes from a soft drink or extracted from a lemon. What’s the lesson here? Should you stop drinking your kale-apple-lemon-carrot juice? No. It’s both simpler and harder than that: Eat a lot of different things, and don’t assume that just because something came out of the ground it’s good for you no matter how much of it you eat. Like processed foods, vegetables and fruits are just an amalgamation of chemical compounds. You know, or alternately the moral is “the human body is impossibly fallible and we should all become brains in jars.” That one sounds appealing too.Yesterday we had a look at Quincy Wilson’s first-half play and found lots to be encouraged about. Today it is on to the second-half to see how he finished. If I had done all the analysis at once I probably wouldn’t have divided it by half, as this one is a bit shorter, but there is still plenty to digest. Wilson’s first significant play in the second half is not one to rave about. The Cardinals struggled to move the ball and didn’t target him at all in the third quarter. With 7:47 left in the 4th and immediately following the 22-yard pass to Jaron Brown and the roughing the passer penalty they took their big shot. The Cardinals are in 12 personnel, where they did the most damage to the Colts on the day. The Colts are playing a Cover 4 or “quarters” defensive look, with the boundary cornerbacks and both safeties dropping back into deep zone coverage. I hate this kind of coverage personally, as it is often referred to as “prevent”. The problem is that when coaches go to this it is often a change from what they have been effectively using all game to stop the opposing offense. What usually happens when you see this kind of look is that you are exposed on the short outside routes and can get a running back or a tight end open with space to move because the boundary corners are playing so far off the line of scrimmage. This results in teams who have struggled to move the ball being able to string together long drives and get some momentum. None of that happens here because the Colts do something unforgivable for this type of coverage: they let a receiver get behind them. The Cardinals snap the ball and run play action to the left side. Neither safety bites on the play action, but Matthias Farley turns his hips in and locks in on the tight end Ifeanyi Momah who is running a slant. Meanwhile, Larry Fitzgerald is running downfield with Rashaan Melvin in coverage on the right side. Malik Hooker moves forward here which would put him in a better place to make a play on the tight end, but leaves the middle of the field open should Fitzgerald run a post, although he does not. Because Farley has his back turned to J.J. Nelson, he doesn’t see Nelson blow past him and is then behind the play, which is totally unacceptable. You cannot be more than 20 yards downfield of a receiver and get beat deep by them at the safety position. Wilson has reasonably good coverage and makes a good attempt to break up the catch, but if Farley had been in position as he should have, Palmer has to throw elsewhere, or this is might have been a pick like it was earlier with Hooker. Instead, it is a 45-yard touchdown and gets the Cardinals right back in the game. Farley is still young and mistakes like that will happen, but that is the kind of mistake that is back-breaking. You cannot make those mistakes and win when you are a bad team. It is easy to put this blame on Wilson at a glance, but he played this pretty well and a worse throw or more lackluster catch attempt and he still might have broken it up, even without the safety help over the top. Here we get a look at one of the few plays where Wilson is involved in run support. From the appearance, the run is designed to go between the left guard and tight end, but Chris Johnson quickly bounces it outside when it is clear John Simon is going to win that battle and close the hole there. Farley is in good position to make a play on the ball regardless of it Johnson hits the original hole or cuts it back. Wilson is hanging out to the outside and is not really ever involved in the play. Given that it is coming his way, you’d really like to see him work straight upfield and turn the running back in toward the middle. If he is a bit more decisive here he might have had a tackle for a loss. Those kinds of plays come with time and familiarity, and a cornerback who can make those kinds of plays against the run makes himself that much more valuable. This play is ugly. The Cardinals figured out throughout the course of the game that the best way to beat the Colts man-coverage was using these kinds of “rub routes” to brush off defenders. They are especially effective against the Colts’ younger defensive backs who aren’t anticipating them and get off the “pick” slowly. When you add in that Jabaal Sheard jumps offside making this a free play, it quickly goes downhill. The Cardinals are lined up in a 4 wide receiver set with Chris Johnson split out wide to the left. The Colts are in Cover 1, with Hooker back deep. Johnson runs a crossing route and Nelson runs and out and up and Wilson simply isn’t able to get off the screen. That gives Carson Palmer a very easy and very open throw. The middle school basketball coach in me wants to see some communication there and have Farley and Wilson switch responsibilities to avoid this screen blowing up the play. Ultimately, what needs to happen is for Wilson to identify the screen and hustle around it. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that he gave up on the play, but it did not seem that he was going full-motor to catch up to Nelson either. This was the most he has played, so some fatigue may have played a role as well. Regardless, this was a critical play that moved the Cardinals into field goal territory. This might be Wilson’s worst play all game. If you wanted to have a gripe against him, Wilson’s tendency not to quickly engaging runners would be a fair one. He seems to stand around a lot on run plays, and on this play, we see him whiff on a tackle he absolutely has to make. The Cardinals are back in their 4 wide set and Johnson is again split out wide left. Wilson is covering Brittan Golden and the ball goes to Jaron Brown on a dig route. Brown leaves Kenny Moore in his dust and is moving upfield and toward the sideline directly at Wilson. Rather than shedding what is a pretty pathetic block by Golden, Wilson completely lets himself get pushed to the inside, not only not making the tackle, but also creating another obstacle for Moore to work past to get to the runner on the outside. Rather than what could have been a stop just short of the sticks, this ends up as a 20-yard gain. A big, physical cornerback has to run over that blocker and get the tackle. The second half for Wilson was not nearly as pretty, but overall he played very well. It remains a mystery to me after watching this film why the coaching staff ever started T.J. Green over Wilson in the first place, but you should feel encouraged that there is a ton of potential for this guy to be a rising star on this defense.Europe’s Uprising Against GMOs and Patents on Life The unstoppable groundswell of opposition to GMOs in Europe, by Dr. Mae-Wan Ho The recent call for a moratorium on GMOs in Europe [1] (see Europe Holds the Key to a GM-Free World, 5th Conference of GM-Free Regions, Food & Democracy, SiS 43) reflects an unstoppable groundswell of opposition to GMOs from both European citizens and governments. An online poll [2] on the question: “Should GMOs be banned in Europe?” conducted in April 2009 returned a 79 percent yes, 18 percent no and 3 percent don’t know. Days earlier, Germany outlawed the cultivation of Monsanto’s GM maize MON810, a surprising move that delighted campaigners. Germany became the sixth EU country to introduce a provisional ban on the GM maize, after France, Austria, Hungary, Luxembourg and Greece [3]. A source close to the EC said the German ban might bring a revision of the European legislation on GM crops. Germany also voted with the majority in March when the European Commission (EC) attempted to force Austria and Hungary to reverse their bans, and its ruling was overturned by a big majority [1]. Ban by Germany the tipping point Germany’s move was broadly welcomed by its news media [4]. German Agriculture Minister Ilse Aigner said she had legitimate reasons to believe that MON 810, posed “a danger to the environment,” a position which she said the Environment Ministry also supported. Aigner is taking advantage of a clause in EU law which allows individual countries to impose such bans. The left-wing Frankfurter Rundschau wrote: “Genetically modified corn is a risk to our environment, is totally superfluous in farming, represents industrial agriculture, causes pointless costs to food production in Germany and can even ruin beekeepers.” The left-wing Berliner Zeitung wroes: “The new studies don’t show any new risks – they simply prove that the old warning about the risks was justified. It’s a scandal that the subsequent ban was even necessary because the farming of genetically modified plants had been permitted without a thorough examination of all the possible dangers.” Germany, the most populous country in the European Union (EU) ranking fourth in land area, is also its most influential and economically powerful member nation. Monsanto applied for an emergency ruling to overturn the ban to allow for its 2009 planting [5], saying its ban is arbitrary and goes against EU regulations. But the court in Braunschweig in north Germany rejected Monsanto’s application [6]. Significantly, a statement from the court said Germany’s law on GMOs does not require that a ban on a new plant variety is justified by proven scientific research which showed without doubt the crop to be dangerous; it was sufficient when research showed there were indications that the crop could be dangerous. Opposition strengthened by the eastern bloc As countries from the former eastern bloc joined the European Union (EU), the US had expected them to help counter the opposition to GMOs, but far from it. The newer members have added strength to the GM opposition, often in direct defiance of Brussels. In April the European Commission sent a letter to Bulgaria warning over its failure to implement the European Directive for GMO in its legislation, as reported in the Klasa Daily [7]. This was the sixth official warning to Bulgaria for not following regulations. Experts commented that the current Bulgarian legislation is much more restrictive compared to European regulation. Bulgaria supported Hungary’s decision to keep the ban. No patents on animals and plants Meanwhile, more than a thousand farmers demonstrated against patents on animals and plants at the European Patent Office in Munich 15 April 2009 [8]. Over 5000 people and some 50 organisations have filed a joint opposition to a patent on breeding pigs originally registered by the US corporation Monsanto. Protestors want all patents on life to be prohibited by law. Rudolf Buehler from the Schwaebisch Hall farmers’ Association led a herd of its traditional breeding pigs to the patent office. He said: “Corporations like Monsanto want control over agriculture and food, from piglets to cutlets.” The demonstration was also supported by the German dairy farmers alliance, the BDM, and the AbL farmers’ cooperative. “There are new patent applications that range from cows to milk and yoghurt,” said Romuald Schaber at the BDM. “The German government must set limits to big companies’ greed for living creatures.” The demonstrators in Munich have already scored an initial success. The Hesse state government and the Greens in the German Bundestag last month called for a change in European patent laws prohibiting such patents being granted in future. References: Ho MW. Europe holds the key to a GM-free world; 5th Conference of GM-free regions, food and democracy. Science in Society 43 (to appear). Euro News online poll on GM food and farming 17 April 2009, https://www.euronews.net/news/you/ “EU to ‘reflect’ on Germany’s GM maize ban”, EU Business, 15 April 2009, https://www.eubusiness.com/news-eu/1239807722.48 “The world from Berlin: ‘There was no reason to accept the risks of GM corn’” Spiegel Online 15 April 2009, https://www.congoo.com/news/2009April15/World-Berlin-Reason-Accept-Risks “Monsanto sues Germany over GM corn ban”, DW-World.DE, 22 April 2009, https://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,4196705,00.html?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf “German court rejects Monsanto plea to end GMO maize ban” Reuters, May 5 2009 https://uk.reuters.com/article/governmentFilingsNews/idUKL558166220090505?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0 “Brussels makes a sixth warning over environment” FOCUS News Agency, 11 May 2009 https://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?id=n180607 “Farmers demonstrate in Munich against patents on animals and plants”, No Patents on Seeds, 15 April 2009 https://www.no-patents-on-seeds.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=3&Itemid=28&lang=en Related PopularOne of the things you hear around hockey circles in Toronto recently is that Jake Gardiner has been among the biggest beneficiaries of Mike Babcock coaching the Toronto Maple Leafs. Personally I would say Nazem Kadri and Tyler Bozak have seen the biggest career renaissances over the past two years, but let’s look at Gardiner. An analytics darling, Gardiner has his fair share of detractors due to infrequent brain farts with the puck in the defensive zone leading to some highlight-reel goals against, but in a general sense Gardiner’s on-ice impact has been excellent for years. Some level of detail is lost in simple on-ice numbers though, and the devil is always in the details for a player who is relatively gaffe-prone. So if Babcock has had an impact on Gardiner’s game, we should be able to see it in the detailed statistics somewhere. Before we get to that point though, we need to know where to look. We can use the same broad spectrum comparison as I used in ranking the top-23 defencemen in the NHL last season, splitting Gardiner’s two most recent seasons up and seeing if he’s improved in a specific area. Gardiner’s transition game in 2016-17 was slightly behind where he was the year before, but it’s close enough that I don’t think there’s much there to talk about. Where Gardiner’s game did change a bit more significantly is offensively and defensively, so let’s dig in a bit there. The main change offensively came from an increase in primary assists at even strength, and a better on-ice goals for per 60 minutes relative to teammates. It’s possible that Gardiner changed some things offensively that allowed those improvements, but he didn’t create more scoring chances than the season before, or make more incisive passes. It looks to be a bit of bad luck in 2015-16 despite strong play, and getting more bounces in 2016-17. Fantasy Hockey Pool Play the Sportsnet Fantasy Hockey Pool for your chance to score big with over $22,000 worth of prizes to be awarded! Defensively though, there were some changes. Gardiner stepped up his aggressiveness on loose pucks in the defensive zone last season, using his speed to his advantage to create more opportunities for his team to clear the defensive zone. The other area Gardiner improved in is his puck management. Possession success rate is essentially what percentage of plays a player makes that are successful. Whether it’s passes, or skating the puck out of the zone, or a dump out, Gardiner had been below average in the defensive and neutral zones in 2015-16, and made big strides there in 2016-17. This doesn’t mean Gardiner has worked the mistakes out of his game completely, but clearly the year-over-year trend is a good one. Babcock has kept Gardiner relatively sheltered compared to most second-pairing defencemen in the NHL, and who knows if this improvement from Gardiner is due to working with his coach or just natural maturing of his game. But there’s definitely something there to suggest he’s improving his attention to detail.If you’ve ever watched video over a slow Internet connection, you have some idea of what scientists face when working with big experimental facilities like the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The SNS supplies intense pulsed neutron beams to scientists seeking clues to the fundamental nature of materials. Recording how materials scatter neutrons can provide information about the materials’ internal structures at the atomic scale and about their reaction to stress and strain at larger scales. Whether scientists are designing lightweight, durable material for aircraft or components for new rechargeable batteries, information from scattering experiments can help them optimize properties like magnetism, superconductivity and energy storage. But the SNS instruments usually use a file-based approach for data capture and processing. As researchers carry out experiments, the computer system generates files sometimes comprised of hundreds of gigabytes or terabytes of data. Generating and then processing those individual files could take as much as an entire day, says Thomas Proffen, director of the Neutron Data Analysis and Visualization Division at Oak Ridge. A team of Oak Ridge researchers wants to give SNS users an experience akin to streaming video, making acquiring and analyzing data as efficient as possible. SNS and most other neutron-scattering experiments are large, multimillion-dollar accelerators and are in high demand. The SNS accommodates around 500 experiments and more than 1,500 researchers each year. Real-time access might let researchers make adjustments and cut the time needed to get even higher-quality data. To make the scientists’ time at the SNS as productive as possible, Oak Ridge scientists are implementing a new way to manage experimental data. ADARA (Accelerating Data Acquisition, Reduction and Analysis) is an advanced software infrastructure that changes how experimental data are captured, processed and then presented to the user. It lets scientists access their data in real time – like a streaming movie – in an integrated package, rather than waiting for files to be stored. With faster access to data, researchers can do more experiments in less time. The work on ADARA started in 2011, when a team of computer scientists and neutron scientists examined how they could improve productivity at the SNS. The facility has many instruments, but the group found that managing and processing experimental data was a common bottleneck. “So we wanted to streamline the process of acquiring the data, converting the raw data to a convenient usable form, and analyzing the data to extract meaning from the results,” says Galen Shipman, data systems architect for computing and computational sciences and ADARA’s principal investigator. Users, the team decided, should be able to capture and process data as instruments generate it in near real-time. They wanted to enable researchers to process extremely large datasets in a matter of seconds. Finally, they needed to build tools so that researchers could accomplish these tasks from anywhere. It’s taken significant developments in data infrastructure to achieve these goals, says Mark Hagen, SNS Data Analysis Group leader and co-primary investigator of the ADARA project. The huge, difficult-to-process files SNS Instruments generate also come in several different types, some carrying information about conditions surrounding the experimental sample and others holding data from the scattered neutrons. Waiting to examine their data means scientists can’t optimize conditions such as temperature and pressure that might improve their experimental results. Real-time access might let researchers make adjustments and cut the time needed to get even higher-quality data. That’s important because scientists often have only a few days at a time for their experiments. It might be months before they get a chance
, which varied within each population as well. In accord with our investigation here, we believe that the latter may have a larger effect than variation in shape/size, as was observed in the experiments of Martinez et al. (28) by examining mutants with varying numbers of flagella. Such observations highlight the complicated variations within populations of a given bacterium and differences among strains, which make direct experimental evaluation of the changes in swimming speed due to cell body shape difficult. Even measures such as V/Ω should not be used to definitively compare swimming efficacy. Indeed, although Table 1 shows that V/Ω of the forward-swimming helical cell is equal within experimental error to that of the rod-shaped mutant bacteria in broth and that V/Ω of the forward-swimming helical cell is faster than that of the rod-shaped mutant in PGM, when we performed apple-to-apple comparisons by calculating swimming speeds of a rod-shaped bacterium with the same body diameter, length, and flagellar orientation as the helical bacterium (or vice versa), we found up to 50% differences in V/Ω. However, examining the constant-torque swimming speed between each rod-shaped/helical pair revealed less than 15% differences, in agreement with the calculations presented above.Title/Alt Text Notre Dame has landed one of the most talented players in the Midwest on Friday in Naperville (Ill.) Neuqua Valley four-star athlete Isaiah Robertson. The 6-3, 190-pounder's future position isn't completely clear, as he could be a terrific wide receiver or safety at the next level. Robertson chose the Fighting Irish during an unofficial visit to campus on Saturday. He pledged to Notre Dame over offers from Illinois, Penn State, Cincinnati, Iowa, Maryland and others. This somewhat quick commitment should come as no surprise to Fighting Irish fans. Irish247 has said Notre Dame would be at the top of his list with an offer and he told 247Sports director of recruiting Steve Wiltfong the same during the Pylon 7-on-7 tournament in March in Las Vegas. “They’d be really tough to beat if they offered me,” Robertson said. “I really like them.” Per 247Sports, Robertson is the No. 209 overall player in the nation, No. 26 wide receiver in the land and No. 3 prospect in Illinois from the class of 2017.The depth of anger felt by Brawn at Jenson Button's move to McLaren was put on public display today when the team announced they would hold him tightly to the letter of his contract until the end of the year. Button signed for McLaren this week after negotiations to remain with Brawn seemed to be dragging on for what the 29-year-old driver and his management team concluded was an excessively protracted period. Brawn have responded in the only way remaining to them by forbidding Button even to take part in a press conference with McLaren, their sponsors or his new team-mate Lewis Hamilton until the end of 2009. Over the years it has generally been the convention among Formula One teams to permit drivers who are leaving them at the end of any particular season to start working for their new employer after the final race of the year. As an example, Fernando Alonso was permitted to attend a Ferrari celebration day ahead of joining the Italian team at the start of 2010 despite being contracted to Renault until December 31. Brawn, however, have insisted that Button will not be permitted to assume any duties for McLaren, whether on or off the track, before the end of next month. "Jenson will not be doing anything at all for McLaren until the end of this calendar year," said Nick Fry, the Brawn team's chief executive officer. "And if he does, we will be looking on it very dimly. He didn't have any obligations to us in 2010, but there are issues with regard to the [McLaren contract] signing process on which we are in discussion with him at the moment. There are other constraints on what Jenson can do between now and the end of the year which we will be rigorously enforcing." Fry had earlier claimed on autosport.com that Button had not received a better financial offer from McLaren and might even be moving to Brawn's Woking-based rivals for less money than the winners of the world championship constructors' title had tabled. "I am actually earning less that I've been paid with Brawn," Button said on BBC Radio 5 yesterday afternoon said. "But things change and people move on. I always want a new challenge and I know that it is going to be difficult going up against Lewis. "Either of the teams would have been able to give me a car capable of defending my world championship but I feel I need something else. It's definitely not for the money but because I want to experience something new." Nevertheless, it is clear that Fry considers Button to have been disloyal over his new career move and concedes that they feared the possibility of doing a deal with him began to evaporate last weekend after his Friday visit to the McLaren headquarters, as revealed exclusively by The Guardian. "Clearly loyalty would be nice," said Fry waspishly, "but in this day and age you don't expect too much of that. I am always happy when any employee leaves our company if they are going to a better job, and they always go with our blessing if that is the case. In this situation we don't see the logic of the decision and I think Jenson is going to have to up his game if he is going to beat Lewis on home territory." It was reported tonight that Brawn have held preliminary talks with Michael Schumacher about a return to Formula One. The seven-time world champion is said to be a target for Mercedes, which this week took a 75.1% share in Brawn GP. Schumacher abandoned plans to drive for Ferrari last season because of a neck injury.Publicly-funded academic computer network Janet has come under a persistent DDoS attack today, which hobbled multiple internet connections, including the Manchester to Manchester Core Router. Janet, effectively the UK's computer network for educational and research institutions, first experienced connectivity problems shortly after 9am this morning. Its engineers and security teams identified the cause as a DDoS attack and worked to identify the source of the assault and implement blocks. After some suggestions of network stabilisation however, further problems were seen. The network is funded by Jisc, formerly the Joint Information Systems Committee, a non-departmental public body in the UK, whose Major Incidents Twitter account provided the most recent updates: #TT169554 - We suspect that those behind today’s DDOS attack are adjusting their point of attack based on our twitter updates. — Jisc Major Incidents (@jiscmi) December 7, 2015 #TT169554 - We will not be updating this or our status page. Apologies to our customers. Updates will still be provided through our TTs. — Jisc Major Incidents (@jiscmi) December 7, 2015 At the time of writing the tactic is yet to have any great effect, with 35 connections down, according to Netsight. While mostly facility specific, the Manchester to Manchester Core Router backbone connection is also down. Following our publication, Jisc send The Register a statement confirming that: "On Monday 7 December at 9.24 a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack caused unplanned disruption on the Janet network. This has resulted in a potentially intermittent service for all customers. Our network and computer security incident response teams are currently working to resolve the problem. Customers affected have been contacted and are being provided with up to date information." So there we have it. ®When it comes to following up Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, arguably one of the greatest games ever made, developer Naughty Dog had its work cut out (just like it has next year when Uncharted 4: A Thief's Endarrives). How do you outdo that opening train scene for start? Well, you throw leading treasure hunter Nathan Drake out of a plane and ask him to climb, shoot and one-liner is way back to safety, of course! In the latest issue of Official PlayStation Magazine, Drake voice/mo-cap actor Nolan North describes what it was like to recreate the centre-piece of Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception. Even if it did mean being thrown about a green-screened studio by a stuntman. "We did this with the stuntman just holding me up, literally holding me up then throwing me down on pads," recalls North. "This fight, though, is actually two stunt guys. The interesting thing about this is when all hell breaks loose and this stuff is [flying around], when Drake does fall from the plane – and is bouncing around in the air in the process – that was a stunt actor named Reuben Langdon that they actually had hanging from a wire." Of course, the action movie absurdity of the whole shebang (which will return later this year in the noticeably more modern feeling Nathan Drake Collection) was never lost on the veteran voice actor, even when he shooting that iconic scene. "My favourite part is that this guy is holding on by one hand, about to die from falling out of a plane – and he still wants to shoot me! That is commitment from your bad guys, folks! That is commitment! But no, they had him up on a wire. One wire would pull him from side to side, and the other wire in the other corner pulled him up and down, and they would yank at the same time and his body was flapping around for eight hours! For eight hours they did that to him!" The latest issue of Official PlayStation Magazine, with four collectible covers (featuring Uncharted 4, Fallout 4, The Division and Mirror's Edge Catalyst), is out now. Download it here or subscribe to future issues.A poll watcher waits to enter the polling place at Standley Lake Library as early voting continues in Arvada, Colorado, a suburban Denver community, on October 25, 2008. Colorado voters began early voting on October 20th with early voting ending on October 31, 2008. (UPI Photo/Gary C. Caskey) \| License Photo Scott Brabec (C) and Clarence Martinez looks over their ballot cheat sheets while waiting for early voting polls to open in Arvada, Colorado, a suburban Denver community, on October 25, 2008. Colorado voters began early voting on October 20th with early voting ending on October 31, 2008. (UPI Photo/Gary C. Caskey) \| License Photo .Voters line up for early voting at Standley Lake Library for early voting in Arvada, Colorado, a suburban Denver community, on October 25,2008. Colorado voters began early voting on October 20th with early voting ending on October 31, 2008. (UPI Photo/Gary C. Caskey) \| License Photo William Berry (R) buries his head in the ballot booth as he votes in a presidential election for the first time with early voting in Arvada, Colorado, a suburban Denver community, on October 25, 2008. Colorado voters began early voting on October 20th with early voting ending on October 31, 2008. (UPI Photo/Gary C. Caskey) \| License Photo A Florida voter deposits her ballot at an early voting location in St. Petersburg, Florida on October 23, 2008. Starting Monday residents were able to cast their vote early for the 2008 presidential election. (UPI Photo/Kevin Dietsch) \| License Photo People wait in line to get their ballot during early voting at the Chicago Public Library in the Archer Heights neighborhood of Chicago, on October 24, 2008. This marks the first time that Illinois residents can vote early in a presidential general election. (UPI Photo/Frank Polich) \| License Photo A women walks past campaign and voting sings near an early voting location in St. Petersburg on October 23, 2008. Starting Monday residents were able to cast their vote early for the 2008 presidential election. (UPI Photo/Kevin Dietsch) \| License Photo WASHINGTON, Oct. 31 (UPI) -- The early voting revolution has transformed the patterns of U.S. election voting, and most indications are that it is already well on the way to giving Sen. Barack Obama a far wider margin of victory Tuesday than all the pundits expected. Some 36 of the 50 U.S. states have passed laws allowing voting weeks ahead of Election Day. Unprecedented numbers of people -- 16 million so far -- have taken advantage of that. Exit polls in some of the most important of those states show the voters breaking decisively for Obama, the Democratic presidential candidate from Illinois. Florida, with 27 votes in the Electoral College, is a must-win state for Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. Without it, U.S. President George W. Bush never would have been elected in 2000. And of all the four crucial battleground states -- Florida, Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania -- Florida looked the most likely for McCain to hold. Yet already 30 percent of the 11.2 million total potential voters in Florida have cast their ballots. Some Florida polling stations have reported queues so long to vote that it has taken four hours standing in line to get a chance to pull the voting levers. And a poll conducted by Miami television station WSVN and Suffolk University in Florida shows those voters breaking 60 percent for Obama, compared to only 40 percent for McCain, Time magazine reported Thursday. Colorado, which once looked like a lock for McCain, has been trending Obama too, and no less than half of its voters already have cast their ballots. The turnout in early voting across the United States already has been unprecedented in numbers. McCain may even lose his home state of Arizona, where tough, popular Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano has provided a strong popular and organizational base for the Obama campaign Some 120 million -- the most ever -- cast their ballots in the 2004 presidential election. When Bush won with 61 million votes, he had more people voting for him than any other individual in American history. Currently, Obama is on track to exceed both that number and that record. In most of the presidential elections of the past 40 years, the Republicans have been vastly better funded and organized than the Democrats. This superior organization has allowed them to eke out hairsbreadth wins in 1968 and 2000. In both cases, those nail-biter finishes resulted in Republican administrations winning office for two consecutive four-year terms. This year, McCain is relying on the same Republican "get-out-the-vote" organization that proved so effective in 2004. However, McCain lacks the abundant funding that Bush enjoyed then, he does not have an organizational mastermind like party strategist Karl Rove to run the operation and he woefully lacks the enthusiastic support among his base that Bush enjoyed then. Also the 72-hour surge plan the Republicans used in 2004 and are relying upon again has been eclipsed by the vast scale of the longer-term voter mobilization and turn operation that Obama has created. Therefore this year, the organizational advantage in turning out the votes -- especially in maximizing early turnout ahead of Election Day -- is vastly with the Democrats, and the early voting revolution since 2004 looks like greatly magnifying their prospects of victory and potential winning margins. That is because in 2000 and 2004, the Republicans, led by master strategist Karl Rove, focused primarily not on central swing voters, nor on creating a broader coalition base than the Democrats. Instead, they focused on turning out the maximum percentage possible of their core base to again win a narrow victory. They also emphasized negative campaigning to demoralize the Democrats and damp down voting by potential Democrat support groups. But the early voting revolution, combined with huge Democratic funding and Obama's organizational mastery, is maximizing his turnout at the local level. That was a generations-long key principle behind the Democratic Party's enduring dominance in Chicago and Illinois, where Obama served his political apprenticeship. As a result, the turnout in this election is already far larger than it was at this point in 2004, and a disproportionately high number of those early voters appear to be supporting Obama. The daily Zogby tracking poll published Friday gave Obama a nationwide lead of 7 percent over McCain, 50.1 percent to 43.1 percent, well outside the margin of error. Curiously, this lead seems to have been completely unaffected by the unprecedented airing of a 30-minute infomercial, showcasing Obama, on most of the national television networks Wednesday night. Finally, 12 traditional shamans in Peru did their ceremonies and went into their trances to forecast the outcome of the U.S. election: Nine saw visions of an Obama victory; the other three called it for McCain.If the National Security Agency and Cyber Command were to split, NSA Executive Director Corin Stone explained that any disagreements between the agencies would be decided by the secretary of defense and the director of national intelligence, to ensure fair judgment. There have been conflicting opinions on the decision on whether to split the NSA from U.S. Cyber Command, which have traditionally operated as separate agencies under a dual-hat system with the same head. Stone said that Cyber Command is tasked with protecting Department of Defense networks, and the NSA conducts foreign signals intelligence and protects other national security systems, which are already separate jobs. “If the dual hat splits, it won’t make a huge difference, frankly,” Stone said in the Steptoe Cyberlaw Podcast last week. Stewart Baker, former National Security Agency general counsel and partner at Steptoe & Johnson, questioned what would happen if the two agencies disagreed on a course of action. For example, how would the situation be resolved if Cyber Command wanted to take down an enemy’s network but the NSA wanted it to remain open because it was collecting useful intelligence information from the network. “It makes it more sensible to have a civilian head,” Baker said, referring to the current head of both the NSA and Cyber Command, Adm. Michael Rogers. Baker said that it would be unfair if the military branch, Cyber Command, received more authority from a leader with a military background. Stone said that this wouldn’t be the case because in the event of a disagreement between the different agencies, the two would voice their reasoning to the secretary of defense and the director of national intelligence, who would then make a decision together. The NSA is also trying to monitor what information goes in and out of the agency without alienating employees. The NSA has suffered from security leaks due to employees Edward Snowden and Harold Martin, which has forced the agency to focus more on what data is leaving Fort Meade. The NSA has also had to consider intimidating its trustworthy employees during the dip in morale following these security leaks. “It’s about defeating the enemy and making sure we’re not doing anything to enable [them],” Stone said. Snowden and Martin, both NSA contractors, were charged with stealing classified government information. Stone said that monitoring the movement of information has become more difficult with the use of flash drives and other technology that makes data mobile. “Any leaks, any unauthorized disclosures has an impact on morale,” Stone said. “We’ve got a dedicated workforce. They’re extremely sophisticated technical experts working very long hours on tough, tough problems, sometimes for years at a time and when someone is a peer or a colleague or someone they knew or someone they didn’t know decides to break trust with the U.S. government, with the American people, and with their peers and colleagues, that’s something that does deal a blow to morale.” Stone said that there has to be some layer of trust between the agency and employees because carrying flash drives has become commonplace and the agency can’t inspect every one. Stone also said that the employees at NSA especially care about protecting citizen information. The NSA is also working to increase transparency following these leaks by encouraging employees to discuss its mission with the public to be less of a mystery. This method also helps with hostile audiences, according to Baker. “If somebody is standing there and they’re talking like you, and they sound like you, and they’re just an ordinary person like you, it’s hard to hate them,” Stewart said. The NSA’s current organizational system, which was revamped in 2016 under the name NSA21, integrates offensive and defensive cyber operations. Stone said that she believes that the focus on each side is balanced and allows the agency to tackle threats faster. “We have already seen more agility based on that integration,” Stone said. NSA has updated its goals in other ways, including fostering creativity and providing more support to its personnel throughout their careers. Stone said that the NSA has been supporting its employees by focusing on diversity efforts. The NSA runs free GenCyber camps for students from elementary through high school to learn about cybersecurity. The NSA has also been reaching out to students at Historically Black Colleges, such as Morgan State University and Howard University, to consider careers at the agency. Stewart said that the NSA already has some level of diversity because of the many different military and civilian backgrounds of its employees. Stone said there was more that could be done, but agreed in that respect. “We do have a level of diversity that’s extraordinary,” Stone said.Who stands to lose the most from the emergence of math-based currencies like Bitcoin? Of course, the answer is the centralized power structures and they will not give up that power willingly. Here are some of the tools at their disposal: Disinformation & Destabilization The outlawing of math-based currency exchange businesses The outlawing of math-based currency acceptance If they are unsuccessful at using the tools of Disinformation and Destabilization they will move on to the next two. These are what I will address in this short post. In regards to numbers 2 & 3 above, the current trend appears to be towards the regulation of exchange businesses vs. their outright banning. This is not to say that governments would not change their tune in a heartbeat once these currencies became a more serious threat to their power. But for now they have not chosen that path. This gives these currencies more time to establish a foothold in the marketplace. Making exchange businesses illegal would be a difficult task because it would require all the superpowers to act in concert to shut them down globally. This is no small endeavor since some nations may want to compete for the capital that free-market currencies would attract. Of course these nations might soon find themselves at the receiving end of economic sanctions and/or outright invasion. The only nation that can truly defend itself is the “darknet”. This is the nation of cyberspace – hidden behind anonymous websites and encrypted communications. It is the “ultimate offshore” haven. Math-based currencies do not need legalized exchange businesses to survive. Yes, attacks against the exchanges can hurt the current demand (depressing the current price) but they would still exist in the underground economy. The demand for a more efficient anonymous currency would remain. What underground marketeer would want to carry around bags of national currencies when he can have a hidden phone app or brainwallet with access to enormous wealth which is instantly transferable to almost any spot on the planet? Like any banned commodity, individual exchanges would still communicate the exchange rates of these math-based currencies. There are no “legal” exchange businesses that publish prices for “illegal” items yet “illegal” buyers and sellers openly publish their prices on “darknet” marketplaces like Silk Road. There are already “sellers” of national currencies, “sellers” of bitcoins and “sellers” of illegal drugs on Silk Road and similar websites. Each of these commodities can be delivered with little chance of the sender being discovered when proper measures are taken. Seller reputations in these “darknet” communities would become even more valuable. Buyers would still have to worry about “sting” operations. There will always be a demand for these math-based currencies that can instantly transfer value across distance without third-party interference. Since the world now operates on “internet time” we can only hope that the spread of math-based currencies, and their recognized benefits to humanity, continue faster than the enemies of human life can react – essentially becoming ubiquitous and “too big to stop”. Otherwise, they will be relegated to the underground economy and exist at an albeit smaller scale – which is only a 10 trillion dollar economy. AdvertisementsBlockchain startup Chain previewed forthcoming privacy tech for its Chain Protocol platform yesterday at CoinDesk’s developer conference, Construct 2017. Held at the Innovation Hangar in San Francisco, the event saw Chain chief product officer Devon Gundry and product architect Oleg Andreev showcase how the startup, backed by the venture arms of Capital One and Nasdaq, is navigating one of the biggest industry obstacles – building a distributed ledger that ensures data is revealed only to desired parties. On stage, Andreev walked through a technology the startup terms ‘Confidential Assets’, which would effectively add additional data to transactions involving blockchain assets as a way to both mask information being sent to and from users and prove interactions between intended parties. Andreev indicated that Chain is seeking to provide a solution for blockchain privacy that would protect information about accounts, account history and asset privacy. Gundry told the audience: “The magic of the blockchain becomes possible if you publish transactions. So, how do you take privacy back? We needed to figure out a way to enforce the blockchain integrity by all the participants without compromising privacy.” Andreev proceeded to walk attendees through an Alice and Bob-style transaction, in which $5 would go to Bob, and $5 would be returned to Alice. With Confidential Assets, additional ‘noise’, or extraneous data, would be added to the transactions to hide information in blockchain implementations based on its technology. Andreev posited that this data could then be parsed in traditional ways. “Using a key to derive the noise values, you can subtract it from the original commitment and find the value. Similarly, you can show this noise value with an auditor to show the proof of payment,” he said. In an example of how blockchain innovators are increasingly looking to other participants in an effort to further their technology, Andreev also detailed how Chain’s technology differs from what is being implemented by blockchain networks like zcash and monero. Andreev contends that, ultimately, Confidential Assets provides an approach that is more similar to monero, in that it obfuscates the issued and transferred amounts. Conversely, he framed zcash’s technology as interesting, but unlikely to scale for enterprise needs. Gundry indicated that Chain is working to develop this feature of its Chain Protocol with enterprise partners, though he declined to provide details. “We’re working right now to bring this to production,” he said. Disclaimer: CoinDesk is a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which has an ownership stake in Chain. Images via Pete Rizzo for CoinDeskHouston videographer unleashes his archives onto YouTube A Houston man, Josh Burdick, is working on digitizing some of his VHS tapes from the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, featuring footage of the Space City at work and at play. He’s also uploaded a few dozen stills of Houston from 1988 to 1992. less A Houston man, Josh Burdick, is working on digitizing some of his VHS tapes from the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, featuring footage of the Space City at work and at play. He’s also uploaded a few dozen... more Photo: Josh Burdick Photo: Josh Burdick Image 1 of / 53 Caption Close Houston videographer unleashes his archives onto YouTube 1 / 53 Back to Gallery This week, Funai Electric, the only remaining VCR manufacturer, announced the company will permanently shut down their production lines by August. But while VHS tapes may be a thing of the past, some of the movies put on them are still close to our hearts. A Houston videographer named Josh Burdick, armed with his trusty RCA Pro Wonder 300 – using VHS tape – captured a much greener, less developed side of Houston for a variety of projects. Burdick took a look back at his footage as he feeds it into his Mac at home for archiving and setting it loose on YouTube for public consumption. “I just figured out how to work iMovie on my Mac so now I'm able to go through some of this stuff and see what I've got,” Burdick says. So far he’s uploaded videos of local color in and around Houston, snippets of Houston television broadcasts and commercials, and late ‘80s election coverage. You might recognize Burdick’s name from the series of beautiful color photos his father Cecil Burdick Jr. took of the sights of Houston in the ’50 and ‘60s, which were collected and displayed by the Houston Chronicle in 2008. Part of his father’s archive can be seen on his official website and are worthy of viewing if you are a Houston history devotee. One of his father’s photos of the Astrodome under construction in skeletal form has become iconic in Dome preservation circles. Among Burdick's videos is a 1988 commercial for WaterWorld – Houston’s late great water park -- that would probably not fly in 2015. A Houston Post commercial from that same year touts a color weather map and a readership of more than one million. A young pre-White House George W. Bush is profiled in one clip from the 1988 Republican National Convention at the Superdome in New Orleans. “It's fun looking at that old news coverage. I never knew what I'd do with all these tapes I was making but I thought it would be neat to look back at later,” Burdick says. Burdick also posted some shots from inside the Astrodome during the 1992 Republican National Convention. A visit to Houston FreedomFest in July 1991 at Sam Houston Park features a young Burdick doing man-on-the-street interviews with mulleted locals in various forms of inebriation. The finer points of Busch beer are argued. Also included is a special video trip he was able to take inside the Houston Chronicle while he served as his high school’s yearbook photographer in the summer of 1989. Our paper’s photo department was much larger then, compared to present-day where photographers only need a laptop or WiFi connection to transmit photos. One of the longer videos in Burdick’s collection is a trip through the sights of Houston on a hot summer day in 1990. What are some of the biggest changes he notices in the footage after 25 years? “The biggest change is the amount of construction that has occurred. The addition of 1500 Louisiana was a noticeable difference with our skyline. Discovery Green is another example. That area of downtown was not the picturesque place it is now. The area around the Transco Tower is now stuffed with buildings,” Burdick says. Burdick expects to continue editing and uploading footage for the foreseeable future. “I think I amassed about 120 two-hour home videos and about 400 or so six-hour VHS tapes of stuff off the TV between 1987 until 2000,” he says.Americans can legally be kidnapped and held without trial Paul Joseph Watson Infowars.com July 17, 2013 The Second Circuit court has overturned a temporary injunction which had blocked the indefinite detention provision of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) – meaning Americans can now once again be kidnapped and held without trial. In September 2012, United States District Court Judge Katherine B. Forrest ruled that the indefinite detention provision of the NDAA was unconstitutional and blocked it permanently. However, within 24 hours of the ruling the Obama administration lodged an appeal and the law has been under temporary injunction until now. Americans can once again “legally” be snatched off the street and detained without trial based on the mere claim that they provided aid or support to terrorists, despite this being a total violation of habeas corpus. The Tenth Amendment Center has a detailed breakdown of the ruling; “In layman’s terms, Forrest put a stop to indefinite detention, and the Second Circuit overturned that. It also permanently prohibited Forrest from attempting to do so again, ordering her to proceed with the case consistent with their opinion. NDAA “indefinite detention” powers are alive and well.” The group points out that the new Second Circuit ruling is completely incorrect because it claims that Section 1021 of the 2012 NDAA says nothing about the government’s ability to detain citizens. In reality, section 1021 states, “Congress affirms that the authority of the President to use all necessary and appropriate force pursuant to the Authorization for Use of Military Force... includes the authority for the Armed Forces of the United States to detain covered persons... pending disposition under the law of war.” The ruling stems out of Hedges v. Obama, a lawsuit filed in January 2012. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges and several other high profile figures brought the case in order to protest against the potential that the law could be used to harass outspoken journalists and political activists. “Sadly, the “victory” lasted about 10 months. Today, US totalitarianism wins again,” laments Zero Hedge. ********************* Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Infowars.com and Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a host for Infowars Nightly News.Includes high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more. Paying supporters also get unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Please consider donating, every $ helps us to bring you more --------------- great music - otherwise, enjoy the free download! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gravitas Recordings presents volume 2 in the “Virtus In Sonus” series. "Virtus In Sonus" means “Power in Sound” or “Virtue through Sound”. The 22 track compilation is a collection of tunes from up and coming and established producers that Gravitas believes exude integrity in their music and lives. This compilation is meant to be listened to from start to finish as a complete work. Notice how each song plays off the next, the ordering and flow is intentional.Thanks You For Listening. Music Is Love.The Dankles Review: thedankles.com/2013/07/02/virtus-in-sonus-ii-gravitas-recordings-various-artists-free-dl/ The Waxhole Review: www.thewaxhole.com/2013/07/sonic-power-brought-to-you-by-gravitas.htmlThe Kushners on Sukkos First things first. Ivanka Trump is Jewish. There should be no question about her status as a Jew. She was converted by a rabbinic court which – if I understand correctly - had Rav Hershel Shachter’s imprimatur and has been officially accepted publicly by Israel’s Chief Rabbinate. Some people have questioned whether her conversion was sincere since she has been seen and even photographed wearing clothing that would not be considered modest by any Orthodox Jewish standard. But even leaving aside issues of Halachic modesty and the various interpretations as to what is and isn’t considered modest clothing according to Halacha, there is the far more serious charge of violating Shabbos. Which she has been seen doing ever since her father, Donald Trump was elected President. The Gemarah tells us that if someone goes through the procedure of conversion – which at the moment of their conversion requires acceptance of all Mitzvos (even if they don't know what they all are), immersion in a Kosher Mikva, and for a man a cricumcision - then even if they immediately proceed to purposely violate Halacha, they are still considered to be a Jew albeit a ‘sinning Jew’. This is an undisputed Gemarah. That said, 20th century Gadol (and to many the Posek Hador of his time), Rav Moshe Feinstein ruled that in our (his) day when there are so many sham conversions with questionable religious courts and where sponsoring rabbis knew the convert would not be observant - converting only for purposes of marriage… then one can judge a person’s sincerity by how they behave Halachicly immediately after the conversion. For example if a woman is converted before her marriage to a Jew and then she and he fiancé celebrate the conversion by going to McDonalds and eating cheeseburgers, there could be ‘no greater proof’ than that, says R’ Moshe, that the conversion was not sincere, a sham, and therefore invalid. I never fully understood how R’ Moshe’s ruling squares with the above-mentioned Gemarah. But in Inavka’s case it doesn’t matter since the conversion was done by a trustworthy court; with a world class Posek in Rav Hershel Shachter participating. So the question is not whether she is Jewish but whether she – or even her husband, Jared, is considered Orthodox. How can they be, one may ask? Now that they are so much in the public eye, they have both been observed and photographed violating Shabbos, the sine qua non of Orthodox Judaism. Is it possible under any circumstance to consider them Orthodox? What about the Shabbos violations? Doesn’t that automatically disqualify them from being observant since in our day? The answer is not so simple. There are circumstances where violating Shabbos is not only permitted, but required. Famously one of those circumstances is Pikuach Nefesh – saving someone’s life. If Shabbos must be violated in order to do so, one MUST violate it. A less famous but equally legitimate form of dispensation for violating Shabbos is something called ‘Karuv L’Malchus’ – being ‘close to the king’. In such circumstance such closeness can strongly influence the kings decisions in matters that affect the Jewish people under his control. The Gemarah discusses such scenarios and history has had instances where this dispensation has been applied. Ben Rothke has written a very thoughtful piece on this very subject on Rabbi Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer’s blog YGB I am certainly not an expert on the subject. In fact I know next to nothing about the parameters of such dispensations. The problem is that there are few if any people today that do, it seems. Nor has there been much (if any) responsa on the subject of who and what would qualify for it today. It can certainly be argued that no one is closer to the American President (king) than Ivanka and Jared Kushner. If that law were applied to anyone - they would be the ones. They are not only ‘close’ to the ‘king’ - Ivanka is his daughter and Jared his son in law. According to many observers, they are the President’s closest advisers. But is the President the same as a king? A king surely has more power than a President. How ‘close’ to power must one be? And how powerful must that ‘power’ be in order to get that dispensation? Halachic dispensation granted via being Karuv L’Malchus may not be applicable to a President since he cannot order executions of individuals the way a king can. On the other hand a President can surely affect the well being of the Jewish people to the point of Pikuach Nefesh. Does that fact meet the parameters required for the application of this dispensation? Those that defend the Kushners’ violation of Shabbos have claimed that they had rabbinic dispensation for it. To the best of
(Bernstein, 1972; Winocur, 1998; Cheng et al., 2012). Synaptic input may be necessary to maintain and strengthen neural pathways and connections, particularly those at risk after brain injury (Coulson et al., 2004; Turner and Green, 2008). Moreover, this research supports our contention that for the subset of people with moderate-severe TBI that show post-acute cognitive decline and neural deterioration in the post-acute phase, there may be some environmental variables that contribute to their negative outcomes. Post-Discharge Experiences and Environmental Enrichment In the first section, we discussed findings revealing that the brain atrophies and that cognitive abilities decline in the post-acute stages of brain injury. In the second section, we discussed findings that demonstrate that EE can alter the brain (both healthy and damaged), and perhaps most importantly that it has the potential to minimize atrophy after brain injury. Moreover, a mechanism of disuse-mediated atrophy has been proposed (i.e., synaptic input and neuronal survival) (Coulson et al., 2004). A critical question, then, is to what extent do post-discharge factors reflect EE? This is important because it is possible that the post-discharge environment may be un-enriched, and this would in theory exacerbate/lead to post-acute cognitive and neural declines. Thus, it is of value to explore the factors that influence the environments in which people with brain injuries return with respect to level of enrichment, so that factors can be adjusted to provide optimal levels of EE. In the current section, we will discuss how post-discharge variables are conceptually related to EE and we will also discuss findings that show how these examples of EE (or lack thereof) correspond to human TBI outcomes. What is Environmental Enrichment in the Post-Discharge Environment? Continued participation in environments that are challenging, yet at levels that allow people to participate and remain motivated to do so, is the crux of EE. In the section “Environmental Enrichment in Healthy Humans” we summarized findings demonstrating that people who (1) attend more social events, (2) are more physically active, and (3) engage in activities with continuous novelty (e.g., learning a new language, playing bridge) are mentally healthier. While demographic variables (i.e., age, pre-morbid intelligence, level of education) influence outcome after brain injury (Ruff et al., 1991; Green et al., 2008), environmental variables (e.g., access to insurance coverage) also play a vital role in recovery, as will be discussed. We contend that these variables map onto EE in that they provide cognitive, social, and physical stimulation through access to therapy, community resources, fostering return to meaningful occupations, and encouraging engagement in their environments. Post-Discharge Environmental Factors that Influence Mental and Physical Stimulation A number of factors influence the degree of cognitive, social, and physical stimulation TBI survivors experience either directly (e.g., presence of community resources such as a support groups or fitness centers) or indirectly (e.g., by influencing access to therapy). These include insurance, financial support, social support, and community resources. Insurance As recommended by Turner-Stokes et al. (2005), after discharge from in-patient rehabilitation, TBI survivors should have access to out-patient or community-based services appropriate to their needs to facilitate the recovery process. Till et al. (2008) demonstrated that post-acute cognitive decline was negatively correlated with hours of therapy, which was associated with insurance coverage. It has been widely demonstrated that individuals who have insurance coverage receive more access to therapy after discharge than those who do not (Pressman, 2007; Heffernan et al., 2011; Chen et al., 2012; Lundqvist and Samuelsson, 2012). Those that are insured have better access to post-acute medical care, which includes physical, occupational, and cognitive therapies, as well as home health and nursing needs, modification of living environment, vocational training, and job retraining (Shafi et al., 2007). In line with these findings, Shafi et al. (2007) found that ethnic minorities were less likely to be insured and more likely to have moderate to severe disability at follow-up. Financial support Diminished financial resources may reduce opportunities for accessing EEs. For example, Sander et al. (2009) reported that after controlling for age, education, injury severity, and race/ethnicity, income made a significant contribution to the variance in social integration, and in a more recent study, Sander et al. (2011) reported that TBI survivors perceived financial issues (e.g., home ownership, insufficient funds), as contributing to decreased participation in the community. Similar to Shafi et al. (2007) discussed previously, Staudenmayer et al. (2007) examined ethnic disparities in long-term functional outcomes after TBI. They concluded that less social and financial resources were likely implicated as an explanation. Additionally, in a study examining perceived needs after brain injury, many TBI survivors reported still requiring help managing money 1 year post-injury (Corrigan et al., 2004), which may compound the challenges of diminished finances after TBI. Increased financial burden can mean less access to expensive resources (e.g., therapy, participating in social activities, transportation). Social support Logically, a supportive social network influences participation in therapy (Sander et al., 2009; Turner et al., 2009b; Keightley et al., 2011), for example by providing transportation, accompaniment to therapies, supervision for recommended regimens for which safety is of concern (e.g., a gym program). Turner et al. (2007) found that those who had more supportive and closer networks at home had better transitions from the hospital setting to the home environment, as this was related to more access to social activities and transportation outside the home. Post-Discharge Factors that Influence Engagement Without private insurance, and with less social and financial resources, TBI survivors may be less able to engage in stimulating activities to facilitate recovery. However, as we will discuss, there are also factors that are purported to influence the level of engagement in the post-discharge environment, such as the amount of family support and patient education provided, as well as the structure and routine present in their home environment. Family support In Freeman's (1997) review of community-based rehabilitation for TBI survivors, he suggested that the level of care in the home setting, with a strong support network, can play a major role in successful rehabilitation. The family environment may provide a wide variety of activities that are inclusive, stimulating, and meaningful to the individual. Importantly, these are all properties found to be critical for experience-dependent plasticity (Kleim and Jones, 2008) and generalization of relearnt skills (Toglia, 1991). In a case study by McCormack and Liddiard (2009), a TBI survivor receiving community rehabilitation was followed for 3 years. The authors concluded that the supportive and effective care system in his family facilitated his recovery following severe TBI. His progress was attributed to active familial involvement that fostered goal setting and carry-over between sessions. Furthermore, learning took place in his home environment, increasing his ability to generalize skills. The authors concluded that these findings “add further weight … to the thesis that, with the right support, there is no place like home.” Post-discharge information and education Several studies have indicated that the most often-reported barrier is adequate preparation prior to discharge (Rotondi et al., 2007; Sander et al., 2009; Keightley et al., 2011; Sander et al., 2011; Turner et al., 2011b). Many TBI survivors and their caregivers report that they were not given enough information regarding brain injuries (e.g., behavioral sequelae), how to access community resources (e.g., rehabilitation, emotional support, respite services), or how to access or implement home therapies (Rotondi et al., 2007; Sander et al., 2009, 2011; Keightley et al., 2011; Turner et al., 2011b). Corrigan et al. (2004) reported that TBI survivors who initially reported requiring help participating in recreation still did not have their perceived needs (viewed as a measure of quality of life) met 1 year post-injury. Likewise, Sander et al. (2011) reported that for TBI survivors, feeling more integrated into the community was related to greater participation in their environments. Without receiving appropriate assistance and information/educational resources to facilitate the post-discharge process, successful community integration will continue to be a challenge. Routine and schedules Many studies document that TBI survivors report feeling ill-prepared for the transition from hospital to home (Rusconi and Turner-Stokes, 2003). Several qualitative studies have explored the transition home, and the barriers or difficulties that TBI survivors experience (Rittman et al., 2004; Turner et al., 2007, 2009b, 2011a). Rittman et al. (2004) found that, post-discharge, commonly reported problems were increased idle time, boredom, and little-to-no engagement in meaningful activities. Survivors often reported, “… finding something new every day that they couldn't do …” What appears to influence the above is routine, or lack thereof. When routines were not re-established, survivors and caregivers experienced more chaos and disruption in the transition home. Turner et al. (2011a) examined perspectives concerning recovery and adjustment during the transition phase from hospital to home, and found that the process of adjusting emotionally to life at home posed significant challenges for many brain-injury survivors during this phase. Turner et al.'s (2007) qualitative study of brain injury survivors' experiences with the transition from hospital to home made similar observations in terms of difficulty re-engaging in meaningful activities and occupations. However, those who were able to create a routine or structure once at home had better transitions. Essentially, this facilitated participation in their environments by providing organization in their daily schedules, which had been previously often provided for them in the rehabilitation setting. Turner et al. (2009b) extended their work by examining re-engagement in meaningful occupations during the transition from hospital to home in brain-injury survivors. Many survivors reported that recovery sped up at home, and caregivers frequently attributed this to key elements such as creating routines and schedules, which enabled participation in meaningful activities. However, for those that did not have such experiences, not being able to participate in desired occupations led to stress and frustration. Turner et al. (2009b) found that “for some participants, the impact of this change in environment, coupled with the reality of not being able to engage in their desired occupations, led to a relatively unproductive lifestyle in which the main activity of their day involved little more than watching television or playing computer games.” In Hoogerdijk et al.'s (2011) study of identity after TBI, the authors suggested that the adaptation process is a necessary struggle to gain new identity and it is facilitated by engagement in familiar occupations in familiar environments. In line with this finding, Nalder et al. (2012a,b) reported that TBI survivors that were able to reengage in meaningful occupations had greater perceived success of the transition from hospital to home. Reengagement in meaningful occupations was often experienced by individuals with higher levels of global functioning and psychosocial integration. Summary of Post-Discharge Experiences and Environmental Enrichmment The research presented in this section of the scoping review provides evidence that there are variables in the post-discharge environment that influence the amount stimulation and other variables that influence the level of engagement in EE. Largely, evidence suggests that those with better access and resources that map onto EE (i.e., insurance coverage, financial and social support) and those that are in environments that encourage participation (i.e., strong familial support, access to educational resources, more structure) have better functional outcomes. Discussion The most direct (preliminary) evidence of the benefits of EE in the post-acute stages of recovery comes from work by Miller and Green (in press), where more engagement in enriched environments, defined as participation in activities involving cognitive, physical, and social demands, was correlated with less hippocampal volume loss. Further direct evidence of comes from Till et al.'s (2008) finding of a relationship between hours of therapy at 5 months post-injury and degree of cognitive decline, which the authors speculated was ay be due in part to lack of access to complex and enriched environments. As we have discussed, a large corpus of studies have demonstrated the benefits of EE in healthy and brain-injured animals. There is evidence of neuroplastic change after EE exposure, with beneficial changes to neuroanatomy and neurochemistry (Kramer et al., 2004). These studies further support Coulson et al.'s (2004) hypothesis that synaptic input is critical to offset atrophy, in that increased input regulates neuronal survival, and prevents or attenuates apoptosis. This is of particular relevance to the neural decline observed in the post-acute stages after TBI. Turner and Green's (2008) re-formulation of the work of Mahncke et al. (2006a,b) in healthy older adults—that negative neuroplasticity (i.e., reduced activity schedules) may undermine long-term outcome in TBI—is also in accord with the hypothesis that EE may indeed play an important role in recovery. In humans, engaging in cognitively, socially, and physically stimulating activities is related to better cognitive functioning in younger and older adults. Studies have also demonstrated that therapies for TBI survivors delivering continuous and intensified interventions result in better recovery at all levels of analysis, as well as better functional gains. These therapies have critical elements of EE, such as novelty, intensity, and prolonged periods of engagement in meaningful activities. According to Schooler's (1987) model of environmental complexity, when cognitive efforts are reinforced and rewarded, people are motivated to continue engaging in complex environments, which in turn enhances cognitive functioning. However, TBI survivors may show reduced participation in complex environments, due to cognitive impairment, lack of psychological support/facilitation, or lack of resources, and thereby fail to obtain the emotional and neuromodulatory rewards for engaging. These conditions create a downward spiral of negative neuroplasticity (Turner and Green, 2008). Animal literature examining EE has provided critical evidence for the benefits of maintaining high levels of enrichment and stimulation post-discharge (Hamm et al., 1996; Bennett et al., 2006; Amaral et al., 2008; Hoffman et al., 2008). Findings that support the “Use it or Lose it” theory also suggest that continued engagement in mentally effortful activities is necessary to maintain cognitive functioning (Huppert, 1991; Pushkar et al., 1997; Mackinnor et al., 2003; Salthouse, 2006; Shors et al., 2012), and that an individual's environment (e.g., stressful or under-stimulating) can influence level of activity (Winocur and Moscovitch, 1990; Winocur, 1998). While TBI survivors may benefit from capacity-enhancing and intensified therapies provided in hospital, animal models have demonstrated that the effects of this enrichment will only continue to persist with longer exposure periods (Amaral et al., 2008). Furthermore, transitioning from a more stimulating/complex environment to a lesser one may result in a loss of benefits (Winocur, 1998). The aim of this paper was to examine the question whether EE in the sub-acute and chronic stages of injury can influence progressive neural and cognitive decline. The aim of the first section was to establish the role of EE in long-term outcomes, and in particular, in offsetting decline; the aim of the second section was to illustrate that in the post-acute stages of injury, a number of factors influence the degree of EE. We have argued that post-discharge environments map onto conventional variables considered to create EE. Access to rehabilitative, social, and community resources, as well as strong support networks, provides essential cognitive, social, and physical stimulation. Moreover, these factors have shown to influence outcomes. While there is strong evidence to suggest that TBI may be a progressive injury, more research needs to be conducted to further elucidate the role of EE in influencing this decline. It is important to note that the exact active ingredients of current interventions that incorporate multi-context environments and higher intensity therapies are still unclear, and how they compare to therapies that incorporate all elements of EE is still unknown. Furthermore, studies are needed that examine whether there is a correlation between post-acute brain changes and declines in function, as well as the type of environments that TBI survivors return to post-discharge. Turner et al. (2008) recommended that research is needed to explore the transition home after brain injury in order to “(1) Develop a comprehensive theoretical framework of the transition phase; and (2) facilitate both the validation of current intervention strategies and the development of innovative/tailored intervention approaches.” As reported by caregivers and TBI survivors, creating a routine and structure around daily activities facilitated engagement. Furthermore, activities that are meaningful and at an appropriate level (e.g., tailored to the individuals specific impairments) to facilitate participation are critical. Researchers that have examined the needs of TBI survivors and their caregivers in the post-acute phase have recommended increased education provided by health care institutions would be beneficial to ease the transition from hospital to home (Turner et al., 2007, 2009a, 2011b; Arango-Lasprilla et al., 2011). Based on the results of our scoping review, we suggest that more resources and guidelines on how to create structure and daily routines, as well as information regarding self-administered therapies and activities for the individual and their caregiver, would be beneficial. Further rehabilitation support during the post-acute stages of recovery, such as home assessments or on-going therapy maintenance, would also be optimal. Gan et al. (2010) examined the support needs after brain injury and made several recommendations for support services. They suggested that family systems-based services should be accessible, life-long, individualized and flexible, as well as efficient, and that support system-based services should include proper diagnoses, incorporate a multi-component approach, provide brain-injury-specific services that are responsive to needs with proactive follow-ups, and importantly, provide continuous education. The benefits of social peer-mentoring programs as an intervention to enhance improvements in social integration for TBI survivors has also shown promise in recent studies and is currently being further investigated (Struchen et al., 2011; Hanks et al., 2012). TBI survivors often fail to return to pre-injury levels of cognitive function, as well as employment and income, and these factors have been shown to be related with life satisfaction, perceived quality of life, depression and social isolation (Christensen et al., 2008; Eriksson et al., 2009; Hawthorne et al., 2009; Resch et al., 2009; Shigaki et al., 2009; Strandberg, 2009; Tsaousides et al., 2009). Assuming that post-acute atrophy contributes to the failure to return to pre-injury levels of cognitive function and thus successful community integration, then the clinical consequences are notable. While the elements that comprise EE may be different from one person to another, it is evident that engagement in such environments is beneficial at both the cognitive and neural level, and thus it is plausible that EE can offset post-acute deterioration. 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Brain Res. 211, 96–104. Pubmed Abstract \| Pubmed Full Text \| CrossRef Full Text Leger, M., Quiedeville, A., Paizanis, E., Natkunarajah, S., Freret, T., Boulouard, M., et al. (2012). Environmental enrichment enhances episodic-like memory in association with a modified neuronal activation profile in adult mice. PLoS ONE 7:e48043. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0048043 Pubmed Abstract \| Pubmed Full Text \| CrossRef Full Text Lezak, M. (2004). “The neuropsycholgical examination: procedures,” in Neuropsychological Assessment, ed M. Lezak (New York, NY: Oxford University Press), 110–143. Lippert-Gruener, M., Maegele, M., Garbe, J., and Angelov, D. N. (2007). Late effects of enriched environment (EE) plus multimodal early onset stimulation (MEOS) after traumatic brain injury in rats: ongoing improvement of neuromotor function despite sustained volume of the CNS lesion. Exp. Neurol. 203, 82–94. Pubmed Abstract \| Pubmed Full Text \| CrossRef Full Text Lores-Arnaiz, S., Lores Arnaiz, M. 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each of the first stage’s F1 engine was around 7.6 Million lb ft. Again compare that with a supersonic fighter jet, F16: 23,000 lb ft and an engine of the Boeing 747: 60,000 lb ft. 7. The noise levels and vibrations/shockwaves generated during lift-off (or ‘blast-off’ as it is often and more appropriately referred to…) were so high that spectators were kept at least 3 miles away. 8. The 1st stage of the Saturn V rocket consumed kerosene and liquid oxygen. The 2nd and 3rd stages consumed liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. Unlike the space shuttle, or any of the rockets in the Indian Space Program, there were no solid fuel boosters. A majority of the 3000 tons liftoff weight of the Saturn V comprised of the propellant and liquid oxygen. 9. The 1st stage could power the rocket to a height of around 42 miles and speeds of around 2.5km/sec. The 2nd stage took it to over 100 miles in height and achieved near orbital velocity. The 3rd stage was used in 2 steps: first to insert the Apollo spacecraft into an earth orbit. And then it was fired again to get it to the ‘escape velocity’ of around 11.2 km/sec, and onwards towards the moon. 10. The costing of the Saturn V program is also quite staggering. It was one of the biggest chunks of the overall Apollo Program. Across the 1960s and early 1970s, the Saturn V program cost around US $ 6.5 B – this figure adjusted for today’s prices comes at around US $ 35- 40 B! Sources of information Note – I am recounting the high level factoids from memory – based on readings, and visits to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. I have also referenced the NASA website (which has a treasure trove of information) and Wikipedia (which presents information from the NASA websites, in a more organized fashion) for the specific details. www.nasa.gov http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_v http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_program AdvertisementsIt’s a tribute to the good sense of the broader American public that on the 10th anniversary of President George W. Bush’s disastrous decision to invade Iraq, a majority of Americans are aware that the entire enterprise was a bad idea, according to a poll by the Gallup Organization. As Eric Boehlert noted on the Media Matters for America blog, “To date, that conflict has claimed the lives of nearly 8,000 U.S. service members and contractors and more than 130,000 Iraqi citizens, and is projected to cost the U.S. Treasury more than two trillion dollars.” The Gallup’s write-up points out that, “Majorities or near-majorities have viewed the conflict as a mistake continuously since August 2005, the current 53 percent is down from the high point of 63 percent in April 2008.” Despite this widely held view, the folks who battled to defend their misguided judgments 10 years ago—largely but not exclusively neoconservatives—are continuing their bloated claims about the purposes and benefits of the war. Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, for instance, took to Twitter to proclaim that, “10 yrs ago began the long, difficult work of liberating 25 mil Iraqis. All who played a role in history deserve our respect & appreciation.” And yet a majority of Americans are able to see the truth through this ongoing propaganda offensive. It is no easy task to focus on just one deception when examining the Bush administration’s success of selling the war to the public. There were so many lies—some deliberate and some believed to be true by the tellers who were possibly under the influence of self-hypnosis. But I am most fascinated by the case for Iraq’s alleged cache of “weapons of mass destruction,” or WMDs, and the belief that Baghdad possessed not only the willingness but also the capacity to use these weapons against the United States. These quotes from a range of high-level Bush administration officials offer a glimpse into how the administration “proved” to Americans that Iraq posed a threat to our national security: Vice President Dick Cheney: “Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction.” Speech to VFW National Convention, August 26, 2002. Secretary Rumsfeld: “We know they have weapons of mass destruction. … There isn’t any debate about it.” September 2002. Gen. Tommy Franks, then-head of the Central Command: “There is no doubt that the regime of Saddam Hussein possesses weapons of mass destruction.” Press conference, March 22, 2003. Secretary of State Colin Powell: “I’m absolutely sure that there are weapons of mass destruction there and the evidence will be forthcoming. We’re just getting it just now.” Remarks to reporters, May 4, 2003. As I noted in The Book on Bush, statements such as these enabled neoconservative pundits such as Robert Kagan and William Kristol to claim that, “No one disputes the nature of the threat,” and that, “Nor is there any doubt that, after September 11, Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction pose a kind of danger to us that we hadn’t grasped before.” Back then, this was the “price of admission” to be taken seriously in the debate regarding the decision to attack Iraq. We now know that these claims were all false. We also know that members of the Bush administration knew they were lying at the time. In early October 2003, for instance, David Kay, the Bush administration’s chief investigator, formally told Congress that after searching for nearly six months and spending more than $300 million, U.S. forces and CIA experts had found no chemical or biological weapons in Iraq, and had discovered that the nation’s nuclear program was in only “the very most rudimentary” state. Undoubtedly, the administration’s most effective communicator on the issue was then-Secretary of State Colin Powell, who was widely thought to be the most cautious—and hence the most trustworthy—member of the administration’s foreign policy team. In actuality, Secretary Powell personally doubted the case he was making to the media about the dangers Iraq presented to the United States and the world. At a meeting in New York just before he was to present the case for war to the United Nations, Secretary Powell expressed hesitation about the war to U.K. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, according to a transcript of the conversation published in The Guardian. Secretary Powell allegedly told the British foreign secretary that he feared that the evidence might “explode in their faces” once the facts were known. U.S. News & World Report published a more lurid story recalling the interaction, in which the U.S. secretary of state threw the documents and called them “bullshit.” In fact, two years earlier in February 2001 at a meeting with Egypt’s foreign minister in Cairo, Secretary Powell defended the U.N. sanctions program already in place against Iraq. He noted the success of U.S. containment of Hussein and regarding the sanctions, he explained that, “Frankly, they have worked. He has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbors.” Of course, Secretary Powell was right the first time. But many members of the news media proved eager accomplices in this misinformation campaign, just as they had during the Gulf of Tonkin episode that began America’s disastrous involvement in Vietnam. During this incident, newspapers and newsweeklies published lurid accounts of a battle that never took place based on fabricated stories passed along to them by the Johnson administration—a depressing phenomenon that I describe in great detail in my book, When Presidents Lie: A History of Presidential Deception And Its Consequences. The media again fell victim to presidential deception as the Bush administration pushed for the invasion of Iraq. Gilbert Cranberg, former editorial page editor of the Des Moines Register, examined the media reaction to Powell’s U.N. presentation in great detail. Cranberg observed that the secretary’s speech “cited almost no verifiable sources, and was filled with unattributed assertions, vague references, and the like.” Despite this, virtually everyone in the mainstream media swallowed it hook, line, and proverbial sinker. Surveying the print and broadcast coverage of the speech, Cranberg found descriptions of Powell’s presentation that claimed it was “a massive array of evidence,” “a detailed and persuasive case,” “a powerful case,” “a sober, factual case,” “an overwhelming case,” “a compelling case,” “the strong, credible and persuasive case,” and “a persuasive, detailed accumulation of information.” Furthermore, the media concluded that “the core of his argument was unassailable,” that it was “a smoking fusillade … a persuasive case for anyone who is still persuadable,” “an accumulation of painstakingly gathered and analyzed evidence,” and that “only the most gullible and wishful thinking souls can now deny that Iraq is harboring and hiding weapons of mass destruction.” Further attacking those who did not support the war, the media argued that “the skeptics asked for proof; they now have it,” claiming the presentation was “a much more detailed and convincing argument than any that has previously been told,” “an ironclad case … incontrovertible evidence,” “succinct and damning evidence … the case is closed”—and the list continues. I was reminded of the panic over Iraq’s imaginary WMD cache recently not only because this month marks the 10th anniversary of the invasion, but also because the Pew Research Center released its annual “State of the News Media” report this week. According to a section titled “Lessons Learned About the Media from the 2012 Election,” the authors observe that: Journalists are a shrinking source in shaping the candidate narratives, while campaigns and partisans have assumed a much larger role in defining the press discourse. Reporters (and talk show personalities) account for about half as many of the assertions about the candidates’ character and biography as they did 12 years ago—27 percent versus 50 percent in 2000. At the same time, campaigns, their surrogates and allies now account for nearly half of these themes, 48 percent, up from 37 percent in 2000. That shift, giving partisans a bigger role in shaping the media narrative, has been gradual and may reflect in part the shrinking reportorial resources in newsrooms. In other words, the reporting profession is actually moving away from the ideal that their job is not to simply repeat what their sources say—nor to give them unmediated access to their audiences—but instead to submit the claims to tough-minded scrutiny. When combined with the flight from reality that characterizes the modern conservative movement and drives both the words and actions of Republican candidates, we now have a formula for more disinformation in the future, and sadly, more catastrophes akin to the Iraq invasion. No one can predict where and when these potential calamities will occur. But when a democracy is constantly fed misinformation, and those charged with correcting it pass it along unedited and unchecked, bad things happen. Iraq may be the worst of these—let us hope—but it certainly won’t be the last. Eric Alterman is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and a CUNY distinguished professor of English and journalism at Brooklyn College. He is also “The Liberal Media” columnist for The Nation. His most recent book is The Cause: The Fight for American Liberalism from Franklin Roosevelt to Barack Obama.Ford Motor Co. F is one of the leading global auto manufacturers and auto financial services providers. The company's product line boasts of heavyweights such as the legendary Ford Mustang and the F-Series truck, which has been the highest-selling vehicle in the U.S. for the last 34 years. It also owns the luxury vehicle brand, Lincoln. Ford is gaining from its product launches, global expansion, efficient capital deployment and success of the One Ford plan. The company is renewing the majority of its product line-up and has planned several vehicle launches under the One Ford plan, which is helping boost sales. However, frequent product recalls and rising structural expenses are some concerns.As a result, investors have been eagerly awaiting Ford's latest earnings report. Let's take a quick look at this Michigan-based automobile giant's second-quarter release.Investors should note that the earnings estimate for Ford for the second quarter has increased by a penny in the past 7 days to 60 cents.The automaker delivered positive earnings surprises in in 3 of the trailing 4 quarters and breakeven results in one quarter, with an average beat of around 27.7%.Ford currently has a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell), but that could change following its earnings report which was just released. We have highlighted some of the key stats from this just-revealed announcement below:Ford raked in adjusted earnings of 52 cents per share that missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 60 cents. Moreover, adjusted earnings were 2 cents lower than the year-ago quarter. FORD MOTOR CO Price and EPS Surprise FORD MOTOR CO Price and EPS Surprise \| FORD MOTOR CO Quote Revenues Ford logged revenues of $39.5 billion, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $36.62 billion. Revenues were also $2.2 billion higher than a year-ago. Key Stats/Developments to Note Ford reported a 2,000 unit decrease in wholesale volumes to 1.69 million in the second quarter. Ford anticipates 2016 pre-tax profit and operating margin to be equal to or higher than 2015 levels. Market Reaction Ford's shares have decreased 6.14% so far, following the release. Clearly, the initial reaction to the release is negative. Check back later for our full write up on Ford's earnings report! Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free reportIsraeli troops are still determining the full extent of a tunnel running into Israel from the southern Gaza Strip, which was discovered earlier this week, the Israel Defense Forces announced Friday. The tunnel, which extends several hundred meters into Israel territory, is among the largest and most sophisticated ever found, the army said. It is the fourth such tunnel discovered in the past year-and-a-half. For most of its length, the tunnel is at a depth of between eight and nine meters, though it runs as deep as 20 meters in some places. Among the equipment found in the vicinity of the tunnel were generators, security kit and concrete reinforcing. The IDF estimates that the tunnel was built over several months and was worked on until recently. "It's a very high-quality tunnel and much thought went into it," a senior IDF source said. "This sort of tunnel is built for a large operation – a kidnapping or something similar." A tunnel was used in the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit in June 2006. The source added that the IDF's Gaza Brigade has ramped up its tunnel prevention activities recently, including the deployment of special teams for that purpose. In a special press conference in Gaza on Thursday, the military wing of Hamas, Iz al-Din al-Qassam, said that the tunnel was not new, and had been unearthed months ago when rainfall caused its collapse. Keep updated: Sign up to our newsletter Email * Please enter a valid email address Sign up Please wait… Thank you for signing up. We've got more newsletters we think you'll find interesting. Click here Oops. Something went wrong. Please try again later. Try again Thank you, The email address you have provided is already registered. Close "The occupation is hysterical and confused in the face of the resistance army's tunnels, but we're ready for any scenario and we'll teach the enemy a harsh lesson," the group's spokesman, Abu Obeida, said. "Despite the psychological warfare used by our enemy against the Palestinian people, the Palestinian opposition will have the upper hand," he added, and warned that "Israel must not rejoice to quickly for its supposed security achievements because the repercussions of its actions against our people, prisoners and land will be severe and will exact a heavy toll." In response, the IDF said that Hamas "is under tremendous pressure. The discovery of the tunnel is a huge blow to them." Last October, Israeli soldiers discovered a tunnel on the Gaza border, which according to security forces, was going to be used by Palestinian militants to enter Israel and launch attack soldiers or civilians. The forces located multiple entry points to the tunnel within Israeli territory, near Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha and spent several days destroying the passageway. The tunnel stretched an unusually long 1,800 meters, 300 meters of which were beyond the Israeli border. Officials added that the though the tunnel had not yet been used, but it was designed as infrastructure for terrorists to use in the future. In January of last year, a previous tunnel was revealed near Kibbutz Nir Oz. The incident was considered unusual at the time, only a few months after the Pillar of Defense Operation, but security sources estimated that the tunnel was not new, but rather old infrastructure dating back to before the operation unearthed by rainfall. Several days before the operation was launched a booby-trapped tunnel was found near Kibbutz Nirim. All three tunnels were discovered opposite the city of Khan Younis, in the south central area of the Gaza Strip. In the past, a military source said that a "double-digit" number of similar tunnels are in existence. Inside the tunnel, March 20, 2014. IDF SpokesmanNEW YORK (Reuters) - Philadelphia Energy Solutions Inc, the largest refiner on the U.S. East Coast, will not be taking any rail deliveries of North Dakota’s Bakken crude oil in June, a source familiar with delivery schedules said on Tuesday - a sign that the impending start of the Dakota Access Pipeline is upending trade flows. Pumpjacks and other infrastructure for producing oil dot fields outside of Watford City, North Dakota January 21, 2016. REUTERS/Andrew Cullen At its peak, PES would have routinely taken about 3 miles’ worth of trains filled with Bakken oil each day. But after the $3.8 billion Dakota Access Pipeline begins interstate crude oil delivery on May 14, it will be more lucrative for producers to transport oil to refineries in the U.S. Gulf Coast. The long-delayed pipeline will provide a boost for Bakken prices and unofficially end the crude-by-rail boom that revived U.S. East Coast refining operations several years ago. “It’s the new reality,” said Taylor Robinson, president of PLG Consulting. “Unless there’s an unforeseen event, like a supply disruption, there will be no economic incentive to rail Bakken to the East Coast.” PES declined to comment for this story. The 1,172-mile (1,885-km) Dakota Access line runs from western North Dakota to a transfer point in Patoka, Illinois. From there, the 450,000 barrel per day line will connect to large refineries in the Nederland and Port Arthur, Texas, area. The project became a focus of international attention, drawing protesters from around the world, after a Native American tribe sued to block completion of the final link of the pipeline through a remote part of North Dakota. The Standing Rock Sioux tribe said the pipeline would desecrate a sacred burial ground and that any oil leak would poison the tribe’s water supply. But after U.S. President Donald Trump took office in January, one of his first acts was to sign an executive order that reversed a decision by the Obama administration to delay approval of the pipeline. The tribe also lost several lawsuits aimed at stopping the project led by Energy Transfer Partners LP. PES has scheduled just five rail deliveries of crude for May and none for June at its facility in Philadelphia, according to the source familiar with the plant’s operations, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak about company operations. Deliveries are often scheduled months in advance to manage logistics like storage and manpower. In recent months, PES was getting roughly one unit train per day, the equivalent of 75,000 barrels a day. During the boom years between 2013 and 2015, PES would routinely receive three trains a day of Bakken. PES and other refiners built large rail terminals on the East Coast in recent years to accommodate cheap Bakken flowing from North Dakota. The PES refinery terminal, which opened in 2013, was able to handle roughly 280,000 barrels a day, making it the largest on the U.S. East Coast. Rail volumes of Bakken crude peaked at 420,000 bpd, resulting in bumper profits for those refiners. But Bakken crude’s discount to U.S. crude slowly eroded as pipeline capacity out of North Dakota expanded, increasing competition for the heavy oil. That forced the East Coast to rely more heavily on foreign, waterborne crude. Currently, Bakken barrels at the delivery point in Nederland, Texas, in June are trading around $1.25 to $1.50 a barrel over U.S. crude futures. Higher rail costs would boost those barrels to $7 to $8 more than U.S. crude. The Philadelphia Energy Solutions oil refinery owned by The Carlyle Group is seen at sunset in front of the Philadelphia skyline March 24, 2014. Picture taken March 24, 2014. REUTERS/David M. Parrott/File Photo The East Coast has averaged roughly 100,000 bpd of crude rail deliveries in recent weeks, according to energy industry intelligence service Genscape. Monroe Energy, a subsidiary of Delta Air Lines, stopped receiving Bakken by rail for its 185,000 bpd refinery outside Philadelphia in January of last year. East Coast refineries operated by Phillips 66 and PBF Energy are still receiving modest volumes of Bakken crude. “At this point, there are no good reasons to rail crude to the East Coast,” said Sarah Emerson, a managing principal at ESAI Energy LLC, a consultancy.PLT Scheme version 4.0 is Coming Soon posted by Matthew Flatt PLT Scheme is now 13 years old. The initial version was little more than glue code between a few open-source libraries, which seemed to offer the quickest solution to our modest goals. Modest success leads to bigger goals, however, and then continued success leads to ever more ambitious goals. Before you know it, a mass of users, co-developers, libraries, and documentation rely on design decisions that were made for a much smaller project years before. Naturally, many of those early design decisions turn out to be a poor fit for the project’s eventual role. Starting from scratch isn’t usually practical, so you gradually adjust the infrastructure to meet new needs. That was precisely the story for the version 300 series of releases for PLT Scheme. The biggest gap between our original and current goals was in run-time performance, so we replaced bytecode interpretation with a just-in-time native-code compiler, and we replaced a memory manager based on “conservative” estimates of pointer usage with one that uses precise information. Performance improves a bit more with version 4.0, but mostly we’ve moved on to a bigger mismatch between the original and current goals: the way that PLT Scheme presents itself to users. PLT Scheme was originally conceived as R5RS Scheme with some extensions to make it practical, and with useful tools (notably an IDE) and libraries (notably a GUI library) built on that core. Our documentation and web pages reflected that architecture - which now seems completely upside-down. Version 4.0 is a fresh start in the way that we present PLT Scheme. It’s a new language. PLT Scheme is a dialect of Scheme, certainly, but it’s not merely a superset of R5RS, R6RS, or other standards, and those standards are not really the best place to start understanding PLT Scheme. At the same time, the unique extensibility features of the PLT Scheme language and tools allow them to support other languages easily, including R5RS (though a new plt-r5rs executable), R6RS, and more. Improvements to the PLT Scheme language include better syntax for modules, better support for optional and keyword function arguments, more expressive syntax for structure types, streamlined hash-table operations, new syntax for list comprehensions and iterations, a more complete and consistent set of list and string operations, and reduced dependence on mutable pairs. To current users of PLT Scheme, these changes will seem like the big ones behind version 4.0, but they’re small compared to the overall re-organization and the accompanying documentation effort. We wrote hundreds of pages of new documentation, including much more tutorial and overview information. We ported hundreds of pages of existing documents to new a system that produces cleaner, better organized, more consistent output. We will replace the old tangle of web pages (that try to explain a confusing federation of tools) with a simple page about “PLT Scheme.” We have even streamlined the command-line flags for the main virtual machine. The development of PLT Scheme version 4.0 took about one year of hard work. In retrospect, that doesn’t sound too bad, considering the scale of the existing code base, the number of things that we improved, and the total size of the documentation (about 2000 pages in PDF form). Still, you can imagine how happy we are to arrive at a stable release, and we hope that the improvements in PLT Scheme version 4.0 work as well for everyone else as they do for us. For a preview, see http://pre.plt-scheme.org/. The final version 4.0 release is just days away. Outstanding, I can hardly wait! JT http://www.FireMe.To/Udi — Brad, 4 June 2008 I want it now! — Daniel, 4 June 2008 daniel: the best I can do for now is point you to the pre-releases builds online. But it should be soon! http://pre.plt-scheme.org/installers/ — Robby, 4 June 2008 Very exciting! The new documentation especially helped me get started with PLT Scheme. Thank you! — David Vanderson, 4 June 2008 Congrats, all! The re-emergence of Scheme in programming courses is in large part thanks to your efforts. Thank you! — Duane Johnson, 4 June 2008 Thanks, I was waiting for something fresh, I’ve found it. — kib, 4 June 2008 I already find DrScheme good enough for my needs. All that I wish to see is a good tutorial (like the one the Python guys have put together). The lack of a good “official” tutorial, coupled with the difficulty one encounters reading online versions of printed books (SICP), is keeping me from using Scheme as a primary development language (I’m a hobbyist programmer, and barely have enough resources to buy books etc.) — General Maximus, 8 June 2008 General Maximus: have you had a change to look at the v4.0 tutorials yet? They’re at the link in the post (and soon will be on the main website). — Robby, 8 June 2008 You mean this one, right? : http://pre.plt-scheme.org/docs/html/guide/index.html I didn’t look at it before. Looks pretty nice. Since I don’t know much about Scheme, can you tell me how it is as an introductory tutorial? — General Maximus, 8 June 2008 That one is the one that covers the most ground and definitely should be useful, but if you’re new to Scheme I would start with the two much shorter tutorials (below) and move to that one as you need more specific information for some particular task. http://pre.plt-scheme.org/docs/html/quick/ http://pre.plt-scheme.org/docs/html/more/ — Robby, 8 June 2008 I only see the 3.99.0.26 pre-release up on http://pre.plt-scheme.org/installers/. Are the 4.0 pre-releases up somewhere? — databus, 8 June 2008 3.99.x is the pre-release for 4.0. — Robby, 8 June 2008 Great, thanks Robby. — databus, 8 June 2008Living Gluten-free means taking a diet free from the protein gluten. Gluten is responsible for triggering the immune response that damages the lining of the small intestines. Gluten is mainly found in grains the likes of wheat, barley and many more. This calls for a safe and reliable method when choosing food staffs. Here is where applications come in handy. Technology made everything a piece of cake, from the woodwork, the survey to the simples of them all live chats. Today smartphone usage has increased tremendously with more mobile apps created to benefit the user. Like so many other things healthy lifestyles also have apps created for that purpose, which we are going to share as you follow through. A number of apps have been crafted for this type of living some of them going at for less than ten dollars while others are amazingly free. These Apps assists the client in finding restaurants that serve allergy-free foods both locally and internationally. Apart from the restaurants they also offer a guide for grocery shopping for healthy products and ingredients not forgetting teaching the user to read labels. Toby Amidor (founder of Toby Amidor Nutrition) claims that technology is a true time saver and gets you exactly what you require. But which Apps should you be looking for? In a world full of developers it is hard to find a legit application that will ensure that you get the best services. However, there are applications that will leave you mesmerized once you download and catch a glimpse of what they have to offer.SPRING + SUMMER 2020 ARTISTS-IN-RESIDENCE OPEN CALL RESIDENCY SESSIONS: January 22–April 17, 2020 May 20–August 14, 2020 Total Artists Selected: 20 (10 artists per residency session) Deadline: May 17, 2019 by 11:59 PM CST Notifications to all applicants will be made via email on August 15, 2019. APPLY For nearly four decades, Bemis Center’s core mission has been to provide artists from around the world dedicated time, space, and resources to conduct research and to create new work across conceptual, material, performative, and social practices. The independently driven atmosphere and communal environment encourage creative growth, experimentation, confrontation of challenges, and cultivation of new ideas. To date, nearly 900 artists have participated in the residency program. Bemis offers artists-in-residence unmatched technical guidance, access to interns, and an established network of resources. Participants have the opportunity to create networks, collaborate, and share their work with fellow artists-in-residence, organizational partners, and the public. Bemis Center is also currently building an alumni program that will further extend ongoing artist support. STUDIOS AND FACILITIES Located in downtown Omaha’s historic Old Market, Bemis Center's campus accommodates a broad range of artistic activity. Selected artists-in-residence enjoy generous sized, private live/work studios complete with a kitchen and bathroom and have 24-hour access to expansive installation and production spaces within Bemis Center’s 110,000 square foot main facility and the Okada Sculpture & Ceramics Facility, a 9,000 square foot large-scale sculpture fabrication space and workshop. A Bemis residency also includes complimentary laundry facilities, utilities, wifi, and access to an on-site research library. STIPENDS U.S.-based artists-in-residence receive a $1,000 USD monthly stipend and an additional $750 USD travel stipend. Due to the limitations of B2 visas (touring/visiting), international artists-in-residence are eligible to receive reimbursement of qualified expenses, such as airfare, ground transportation, and meals. Bemis Center is not responsible for organizing artist’s travel to Omaha to attend the residency. Additional stipends for studio supplies or materials are not available. ELIGIBILITY Bemis residency opportunities are open to national and international artists 21+ years of age showing a strong professional working history. A variety of disciplines are accepted including, but not limited to, visual arts, media/new genre, performance, architecture, film/video, literature, interdisciplinary arts, music composition, and choreography. Bemis residency alumni are allowed to re-apply after a five-year hiatus from the program. Alumni seeking residency must submit a complete application including recent work samples and current resume. Preference may be given to applicants who have not previously attended. Artists enrolled in an academic program during the time of the residency opportunity are not eligible to apply. Small collaborative groups are eligible to apply. Please note, if selected, Bemis Center is only able to accommodate two members of a collaborative group to attend the residency and live on-site. Bemis welcomes internationally based artists to apply. Working knowledge of English is helpful for international artists as an interpreter will not be provided. Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts is committed to a policy of nondiscrimination and equal opportunity for all persons regardless of race, sex, color, religion, creed, national origin or ancestry, age, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, and disability. For special needs or questions about accessibility, please contact the Residency Program Manager. OPPORTUNITIES AND EXPECTATIONS Artists are invited to participate in at least one opportunity for public presentation, such as our public Open House / Open Studios. This is a process-based residency; there is no expectation or promise of an exhibition in our first-floor galleries. Selected artists must attend a minimum of eight consecutive weeks to receive the award. Artists are not able to defer or reschedule if unable to attend the residency. FEES A $40 USD non-refundable application fee is due at the time of submitting an application through SlideRoom paid via credit card or by PayPal. Submission of completed applications is only accepted online through bemis.slideroom.com. Artists interested in applying to both January–April and May–August 2020 open call opportunities will be required to submit a separate application and application fee for each designated session. Fees related to visa processes or passport acquisition are the responsibility of the awarded artist. APPLICATION REVIEW PROCESS SlideRoom will confirm receipt of your submitted application. Residency applications are reviewed by a rotating panel comprised of artists and arts professionals, such as curators, academics, and/or critics. The application review process consists of an online review followed by an on-site panel meeting. The review process takes 12–14 weeks from the application deadline. Notifications to all applicants will be sent via email after the selection panel has made its final decision. If an artist is selected for more than one session, the artist will select one session to attend. Apply online at bemis.slideroom.com. Deadline: May 17, 2019 by 11:59 PM CST Notifications to all applicants will be made via email on August 15, 2019. REQUIRED APPLICATION MATERIALS Your website Current phone number Current email Current ZIP code Artistic Discipline Are you a collaborative? Date of Birth A brief statement about your creative and intellectual interests and description of how you anticipate using the time and space, e.g. working on current projects, conducting research, reading, writing, etc., if you are selected for a residency. (500 words max) Specific resources necessary to your practice you may require while in residency, based on your interests and residency goals previously mentioned. (100 words max) Current Resume. If you are a collaborative group, include a combined resume listing all collaborative members and reflecting previous work history and projects completed as a collaborative. Please list all collaborative members at the top of the resume. PDF format preferred. Two references including name, email, phone number, and relationship to each reference. References will be contacted by Bemis Center during the review panel process. Letters of recommendation are not required. PORTFOLIO Up to ten media samples of work completed within the past five years including: images (up to 5MB each), video (up to 250MB each), audio (up to 30MB each), PDFs (up to 10MB each), and/or models (Sketchfab). Images should be no larger than 5MB each,.jpegs or.pdfs are preferred. Each time-based work sample should be up to five minutes in length or less. Text-based media samples should be submitted in.pdf format; 1,500 words max or approximately one page in length, (i.e., one page is the equivalent of one media sample). Works-in-progress may be included. All samples must be submitted in English. Do not include external links to media samples or websites. Do not include multiple page.pdfs as one media sample. Do not include trailer video samples. OPEN CALL SURVEY Please answer the following questions for research and statistical purposes. How did you hear about this Bemis Center Residency Program opportunity? What aspect of this residency opportunity inspired you to apply? Would you use your time at Bemis to continue an existing project or create a new project[s]? Residencies you are scheduled to attend next year Previous artist residencies attended Age Race Gender Country of origin Highest level of education DEADLINE: May 17, 2019 by 11:59 PM CST Apply online at bemis.slideroom.com. Notifications to all applicants will be made via email on August 15, 2019. For more information, contact Holly Kranker, Residency Program Manager, at 402.341.7130 x 12 or [email protected] (CBSLA.com/AP) — Philip Johnson was dying of pancreatic cancer when he brought his former wife, Thanh Tran, to the basement of his home in Venice, California. Under a tarp that was weighted down with bricks was a violin case with a combination lock. He gave the case to Tran. He didn’t say a word about it, and she assumed it contained an antique violin that she had once bought for him. It wasn’t until nearly four years later that Tran learned the truth: The case contained a famous Stradivarius that had been stolen from renowned violinist Roman Totenberg in 1980, likely by Johnson, who died in November 2011 at age 58. Totenberg died the following May, at age 102. The last time he saw the Stradivarius was in 1980 when he left it in his office after a performance at a music school in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday, Tran said her biggest regret was that she didn’t discover the instrument sooner and return it while Totenberg was still alive. “I wish he would have told me before he died. Then I could have given it back to the Totenbergs,” Tran said in her first extensive comments since the
nation loses, the billions of animals slaughtered for food lose with their lives. Information is the key to people making informed decisions and creating a better world for our future. This is why I use my platform in racing to talk about these issues. Before I became a race car driver, I earned a degree in biology from the University of California in San Diego. Climate change: what are you doing to reduce your carbon footprint? Read more Ironically though, it is my race car that gives me a voice as an environmentalist – it is at the racetrack where I have my biggest audience and where I am definitely not preaching to the choir. By bringing environmental messages to the racing world, I’m raising awareness on critical issues to that audience that isn’t otherwise engaged in discussions of climate change. I hope Americans will not wait for the government to catch up and will educate themselves about their food and the impact it has on our planet.Through all of the reports and rumors regarding the final days of Randy Moss in New England, there has been no suggestion that Moss had any trouble or friction with quarterback Tom Brady. There is now. Charley Casserly of CBS reports that Moss and Brady went toe-to-toe on a recent occasion, and that they had to be separated. Brady reportedly expressed disappointment with Randy’s behavior, and Brady told Moss that he should cut his beard. Moss responded by telling Brady to cut his hair, saying (per Casserly) that Brady looks like a girl. And now we know why Tom Brady has been silent on the situation. UPDATE: Some of you think Casserly was joking. Watch the video and come to your own conclusion. (We don’t think Casserly was joking.)Moshe Phillips and Benyamin Korn, RZA Mr. Phillips is president of the Religious Zionists of America, Philadelphia Chapter; Mr. Korn, the former executive editor of the Philadelphia Jewish Exponent, is chairman of the RZA-Philadelphia. More from the author ► Mr. Phillips is president of the Religious Zionists of America, Philadelphia Chapter; Mr. Korn, the former executive editor of the Philadelphia Jewish Exponent, is chairman of the RZA-Philadelphia. On the first day of the Gaza war, Philip Gordon, the Obama administration's "Coordinator for the Middle East," lectured the Israelis on why they should make more concessions to the Palestinians, including apparently taking down security checkpoints in the territories. On the third day of the Gaza war, the Palestinians reminded everyone why those security checkpoints should be remained--and even expanded. Gordon began with the usual rhetoric about how "both sides" have not made the necessary decisions for peace, how both sides have engaged in "mutual dehumanization," and how "both sides" need to use restraint. In doing so, he underscored the inability of the Obama administration to distinguish between aggressor and victim, between a corrupt pro-terror regime and a reliable democratic ally--in other words, between right and wrong. For this administration, Israel is not America's only real ally in the Middle East; both Israel and the Palestinian Authority are America's allies. Gordon's praise of the PA's supposed "courage and reliability" made the administration's perspective all too clear. Then he proceeded to berate Israel about how "walls and missile defense systems" will not give it true protection. "True safety for Israel," he insisted, will only come when there is an independent Palestinian state camped out along Israel's nine-miles-wide borders. Using carefully-chosen language, Gordon also went out of his way to demand that Israel ensure not only "sovereignty and freedom," but also "dignity" for the Palestinians. He brought up the "dignity" issue not once, not twice, but three separate times in his speech. Speeches such as Gordon are carefully written by the State Department's Mideast team and vetted by the department's top officials. Every word is deliberate and has meaning. As the State Department knows full well, the Palestinian Authority and its supporters routinely use the word "dignity" in connection with a specific political demand: that Israel remove the security checkpoint that it operates in various parts of the Judea-Samaria (West Bank) territories. Philip Gordon's thrice-stated demand for "dignity" seems to be a thinly-disguised call for Israel to remove the checkpoints. Just like the security checkpoints at every American airport, the purpose of the Israeli checkpoints is to deter and catch terrorists. Travelers do not enjoy the inconvenience of having to remove their shoes or submit to a body search, but to call such security measures "undignified" or "humiliating" is absurd. The absurdity of Gordon's "dignity" demand on the first day of the war became painfully clear by the third day of the war. That's when Israeli border guards at the Oranim checkpoint, on Highway 5 near the Arab city of Qalqilya, noticed something suspicious about a particular automobile. The driver was then subjected to the supposedly "undignified" and "humiliating" process of having his car carefully examined. That's when the guards discovered a hidden coking gas tank, connected to explosives. The driver confessed that he was on his way to carry out a terrorist attack. Had he reached his target with a weapon of that caliber, the consequences would have been catastrophic. Most of the current attacks against Israel are being launched from Gaza, but Palestinian Arab terrorists in Judea-Samaria are trying to do their share, too. In any war, the bare minimum a country needs to do is to carefully screen foreigners who try to cross its borders. If Philip Gordon and the Obama administration had their way, the Oranim checkpoint would no longer exist, the Palestinians would have their "dignity," while Israel would be burying the dead from the gas tank attack. Second lesson from the Gaza war: Keep the security checkpoints and expand them if necessary, whether the State department likes it or not. [The authors are members of the board of the Religious Zionists of America.]A colored version of my rendition of Minecraft's most popular mob: The Creeper. My idea of this was that Creepers are a plant-like creature that shares reptilian and insect-like traits. The skin of the Creeper contains hundreds of scales which collect leaves and other forms of plant life. The collection of plant life has formed a symbiotic connection with the Creeper, as it can camouflage it from any other animal, proving it to be an excellent hunter. Inside of the Creeper is a gaseous pouch that expands as a self-defense mechanism. When the Creeper explodes, it shoots out its razor sharp scales as a form of shrapnel, damaging anything in its blast zone. When the Creeper explodes, it spreads hundreds of spores into the air, which acts as a form of reproduction. Some people have found a material in the corpse of a creeper that has a similar reaction as gunpowder, leading many to use it as a form of explosive material.TIE Crusader Production information Manufacturer Sienar Fleet Systems Product line TIE Series Model Twin Ion Engine Crusader Class Starfighter Cost 1,470,000 credits Technical specifications Length 11.7 meters Width 14.4 meters Maximum acceleration 26 MGLT/second MGLT 211 MGLT Maximum speed (atmospheric) 2,150 km/h Engine units SFS Q-s5.8 twin ion engines Hyperdrive rating Class 1.3 Hyperdrive system SFS ND7 hyperdrive motivator Shielding Forward/Rear projecting Novaldex deflector shield generators Hull Titanium hull with Quadanium steel solar panels Navigation systems SFS Z-s8 Navcon Armament SFS L-s9.3 laser cannons(4) SFS M-g-2 launchers (2) (concussion missiles) Crew 1 Cargo capacity 150 kilograms Consumables 3 weeks Usage Role Fighter-bomber support Era(s) Rise of the Empire Affiliation Empire And we thought the TIE Defender was bad news! —(Unknown Rebel pilot) TIE Crusader, commonly known as the Crusader, was a high-performance TIE series starfighter developed for the Imperial Navy by Sienar Fleet Systems shortly before the Battle of Endor. Representing a shift in starfighter design from previous TIE models, the ship featured a hyperdrive as well as deflector shields to allow it to operate independently of Imperial capital ships. The ship's speed and agility, combined with its firepower, made it arguably the most advanced starfighter available at the time, even more so than the TIE DefenderIntroduction This course details all you need to know to start doing web penetration testing. PentesterLab tried to put together the basics of web testing and a summary of the most common vulnerabilities with the LiveCD to test them. Once you access the web application, you should see the following page: The Web Web applications are probably the most common services exposed by companies and institutions on the internet; furthermore, most old applications have now a "web version" to be available in the browser. This massive transformation makes web security an important part of a network's security. Security model of the web The basis of the security model of the web is really simple: don't trust the client. Most information a server will receive can be spoofed by the client. Better to be safe than sorry; it's better to filter and escape everything than to realize later on that a value you thought was not user-controlled is. Web security risks Web applications present all the risks of normal applications: Compromise. Information leak. Reputational damage. Information loss. Money loss. Web technologies Architecture Most web applications rely on 3 components: The client: a web browser in most cases. The web server that will receive requests from the client. An application server can be involved to process the requests; in that case the web server will just forward the requests to the application server. The storage backend to retrieve and save information, most commonly a database. All these components may have different behaviours that will impact the existence and exploitability of vulnerability. All these components can also present vulnerabilities or security issues. Client side technologies Most of the client side technologies are used every day by most Internet users: HTML, JavaScript, Flash... through their browsers (Chromium, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari...). However, web applications' clients can also be a thick client connecting to a web service or just a script. Server side technologies On the server side a lot of technologies can be used and even if all may be vulnerable to any web issue, some issues are more likely to happen for a given technology. The server side can be divided into more sub-categories: Web servers like Apache, lighttpd, Nginx, IIS... Application servers like Tomcat, Jboss, Oracle Application server... The programming language used: PHP, Java, Ruby, Python, ASP, C#,... This programming language can also be used as part of a framework like Ruby-on-Rails,.Net MVC, Django. Storage backend The storage backend can be located on the same server as the web server or on a different one. This can explain weird behaviour during the exploitation of some vulnerabilities. A few examples of backends are: Simple files. Relational databases like Mysql, Oracle, SQL Server, PostgreSQL. Other databases like MongoDB, CouchDB. Directories like openLDAP or Active Directory. An application can use more than one storage backend. For example, some applications use LDAP to store users and their credentials and use Oracle to store information. The HTTP protocol HTTP is the base of the web, it's really important to have a deep understanding of this protocol in order to perform web security testing. Knowing and understanding HTTP specificities will often allow you to find vulnerabilities and exploit them. A Client-server dialog HTTP is a dialog between one client and one server. The client, the browser, sends a request to the server, and then the server responds to this request. HTTP has the advantages of being a text protocol and therefore really easy to read, understand and learn for a human being. By default, most web servers are available on port TCP/80. When your browser connects to a URL http://pentesterlab.com/, it's in fact doing a TCP connection to the port 80 of the IP corresponding to the name pentesterlab.com. The most common request occurs when a browser asks the server for content. The browser sends a request composed of the following elements: An HTTP method that will allow the server to understand what kind of operation the browser wants to perform. A resource that corresponds to what the client is trying to access on the server. A version that will allow the server to know what version of HTTP the browser is talking. Optionally, various headers giving more information to the server like the browser's name and version, the preferred language of the user (like in English, German, French,...),... Depending on the HTTP method used, a request body. As an example, a request to the URL http://vulnerable/index.php will correspond to the following HTTP request: GET /index.php HTTP/1.1 Host: vulnerable User-Agent: Mozilla Firefox Requests Methods Many HTTP methods exist: The GET method: to request for content, it's the most common request sent by browsers; The POST method: POST is used to send a larger amount of data; it's used by most forms and also for file upload. The HEAD method: the HEAD method is very similar to the GET request, the only difference is in the response provided by the server, the response will only contain the headers and no body. HEAD is massively used by web spiders to check if a web page has been updated without downloading the full page content. There are many other HTTP methods: PUT, DELETE, PATCH, TRACE, OPTIONS, CONNECT... You can read more about them on the Wikipedia page. Parameters Another important part of the request are the parameters. When a client accesses the following page http://vulnerable/article.php?id=1&name=2, the following request is sent to the web server: GET /article.php?id=1&name=2 HTTP/1.1 Host: vulnerable User-Agent: Mozilla Firefox POST requests are really similar, but instead the parameters are sent in the request body. For example, the following form: <html> [...] <body> <form action="/login.php" method="POST"> Username: <input type="text" name="username"/> <br/> Password: <input type="password" name="password"/> <br/> <input type="submit" value="Submit"> </form> </body> </html> This HTML code corresponds to the following login form: Once the form is filled with the following values: username equals 'admin', password equals 'Password123'. And after it gets submitted, the following request is sent to the server: POST /login.php HTTP/1.1 Host: vulnerable User-Agent: Mozilla Firefox Content-Length: 35 username=admin&password=Password123 NB: if the method GET was used in the <form tag, the values provided will be sent as part of the URL and look like: GET /login.php?username=admin&password=Password123 HTTP/1.1 Host: vulnerable User-Agent: Mozilla Firefox If the form tag contains an attribute enctype="multipart/form-data", the request sent will be different: POST /upload/example1.php HTTP/1.1 Host: vulnerable Content-Length: 305 User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 [...] AppleWebKit Content-Type: multipart/form-data; boundary=----WebKitFormBoundaryfLW6oGspQZKVxZjA ------WebKitFormBoundaryfLW6oGspQZKVxZjA Content-Disposition: form-data; name="image"; filename="myfile.html" Content-Type: text/html My file ------WebKitFormBoundaryfLW6oGspQZKVxZjA Content-Disposition: form-data; name="send" Send file ------WebKitFormBoundaryfLW6oGspQZKVxZjA-- We can see that there is a different Content-type header: Content-Type: multipart/form-data; boundary=----WebKitFormBoundaryfLW6oGspQZKVxZjA. The " Webkit " comes from a Webkit-based browser; other browsers will use a long random string instead. This string is repeated for every part of the multipart information. The last part contains the string followed by --. When you upload a file, this is what the browser uses. In the multi-part section dedicated to the file, you will see the following information: The file name: myfile.html. . The parameter name: image. . The file content type: text/html. . The file content: My file. It's also possible to send parameters as an array (or hash depending on the parsing performed on the server side). You can for example use: /index.php?id[1]=0 to encode an array containing the value 0. This method of encoding is often used by frameworks to perform automatic request to object mapping. For example, the following request: user[name]=louis&user[group]=1 will be mapped to an object User with the attribute name equal to louis and the attribute group mapped to 1. This automatic mapping can sometimes be exploited using attacks named mass-assignment. By sending additional parameters, you can, if the application does not protect against it, change attributes in the receiving object. In our previous example, you could for example add user[admin]=1 to the request and see if your user gets administrator privileges. HTTP Headers As we saw, HTTP requests contain a lot of HTTP Headers. You can obviously manipulate all of them but if you provide incorrect values the request is likely to be rejected or the header won't be used. Furthermore, most applications only use few HTTP headers: Referer : to know where the clients come from; : to know where the clients come from; Cookie : to retrieve the cookies; : to retrieve the cookies; User-Agent : to know what browser users use; : to know what browser users use; X-Forwarded-For : to get the source IP address (even if it's not the best method to do this). Other HTTP headers are mostly used by the web server, you can also find security vulnerabilities in their handling. However, you are less likely to find a bug in a web server than in a web application. One of the most important headers is Host. The Host header is mainly used by the web server to know what web site you are trying to access. When more than one website is hosted on the same server, the web server uses this header to do virtual-hosting: even if you are always connecting to the same IP address, the server reads the Host information and serves the right content based on this. If you put the IP address in the Host header or an invalid hostname, you can sometimes get another website and get extra-information from this. Responses When you send a request, the server will respond back with an HTTP response. For example, the following response could be sent back: HTTP/1.1 200 OK Date: Sun, 03 Mar 2013 10:56:20 GMT Server: Apache/2.2.16 (Debian) X-Powered-By: PHP/5.3.3-7+squeeze14 Content-Length: 6988 Content-Type: text/html <!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en"> <head> <meta charset="utf-8"> <title>PentesterLab » Web for Pentester</title> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0"> <meta name="description" content="Web For Pentester"> <meta name="author" content="Louis Nyffenegger [email protected]"> [...] An important part of the response is the status code; it's followed by a reason and is located in the first line of the response. It's used by clients to know how to handle the response. The following status codes are the most common ones: 200 OK : the request was processed successfully. : the request was processed successfully. 302 Found : used to redirect users, for example when they logout, to send them back to the login page. : used to redirect users, for example when they logout, to send them back to the login page. 401 Unauthorized : when the resource's access is restricted. : when the resource's access is restricted. 404 Not found : the resource requested by the client was not found. : the resource requested by the client was not found. 500 Internal Server Error : an error occured during the processing of the request. Some of them are far less common like 418: I'm a teapot. After the status code, you can see the HTTP headers. HTTP headers contain a lot of information and will influence how the browser will handle the request and interpret its content. In the response above, we can see the following information: The date. The Server header which provides a lot of information about what the remote web server is. header which provides a lot of information about what the remote web server is. The X-Powered-By header that gives even more information. header that gives even more information. The Content-Length header to tell the browser how big the response will be. header to tell the browser how big the response will be. The Content-Type header to tell the browser what to expect. This header will change the browser behaviour; if the header is text/html, the browser will try to render the response. If it's text/plain, it shouldn't try to render it. The content is the information sent back. It can be an HTML page, some images, everything basically. When your browser retrieves a HTML page, it will parse it and retrieve each of the resources automatically: JavaScript files. CSS files. Images. ... HTTPs HTTPs is just HTTP done on top of a Secure Socket Layer (SSL). The SSL part ensures the client that: He's talking to the right server: authentication; The communication is secure: encryption. Multiple versions of SSL exist with some of them considered weak (SSLv1 and SSLv2). SSL can also be used to ensure the client's identity. Client certificates can be used to ensure that only people with valid certificates can connect to the server and send requests. This is a great way to limit access to a service, and is often used for systems requiring a high security level (payment gateway, sensitive web service). However, maintaining certificates (and revocation lists) can be a pain for large deployments. Listening to HTTP traffic There are 3 ways to listen to HTTP traffic: By listening to the network directly with tools like Wireshark or tcpdump. In the browser; most browsers have an extension allowing a user to see what traffic is transmitted and received. By setting up a proxy between the browser and server. Each of these methods has advantages and disadvantages. We will see later that it really depends on whether or not the communications are using Secure Socket Layer (SSL), and whether or not the user wants to be able to intercept/modify the request. Generating HTTP traffic Generating HTTP traffic can be performed in different ways: Since it's a text-oriented protocol, you can just use a tool like telnet or netcat and type your request. Sending HTTP traffic can also be done using a programming language. All of them can easily be used to write and read traffic from a socket, and communicate with the server. Furthermore, most languages have an HTTP library allowing a programmer to easily build and send requests and get the corresponding responses. Finally, the easiest way to generate an HTTP request is to use a browser. Using a browser is obviously the easiest way to access a website. However, other methods will allow you to have better access to details, and to craft any HTTP requests. Using telnet (or netcat) you can quickly send HTTP requests: $ telnet vulnerable 80 GET / HTTP/1.1 Host: vulnerable [...] You can also do the same thing using netcat: $ echo "GET / HTTP/1.1\r Host: vulnerable\r \r " \| nc vulnerable 80 [...] Data encoding Code vs. data Most security issues come from the fact that an attacker is able to put code where the application expects data. Most of the web security issues like XSS or SQL injections come from this; the application receives data, but uses this data as code. URL encoding As we have seen, some characters are used in HTTP to distinguish between: Each request's lines: \r . . Each part of the HTTP request (like between the method and the URI): space. . The path and the parameters:?. . Each parameter: & ; ; A parameter name and the corresponding value: =. However, for most attacks these characters are needed, in order to ensure a character is understood as a value and not as part of a request's delimiter; it needs to be encoded. The simplest encoding consists of using % followed by the hexadecimal value of the character. In the same way, since % is used to encode values, it should be encoded... In order to retrieve the hexadecimal value of a given character, the ascii table can be used. The following table shows characters used as part of the HTTP protocol and their URL-encoded value: Character URL encoded value \r %0d %0a %20 or `+`? %3f & %26 = %3d ; %3b # %23 % %25 You can use the ASCII table to get the full list. It can be retrieved by running man ascii on most Linux systems, or by googling "ascii table". If you are doing a lot of web application testing, it's probably a good idea to print the ascii table and keep it on your desk. Double encoding Sometimes, the system being tested can also decode the provided value, twice. For example, the web server can do a first decoding and the application a second one. In this case, you will need to double encode the special characters you want to send. To do so, you just need to re-encode the encoded value. For example, if you want to double-encoded an equal sign =, you will need to encode it as a %3d and then re-encode it: %253d. Once receiving %253d, the web server may decode it as %3d and the web application may decode %3d again as =. Double encoding can also be used to bypass some filtering mechanisms, under some conditions. This behaviour obviously depends on the behaviour of each component in the chain involved, during the handling of the HTTP request. HTML encoding As with URL encoding, some characters in HTML have a specific semantic and should therefore be encoded if they need to be used without their semantics' implication. Character HTML encoded value > > < < & & " "e;'' Any character can also be encoded using their Decimal value, for example, = can be encoded as =. value, for example, can be encoded as. Hexadecimal value, for example, = can be encoded as =. Cookies and sessions Cookies (and indirectly sessions) are used to keep information between two HTTP requests. If a browser sends two times the same request without cookies, there is no way for the server to see that it's the same person. You could think that the IP address is enough, however a lot of people share the same IP address in corporate environments and mobile networks (since they go through the same proxy). It's also possible to keep information on the current user using information as part of the URL but this can quickly get ugly and the information is easily available in the browser's history. Cookies are initially sent by the server using an HTTP header: Set-Cookie. Once this header is received, the browser will automatically send the cookie back to the server, in all subsequent requests sent to this server, using a Cookie header. The Set-Cookie header contains many optional fields: An expiration date: to tell the browser when it should delete the cookie. A Domain : to tell the browser what sub-domain or hostname the cookie should be sent to. : to tell the browser what sub-domain or hostname the cookie should be sent to. A Path : to tell the browser which path the cookies should be sent. : to tell the browser which path the cookies should be sent. Security flags. By default, the Path and Domain are mostly used to increase or restrict the availability of a given cookie for the application within the same domain or within the same server. I once reviewed an application where it was possible to access other companies' information by sending the cookies received by companyA.domain.com to companyB.domain.com... The cookie scope was limited to each sub-domain so it didn't get detected earlier. Cookies can have two security related flags: httpOnly: to prevent the access to the cookies by JavaScript code. This mechanism prevents trivial exploitation of Cross-Site Scripting by limiting direct access to cookies using document.cookie in JavaScript. in JavaScript. secure: to prevent the browser from sending the cookies over unencrypted communications. This is mostly used to limit the risk of someone getting his cookie stolen, when browsing a web site without a secure connection. Sessions are mechanisms that use cookies as a transport medium. The main problem with cookies is that users can intercept and tamper with them. To prevent this, developers started using sessions. The cookie sent back to the user contains a session identifier (session id). When the user sends the cookie back in the next requests, the application uses this session identifier to access information stored locally. This information can be stored in a file, in a database or in memory. Some sessions' mechanisms also encrypt the data for security reasons. Rack::Session::Cookie is used by default in Rack based applications (most of Ruby applications use Rack). This provides a different session mechanism. The information is sent back to users, but is signed with a secret. This way, the users cannot tamper with the information in the session (but they can still access it, once they decode it). By default, in PHP, the sessions are saved using one file per session and are stored unencrypted (on Debian in /var/lib/php5/ ). If you have local access to the system you can go and read other peoples' session information. If for example your session id (the value sent back in the cookie value) is o8d7lr4p16d9gec7ofkdbnhm93, you will see a file named sess_o8d7lr4p16d9gec7ofkdbnhm93 which contains the information in the session: # cat /var/lib/php5/sess_o8d7lr4p16d9gec7ofkdbnhm93 pentesterlab\|s:12:"pentesterlab"; A web server can share sessions between multiple applications. It's always interesting to check if a valid session for one application can give you access to another application. HTTP authentication HTTP also provides mechanisms to authenticate users. There are three methods available as part of the protocol: Basic Authentication: the username and password are encoded using base64 and sent using an Authorization header: Authorization: basic YWRtaW46YWRtaW4K. header:. Digest Authentication: the server sends a challenge (unique information to be used), the client responds to this challenge (hash information including the password provided by the user). This mechanism prevents the password from being sent unencrypted to the server. NTLM authentication: that is mostly used in the Microsoft world and is quite similar to Digest. Web services Web services are mostly a simple way to call remote methods using HTTP. It's basically a fancy way to send calls to the server and get a response back. The information sent can be: Sent as with any other HTTP requests for REST. Sent using XML messages for SOAP. Sent using JSON-based message. The remote method called can be retrieved by the server: Based on the URL. Based on the HTTP header ( SOAPAction for example). for example). Based on the message content. Testing web services is really similar to testing traditional web applications, aside from the fact that your browser will probably not (out of the box) be able to talk to the server-side. But once you have examples of requests, you can easily use a scripting language or any tool allowing you to send HTTP request to fuzz and attack the server-side code. Web application security In this section, we will see where application security should be performed. Client Side Security A common misconception of developers is to perform security checks on the client side, for example in JavaScript. For example, to validate a phone number. First the user will enter the phone number: The JavaScript code will then check the value: And the value seems correct: The value will then be sent to the server: The browser won't send the request if the phone number is not in the correct format: The JavaScript will check the value: And reject it: The request will not be sent to the server. These types of checks are inefficient, are easily bypassed and should not be used as security mechanisms. However, these checks can reduce the load on the server, by limiting the number of requests to process. If each client's information is correct before being sent, fewer incorrect requests will be sent, and this will lower the server's load. Bypassing Client Side Checks To bypass client side checks, you need to setup a proxy like Burp Suite. Once you have the proxy running, you need to tell your browser to send the requests through this proxy (by changing its configuration or environment variables depending on your browser and operating system). You will then see the requests sent by your browser and will be able to intercept and tamper with them. Once you set up the proxy, you will be able to intercept the request sent by your browser: Then you can modify it: And the server will respond to your modified request: By using the correct value in the browser, the form gets submitted. However, the proxy is then used to modify the value and start attacking the web application: Server side Applications' security should be performed on the server side. All information received should not be trusted; data itself or data format should be considered as malicious. Don't expect a parameter to be a string; it can be a hash or an array. Don't expect a parameter to be an integer; it can be a string. Even the hostname of the current server (provided by the Host header) can be malicious. Don't trust anything and make sure you double check everything. It's likely that someone will find out about something, if you build a weak application. Don't expect people to not find out about something; if you build something weak it's likely that someone will find out. Fingerprinting Fingerprinting is the first task of a web application test. Fingerprinting will provide the tester with a lot of useful information, which would exacerbate other vulnerabilities, potentially leading to successful exploitation. Fingerprinting the web server Fingerprinting the web server consists of trying to retrieve as much information as possible about it: Name and version of the server. Is an application server used in the backend? Database backend, is the database on the same host. Usage of a reverse proxy. Load balancing. Programming language used. Retrieving the server name and version can be easily done by inspecting the HTTP headers: $ telnet vulnerable 80 GET / HTTP/1.1 Host: vulnerable HTTP/1.1 200 OK Date: Sun, 03 Mar 2013 10:56:20 GMT Server: Apache/2.2.16 (Debian) X-Powered-By: PHP/5.3.3-7+squeeze14 Content-Length: 6988 Content-Type: text/html You can also use a bad Host header (or just the IP) to get the default virtual-host and get more information: $ telnet vulnerable 80 GET / HTTP/1.1 Host: thisisabadvalue Browsing the web site Another action to perform during the fingerprinting process is to simply browse the website and keep track of any interesting functionalities found: Upload and download functionalities. Authentication forms and links: login, logout, password recovery functions. Administration section. Data entry points: "Leave a comment", "Contact us" forms. During this phase, it's interesting to check the source of the web page and search for HTML comments. Comments often provide interesting information about the web site. All browsers allow you to access the source of the web page. You can then search for HTML comments tags: i.e. information between <!-- and -->. Most of the time, the source code is coloured and the comments are easy to spot: The file extension used by the web site will provide you more information about which technology is being used: if you see.php file, the application is written in PHP; file, the application is written in PHP; if you see.jsp or.do files, the application is written in Java; or files, the application is written in Java;... Someone can obviously write a Java application with `.php` extensions or a PHP application with `.do` extensions but it's really unlikely. It's also possible to fingerprint the website by looking at the way the actions are mapped to URLs. For example, in Ruby-On-Rails, developers can use scaffolding to automatically generate code to manage the views (HTML code), the model (storage logic) and the controller (business logic) for a given object. This will generate a URL mapping in which: /objects/ will give you a list of all the objects; will give you a list of all the objects; /objects/new will give you the page to create a new object; will give you the page to create a new object; /objects/12 will give you the object with the id 12; will give you the object with the id 12; /objects/12/edit will give you the page to modify the object with the id 12; will give you the page to modify the object with the id 12;... Check for favicon.ico The favicon.ico is this little picture you can find in your browser URL bar when you visit a web site: This picture can be used as a fingerprinting element since most developers or system administrators don't change it and most applications or servers provide their own. For example, the favicon below is used by Drupal. Check the robots.txt file Another common file deployed with applications is the robots.txt. Some PHP-based applications make heavy use of robots.txt, to prevent search engines from indexing some parts of the application. They are a really good source of information, and can be used to map interesting parts of the application and to find out what framework or application is used to build the website. For example, the following robots.txt is used by the CMS Joomla: # If the Joomla site is installed within a folder such as at # e.g. www.example.com/joomla/ the robots.txt file MUST be # moved to the site root at e.g. www.example.com/robots.txt # AND the joomla folder name MUST be prefixed to the disallowed # path, e.g. the Disallow rule for the /administrator/ folder # MUST be changed to read Disallow: /joomla/administrator/ # # For more information about the robots.txt standard, see: # http://www.robotstxt.org/orig.html # # For syntax checking, see: # http://tool.motoricerca.info/robots-checker.phtml User-agent: * Disallow: /administrator/ Disallow: /cache/ Disallow: /cli/ Disallow: /components/ Disallow: /images/ Disallow: /includes
nightly basis."“Of course if you listen to the pundits, we weren’t expected to win too much, and now we’re winning, winning, winning the country. And soon the country’s going to start winning, winning, winning. […] We won with young. We won with old. We won with highly educated. We won with poorly educated. I love the poorly educated. ” –Donald John Trump, Las Vegas, Feb. 23, 2016 Donald Trump is hilarious, you guys. The Republican presidential candidate literally went from being that guy trolling the world on Twitter to being that guy trolling the Grand Old Party’s campaign. He says he’ll build a wall between the United States and Mexico and it will be huge and Mexico will pay for it and America will be great again. His sexism is nauseating, his ignorance cringe-worthy, his conduct baffling. He provides more memes, gifs, jokes and video games than one could possibly have time for. And he really is winning. In advance of the South Carolina primary on Sunday, a joke circulated online asking women if they’d have sex with Trump, if it meant he’d drop out of the race. My answer would be “no” for at least three reasons: I am not an American citizen, and this is not the kind of thing one should even remotely consider doing for a foreign country. Even if Trump dropped out of the race, what would we do about the people who support his brand of hatred? Would they give up their claims to US citizenship, too? I’ve heard this question before. Well, not exactly this question. As an Italian citizen, I have heard different variations on this question–with former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi subbing in for the Donald. It’s been said before that Trump is America’s Berlusconi, and the comparison is easy to see. Both are older white men with a lot of wealth of dubious provenance. Both decided to enter the public arena after promising they would run their countries the way they run their companies. Both are openly misogynistic while claiming to love women, and both share a questionable sense of humor. They appeal to what in Italy is referred to as “the belly” of the electorate—their gut reactions to the issues at hand. Both Trump and Berlusconi represent populism at its worst. And their tactics work. Both men are populism at its worst. And their tactics work. But perhaps the most striking similarity I can draw between Trump and Berlusconi has nothing to do with their actions. No, the thing that is most worrisome about the uncanny resemblance between these two politicians is the dangerous way the public and media have perceived their candidacies. Donald’s showmanship is unmatched. From headlines to videos to petitions to stop him (including by his adversaries), Trump is the dominant story in politics these days. I made a similar argument before when Narendra Modi was running for prime minister in India. It’s like that trick kids play on one another: Say “milk” twenty times in a row, and when I ask you to think about a color, you’ll think “white.” Talk about Trump everywhere, all the time, and suddenly he’s the only thing people will be paying attention to. Just check out this telling map, which shows the top-searched Republican candidate by county, shared by Google Trends ahead of Feb. 25 Republican debate: Quartz via Google Awash in red. There is an old marketing adage that says it doesn’t matter what they say about your brand (or you) so long that they’re talking about it. The second-most asked question about Trump, according to a recent Google Trends search, was “Is there any stopping Donald Trump?” But clearly, thinking about stopping Trump is not, in fact, doing much to stop him. When Berlusconi had his last comeback, during the 2013 elections, he was brought back as a scarecrow by his opponents. They allowed him to shape their campaign, making their platform one based on being against him rather than in favor of something. This is a mistake that unfailingly favors the adversary, with catastrophic results. But there’s an even more troubling parallel between Berlusconi and Trump: People love to laugh at them. Trump is very easy to laugh at–and I do mean at, rather than with. Berlusconi was too, with his terrible jokes, terrible Italian, and terrible hair. What he said wasn’t taken seriously, and he willingly played the buffoon role, all the way to the Palazzo Chigi. Remember when he called Barack Obama “tanned” (twice)? When he posed making a horn sign with his hands in a European Union leaders meeting? I remember every single one of these incidents—so hilarious to the foreign press. Trust me: it’s a lot less funny from the inside. One day Italians woke up to find our government overrun by criminals and our economy destroyed. Like Trump, Berlusconi consistently seemed too absurd to be true. And yet he was. He won elections again, and again, and again, thriving off any and all attention. People didn’t take him or what he said seriously. Then one day we woke up to find our government overrun by criminals, our economy destroyed, and our cultural mores perverted to the extent that the objectification of women was commonplace. There was no more laughing left to do. Don’t let Trump troll his way to the presidential candidacy. He may not even be the worst candidate on the Republican side—as far as I can tell, that’s a very, very close race—but in any case he needs to be taken seriously. What he says is worrisome and has enabled and indeed normalized some of the darkest and most racist beliefs of his base. (Nearly 20% of his supporters in South Carolina believe slavery shouldn’t have been abolished.) The time for voyeurism and condescension and exclamations of “You won’t believe what he said!” has long passed. Because I grew up in Berlusconi’s Italy, I have worried that Trump would get the Republican nomination for quite a while now. But unlike what happened in my country, I believe Americans won’t make him their next president. That said, a word of warning to Americans and the American media: Enough with the humor and the sarcasm, what you need now is straightforward, fact-based, political confrontation. On the brink of “Super Tuesday,” your country risks becoming the butt of a joke. And believe me, there is absolutely nothing funny about that. This article is part of Quartz Ideas, our home for bold arguments and big thinkers.When a nonprofit developer applied to build 150 apartments for low-income seniors in the affluent Forest Hill neighborhood of San Francisco west of Twin Peaks, city housing officials were thrilled. Here at last was an affordable project proposed not for the usual precincts of the Tenderloin or SoMa, but for a quiet corner of the city that rarely sees development of any kind. “Equity in terms of where we are creating affordable housing is a big issue for the mayor,” Jeff Buckley, senior adviser to Mayor Ed Lee on housing issues, said when the developer pitched the idea in October. But just a month later, the project is in deep trouble — for reasons that go a long way toward explaining why most of the city’s housing for poor people is in neighborhoods where there are already plenty of poor people. For many of those who live in the detached, single-family homes in Forest Hill, the five-story, 132,000-square-foot project proposed for Laguna Honda Boulevard is too tall and too dense. They warn that it will increase traffic, noise and crime. On Monday night, more than 100 residents squeezed into the Forest Hill Clubhouse — a 1919 Arts and Crafts building designed by Bernard Maybeck and owned and maintained by homeowners. The occasion was a neighborhood association meeting devoted to the proposed project. The group, which typically deals with such things as pruning schedules for the elm trees along Magellan Avenue, unanimously voted against the housing development. Joe Bravo, an attorney who is leading the charge against the project, said the opposition “is not a question of being a NIMBY. It’s a question of saving the hill” — the pine-tree-dotted knob that gives the Forest Hill neighborhood its name. “You can’t build 132,000 square feet and make it look like the Arc de Triomphe,” Bravo said. “This is a huge development for the area. It would be perfect for somewhere along the Van Ness corridor next to a Holiday Inn.” The project, proposed by the Christian Church Homes of Northern California, would put housing on a long, narrow parcel at 250 Laguna Honda Blvd., at the foot of the eastern side of Forest Hill. The site is now home to the Forest Hill Christian Church, a portable classroom that the church uses as a preschool, and a parking lot. Some residents took pains to say it was the height and density of the building that they opposed, not the fact that it would house low-income seniors, 20 to 30 percent of whom would be formerly homeless. But others openly said residents of the complex would bring with them the sort of quality-of-life problems that neighborhoods west of Twin Peaks are largely immune from. One resident said at Monday night’s meeting, “We don’t know if there are going to be sex offenders living there.” Another asked Christian Church Homes representatives, “What resources are you going to provide to make sure my 11-year-old girl is safe?” Jamie Wong, a Sunset District native who has lived in Forest Hill for nearly a decade, said she is worried about the development destabilizing the hillside and changing the feel of the area. “As a parent, I am concerned about people with mental illness and drug addictions,” she said. “I want my kids to be able to play outside — that’s why we bought a house here.” The controversy underscores how antidevelopment sentiment tends to squeeze low-income projects into a limited number of dense neighborhoods. Paradoxically, it’s more expensive to build in those poorer downtown districts than in places like Forest Hill, where height limits and more expansive parcels mean projects can use cheaper, wood-frame construction. Sites near downtown tend to be small and pencil out economically only if the structures are tall, which requires costly concrete or steel-frame construction. Kathleen Mertz, vice president of development for Christian Church Homes, said in an interview that the initial rendering for the Forest Hill project isn’t necessarily representative of what would be built. Plans could change, she said. “I’m there to listen,” Mertz said before the meeting. “Everyone needs to participate together to help be part of the solutions of the affordability crisis in San Francisco. I would argue that being able to live and thrive and age in place in San Francisco is part of making a holistic and inclusive community. That means having housing for people at all income levels, all family types and all life stages.” Mark Watts, president of the Forest Hill Association Board of Directors, said he supports affordable housing on the site, but that the initial proposal “looks like a Russian gulag.” Watts added, “People are afraid of formerly homeless people wandering around the neighborhood attacking our kids and pushing our elderly down. That is not something I am worried about, but that is what people are afraid of.” Tim Colen of the advocacy group Housing Action Coalition lives in Forest Hill and is trying to ease his neighbors’ concerns. He’s hoping to organize a tour of other developments in the city that house low-income seniors. “People owe it to themselves to go and look at what low-income senior housing is all about, how it’s run and managed,” Colen said. “They are missing an opportunity to extend a welcome to a group of people not currently represented in the neighborhood.” The project will ultimately need Board of Supervisors approval, which will be less likely if Supervisor Norman Yee, who represents the neighborhood, doesn’t change his mind. Given the lack of community support, he said, “I am unable to support... this project in its current form.” It’s been so long since affordable housing was constructed west of Twin Peaks that “it’s something new and unfamiliar” to many residents, said Kate Hartley, deputy director of the mayor’s office of housing and community. “The fears that some people have expressed will not be realized,” she said. “We want everyone to understand that affordable housing in San Francisco is very high quality and very well done.” J.K. Dineen is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @sfjkdineenLee Ji-young and her cat, Nabi, sit together in the Fantasy Forest of Gotjawal Park on Jeju Island. The two often guide the way together. [KWON HYuK-JAE] While Lee Ji-young was working one day as a forest guide at the Fantasy Forest of Gotjawal Park on Jeju Island, three blind visitors were placed under her wing.The 29-year-old recalled how she struggled at the time to explain the names of each flower or which types of seeds were safe for consumption. She was also worried they might hurt themselves on stray branches or thorn bushes.But Lee’s worries turned out to be for nothing. The three visitors connected with their surroundings using their other senses. They could not see the forest, but they could feel it. They followed the scent of each flower and felt the warm air on their skin.“I realized that explaining the forest in botanical or geological terms was useless,” she said. “I decided to talk about how trees live in the forest and about how we should live our lives.”Four years have passed since then, and now Lee refrains from providing super-specialized knowledge about the forest. Rather, she wants the visitors of the park to become a tree, and feel the nature for themselves.She explains why the trees grow so tall or how they plant their roots so firmly in the ground or in the rocks.Gotjawal in Jeju dialect refers to the word forest, got, and thorn bush, or jawal. The area that the forest occupies now was originally covered by lava, and many of the trees there have adapted to grow around the rocks.The park was actually landscaped and revived by Lee’s father, Lee Hyung-cheol, 56, who owns the forest.After becoming incapacitated nine years ago from a stroke, which left half his body paralyzed, he ventured out to the forest each day in order to regain his strength.He often made trails on the ground and organized the thorn bushes to make a path for his stroll. Following his recovery, Lee’s family decided to open the Fantasy Forest to the public in 2011.Lee participated, too, leaving behind her life in Seoul, where she worked as a researcher.“Life in Seoul was enjoyable, but I was stressed sometimes,” she said.After Lee expanded her commentary, the number of visitors to the park increased, from about 40,000 in 2013 to about 70,000 in 2014.And as the visitors listen, they often try to imagine themselves in the tree’s position.“You have to think about why this tree grew so tall compared to the other trees,” Lee explains. “It’s because the neighboring trees kept overshadowing this tree, so it grew taller in order to get more sunshine.”Her explanations mostly center on how trees grow to form forests and how different species live in harmony.A few visitors have expressed skepticism over the entrance fee - 5,000 won ($4) for adults, which includes Lee’s services. But her commentary eventually wins everyone over. It has also inspired more people to help to conserve the Gotjawal Forest. For a long time, it was considered useless; forests make up just 6 percent of Jeju Island.“My dream is simple but grand,” Lee said. “I want to be an important and special voice for the forest, who tells its stories but does it no harm - who lives with it.”BY LEE YOUNG-HEE [[email protected]]I hope this action will cheer you Firedogs up; it sure gives me a needed lift. I know we all hope for great success and that police restrain themselves, and don’t react violently. The Occupiers have promised if they do, they will…Spread the Love further. Participating occupations are asked to ensure that during the port shutdowns the local arbitrator rules in favor of longshoremen not crossing community picket lines in order to avoid recriminations against them. Should there be any retaliation against any workers as a result of their honoring pickets or supporting our port actions, additional solidarity actions should be prepared. In the event of police repression of any of the mobilizations, shutdown actions may be extended to multiple days. The West Coast Occupy movement (Seattle, Oakland, Vancouver, Los Angeles, San Diego, Tacoma, and others) has called for a shutdown in solidarity with ILWU Local 21 in Longview, Washington in their struggle against EGT, and the port truckers’ struggle with Goldman Sachs: ‘Wall Street on the Waterfront’ You will likely remember this post by Robert Alexander Dumas on the wildcat action staged by the ILWU in response to getting royally screwed by the municipally-owned Port of Longview. Here is his ‘thumbnail sketch’: “A transnational consortium by the name of EGT negotiated a long term lease on a property with the municipal authorities at the Port of Longview in the State of Washington. They spent $200 million dollars constructing a new grain handling port/rail terminal facility. Under the terms of the lease granted to EGT by the Port of Longview, EGT was obligated to fill the newly created jobs by employing ILWU?? (the International Longshore and Warehouse Union) workers. After shopping around and finding a community that was the……most……desperate for some good jobs, and using that fact as leverage to extract concessions on acquisition of the land, as well as tax concessions from the municipality while negotiating the lease; having gotten all that they wanted from the Port of Longview and its citizen taxpayers, EGT began reneging on their obligations. They did not hire the longshoremen as stipulated in the lease. This traitorous behaviour after being granted a special tax exemption in the Washington state tax laws. The taxpaying citizens of Washington had agreed to forego an amount of taxes that would be a “remittance equal to one hundred percent of the amount of tax paid for qualifying construction, materials, service, and labor.” Here is a link to the applicable revised tax code laws of the State of Washington. This Portland-based international consortium, EGT, is owned by a domestic/international partnership comprised of St. Louis-based Bunge North America, Japan-based Itochu Corporation, and Korean shipper Pan Ocean STX.” [snip] The first inkling of EGT’s duplicity and bad faith came as they began construction of the new port facility. Rather than bidding the job out to a local contractor who would use local out of work trade union members and thereby begin to return the favors this small community had already done for them, EGT instead brought in an out of state contractor who brought in non-union workers. Use of union workers for the construction of the port facility had not been stipulated in the lease negotiations, but right from the get go the imagined benefits that the citizens of Longview thought they might derive from cooperating with these corporations started to go up in smoke.” As Robert pointed out, EGT essentially pitted union workers against other union workers, a very degrading and hideous thing to do. And ‘EGT [has] filed a law suit in Federal Court to get out of its contractual obligations to the ILWU, the Port of Longview and its citizens.” On Nov. 2, Occupy Oakland, of course, shut down the Port there for a day; it was a great day for protestors until the unconscionable police response after dark. The Ports have become iconic symbols for much of what ails this country as the multinationals make all the rules, consider massive profit over worker and human rights, partnered with our government’s total complicity. We have ample evidence that they all mean to continue to betray us, and expand their calumny, including the recent trade deals with Korea, Columbia, Panama, and now the Pacific Rim nations. All of them are grossly unfair to workers here, and potentially deadly to citizens in nations at the other ends. But multinationals will make out like the bandits they are. “From Iraq War veteran Scott Olsen to Longshoremen: Please honor picket line You do the work—THEY, the global maritime bosses, profit at your expense. Your safety and your jobs are always at stake. OUR LONGVIEW LONGSHORE BROTHERS AND SISTERS ARE UNDER THE GUN FOR ALL OF US! THAT’S WHY OCCUPY OAKLAND IS CALLING FOR A PORT SHUTDOWN DEC. 12. The bosses have been getting away with it for far too long. We can beat them, but we have to work together—unions, rank and file workers and Occupy. I was on my second pump to Iraq when ILWU—when you—led by your Vietnam vets, shut down the West Coast ports on May Day 2008 to stop the war. The best support I could have asked for in Iraq was from you brothers and sisters who wanted us home, alive and well- sooner, not later. I spent two pumps in Iraq looking for our enemies. Only after coming back home did I discover our greatest enemy—that is the enemy we are fighting now. Please honor our Occupy picket lines. United we are stronger. As you say in your union, “AN INJURY TO ONE IS AN INJURY TO ALL.” The only ones who will tell you otherwise are those that want to continue profiting off your backs. You all work hard at a dangerous job. You deserve to see something out of that. I plan on standing tall again on December 12, and I look forward to standing with our longshoremen. PLEASE DO THE LABOR MOVEMENT PROUD LIKE YOU’VE DONE BEFORE AND HONOR OUR COMMUNITY PICKET LINE. Scott Olsen 12/7/11″ “You don’t communicate with anyone purely on the rational facts or ethics of an issue… It is only when the other party is concerned or feels threatened that he will listen — in the arena of action, a threat or a crisis becomes almost a precondition to communication… No one can negotiate without the power to compel negotiation… To attempt to operate on a good-will basis rather than on a power basis would be to attempt something that the world has not yet experienced.” —Saul Alinsky, RULES FOR RADICALSSprint (NYSE: S) parent SoftBank and T-Mobile US (NYSE:TMUS) parent Deutsche Telekom have reportedly reached a "basic agreement" for Sprint to merge with T-Mobile, according to a report in the Japanese business publication Nikkei. The Nikkei report, which came over the weekend and did not cite its sources, said SoftBank plans to buy more than 50 percent of T-Mobile's shares through Sprint from DT, which still owns around 67 percent of T-Mobile. SoftBank will pay cash and will use stock swaps to cover the estimated purchase price of more than $16 billion. Multiple reports in early June indicated that Sprint would pay $32 billion for T-Mobile in a transaction that would combine the No. 3 and No. 4 U.S. wireless carriers, so a $16 billion price tag for around 50 percent of T-Mobile fits with that outline. Representatives for Sprint and DT declined to comment. A spokeswoman for SoftBank also declined to comment, according to the Kansas City Star. According to the Nikkei report, the two sides are still hammering out the details of the deal, which would give the combined carrier close to 100 million customers, nearing the scale of AT&T Mobility (NYSE: T) and Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ). Further, the report added that eight financial institutions will help SoftBank finance the deal via credit lines of around $39 billion. The firms include Japan's top banks of Mizuho, Mitsubishi UFJ and Sumitomo Mitsu as well as JPMorgan Chase and Deutsche Bank. SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son has been actively lobbying U.S. regulators at the FCC and Department of Justice, which will need to approve the deal. Son has argued that in order to take on Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA), AT&T and Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile need to combine to serve as a counterweight to the other companies and provide more competition. The argument could carry weight as the FCC also contemplates proposed mega-deals between AT&T and DirecTV (NASDAQ: DTV) and Comcast and Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC). However, regulators have expressed skepticism about reducing the number of national wireless carriers from four to three. In June, Son told a group of reporters in Tokyo that he is hopeful that there will be more discussion about a possible deal, and that more discussion will lead to less resistance from regulators to a possible merger of the two companies. According to Reuters, when asked whether that initial resistance to the deal had changed, Son said: "I'm not in a position to make the comment on the other end, but, you know, the last few months, there's new movement." Sprint CEO Dan Hesse said shortly afterward that creating a bigger No. 3 carrier in the U.S. market would lead to better coverage in rural areas. For more: - see this Nikkei article - see this AFP article - see this Kansas City Star article Related Articles: Sprint's Hesse argues more consolidation will aid in rural wireless coverage SoftBank CEO says there is less resistance to T-Mobile deal Analysts: If Sprint/T-Mobile deal goes ahead, carrier would need to cut prices T-Mobile's Legere tipped to run a combined Sprint/T-Mobile Could a Sprint/T-Mobile deal win regulatory approval? Report: Sprint close to $32B deal for T-MobileYAVATMAL, Maharashtra: In a bizarre incident, a drunkard allegedly set himself ablaze and then hugged three girls before jumping into a well to douse the fire.Nana Wagarhande (40), a notorious drunkard of Varha village here, set himself ablaze in his house in a drunken state on Wednesday evening, a police official said.Since he could not bear the pain of burning, he rushed on to the road and hugged Sumakshi Kinake (14), Shraddha Gore (14) and Gayatri Chukabotlawar (10), causing burns to them, the official said.He then jumped into a well, but later got out and collapsed.He was rushed to a government hospital at Pandharkawda from where he was sent to the Government Medical College at Yavatmal, where he is now struggling for his life after sustaining more than 80 per cent burns.The three minor girls who were also rushed to the Pandharkawda hospital and they are recovering."The girls sustained more than 20 per cent burns and are now out of danger," the police said.A criminal case has been registered against the drunkard and the police is investigating the matter.U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann hasn’t forgotten about the light bulb bill. Under new GOP management in the House, the Minnesota Republican is reintroducing her signature “Light Bulb Freedom of Choice Act,” a new iteration of legislation that went nowhere when the Democrats were in charge. Her aim: Repeal the 2007 mandate which requires that traditional incandescent light bulbs be phased out in favor of those squiggly energy efficient compact fluorescent jobbies. “The government has no business telling an individual what kind of light bulb to buy,” Bachmann said in a statement Wednesday. “This mandate has sweeping effects on American families and businesses and needs serious consideration before taking effect.” Bachmann, founder of the House Tea Party Caucus, has long argued that Congress overstepped its bounds by mandating that only energy efficient light bulbs may be sold after January 1, 2012. She’s also raised alarms about the environmental hazards of the tiny amounts of mercury contained in the compact fluorescent bulbs Bachmann said she could live with the mandate only if the Government Accountability Office (GAO) can vouchsafe the safety, cost-efficiency, and environmental benefits of the new bulb technology. “Frankly,” she added, “I would be surprised if the GAO can prove these criteria, but at minimum, my bill will provide the opportunity to examine these important issues.” But in Congress, “opportunity to examine… important issues” is sometimes code for don’t expect this legislation to pass. Either way, Bachmann will have made a point again: “The American people want less government intrusion into their lives, not more, and that includes staying out of their personal light bulb choices.”Coal Scam Case: Former Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda was found guilty by the CBI court. Former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda was found guilty of illegally ensuring the allocation of a coal block in Jharkhand to a Kolkata-based firm. The allocation of the Rajhara North coal block is one of the instances of alleged inefficient allocation of coal blocks during 2004 to 2009 by then UPA government at the Centre. Dubbed the coal scam, the matter became a huge political controversy.The special court also found three other accused guilty -- among them were former secretary of the coal ministry HC Gupta, former chief secretary of Jharkhand AK Basu and the private firm concerned -- Vini Iron and Steel Udyog Ltd. The court will decide on the quantum of punishment tomorrow. Four persons were acquitted.The Central Bureau of Investigation, which probed the matter, said Madhu Koda, AK Basu and two others conspired to favour the firm, which despite applying for allocation, had been given the thumbs down by the Jharkhand government and the Union ministry of steel. But HC Gupta, who was chairman of the screening committee, had concealed this fact from then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who was handling the coal portfolio.The coal scam had hit the headlines in 2012 after an audit by the national auditor revealed that the country has lost up to Rs 1.86 lakh crore due to inefficient allocation of coal blocks. The auditor said for over a decade, mining rights were allotted to private firms at low prices. In 2014, the Supreme Court cancelled the allocations.A case against 46-year-old Madhu Koda -- who was the Chief Minister of Jharkhand from September 2006 to August 2008 -- was filed in December 2014.HC Gupta, before retiring in 2008, was the Coal Secretary for two years under the Congress-led UPA government. With the screening committee he headed allocating at least 40 coal mining rights, he was accused of playing a leading role in the massive swindle. He is accused in eight cases. In May, he was convicted along with two other former bureaucrats in a case related to the allocation of a coal mining block in Madhya Pradesh to a private company. It was the first coal scam case in which senior government officials were held guilty.The demand for employees in STEM careers (science, technology, engineering and math) is particularly high, as corporations compete to attract skilled professionals in the international market. What is known as "curriculum intensification" is often used around the world to attract more university entrants -- and particularly more women -- to these subjects; that is to say, students have on average more mandatory math courses at a higher level. Scientists from the LEAD Graduate School and Research Network at the University of Tübingen have now studied whether more advanced math lessons at high schools actually encourages women to pursue STEM careers. Their work shows that an increase in advanced math courses during two years before the final school-leaving exams does not automatically create the desired effects. On the contrary: one upper secondary school reform in Germany, where all high school students have to take higher level math courses, has only increased the gender differences regarding their interests in activities related to the STEM fields. The young female students' belief in their own math abilities was lower after the reform than before. The results have now been published in the Journal of Educational Psychology. In order to guarantee a good knowledge of math, all school students in the German state of Baden-Württemberg have to attend four lessons of math per week during the final two years before their leaving exams in the wake of a school reform introduced in 2002. Prior to this, it was possible to choose a math course that only involved three lessons per week. Young women in particular often selected the latter option. However, as a good knowledge of math is linked to the choice of university courses in the STEM fields, experts expected more young women to opt for a STEM course after the reform. The scientists therefore examined whether the reform had any influence on the selection of university course later, what effects it had on the math performance of young women and young men, how upper secondary students rated their own achievements before and after the reform and, finally, whether their interest in activities related to STEM subjects had changed. To this end, the researchers compared data from approx. 4,700 high school students before the reform to the same number of students after it. The results showed that the difference in achievements between young men and young women in math had diminished after the reform, even if young men still performed better. However, although the female students' achievement was higher after the reform, their belief in their own math skills was lower than before the reform. "This may be because they'd more often selected courses with less math teaching before the reform and the higher performance level after the reform then led them to underrate their own accomplishments," says Nicolas Hübner, a primary author of the study, suggesting one reason for this. Young men's belief in their own math skills, in contrast, did not change. Young women hardly showed any greater interest in studying or working in STEM fields either, while young men were even more drawn to technical or academic activities after the reform. "This suggests that interests can also be influenced by school reforms," says Eike Wille, who is also a lead author of the study. "However, this connection has not been adequately investigated and needs more detailed study." The differences in gender in the selection of STEM university courses have not changed as a result of the reform. Significantly more men still choose these study programs than women. According to the authors, the results are consistent with prior studies showing that educational reforms often have a significantly lower effect than originally expected. They are also associated with unexpected side-effects in many cases. "Reforms in the education system in the past have often been rather like flying blind," says Ulrich Trautwein, Director of the LEAD Graduate School and Research Network, summarizing matters. "The results of our study underline the significance of systematic accompanying research before, during and after the introduction of educational reforms."Editor's Note: This piece is taken directly from contributor Matt Barbato's website: Jet Fuel The New York Jets and Chicago Bears enter their Monday night matchup on completely different sides of the momentum spectrum. The Jets are coming off a major collapse in all phases against Chicago's rival, the Green Bay Packers. The Bears rallied back from a 17-point deficit on the road against the San Francisco 49ers and won a much-needed game. Both teams enter the game at 1-1, but are vastly different teams. The Jets will focus on winning the game in the trenches. The Jets took a 21-3 lead against Green Bay because of a strong ground game, but went away from it as the Packers started their comeback. Chicago has all-purpose running back Matt Forte, but prefer to throw the ball often. The Jets lead the league in running the ball and stopping the run. New York's timeshare of Chris Johnson and Chris Ivory has averaged 179 yards in two contests, while the fearsome front seven has stifled opponents to just 52.5 yards through two games. Chicago is 30th in the running game, averaging only 66 yards per game on the ground, while allowing an average of 160 yards in two contests. The difference will be in the passing game. The Jets' secondary was exposed by Aaron Rodgers and Jordy Nelson, who had a career-high 209 receiving yards last Sunday. Expect similar results on Sunday, as Jay Cutler, Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffrey march into MetLife Stadium. Cutler is coming off of an inspirational second half against San Francisco, but struggles to string together gaudy performances. Cutler is 57-of-83 on the season for 525 yards, six touchdowns and two interceptions. Despite Chicago's talent on the perimeter, it's tight end Martellus Bennett, leads the team with 15 receptions. Forte might be at his most dangerous when he's receiving out of the backfield, as he's tied with Marshall for second on the team with 13 catches. The other key storyline of Monday's matchup is Santonio Holmes' return to New York. Holmes had a tumultuous four seasons with New York that was filled with injuries and attitude issues. This is why he sat on the free agent market for months before Chicago picked him up just before the preseason. Holmes is learning Chicago's offense and will have an extra bit of motivation going to face the team that cut him after the 2013 season. If the Jets want to knock off Chicago, they'll need to do what they did in the first half against Green Bay: Run the ball. Geno Smith has been solid at times, but has had a couple of crippling turnovers in two games. His interception inside Packers' territory that led to Green Bay's 97-yard drive to close out the first half, marked the beginning of the demise for the Jets. The Bears' front seven stepped up their run defense against San Francisco, but this still a unit that can be controlled in the ground game. Muhammad Wilkerson will need to have an impressive showing after getting ejected in the third quarter of Sunday's game for throwing a punch. The Jets defense was ripped to shreds by Green Bay in the second half and completely lost its poise. A better showing will be crucial for a unit that has claimed to be one of the best in the NFL. The Jets will have to mask their awful secondary with a strong pass rush. Cutler is pretty good at evading pressure in the pocket, but his mechanics suffer when under duress and his decision making skills diminish. When he's on, Cutler can be a top-10 quarterback, but if enough pressure is applied, it tends to result in an interception. A group to watch in Monday's game is the tight ends. With Eric Decker's status uncertain due to a hamstring injury, Jeff Cumberland, Jace Amaro and Zach Sudfeld will need to remove their invisibility cloak and try to get open against a beatable Bears' defense. Cumberland and Amaro have combined for just eight catches and 87 yards in two games, a number that needs to improve. The Bears are riding high into MetLife, but don't expect a defensive struggle with the Monsters of the Midway. The new monsters are on the perimeter of the offense and although Chicago's offensive line is banged up, Roberto Garza and former Jet Matt Slauson both missed last week's game, the Jets won't be able to contain Chicago's arsenal of weapons. Score Prediction: Bears 27 Jets 16 Be sure to follow Matt on Twitter ( @RealMattBarbato Read more of
'd like, but if no bids are received, they are automatically the default winner. Once the bid process is done, then the three parties can begin negotiating the Umbrella Agreement. In an interview with KJR 950AM last May, Chris Hansen made mention of establishing a new clock, a new end date for the project. In negotiating the Umbrella Agreement, the parties can certainly agree to a similar condition that the UA have a term of agreement rather than be open-ended, just like the MOU. The term would be along the lines of the effective date of the Transaction Documents, which means a team has been acquired and the public financing portion can be enacted, or, say, three years from the effective date of the UA. The terms are for the parties to decide, but for those worried that the October 2017 end date is the end of the line for the entire project, that simply isn't the case. Why aren't we hearing more about this potential time extension? Hansen himself talked about not getting bogged down in the specifics of the date because it takes away from the urgency to get something done, not just with the arena but on behalf of the leagues. The spectre of October 2017 is much more beneficial to our cause in the abstract than getting into specifics about setting a new target date. In the meantime, let's focus on what we as fans actually have the ability to do. The March 15th public meeting on the street vacation is a perfect opportunity to turn out and voice our support. This is the next domino we address to send us zooming down the path laid out above.One of the things I like to do in my spare time is study the STL algorithms. It is easy to take them for granted and easy, perhaps, to imagine that they are mostly trivial. And some are: I would think that any decent interview candidate ought to be able to write find correctly. (Although even such a trivial-looking algorithm is based on a thorough understanding of iterator categories.) Uncovering the overlooked But there are some algorithms that are non-trivial, and some are important building blocks. Take inplace_merge. For brevity, let’s consider the version that just uses operator< rather than being parametrized on the comparison. The one easily generalizes to the other in a way that is not important to the algorithm itself. template < typename BidirectionalIterator > void inplace_merge ( BidirectionalIterator first, BidirectionalIterator middle, BidirectionalIterator last ) ; template <typename BidirectionalIterator> void inplace_merge(BidirectionalIterator first, BidirectionalIterator middle, BidirectionalIterator last); It merges two consecutive sorted ranges into one sorted range. That is, if we have an input like this: Where and We get this result occupying the same space: Where and the new range is a permutation of the original ranges. In addition, the standard states a few additional constraints: inplace_merge is stable - that is, the relative order of equivalent elements is preserved is stable - that is, the relative order of equivalent elements is preserved it uses a BidirectionalIterator which shall be ValueSwappable and whose dereferent (is that a word?) shall be MoveConstructible and MoveAssignable which shall be and whose dereferent (is that a word?) shall be and when enough additional memory is available, ( last-first-1 ) comparisons. Otherwise an algorithm with complexity N log(N) (where N = last-first ) may be used Avenues of enquiry Leaving aside the possible surprise of discovering that an STL algorithm may allocate memory, some thoughts spring to mind immediately: Why does inplace_merge need a BidirectionalIterator? need a? How much memory is required to achieve O(n) performance? Is a constant amount enough? And to a lesser extent perhaps: Why are merge and inplace_merge not named the same way as other algorithms, where the more normal nomenclature might be merge_copy and merge? and not named the same way as other algorithms, where the more normal nomenclature might be and? What is it with the algorists' weasel-word "in-place"? First thoughts about the algorithm It seems that an O(n log n) algorithm should be possible on average, because in the general case, simply sorting the entire range produces the desired output. Although the sort has to be stable, which means something like merge sort, which leads us down a recursive rabbit hole. Hm. At any rate, it's easy to see how to achieve inplace_merge with no extra memory needed by walking iterators through the ranges: template < typename ForwardIt > void naive_inplace_merge ( ForwardIt first, ForwardIt middle, ForwardIt last ) { while ( first! = middle && middle! = last ) { if ( * middle < * first ) { std :: iter_swap ( middle, first ) ; auto i = middle ; std :: rotate ( ++ first, i, ++ middle ) ; } else { ++ first ; } } } template <typename ForwardIt> void naive_inplace_merge( ForwardIt first, ForwardIt middle, ForwardIt last) { while (first!= middle && middle!= last) { if (middle < first) { std::iter_swap(middle, first); auto i = middle; std::rotate(++first, i, ++middle); } else { ++first; } } } After swapping (say) and, the ranges look like this: And the call to rotate fixes up to be ordered again. From there we proceed as before on the ranges and. This algorithm actually conforms to the standard! It has O(n) comparisons, uses no extra memory, and has the advantage that it works on ForwardIterator! But unfortunately, it's O(n²) overall in operations, because of course, rotate is O(n). So how can we do better? Using a temporary buffer If we have a temporary buffer available that is equal in size to the smaller of the two ranges, we can move the smaller range to it, move the other range up if necessary, and perform a "normal" merge of the two ranges into the original space: template < typename BidirIt > void naive_inplace_merge2 ( BidirIt first, BidirIt middle, BidirIt last ) { using T = typename std :: iterator_traits < BidirIt > :: value_type ; auto d1 = std :: distance ( first, middle ) ; auto d2 = std :: distance ( middle, last ) ; auto n = std :: min ( d1, d2 ) ; auto tmp = std :: make_unique < char [ ] > ( n * sizeof ( T ) ) ; T * begint = reinterpret_cast < T * > ( tmp. get ( ) ) ; T * endt = begint + n ; if ( d1 <= d2 ) { std :: move ( first, middle, begint ) ; std :: merge ( begint, endt, middle, last, first ) ; } else { std :: move ( middle, last, begint ) ; auto i = std :: move_backward ( first, middle, last ) ; std :: merge ( i, last, begint, endt, first ) ; } } template <typename BidirIt> void naive_inplace_merge2( BidirIt first, BidirIt middle, BidirIt last) { using T = typename std::iterator_traits<BidirIt>::value_type; auto d1 = std::distance(first, middle); auto d2 = std::distance(middle, last); auto n = std::min(d1, d2); auto tmp = std::make_unique<char[]>(n * sizeof(T)); T* begint = reinterpret_cast<T>(tmp.get()); T endt = begint + n; if (d1 <= d2) { std::move(first, middle, begint); std::merge(begint, endt, middle, last, first); } else { std::move(middle, last, begint); auto i = std::move_backward(first, middle, last); std::merge(i, last, begint, endt, first); } } This is essentially the algorithm used by STL implementations if buffer space is available. And this is the reason why inplace_merge requires BidirectionalIterator : because move_backward does. (This isn't quite optimal: the std::move_backward can be mitigated with reverse iterators and predicate negation, but the BidirectionalIterator requirement remains. Also, strictly speaking, std::merge is undefined behaviour here because one of the input ranges overlaps the output range, but we know the equivalent loop is algorithmically safe.) Provisioning of the temporary buffer is also a little involved because we don't know that elements in the range are default constructible (and perhaps we wouldn't want to default-construct our temporaries anyway). So to deal correctly with non-trivial types here, std::move should actually be a loop move-constructing values. And when std::inplace_merge is used as a building block for e.g. std::stable_sort, it would also be nice to minimize buffer allocation rather than having an allocation per call. Go look at your favourite STL implementation for more details. Thinking further The literature contains more advanced algorithms for merging if a suitably-sized buffer is not available: the basis for the STL's choice is covered in Elements of Programming chapter 11, and in general the work of Dudzinski & Dydek and of Kim & Kutzner seems to be cited a lot. But I knew nothing of this research before tackling the problem, and attempting to solve it requiring just ForwardIterator. I spent a couple of evenings playing with how to do inplace_merge. I covered a dozen or more A4 sheets of squared paper with diagrams of algorithms evolving. I highly recommend this approach! After a few hours of drawing and hacking I had a really good idea of the shape of things. Property-based testing came in very handy for breaking my attempts, and eventually led me to believe that a general solution on the lines I was pursuing would either involve keeping track of extra iterators or equivalently require extra space. Keeping track of iterators seemed a messy approach, so an extra space approach is warranted. How much extra space? Consider the "worst case": Assume for the moment that. When, we need extra space to hold all of. If then we will need extra space for to likewise move them out of the way. Either way, the number of units of extra space we need is min(n, m). As we move elements of into temporary storage, we can see that in general at each stage of the algorithm we will have a situation something like this (using to mean a moved-from value): With some values of moved into temporary storage: The temporary storage here is a queue: we always push on to the end and pop from the beginning, since the elements in it start, and remain, ordered. Since we know an upper bound on the number of things in the queue at any one time, it can be a ring buffer (recently proposed) over a regular array of values. Sketching the start From this, we can start sketching out an algorithm: Allocate a buffer of size min(m, n) - call it tmp We'll walk the iterators along the x ( first ) and y ( middle ) ranges The output iterator o will start at first The next x to consider will either be in-place in the x range, or (if tmp is not empty) in tmp - call it xlow If y < xlow move x to tmp, move y to o, inc y Otherwise, if xlow is in tmp, move x to tmp and *xlow from tmp to o inc o, inc x if y < last and o < middle, goto 4 deal with the end(s) of the ranges Dealing with the end This gets us as far as exhausting the smaller range: after this, we will be in one of two situations. Situation 1. If we have exhausted the range, things look like this: With values of in temporary storage: To fix up this situation, we can repeatedly swap the tmp range with the equivalent x range until we reach middle (i.e ), and then simply move the remaining tmp values into place. I originally wrote a loop repeatedly swapping the values in tmp right up to the end; but I realised that would involve swapping a moved-from object, which would be wrong (it might work… until it doesn’t). Moved-from objects should either be destroyed or made whole (assigned to); nothing else. Situation 2. The possibility is that we have exhausted the range, in which case things look like this: With values of in temporary storage: To fix up this situation, we can just do a regular merge on the remaining y range and tmp, outputting starting at middle (i.e ). (With the same proviso as before about undefined behaviour with overlapping ranges.) We know that it will be safe to do a loop equivalent to merge, because we have exactly the required amount of space before to fit. This is the same as the STL’s normal buffered merge strategy. Final thoughts I tackled this exercise from scratch, knowing nothing about actual implementations of inplace_merge. This algorithm does some extra housekeeping under the hood, but: it does the minimum number of comparisons each element is moved at most twice: into tmp and out again and out again it needs only ForwardIterator Optimization and benchmarking under differing conditions of range size, comparison and move cost is left as an exercise to the reader… I cannot recommend Elements of Programming enough. I am partway through reading it; after this exercise I skipped to chapter 11 to see what it said. Every time I dive into the STL algorithms, I am re-impressed by the genius of Alex Stepanov: Paul McJones’ recent talk The Concept of Concept explains this well, in particular the key role of concepts in the STL in service of algorithmic purity. Alex knew about concepts from the start: it’s taken C++ over 2 decades to catch up. After doing this work, I discovered a recent proposal that calls for weakening the iterator categories of inplace_merge and related algorithms. An implementation of this algorithm is on github. It’s just a sketch, written for clarity rather than optimality. This has been a fun exercise. Share this: Facebook Twitter Reddit Google EmailNew Delhi, Sep 12 () Government has decided to extend the agreement with International Seabed Authority (ISA) by 5 years for exploration of manganese nodules that will also help in extracting minerals like, nickel, cobalt and copper. The Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved extension of contract between Ministry of Earth Sciences and ISA for exploration of Polymetallic Nodules (manganese nodules) for five years (2017-22), an official statement said. The earlier contract is due to expire on March 24, 2017. "By extending the contract, India's exclusive rights for exploration of Polymetallic Nodules in the allotted area in the central Indian ocean basin will continue and would open up new opportunities for resources of commercial and strategic value in area beyond national jurisdiction," it said. Further, it would provide strategic importance for India in terms of enhanced presence in the Indian Ocean where other international players are also active, it added. These potato-shaped, largely porous nodules, also called manganese nodules, are found in abundance carpeting the sea floor of world oceans in deep sea. Besides manganese and iron, they contain nickel, copper, cobalt, lead, molybdenum, cadmium, vanadium, titanium, of which nickel, cobalt and copper are considered to be of economic and strategic importance. India had signed a 15-year contract for exploration of Polymetallic Nodules (PMN) in Central Indian Ocean Basin with the ISA, an institution set up under the Convention on Law of the Sea to which India is a party, on March 25, 2002 with the approval of the Cabinet. At present, India has an area of 75,000 sq km, located about 2,000 km away from her southern tip for exploration of PMN. Ministry of Earth Sciences is carrying out the survey and exploration, environmental impact assessment, technology development (Mining and Extractive Metallurgy) under PMN through various national institutes. They include National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology (IMMT), National Metallurgical Laboratory NML ), National Centre for Antarctica and Ocean Research (NCAOR) and National Institute of Ocean Technology NIOT ). RNK ABKTechCrunch is reporting that two of the largest players in online food delivery have been talking about joining forces. GrubHub and Seamless, which offer websites and mobile apps that allow users to order food online for delivery to their home or business, are said to be discussing a potential merger. According to the report, no deal has been finalized just yet, thought the talks are characterized as "serious." While both companies are arguably the two most well-known competitors in their particular arena, that hasn't stopped a number of other entrants from bringing their own online food-ordering services to market. Merging would allow the two companies to bolster their respective offerings, resulting in an even more entrenched service. As reported, it's not clear just how the two companies would integrate with one another — and of course, discussions are no guarantee that the merger will actually happen.The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom is a book by Harvard Law School professor Yochai Benkler published by Yale University Press on April 3, 2006.[1] A PDF of the book is downloadable under a Creative Commons Noncommercial Sharealike license.[2] Benkler has said that his editable online book is "an experiment of how books might be in the future", demonstrating how authors and readers might connect instantly or even collaborate.[3] Summary [ edit ] Part 1: The Networked Information Economy [ edit ] Benkler describes the current epoch as a "moment of opportunity" due to the emergence of what he terms the Networked Information Economy (NIE), a "technological-economic feasibility space" that is the result of the means of producing media becoming more socially accessible. Benkler states that his methodology in the text is to look at social relations using economics, liberal political theory, and focuses on individual actions in nonmarket relations. Benkler sees communication and information as the most important cultural and economic outputs of advanced economies. He traces the emergence and development of various communications (radio, newspapers, television) through the 19th and 20th centuries as functions of increasingly centralized control due to the high cost factor of production, and believes that media was thus produced on an industrial scale. Benkler's term for this is the Industrial information economy. With the emergence of computers, networks, and increasingly affordable media production outlets, Benkler introduces the concept of the NIE, which sees media access as a form of power, and recognizes decentralized individual actions in said media as a result of the removal of physical and economic constraints to the creation of media. To Benkler, this is due to a new feasibility space: lowered costs of access via digital production and radical decentralization rather than centralized messaging ("coordinate coexistence", 30). This results in emerging productions of information that use non-proprietary strategies (such as GNU licences and collaborative production formats). Goods [ edit ] The forms of cultural productions — music is an example Benkler uses frequently — are either rival or nonrival. Rival products decrease as they are used (e.g. pounds of flour), the use of nonrival products (e.g. listening to a song) does not decrease their availability for further use. Static vs. dynamic efficiency: one premise of exclusive rights has always been that only financial incentives can facilitate participation in information production. Benkler argues that in an age where computers reduce the cost of production, that the equation of innovation-to-rights shifts as well. The declining cost of communication means that in the networked society there are fewer barriers for individual cultural production that are "meaningful" to other users. Thus, in network economy, "human capacity becomes primary scarce resource". Peer production [ edit ] To close this section, Benkler argues that the networked environment makes possible a new modality of organizing production: that of commons-based peer production. He discusses the parameters of the commons and gives the example of FLOSS Free/Libre/Open/Source/Software. He discusses shared acts of communication (utterances, reviews, distribution of information) and goods (like server space). Lastly, he draws a contrast to the regulation and rival resource of radio spectrum bandwidth and the sharability of space in a digital commons. The economics of social production [ edit ] Benkler argues here that the networked society allows for the emergence of non-hierarchical groups that are committed to information production. Open software is one of the ways we can view the emergence of this new form of information production. "Commons-based" peer production eschews traditional rational choice models offered by economists. Benkler details some of the key components of this new economy based not on financial remuneration but on user-involvement, accreditation, and tools that promote collaboration between individuals. In order to understand why people engage in production aside from financial incentives, Benkler argues that we can distinguish two types of motivation: Extrinsic motivation: motivation that comes from outside in the form of financial reward, punishment, etc. Intrinsic motivation: motivation that derives from within ourselves, such as the pleasure involved in completing a task. Part 2: The Political Economy of Property and Commons [ edit ] In this section, Benkler examines the relationship of individual access to participation in the dissemination and creation of information via communication systems, building on his earlier ideas of commons-based peer production. He examines the historical emergence of the mass media, looking at the relationship between print and radio and ever-broadening, industrial broadcast models of production which became supported by advertising. The criticisms of mass media which Benkler brings up include: its commercialism, because he sees that as supporting the development of programs that appeal to large audiences rather than specific interests, in the name of mass broadcasting; limited intake of information, due to the relatively small number of people gathering information; too much power assigned to too few people. Benkler moves from this overview and criticism to exploring what this text describes as the potential for networked communications to do: "Better access to knowledge and the emergence of less capital-dependent forms of productive social organization offer the possibility that the emergence of the networked information economy will offer up opportunities for improvement in economic justice, on scales both global and local." From passive to active [ edit ] For Benkler, another key component of the network society is that individuals are more active in producing their education and cultural production. Online encyclopedias such as Wikipedia allow for users to create rather than just consume knowledge and information. Part 3: Policies of Freedom at a Moment of Transformation [ edit ] Benkler begins chapter 10 stating two early views on the anticipated social impact the internet would have on the users and their community: Firstly, the internet removed the user from society and allowed the individual to lead a life that was no longer molded by the interactions and experiences of a physical tangible civilisation with others. The second view was that using the internet would widen the field of a user's community by providing a novel system of communication and interaction. He observes that users show enhanced relationships with their close contacts while increasing the numbers of less close contacts with relationships maintained through internet mediated interaction. He believes this latter change stems from the shift from the one-to-many model of media distribution to a many-to-many model where it is more user centered and controlled. Benkler remarks that the early views were made on the premise that internet communication would replace real world forms communication rather than co-exist alongside it. He introduces the idea of the networked-individual who govern their own interactions and microcommunity roles in both real and virtual space and dynamically switch between when needed, eventually concluding that the early views were nostalgic and somewhat fatuous. A definition is offered whereby cultural freedom occupies a position that relates to both political and individual autonomy, but is synonymous with neither. Benkler then goes on to add that culture is significant because that is the context within which we exist – these are our shared understandings, frameworks, meanings and references. Reception [ edit ] 2011-08 Haifa Wikimania Yochai Benkler DSCF6547 When Benkler's The Wealth of Networks was released in 2006, Lawrence Lessig announced the release of the book on his blog, stating: “This is—by far—the most important and powerful book written in the fields that matter most to me in the last ten years. If there is one book you read this year, it should be this.”[8] The Wealth of Networks has been reviewed by many other blogs in addition to the Lessig blog, including Rough Type,[9] Dreams in Digital,[10] denoer,[11] and Reading Media Under The Tree.[12] The book has been reviewed in The German Law Journal[13] and The Independent Review.[14] Book reviews of The Wealth of Networks have also been featured by several news publications, including The Financial Times, The Times, and the New Statesmen. In addition to book reviews, interviews with Yochai Benkler about The Wealth of Networks have been conducted and published by openDemocracy.net,[15] openBusiness.cc,[16] and Public Knowledge,[17] and Benkler was invited to give a lecture based on The Wealth of Networks at the Center for American Progress on May 31, 2006.[18] Less than a month after its release in 2006, The Wealth of Networks became the focus of an intense read and review seminar on the famous political blog Crooked Timber. After reading the book, six well-respected scholars (several of them founding members of crookedtimbre.org) posted their reactions to the book, and at the end of the seminar, Yochai Benkler was given the opportunity to respond to the comments. Writing style [ edit ] In terms of Benkler's writing style, criticism on Crooked Timber targeted two main points: 1) that the book is written in a style that is too dense for the average reader, and 2) that it attempts to cover too many topics. As Dan Hunter points out in his review titled “A General Theory of Information Policy”, The Wealth of Networks is an attempt to articulate an underlying, grander “whole” that ties together the myriad issues involved in information policy and the internet. Hunter states: "Benkler provides something close to a General Theory of Information Policy for the networked age that begins to explain how we should think about topics as different as spectrum policy, copyright, user-generated content, network neutrality…well, the list pretty much encompasses all questions within internet law and policy."[19] Hunter's main criticism of the book is that it is too academically dense for the average reader, and too reliant on assuming the reader is familiar with several internet organizations and websites, such as Wikipedia, PayPal, and Slashdot. As Hunter later states: "I’m worried that too many of the peer-producers—the blog writers, the open source software gurus, the amateurs who create for the love of it; in short the people who this book is written about—will pick up this work in the hope of understanding how their creativity fits into the grand scheme of innovation, and what their role will be in the amateur production sphere that promises to change the way that we view information goods within society. And they may not get past the introduction."[19] Physical hardware and infrastructure [ edit ] Another criticism of Benkler's theory is that so much focus is given to the potential of peer-production and innovation in the networked information economy, but little to no attention spent addressing issues related to the physical hardware required to keep the network that Benkler's theories rely on up and running. In a review of the book by Siva Vaidhyanathan, Benkler's “soft technological determinism” is brought under fire. Vaidhyanathan states: "This one issue remains underwritten in the text: the story of the technology itself. Throughout the text, there seems to be an almost givenness about the technology. TCP/IP is just there. Even Cisco’s notorious discriminating servers, the source of so much tension over the end of network neutrality, just appear…. We get a sense that particular technologies are malleable, adaptable, contingent, and socially shaped. We get no account of developer’s wishes or users’ adaptions. We only get cursory accounts of the conflicts over the future of these technologies that have unleashed (to choose a loaded term) so much creativity."[20] Benkler addressed this criticism in his response to Vaidhyanathan's review, conceding that perhaps more attention to the physical elements of the networked information economy could have been given: "His [Vaidhyanathan’s] complaint... is that I wrote a book about how the dynamics of technology, society, economy, and law intersect to fundamentally alter how information, knowledge, and culture are produced, rather than a book about the dynamics of how the technology component itself got to be as it is, and how it may or may not change given present pressures... not every book can be about everything. Perhaps Vaidhyanathan is correct that a book that offers as broad a canvass as this on the networked information environment needs a chapter on the technology itself: where it originates and what are the dynamics and pressures, historically and today, that led to its past and that affect its future."[20] In a review of the book by Ben Peters, a similar sentiment to Vaidhyanathan's criticism is expressed: “It may also do very well to account for massive information infrastructure costs, the fiber optic cables, the wifi, and the laptops that the Benkler's optimism depends upon in the international development scene.”[21] In The Independent Review: A Journal of Political Economy, Peter G. Klein stated: "Although information itself cannot be “owned,” the tangible media in which information is embedded and transmitted are scarce economic goods. Information may yearn to be “free,” but cables, switches, routers, disk drives, microprocessors, and the like yearn to be owned. Such innovations do not spring from nowhere; they are the creations of profit-seeking entrepreneurs that consumers or other entrepreneurs purchase to use as they see fit."[22] Optimism [ edit ] Derek Belt, who reviewed the book on his blog titled “Dreaming in Digital”, targeted Benkler's optimism as his main point of criticism, suggesting that Benkler's optimism was too rooted in what was possible in the future, neglecting to take into consideration the position in which we as a society find ourselves in at the present time in relation to information policy. He states: "His unwavering belief in the greater good offers hope for the future but fails to adequately address the present, leaving readers to wonder what he would have said about the prospects of another decade in which the industrial information economy, backed by powerful lobbyists and defiant legislative activity, holds all of the cards. Would our future look so cheery then?"[10] In contrast to these attacks on Benkler's optimism, a review by Debora Halbert suggested that: "Although he is generally pro-technology, especially regarding the Internet, Benkler is not a techno-utopianist. He argues that techno-utopianists who see the Internet as a perfect public platform are incorrect, but so are the technophobes who believe the Internet simply leads to increasing fragmentation and alienation. He seeks to strike a middle ground, arguing that the industrial media model of central control over mass communication fits nicely with authoritarian structures."[23] Jack Balkin, a participant on in the Crooked Timber read and review took a similar stance in his interpretation of Benkler's optimism, stating: "Benkler’s book wavers between an optimistic description of what the digitally networked economy has produced and will produce and a warning that these bounties will be squandered if the legal regime goes in the wrong direction…as much as Benkler might wish that features of the digitally networked environment and information economics will lead us inevitably toward a blessed world of peer production, he well understands that the political economy of information production has repeatedly pushed the law along a different path. Benkler shows us a vibrant world that we are moving toward and might yet achieve; but it is up to us to realize it." The Wealth of Networks has been criticized for technological determinism. David M. Berry contends that Benkler's work builds on "a rather shaky binary distinction between proprietary industrial forms of economic and technological structure and non-proprietary peer-production models".[24] Berry challenges Benkler's assumptions that network fosters non-proprietary models and that the latter are sounder and ethically preferable to the former model. According to Berry, Benkler fails to recognize that should network forms of organization happen to be wealth generating, "they will be co-opted into mainstream ‘industrial’ ways of production. To paraphrase Steve Jobs, the corporate world may soon provide peer-production for the rest of us."[25] Johan Söderberg links Benkler's optimism towards networked modes of production to a larger current of thought generated by the hacker community. Drawing on Serge Proulx' work, Söderberg asserts that such a narrative, neoliberal in origin, recomposes the discussion on information society in a problematic way: "The fantasy of a frictionless market in information is transformed into a vision of an information-sharing society".[26] The future of information policy and network development [ edit ] Although The Wealth of Networks has been the target of pointed criticism, the vast majority of published reviews are very emphatic about the fact that despite certain criticisms, The Wealth of Networks is an incredibly important book, and brings to the table many issues that are pertinent to the future of information policy and network development. Benkler is credited with bringing forth new perspectives related to social production, the role of the commons, how society is using and interacting with the internet, and how the internet is transforming the way people interact, create, and exchange goods and information. As Siva Vaidhyanathan stated in the opening of his review, “there is no better place to turn for an account of the processes of creativity and commerce relating to digital networks and the work that people do with them.”[20] More specifically, The Wealth of Networks is also hailed as an incredibly important piece of writing for those advocating for greater protection of the cultural commons and open access models on the Internet. For the German Law Review, James Brink wrote: "The Wealth of Networks is a worthwhile outward- and forward-looking manifesto for an information infrastructure that has come of age. At the same time, internet advocates would do well to take Benkler’s lessons in the history of the industrial information economy to heart, and to work hard to fulfill his vision of a true commons-based and nonproprietary ecology within the networked information economy."[13] See also [ edit ]"Sopherl, Sopherl, don't die. Stay alive for the children! " The murder that ignited World War One. The German Army Marches Through Brussels, 1914 "This was a machine, endless, tireless, with the delicate organization of a watch and the brute power of a steam roller." The Beginning of Air Warfare, 1914 "Have you got a revolver, old boy? My ammunition's all gone." The beginning of air-to-air combat. Christmas in the Trenches, 1914 "We and the Germans met in the middle of no-man's-land." A spontaneous truce takes over the front lines during the first Christmas of World War I on the Western Front. Battle At Gallipoli, 1915 "... Had a good supper and nearly finished our water. The last meal poor Jack ever had." The futile attempt to open a new front and relieve the stalemate in France. The Birth of the Fighter Plane, 1915 "I thought of what a deadly accurate stream of lead I could send into the plane." The Dutch inventor of the modern fighter plane takes it on its first trial run in combat. The Sinking of the Lusitania, 1915 "Many people must have lost their heads..." View the destruction of the Lusitania through the periscope of the submarine that sank her. The Battle of Jutland, 1916 "...then came the big explosion." On board the battle cruiser Queen Mary as she is sunk during World War I's largest naval battle. A Death at the Battle of the Somme, 1916 He was young, an American, and a poet; and he joined the French Foreign Legion to defend the country he loved. In the American Ambulance Field Service, 1916 "Just overhead as the car passes comes a blasting, shattering crash which is like sudden death." Ride with the volunteer crew of an American ambulance as it heads for the French front lines before America's entrance into WWI. The Battlefield Debut of the Tank, 1916 "...lumbering slowly towards us came three huge mechanical monsters such as we had never seen before."Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post) Listen to Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly or Kellyanne Conway — on one topic, at least, there is no difference in their spin — and you’d think it’s perfectly fine to try to set up secret communications with Russians that use Russian channels for the express purpose of shielding discussions from the U.S. intelligence community. Suffice it to say that if a run-of-the-mill CIA agent or a government contractor or, in saner times, any presidential transition team tried this, you would surely see Kelly, Conway and the rest of President Trump’s base go berserk at the suggestion that such a thing is “wholly appropriate.” (Fox News would be on high alert 24/7.) Carrie Cordero explains why this behavior is such a problem: Had this secure communications plan been implemented, [Michael] Flynn and/or [Jared] Kushner, if using the channel, could have potentially: Communicated potentially classified or sensitive national intelligence information to the Russian government, including its intelligence service officials; Revealed sensitive U.S. government or national intelligence information that the Russians otherwise would have had to try to collect through other clandestine means; Provided valuable information about the thinking within the Trump White House and the inner workings of the U.S. Executive Branch; and/or Compromised themselves in a way that—if they intended to keep the channel secret from U.S. intelligence services and/or the American public—would have provided Russian intelligence with information that could be used against them in the future. There is plenty of public information available—and presumably classified information available to White House officials—that details Russian foreign intelligence efforts. If one knows that a secure communication line exists between U.S.-based diplomatic facilities and Moscow; one certainly knows why it exists. An effort on the part of an American government soon-to-be official to evade U.S. government intelligence collectors by using secure communications out of foreign facilities, comes awfully close to the line of aiding and abetting the clandestine intelligence activities of a foreign power that presumably take place out of those very facilities. The propriety of Kushner’s alleged behavior is not a close call, nor a matter of reasonable debate. That Kelly, national
was attacking a Congress controlled by the opposition party. Trump’s broadsides against his fellow Republicans are not solely the thoughtless rantings of a petulant amateur. They are strategic and purposeful. Paul Kane of The Washington Post notes that some of Trump’s “advisers believe that dysfunction on Capitol Hill is likely to continue and that the further away Trump is positioned from the gridlock, the better his political standing will be heading toward his own re-election campaign in 2020.” It’s advice Trump has taken. “Trump frequently tells aides that he wants distance from Congress,” reports Josh Dawsey of Politico, “He doesn’t want to be associated with any failure and is increasingly convinced the American public sees Congress as failing.” Such a strategy would be insane for any other president to pursue. It practically guarantees the demise of his legislative agenda, and it gift-wraps a midterm campaign message for the opposition. But there’s little proof Trump is primarily driven to win legislative battles. He expends far more energy on creating media dramas that outrage his detractors and tickle his fans, than on the dealmaking he claimed to have turned into an art form. Still, the strategy hasn’t paid off yet politically. The president’s own political standing is terrible. He has only a 35 percent job approval in the Gallup tracking poll at the end of last week and 38.6 in the RealClearPolitics average. He hasn’t reached 40 percent for the last seven weeks. He has never reached 50 percent in his entire presidency, a benchmark he seems extremely unlikely to ever reach. With an unpopular president choosing to sow division among a more unpopular Republican Congress, a midterm election that buoys the Democrats would appear to be a certainty. Yet that presumes the Democrats don’t succumb to their own divisions. One would think that the daily panic Trump induces in Democrats would focus the mind. Perhaps, come Election Day, it will. Yet rumbles of division persist. Not so much on Capitol Hill, where everyone from center-right- Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia to “Democratic Socialist” Sen. Bernie Sanders have locked arms to thwart Trump on health care changes. Congressional Democrats are poised for a repeat performance next month to prevent inclusion of border wall funding in any bill to keep the government open. But harmony is not as easily found within the progressive activist community. Two new allied groups, Justice Democrats and Brand New Congress, are raising money for left-wing candidates who challenge incumbent congressional Democrats. And more eyes are on what Our Revolution might do. The populist outfit founded by Sanders has not yet endorsed any challengers to current House and Senate Democrats. But Our Revolution President Nina Turner (pictured) is not shy about attacking the Democratic establishment, raising the prospect that she soon will. After the Democratic National Committee wouldn’t let Turner bring several dozen people inside headquarters to deliver petitions supporting a more expansive platform than the “Better Deal” package of economic reforms touted by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Turner ripped party leaders as “dictators” before sending an email to her group’s membership. “It is time to make the Democratic Party ‘Feel the Bern’ again.” She has also said that any Democrat who doesn’t share Sanders’ belief in a single-payer health care system has “something wrong with them” and that she won’t accept “hemming and hawing” on the subject. Whether that means Turner will weaponize Our Revolution against Democratic incumbents is unknown. We have seen one example of hesitancy on the part of Sanders to let his project descend into a vehicle for political fratricide. In the primary to determine which Democratic will face off against vulnerable Nevada Republican Sen. Dean Heller, the state chapter of Our Revolution is refusing to get behind the party’s preferred choice, Rep. Jacky Rosen. But former Sen. Harry Reid successfully leaned on Sanders to prevent the national organization from following suit. It is also unclear whether Justice Democrats and Brand New Congress have the muscle to recruit an army of challengers. So far they have only produced five House candidates and one Senate candidate targeting Democratic incumbents. Even if Democrats avoid a full-blown bloodletting during the primary season that saps precious resources, the ideological divisions within the party are not going away anytime soon. Rank-and-file Democrats have not been able to put aside all differences and focus on the common political enemy of Trump, because pragmatists and populists still blame each other for the debacle of 2016. The Senate map in 2018 is difficult for Team Blue, with 10 Democratic seats up for re-election in states carried by Trump, and only one Republican seat in a state Clinton won. Most political handicappers give Democrats a better shot at taking the House, although FiveThirtyEight’s Dave Wasserman warns that GOP-led gerrymandering and the concentration of Democratic voters in urban congressional districts complicates Democrats’ electoral chances in the House as well. He illustrates the problem by comparing the median House seat – the 218th seat when one ranks the 435 districts from most Republican to most Democratic – to the presidential election returns. “In 2016, Trump lost the national popular vote by 2.1 percentage points, but Republicans won the median House seat by 3.4 points,” Wasserman notes, “tied with 2012 for the widest House disparity in the last half-century.” To win on such skewed terrain, Democrats will need a combination of strong liberal base turnout, weak conservative turnout, and aid from moderates and independents. This year’s special House elections suggest that trifecta is possible – even though Republicans won them all, they were all closer than they should have been because Republican turnout was limp across the board. But if a big enough faction of Democrats decides to stay home as well, then an opportunity will have been missed. Both parties are unsettled and in flux. Neither will fight in the midterm elections fully unified. The question is which party can best contain its divisions in the short run. Can congressional Republicans can find a way to turn the tables on Trump’s offensive? Can Democrats set aside their differences for now, and save their looming civil war for the 2020 presidential primary stage? May the least divided party win.The city of Dnipro in eastern Ukraine is observing a day of mourning on September 26 to honor two traffic police officers killed in the line of duty in the city the previous day. Officials said the two police officers were shot dead by a former police officer on September 25. Police say they detained the alleged gunman, Oleksandr Puhachov, hours later in a hospital, where he was undergoing surgery in connection with a gunshot wound he apparently suffered during the shooting. Investigators say the incident took place when the traffic police officers stopped Puhachov's vehicle for an alleged traffic violation. Puhachov then opened fire when the police officers tried to identify him, police officials said. Puhachov, a former officer of the Interior Ministry's Tornado special police unit, was wanted on suspicion of kidnapping, creating an organized criminal group, and sexual abuse. Investigators said on September 26 that Puhachov has denied the allegations. Based on reporting by UNIAN and Ukrinform.uaKARACHI: A secret agent reportedly named as Joel Cox affiliated with US intel agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), is likely to be released on bail following orders of Pakistan’s higher authorities. The secret agency official was arrested over possessing fifteen bullets of 9mm pistol, three small knives and a wrench along with his laptop computer and cell phone, local police department said. However, Pakistani authorities took decision for his release on bail while the local police department is reportedly facing severe pressure over his arrestment, local media reported. Cox was visiting Pakistan as part of an assignment to provide training to local police, according to a U.S. law enforcement official. US officials confirmed his appointment in Pakistan from Miami’s field office for a three-month training session for Pakistani police department, reports added. US officials also claimed that Cox was not armed during his journey except few bullets were recovered from his luggage. On the other hand, US foreign department stated that diplomatic staff present in Pakistan are being contacted on Cox’s matter and expecting his release in near future. Joel Cox appeared before court: Cox appeared in court Tuesday to face anti-terrorism charges, which restrict unauthorised weapons or ammunition on commercial flights, and is scheduled to appear again on Saturday. FBI agent arrested in Karachi: A man named Joel who was arrested by security officials at Karachi international airport on May 5 for carrying bullets now identified as a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent, reported Washington Post. Jewel currently is in police custody for four-day remand on account of anti-terrorism charges that prohibits carrying arms and ammunition on a commercial flight. Meghan Gregonis, spokeswoman for the US Embassy in Islamabad, has told media that the US officials are in contact with Pakistani authorities to resolve this matter. US authorities have urged Pakistani officials to not reveal agent’s personal details for obvious reasons. According to US official, the agent was in Pakistan to assist government in an investigation of a corruption case. The US citizen, Joel Cox Eugene, was caught with 15 bullets of 9mm calibre by Airport Security Force officials. He was supposed to go Islamabad via PIA flight (PK 308).What does Fascism look like? A forced population transfer greater than any attempted in history, greater than the French and Spanish expulsions of the Jews in 1308 and 1492; greater than the Nabka of approximately 700,000 Palestinian Arabs from British-mandate Palestine; greater than the 1.5 million Stalin consigned to Siberia and the Central Asian republics; greater than Pol Pot’s exile of 2.5 million city-dwellers to the Cambodian countryside, or the scattering of Turkey’s Assyrian Christians, which the scholar Mordechai Zaken says numbers in the millions and required 180 years to complete. Trump has promised to move 12 million Mexicans in under two years—“so fast your head will spin.” Who did Hitler hate? Jews, the disabled, homosexuals, Gypsies—all other non-Aryans. Who does Trump hate? Mexicans, Muslims, the disabled, Homosexuals* women, and all other races and other non-Trumps (losers). Trump would allow the government and others to discriminate against gays, ban gay marriage, pick homophobic Supreme Court Justices. To Apprentice contestant: I bet you make a great wife. (Not Verified, but commonly asserted: But just a great wife. Not a businesswoman and a wife—that doesn’t exist, obviously). But this and proof of his misogyny can be found here. * Trump’s fascination with Hitler is just one form of his racist actions. In 1991, John O’Donnell, a former Trump associate, wrote an exposé entitled Trumped! The Inside Story of the Real Donald Trump. During O’Donnell’s tenure as president of the Trump Plaza Hotel, Trump told him that he hates “black guys counting my money!” He added that “the only kind of people I want counting my money are short guys that wear yarmulkes every day.” To Trump, “laziness is a trait in blacks.” Several years later, Trump didn’t bother to deny it: “The stuff O’Donnell wrote about me is probably true.” Soon after Adolph Hitler, Adolf Hitler was the chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945. He was the leader of Nazi party and one of the notorious dictators in the history of the world. He was born in 1889 in a small town in Austria. Hitler possessed leadership from his childhood and was popular among his fellow mates. Learn this here now for more information. became Germany’s chancellor in January 1933, he began instituting policies that isolated German Jews and subjected them to persecution. Among other things, Hitler’s Nazi Party, which espoused extreme German nationalism and anti-Semitism, commanded that all Jewish businesses be boycotted and all Jews be dismissed from civil-service posts. From the 1990 Vanity Fair article revisited in 2015—perhaps in a surge of Czech nationalism, Ivana Trump told her lawyer Michael Kennedy that from time to time her husband reads a book of Hitler’s collected speeches, My New Order, which he keeps in a cabinet by his bed. Kennedy now guards a copy of My New Order in a closet at his office, as if it were a grenade. Hitler’s speeches, from his earliest days up through the Phony War of 1939, reveals his extraordinary ability as a master propagandist. The Daily Stormer neo-Nazi web site endorsed him, advising its readers to “vote for the first time in our lives for the one man who actually represents our interests.” From Authentic History.com: Germany was soon engaged in a gigantic program of industrial military output. The plan was that by the end of 1937,Germany would have a standing army of 300,000 men, organized into 21 divisions, which in wartime could be increased to 63 divisions. This was the defensive phase of the plan. Offensive capability would be added between 1938 and 1941 Donald Trump: “I believe in the military and military strength more strongly than anybody running by a factor of a billion.” Now consider the implications of the following two statistics 94 % of SP disciples, being constitutional experts, believed the healthcare mandate unconstitutional (although the Supreme Court begged to differ). 43% of SP disciples “would hypothetically support the military stepping in to take control from a civilian government which is beginning to violate the Constitution—which is odd because of the small technicality that the military taking control of the government for “violating the Constitution” is, in fact, violating the Constitution. Donald Trump warned on Wednesday that his supporters would respond with “riots” if he fails to secure the nomination at July’s convention in Cleveland. “I think you’d have riots,” Trump told CNN on Wednesday. “I think you’d have riots. I’m representing a tremendous many, many millions of people.” Is the truth relevant or necessary in any shape or form to this type of person? Hitler All propaganda has to be popular and has to accommodate itself to the comprehension of the least intelligent of those whom it seeks to reach. Donald Trump Make America Great again… I will be the greatest jobs President…I will build a wall… Ban Muslims from entry… I will torture more. I will blow up families of terrorists. “Crooked Hillary”. Hitler If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed. Donald Trump I am a great business man. I am not a racist. Obama was not born in America. I love the Blacks. I love the Mexicans. The Mexican government is sending rapists and murderers into the U.S. Trump has “perfected the outrageous untruth as a campaign tool,” said Michael LaBossiere, a philosophy professor at Florida A&M University who studies theories of knowledge. “He makes a clearly false or even absurdly false claim, which draws the attention of the media. He then rides that wave until it comes time to call up another one.” From Historyplace.com The first thing he (Hitler) did was to prohibit regular uniformed police from interfering with Nazi Brownshirts out in the streets. This meant that innocent German citizens had no one to turn to as they were being beaten up by rowdy young storm troopers drunk with their new found power and quite often drunk on beer. These young Nazi toughs took full advantage of police leniency to loot shops at will and terrorize Jews or anyone else unfortunate enough to be caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. Donald Trump on Monday proposed punishing Americans if they don’t turn in their friends and neighbors for behaving suspiciously. From Holocaust Encyclopedia The first wave of legislation, from 1933 to 1934, focused largely on limiting the participation of Jews in German public life. Government agencies at all levels aimed to exclude Jews from the economic sphere of Germany by preventing them from earning a living. Jews were required to register their domestic and foreign property and assets, a prelude to the gradual expropriation of their material wealth by the state Donald Trump: He also remained open toward registering U.S. Muslims in a database or giving them special identification identifying their faith, the news outlet added. “Forced federal registration of US citizens, based on religious identity, is fascism. Period. Nothing else to call it,” Jeb Bush national security adviser John Noonan wrote on Twitter. Conservative Iowa radio host Steve Deace, who has endorsed Ted Cruz, also used the “F” word last week: “If Obama proposed the same religion registry as Trump every conservative in the country would call it what it is—creeping fascism.” “Maybe he should have been roughed up, because it was absolutely disgusting what he was doing,” Meg Whitman, the chief executive of Hewlett Packard Enterprise and a major contributor to Republican candidates, railed against Mr. Trump on Friday at a closed-door meeting of Republicans in Park City, Utah, comparing him to the Axis leaders A Mussolini Quote. Fascist regimes have disdain for the recognition of human rights—by inciting fear and hatred the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored to an ever greater degree. Now people either ignore or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc. Hitler and Mussolini, with the use of propaganda, worked to create a unifying patriotic fervor to eradicate a perceived common threat or foe: racial, ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; homosexuals, socialists, terrorists, etc. Trump on his GOP opponents Donald Trump said Wednesday that he thought his Republican primary opponents who vowed to support the Party’s nominee should follow through or be banned from running for public office. Trump on Torture: He vowed to “strengthen the laws so that we can better compete” with ISIS‘ brutal tactics—rejecting out of hand the argument that allowing torture would be stooping to ISIS’ savagery. “Waterboarding is fine, but we should go much much further.” Killing Civilians: Billionaire presidential candidate Donald Trump said Tuesday that the United States should kill the family members of ISIS terrorists in order to defeat the jihadist group, a tactic that would likely be considered a war crime. Death Penalty “My only complaint is that lethal injection is too comfortable a way to go.” Incarceration rates (America has absurdly high incarceration rates, many for really petty crimes like pot) “The next time you hear someone saying there are too many people in prison, ask them how many thugs they’re willing to relocate to their neighborhood. The answer: None.” Private Prisons “They work better.” A clear trend emerges: Trump would very likely be “tough on crime”—he would very likely back tougher prison sentences and invasive policing practices, and would likely continue the more punitive aspects of the war on drugs The more StupidParty you are, the higher your incarceration rate. But I guess a fascist would not be satisfied: How do fascists take down the media? Donald Trump’s latest threat against the media came Friday at a rally in Texas. Once elected president, Trump promised, he will “open up” federal libel laws to make it easier to sue news outlets like The Washington Post and New York Times—a pronouncement to which journalists reacted in predictable horror. Donald Trump says he is “revoking” the Washington Post’s press access at his campaign events because the newspaper is “phony and dishonest.” Trump has already barred other new organizations, including Politico, from obtaining press credentials and then reversed course. Ben Smith, executive editor of Buzzfeed, responded that his news organization, which targets millennials, is also banned from covering official Trump events. The Huffington Post posted on Twitter that its reporters are also barred. How do fascists take down the Judiciary? Evidently anyone who has Mexican or Muslim heritage cannot be a judge in any case against Donald Trump. But now just imagine if the government is Donald Trump? I will let Elizabeth Warren explain. Trump’s own bigotry compromises any one from being able to judge him–that would mean all losers (99% of the population) would be disqualified from the judicial system. That would mean only Trump’s bigot supporters would qualify. Now we have Hitler’s Germany. Ken Burns will now explain. Robert Paxton, professor emeritus of social science at Columbia University and author of several books, including “The Anatomy of Fascism.” Has been described as the father of fascism studies—chooses to describe the threat in more understated academic light: Robert Paxton,“If Donald Trump puts his followers in colored shirts and they begin to fight in the streets, then you’ve got fascism.” But Trumps Trumpeteers don’t care. That is why he loves the uneducated—”we won with poorly educated! I love the poorly educated!” StupidParty leaders have been working long and hard to dumb down America, and now that the have created their own Frankenstein (oblivious to the fact that their monster would someday become self aware) which is more than can be said about the Trumpeteers flocking to Trump’s “political ponzi scheme.” Trump fans enable Trump—we must all fight back, as it is unacceptable to be a Trump supporter. Organizations fighting back; The Huffington Post adds this to every article about Trump: Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims—1.6 billion members of an entire religion— from entering the U.S.If you've been hanging onto your Nexus S, waiting impatiently for Google to start the roll out of Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean to your device, you won't have to wait all the much longer. It seems as though the update is slowly rolling out as of right now. The update appearing shows as a 114.4MB file and is noted to of have loaded fine on several i9023 models as well as some i9020T models though we've not had much luck getting it load on our i9020T. If you're not wanting to wait for the OTA, you can download the zip file direct from Google servers though you may need to be running a custom recovery to get it on. (We used CWM 6 without any problems.) And of course, if you're unsure of how this all works best to wait until we get a full flashing guide up for you all. Source: XDA (1), via: Android Central ForumsActivists are targeting a law that prevents the anti-gun lobby from using the legal system to bypass the legislature and cripple the lawful sale of arms. Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey has claimed that the 2005 Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) makes a gun “the only product of its kinds for which Congress has given the industry extensive freedom from liability.” However, the PLCAA afforded no protections to the arms industry that did not already exist for all industries. Activists are targeting this law because it prevents the anti-gun lobby from using the legal system to bypass the legislature and cripple the lawful sale of arms, as Healy is attempting to do in Massachusetts. The PLCAA, which was passed with bipartisan support, only shields manufacturers under a narrow set of circumstances. It prevents innocent firearms manufacturers from being held liable when criminals misuse their products. To understand the opposition, one must understand the nature of the lawsuits it was written to prevent. Liability for What They Did, Not What They Didn’t Do Many have heard of “strict products liability” but are unsure of exactly what it means. If one thinks that it simply means that a manufacturer must pay for any harm its goods cause, the argument against the PLCAA might make some sense. However, that is far from the reality. Generally, manufacturers and dealers are held liable for any harm caused by products sold “in a defective condition unreasonably dangerous to the user.” This includes manufacturing defects, unsafe design, and inadequate warnings. This means a plaintiff need not prove the manufacturer was at fault; he need only prove the existence of a defect. So, if a product is deemed “unreasonably dangerous,” a manufacturer would almost certainly lose a lawsuit involving harm from that product. This is why the anti-gun crowd salivates at this type of liability. One might think that because guns are dangerous, they must fit in the PLCAA somewhere. However, this type of liability concerns products that are “unreasonably dangerous.” For instance, knives are dangerous, but everyone knows the whole purpose of a knife is to cut. Product liability theory does not mean that a knife-maker has to pay whenever someone is cut by a knife; it means they must pay if a defective knife hurts someone. The knife paradigm applies directly to guns. The purpose of a gun is to poke holes at a distance, and everyone knows this. Just as I cannot claim that my knife was defective because I used it to cut something I shouldn’t have, I cannot claim that my gun was defective if I use it to poke a hole in something I shouldn’t have. Say, though, my gun occasionally slings a round way off to the left, and someone is hurt because of that. In that case, the gun was defective, and the manufacturer can be held liable. This has always been the law, and the PLCAA did nothing to change that. It’s Unjust to Punish People for Others’ Crimes The PLCAA was enacted because certain judges, along with special interest groups, threatened to stray from existing law and impose liability in situations where guns behaved as designed but were misused by criminals. There was no basis for this type of liability, and Congress acted because “the possibility of imposing liability on an entire industry for harm that is solely caused by others is an abuse of the legal system.” All the PLCAA does is clarify existing law to protect the lawful business of selling arms. The act does not prevent any lawsuits where the dealers or manufacturers acted improperly, as evidenced by the recent lawsuit against Century Arms, which sold allegedly defective AK-47 variants. On this, the claim that the act protects “illegal and irresponsible” actions is patently false. Healy and the anti-gun lobby are targeting PLCAA because it prevents them from joining forces with “a maverick judicial officer or a petit jury” to “expand civil liability in a manner never contemplated by the framers of the Constitution.” Even a single court ruling opposite the PLCAA could crush the lawful arms trade in that jurisdiction. Aside from abrogating the right to attain arms for citizens in that jurisdiction, such rulings would unconstitutionally burden commerce between that jurisdiction and other states. This is a core justification for the act, taken right from its text. To understand that this law offers no special protection for the firearms industry, simply ask whether it would be just to hold Ford financially responsible for hit-and-runs committed by Mustang drivers. That is exactly what the anti-gun lobby seeks: to force lawful manufacturers and dealers to pay for the illegal use of their products. This serves only to create a loophole in the law, not close one.CLOSE A Seattle-area driver was billed more than $18,000 for unpaid tolls. He knew he should have been using a Good to Go pass during his commute, but he never imagined the penalties would add up to so much. VPC . (Photo11: KING) POULSBO, Wash. -- A Washington man says he is reeling after paying more than $18,000 in bridge tolls owed by his son. Tom Rose of Poulsbo says his son, who just got his first job, crossed the 520 bridge in Seattle every day for work, but neglected to open a Good To Go pass account to pay the tolls. "He thought he'd be bill later for it," said Rose."He was living hand to mouth. He thought he... could save up and pay for them later." Rose says his son never received a bill. He learned the total of what he owed when he tried to sell his car. The tab was more than $18,000 -- $1,360 in tolls and more than $16,000 in penalties. When father and son contacted the state's Good To Go office, they were told they could seek recourse before an administrative judge, but it probably wouldn't do them any good. KING-TV has heard similar stories from other drivers. A class action lawsuit was filed this week, claiming the state Department of Transportation was violating due process. "They need to pay their tolls. We all need to do our part," Rose said. "But to not have a proper recourse, and not have the administrative process correct, is really an affront. It's almost an abuse." A state DOT spokesman said they tried to send the bills out to Rose's son, but their letters were returned. The spokesman said the department is willing to work with Rose's son. He will have to pay the tolls, but officials say they will try to work something out concerning the penalties. "We would welcome any type of remediation in this. A second look, that would be great," said Rose. Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1CNhuU215 Flares Twitter 3 Facebook 5 Google+ 5 LinkedIn 1 Pin It Share 0 StumbleUpon 1 Email -- Filament.io 15 Flares × Will power? NO! ‘Will’ is Power less! WHOA! That is a key takeaway for me in the third week of the Master Key Experience. When I say I “will” be/do/have something, I am telling my “subby” there’s no rush…it will happen “someday.” There’s just one problem… The “subby” doesn’t understand “someday.” It only understands things that are specific. Hmmmmm….. In the past two weeks we’ve begun the process of “linking” the things we want with the things we need to do, and we do this in a playful way with colors, shapes, and tricks of the mind. We’re creating new links to new habits. But what about the old habits that are ingrained deep within our subconscious? They must be broken. Thy “will” be done! I’m now in the third week of reading Og Mandino’s The Greatest Salesman in the World three times a day as directed in Scroll 1. (OK, I admit it, I’ve slipped a few times. Hey, I’m not perfect…just doing my best.) This week, we changed it up a bit by marking out the word “will” in the Scroll, and when I performed this simple task, the changes in the text – as well as in my mind – were dramatically different. Thy “will” be done! By simply removing the word “will,” the scroll is infinitely more powerful to read and absorb. It’s a simple act, but it’s not easy… You see, after reading “will” for two weeks, my “subby” occasionally still “sees” the word even though I’ve physically crossed it out in my book. When that happens, I re-read the sentence until I get it right. This an exercise about breaking the links from our subconscious to our old/bad habits and creating links to new/good habits. I can already see the beginnings of change, in both my habits and my thoughts about the habits. I am creating good habits. And I promise to perform these good habits often. Why? When I perform [an act] often it becomes a habit and I become its slave and since it is a good habit this is my will. ~ Og Mandino Today I begin a new life. Thy “will” be done. 0 Name: Email: We respect your email privacy.SUNRISE, Fla. -- Florida Panthers forward Krys Barch was ejected after reportedly directing a racial slur at a Montreal player Saturday night, and Florida coach Kevin Dineen said it was now a matter for the NHL to investigate. Barch was given a game misconduct after a dustup at the end of the first period in Florida's 3-2 win. The Miami Herald, citing an unidentified league official, said linesman Darren Gibbs overheard Barch use the slur against P.K. Subban, whose parents are Jamaican. NHL executive vice president Colin Campbell is investigating the incident but no decision is expected Sunday, a source told ESPN.com's Pierre LeBrun. The Panthers don't play again until Thursday. Barch left the dressing room before media members were allowed in for postgame interviews. The on-ice officials were not made available for comment. "Personally, I didn't hear anything. I don't even know what happened, really," Subban said. "A couple of guys on the ice told me that something was said. I don't know what was said. I didn't hear it. As far as I'm concerned it's really out of my hands, so I don't really know too much about it." Dineen was careful with his comments. "Well, my take is we have an incredibly broken-up player in there who feels extremely bad that there was an insinuation that something inappropriate was said and now it's moved on to a league matter," Dineen said. "And obviously the Florida Panthers, Krys Barch and all of us are really shaken up by this, that there was an insinuation that something was said that was inappropriate." "Again I'll leave it with the league right now, but I think this is always a very sensitive area for anybody and we'll let the facts play out and make sure that things are handled accordingly and move forward from there," he said. Canadiens coach Randy Cunneyworth had few details to offer. "I know it was some sort of a game misconduct," he said. "I'm not sure what was said or how it was relayed or who exactly heard it. We're not aware of the exact words in any way and we don't think we'll ever find out." "The bottom line is there is no room for that. Those things have to be (addressed immediately) and the referees are on the ball about those kinds of incidents," he said. Shawn Matthias of the Panthers defended his teammate. "You never want to see that and I know Barchy and I don't think that he's the type of guy that would do something of that nature," said Matthias, whose seventh goal of the season 3:08 into the third period broke a 1-all tie. Added teammate Kris Versteeg: "I don't think we can comment on it because it's obviously a touchy subject, but Krys is a good guy and he means no harm." Information from ESPN.com's Pierre LeBrun and The Associated Press was used in this report.And that, Mr. Manafort said, was in the works. Will the real demagogue please stand up! How must all of his supporters feel — the ones following him like wounded puppies because he is their rapid rabble-rouser who “tells it like it is”? Maybe he’s just been telling you what he knew you wanted to hear. Maybe he’s been playing on your anxieties, insecurities and anger to further his own ambitions. Maybe this has all been an act, a “part he’s been playing,” and you are the gullible audience who got played. Image Maybe you are simply backing a man who has hijacked your passions and your party. But on the substance, Manafort seems to suggest that his guy, the ultimate branding machine, simply needs one more rebranding, that his problems pale in comparison to those of Clinton, his likely opponent. Maybe. Maybe not. As The Wall Street Journal noted in a recent poll, Clinton’s unpopularity — as measured by poll respondents saying that they either have somewhat or very negative feelings toward her — hit a “dubious new record of 56 percent.” The only problem for Republicans, however, is that “an astounding 65 percent” feel that way about the real estate developer, leading the paper to conclude that he and Cruz “may be the only two Republicans who could lose to Hillary Clinton.” Exit polls in New York, where the real estate developer won by massive margins, revealed that even among Republican voters, 22 percent said that they would be scared of his presidency and another 14 percent said they’d be concerned about it. Only 8 percent of Democrats said they’d be scared of a Clinton presidency, with 25 percent saying they would be concerned about it. In fact, naturalization applications are on the rise, specifically because Latino immigrants are nervous about the potential presidency of the real estate developer. As The New York Times reported last month: “Over all, naturalization applications increased by 11 percent in the 2015 fiscal year over the year before, and jumped 14 percent during the six months ending in January, according to federal figures. The pace is picking up by the week, advocates say, and they estimate applications could approach one million in 2016, about 200,000 more than the average in recent years.” The article continues: “While naturalizations generally rise during presidential election years, Mr. Trump provided an extra boost this year.”The Scene: In Valkyrie, Tom Cruise plays Claus von Stauffenberg, a Nazi colonel who tries to assassinate Adolf Hitler and ends up getting executed for his trouble. The movie starts with von Stauffenberg's troops being ambushed by Allied fighter planes, and then we see his wife visiting him at the hospital and learning that he has lost one eye, one hand and two fingers in the explosion. aceshowbiz.com So at least his obsession with only showing one side of his face is justified. Continue Reading Below Advertisement Von Stauffenberg doesn't let his injuries stop him from doing stuff like planting bombs, shooting guns and trying to overthrow the Nazi government. Hell, just the fact that he learned to dress himself all alone with only three fingers was impressive enough. But movies merge historical figures all the time -- all the badass stuff Tom Cruise does in the movie was probably done by von Stauffenberg and a bunch of other (presumably fully limbed) guys, right? The Reality: Nope, the real von Stauffenberg did all the stuff that's in the movie... and more. Director Bryan Singer had to tone down some of his more badass moments because people wouldn't buy them. For example, we've mentioned before that when von Stauffenberg was being operated on after his injury (that is, when they were amputating 70 percent of his hands), he refused to take any kind of painkiller because he needed to be on top of his game, since orchestrating the assassination of one of the most paranoid dictators in world history is significantly more difficult when you're giggling at the elephant-men humping at the foot of your bed. wiki "I know you're just an actor, Mr. Chaplin, but would you like to help me kill Hitler?" Continue Reading Below Advertisement Another bit they cut -- presumably for the same reason -- was after von Stauffenberg was released from the hospital and his friends and family saw that he had lost most of his fingers. In the movie, Cruise's kids just sort of look at him with sadness. In real life, however, von Stauffenberg actually joked that he had never known what to do with so many fingers in the first place. Imagine those words coming out of Tom Cruise's mouth, and how you'd immediately lose all ability to take the film seriously as a true story ever again.Q. What would you
’s a theme that BINJ heard from each of the former facility employees. Attempts to find a solution with help from company superiors proved fruitless. “The corporate end of the company just could not have cared less about what went on over there, and they took it as license to do whatever they wanted,” Purvis said. All that happened, according to Purvis, was that the situation became more and more uncomfortable—the workplace was out of control. “The more I tried to get a resolution from management the worse it got,” said Purvis. That could be indicative of a deeper problem in the workplace, Scott Shah explained. “It’s one thing if they didn’t know,” the Texas attorney said. “It’s very different if they knew and did nothing.” SimpliSafe told BINJ through Boston public relations firm ML Strategies that the company takes action when workers have complaints. The statement, authored by ML Senior Vice President of Strategic Communications Nancy Sterling, did not address any of the specific complaints from the Charlestown warehouse. “When an employee raises a concern, or if a particular situation needs to be addressed, the company responds in accordance with our policies to maintain a collaborative and tolerant workplace,” Sterling’s statement read. BINJ reported in November on the struggle, being waged by SimpliSafe’s call center workers in the company’s downtown Boston offices, for a resolution to a number of issues ranging from bedbugs to racist abuse. Three of those workers—Lauren Galloway, Abraham Zamcheck, and Ryan Costello—formed a solidarity organization called United SimpliSafe Workers to address the problems at the call center. And their complaints sound similar to those of Purvis and Jeromski: a racially toxic work environment and a lack of support from management. According to a United SimpliSafe spokesperson, supervisors at the call center are majority white and treat their subordinates of color with dismissive and abusive language. In one instance, a white supervisor allegedly said to a majority black and Latin team, “I’m like a slavemaster and you’re my slaves.” When this incident was related to the company’s human resources department, United SimpliSafe said, it was chalked up to a misunderstanding and no discipline was administered to the offending party. “When we receive complaints, they are immediately investigated and, without going into details of personnel matters, SimpliSafe takes prompt and appropriate action,” said SimpliSafe spokesperson Melina Engel, referring to the complaints in the call center. “Employees have numerous mechanisms to report issues, including direct supervisors and managerial supervisors on the call center floor, as well as human resources and senior management all of whom are in the same building.” One place where the company did take action in the call center was in the group chat for workers to troubleshoot and occasionally joke around. Once the election was in full swing, said Zamcheck, rules came down from management that people could no longer talk about Donald Trump in the chat. “We were not allowed to put the Trump name in there,” Zamcheck said. “People would often make jokes and stuff.” Many of the company’s advertisements run on right-wing radio, said Zamcheck, so SimpliSafe wanted to avoid any joking around at the then-candidate’s expense. SimpliSafe ads run on Rush Limbaugh, Howard Stern, Dave Ramsey, and the shows of other notable hard-right personalities and shock jocks. “Their entire business model is built on encouraging and then profiting from the wave of fear and anxiety overwhelming the country,” Purvis said. SimpliSafe did not respond to questions about the specifics of policies around the nature of political speech at the company. But at the Charlestown warehouse, it was clear that certain views weren’t going to be tolerated. “Anyone who openly disagreed was a target,” Jeromski said. “If they found out you were opposed to Trump, you might find a Pepe on your desk.” Politano told BINJ that she was so disgusted with the perpetuation of white nationalist agitprop in the workplace and the inability of management to do anything about the problem that she took matters into her own hands, tearing up printouts of Pepe and taking down Trump signs. She did it, Politano said, because she was aware of the message that was being sent. “I know what it means, and it was completely unacceptable,” Politano said. There’s a difference between political speech and threatening iconography, according to Bojak. “The Pepe frog has obvious connotations and links to the alt-right/white supremacy groups,” he told BINJ, adding that while printing the image out might be interpreted as simply an attempt to get a rise out of people, the specific meaning of Pepe in the white nationalist movement could create a feeling of uncertainty and insecurity that rises above issues of free speech in the workplace. “They are absolutely creating a workplace in which people from numerous marginalized groups would not feel welcome, or even safe,” Bojak explained. “The person supervising that employee should be taking action as soon as possible.” In her statement on behalf of SimpliSafe, Sterling told BINJ that the company has employees from a number of backgrounds. “SimpliSafe has a diverse workforce who carry wide-ranging points of view on numerous topics, including politics,” Sterling said. Wide-ranging is one thing, harassment is another. According to Jeromski, the conservative politics in the warehouse didn’t stop with posters and memes. “It wasn’t just signage,” he said. “It was the culture there.” Jeromski described a workplace where people of color didn’t advance and the white managerial class maintained white hegemony in professional and social settings. Nonwhite workers wouldn’t receive recognition for their work, Jeromski said, and were frequently passed over for less experienced white workers. And nobody would talk to them. The language used around the warehouse, said Jeromski, was racially explosive—though the slurs were kept to small groups. “In private settings, I heard two or three people use that kind of language,” said Jeromski, who confirmed that the two managers at the warehouse were two of the people in question. It doesn’t seem like those being antagonized at SimpliSafe shipping and fulfillment centers have much recourse. If, as the company said through its spokesperson, policies are continuing in place as they have in the past, then chances of potential positive resolutions are minimal. “I complained all the time” about the behavior, Jeromski said. “Management made noise about doing something, but they did nothing.” The same thing happened to Politano. Before leaving, she said she tried again to address the issues surrounding her supervisors’ work areas. And again, she said, nothing happened. “I told our manager, ‘Hey, your employee [the one that had the Trump flag] has a bunch of offensive stuff up displaying at his desk and a Trump sticker facing the front window of the building,’” Politano said. “And again the manager played dumb.” That could be ineptitude. But Purvis took a cynical view of the situation. According to the former employee, maybe the problem isn’t that racialized abuse is something that the company can’t handle, or ignores. “Maybe it’s systemic throughout the company,” Purvis said. This article was produced in collaboration with the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism.PHILADELPHIA — Philadelphia Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren has a long-term plan for the organization, and to his credit, he has stuck to it the last three seasons. It’s becoming quite clear that the idea was to acquire young players with high ceilings, stick with them through thick and thin and let them grow together. The reward has been a young nucleus of players ranging in ages from 21 to 27 that has developed, along with 26-year-old captain Claude Giroux, and could have the Flyers on the cusp of a successful run over the next couple years. And since adding each of the players, Holmgren has kept his finger on the trigger when given the chance to pull it and make a deal for an older veteran and quick fix. He proved his patience and commitment to the plan again this past week when the trade deadline passed on Wednesday afternoon without any player from the nucleus leaving town. “Obviously the world we live in it’s tough to go out and buy a team and trade all of your young guys,” defenseman Luke Schenn said following Wednesday’s wild 6-4 win over the Capitals. “We need to keep those guys and build from within. I think we have some good young players here. “Everyone wants to win for each other and sticks up for each other. I am really happy they kept the core together.” The two deals Holmgren made were trading for Islanders defenseman Andrew MacDonald for a minor leaguer and two picks on Tuesday and then shipping D-man Andrej Meszaros to Boston for a conditional pick on Wednesday. Although MacDonald is an unrestricted free agent after the season, the 27 year old has already indicated he wouldn’t mind remaining in Philadelphia and the feeling is mutual. “Andrew MacDonald is a guy we focused on,” Holmgren said on Wednesday. “We believe he will make our team better. With an eye on the future, we have an interest in keeping Andrew longer term. He’s a solid, two-way defenseman in our league and he’s still young, too. He brings a lot to the table. He is going to make our team better.” The one deal he did make that shipped a young star out of town — James van Riemsdyk to Toronto for Schenn (24 years old) — so far hasn’t gone the Flyers’ way, but at least he got another young player in return. JVR is on pace for his first 30-goal campaign while Schenn has many holes in his game to sew up. The master plan took shape following the 2011 season, when the Flyers were ousted in the second round of the playoffs by the Boston Bruins. In one of the biggest shake-ups of an organization in this town, Holmgren traded captain Mike Richards and all-star Jeff Carter on the same day — and subsequently signed goalie Ilya Bryzgalov. In return, he netted Wayne Simmonds (25) and Luke’s younger brother, Brayden (22), from the Kings for Richards, and landed Jakub Voracek (24) and the eighth pick in the draft from the Blue Jackets that turned into Sean Couturier (21). Before the 2011-2012 season, the Flyers signed Matt Read (27) and plucked Michael Raffl (25) out of Europe last summer. They also have highly touted prospects and first-round picks Scott Laughton and Sam Morin playing in juniors. The Bryzgalov move was the one time Holmgren deviated from the plan and it ended up backfiring. The then aloof 31-year-old netminder never fit in and the Flyers used their amnesty buyout on him last summer. After originally signing him, they traded then 22-year-old goalie Sergei Bobrovsky — for some high picks — to Columbus where he won the Vezina trophy, awarded to the league’s best goalie, last season. Although Holmgren has had his chances to break from the script, the GM has all but refrained from trading anyone from the core. Rumors surfaced earlier in the week that the Flyers were in play for Vancouver forward Ryan Kesler and that any deal would have involved Brayden Schenn or Couturier. Holmgren downplayed the reports. “It’s nice to have the same group of guys together,” Raffl said. “We have been playing together for months now and we know each other well and think we have a good group of guys that can really achieve something.” The Flyers have given them the chance. “(The front office) kind of made a lot of trades a couple years ago and brought in a lot of new guys and young guys and now they are letting us grow together,” Luke Schenn said. “Last year we didn’t make the playoffs and everyone was a bit on edge and then we started this year slow. They could have shaken a few things up, but they let us ride through it and hopefully we will get rewarded for it. “We have a long way to go to make the playoffs but I can tell you for sure everyone wants to be here. We have a great group of young guys and older veterans that care for each other and really want to win.” That is the plan, and Holmgren is sticking to it.10 Things You Ought To Know: Final Fantasy XIII by Brian Bentley [ Tuesday, 11th of May 2010 - 06:18 PM ] The voice acting is not movie quality. Yes, the Japanese voice track was not included on your PS3 disc. Get over it. While it may not be the best voice over I’ve ever heard, it certainly isn’t the worst. The story is ludicrous. For anyone who has played a Final Fantasy game before, this does not come as a shock to you. The undeniably emo story and characters of each game become endearing in a patronizing “pat on the head” sort of way. The game is fairly linear. Final Fantasy XIII steps off the beaten path to explore a more guided experience. Part of the game opens up after 30 or so hours, but even then – after exploring – you are eventually strongly encouraged to move on with the story. Whether the choice was a rousing success still remains to be seen, but there were not many times I felt like I was chained down to a path with no means of escape. There are no towns. I suppose there is a part of me deep down that misses having towns. I mean, who didn't love traipsing all over town to go from one vendor to the next or waiting for an animation of your party sleeping in the inn or having to visit a church to resurrect your party (and save) or having to talk to every towns person just to learn tiny plot points or trivial information? No wait, I don’t miss that at all. Shopping, upgrading and saving your game is a breeze, and after a certain point in the game, there is even fast travel. You will do some grinding in this game, but not as much as you think. First off, grinding in a Japanese role playing game – such as Final Fantasy – is to be expected. Deep down, lovers of this genre somewhat get off on the grinding – it makes us feel the huge time sink was worth it because we suffered for it. Secondly, just short of running past many of the enemies, you will have garnered enough Crystarium Points (CP) to have maxed out the main roles of each character up through Level 9. Once you have completed the main storyline, the tenth and final Crystarium level will open. Upgrading weapons is confusing and time consuming. The long and the short of it is: there are three types of “components” (battle drops): mineral, organic and mechanical. Minerals simply upgrade one weapon into another weapon. Using Organic materials increases a hidden counter that positively affects the multiplier. Using Mechanical materials does the opposite but gives lots of weapon/accessory experience. So, use Organic material to attain a three times multiplier, then unleash your mechanical materials in one go. They don’t let you change your party until far into the game. While it may feel constricting that the game dictates who is in your party when, it is imperative they do so. Learning the roles and how to effectively create synergy amongst them is tantamount to successfully navigate the game. Depending on the situation, I will set my party accordingly and custom generate all six active paradigms to achieve the best result. The battle system is complex and challenging. No doubt about it; the battle system in Final Fantasy XIII is not cheap and easy. It is not something you pick up in the first hour, which is why you’re still receiving tutorials for it 9 hours into the game. Once you have finished the tutorials, the real complexities open up and you begin your quest to master possibly the most challenging battle system ever in the series. Before stepping into a battle, you must take into account the members of your party, what roles they have, what paradigms you have active, which paradigm will begin the battle, the weapons and accessories equipped, how many Technical Points you have, the number of enemies, the strength of the enemies and what skills those enemies have. Once you’re in the battle, many of those variables above are set, but that does not equal automatic win. You take command as a general would and effectively coordinate your attacks using the proper paradigm shifts. Paradigm shifts are the key to a successful battle. You cannot just zerg-rush (i.e. Paradigm = Relentless Assault) every battle. I’m sorry for all those who think you should be able to always keep the same three characters and then get into battle and press A or X to win. Paradigms are the execution plans to enact your overall strategy. As with any battle, you must be able to adapt, change strategies and take advantage when you can. That may mean dropping into a defensive stance to heal or a more offensive stance with physical attacks and debuffs. Yes, you may change in and out of them a lot, but that is what makes the strategic execution of paradigms so satisfying. You are going to die. And not just during Boss fights, sometimes, simple encounters can get the better of you. I’m 75+ hours into the game and there are still certain monsters that absolutely destroy me. When you do perish, you respawn directly in front of the fight just as you were prior without penalty. You aren't sent back to your last save point or need to find a church, just a simple immediate respawn giving you an opportunity to attack again or run like hell. All-in-all, this game will not be for everyone, but if you are going to give Final Fantasy XIII a chance, you would do well to remember these 10 things you ought to know. And if you don't care for it, just wait... another Final Fantasy game is right around the corner.This one has been covered a few times elsewhere so it’s a nice easy start to the “meme-busting” that I hope to make a regular feature on the blog. It’s all about this: It goes something like this: Scotland produces x amount of goods, including y amount of very valuable whisky. These goods are exported through English ports to the markets beyond. If they leave the UK from an English port, the export duty for these goods is then attributed to England, rather than Scotland. Another subsidy! The only problem, of course, is that there’s no such thing as export duty. It doesn’t exist. It is an illusion created by nationalists to manufacture an unwarranted grievance in an effort to dupe voters into saying Yes (or voting SNP). So quickly, proof that it doesn’t exist. EDIT 5th October 2016 – after posting this some time ago, endless repetitive arguments and incessant nonsense from people who still wouldn’t believe there is no such thing, I decided to write to HMRC. Their response is included below. Beyond that you can keep reading for further detail if you like. You can read the ever-excellent chokkablog post on “Stop Getting GERS Wrong” and look at #4. You can read the Freedom of Information response from the Scottish Government when asked what the value of whisky export duty was to Scotland. You could even read the EC Directive concerning the general arrangements of excise duty This slideshow requires JavaScript. And just for the avoidance of doubt, while there’s no such thing as export duty, whisky does accrue Excise Duty in the same way as other alcohol and tobacco products. This is a consumption tax and is charged at the point of sale. The Excise Duty for alcohol and tobacco bought here is accrued to Scotland through the Government Expenditure Revenue Scotland (GERS) figures. This is regardless of the origin of the alcohol. So the Excise Duty on Jamaican rum bought in Dundee, English cider bought in Oban and Scotch whisky bought in Auchterarder are all accrued to Scotland’s finances; while Scotch whisky purchased anywhere outside Scotland accrues excise duty for the country in which it is bought. Here are those excise duty figures recorded against Scotland’s revenue for 2013-14, the latest figures available at time of writing. You’ll notice that Scotland’s share of UK duties in this area is larger than our population share (8.3%) – 13.2% for tobacco and 9.3% for alcohol. So the additional tax that we generate in these areas are attributed to and then spent by Scottish expenditure. So where did this myth arise? It appears to have originated from this post on pro-independence site Wings Over Scotland. Titled “The Great Gingerbread Robbery”, it contains a series of myths on VAT, Corporation Tax and, crucially for the purposes of this article, this: And from that, memes are born. Doesn’t take much to check the facts though and we can definitely file this one under “PISH”. UPDATE – there have been a couple of comments on Twitter and Reddit since posting this article which are suggesting that I’m mixing up Export Duty and Excise Duty. So, to clear things up, just let me re-iterate. There is no such thing as Export Duty. It does not exist. There are a number of UK Government website pages which give details on the rules and regulations for imports and exports. Due to the wording of the titles, some of these can be a bit confusing and imply that the UK charges duty on exports. It does not. Some detail: Links: The last page of the three links is very clear. When exporting to “third countries”, i.e. those outside the EU, then you must ensure you pay the necessary duties in the destination country. There is absolutely no mention of paying Export Duty from the UK because it does not exist. And if you think about it, this makes perfect sense as a government would not want to discourage exports and put their own industries at a competitive disadvantage. The quote above identifies a number of duty relief schemes. In case you think these relate to export duty, you can see them here. All relate to import duties but I thought I’d link them here for ease of transparency. HMRC maintains an online tool for Tariff Tables, detailing the duty that is incurred by each type of good for import and export. This is the page for Scotch whisky. “No VAT or Excise measures were found for this commodity on this date”. I hope that clears it up and my apologies if the wording in the original article was misleading at all. UPDATE 2: In a couple of responses to this post on Twitter, I’ve had pro-independence supporters throw this page at me as if it is a justification of their position and provides proof of all that missing tax. So I thought I’d post it here with a brief explanation. The page is from the Scotch Whisky Association, identifying some facts and figures about the industry. You can take a look at the page yourself but I think that it is these figures which the nationalists are trying to draw my attention to: So, to avoid confusion, the “UK balance of trade” does not refer to taxation or government revenue. It is simply the calculation of the value of your imports and exports. So whisky exports generate £3.95bn of export trade per annum, i.e. £3.95bn worth of whisky is exported every year. If you want, you can find out some more about “balance of trade”, here. For the purposes of this post, suffice to say that this is not implying £3.95bn worth of taxes or export duty. Which you can see in the second highlighted section advising that “about £1bn is contributed to the Exchequer in taxes”. This is not referring to export duty. This will be referring to Corporation Tax, VAT, income tax, National Insurance, etc generated by the businesses directly (and perhaps indirectly, it’s not clear) involved in the whisky trade. This will also include Excise Duty, some of which will be attributed to Scotland (for whisky purchased here) and some of which will not (for whisky purchased elsewhere in the UK). And for the avoidance of doubt, just because it says “contributed to the Exchequer”, which happens to be in London, does not mean that the money disappears to England never to be seen again. With all the taxes that are generated in Scotland assigned to Scotland within the GERS reports, we can see that all taxes raised here are spent here – with a healthy deficit added to accommodate the additional spending; £12.4bn for 2013-14, 8.1% of GDP. I hope that clears that up. UPDATE 3: There have been some ongoing claims around this meme suggesting that whisky exports are attributed to England’s balance of trade- this has nothing to do with revenue but is rather an account of how much a country exports versus how much it imports. The suggestion, therefore, is that Westminster is, for reasons unknown, adding Scotland’s whisky exports to England in an effort to boost England’s balance of trade. This is also very wrong. As you can see from the Office for National Statistics methodology… …and the Regional Trade Statistics Methodology and this letter from the Office of the Chief Economic Advisor to the Scottish Government… … the allocation of exports within UK and Scottish government statistics is not based on which port the goods happen to leave from. There are, as you’d expect, complex bureaucratic systems in place to accurately attribute exports to the correct regional area from where they originated. And in case you don’t believe me, here are the regional export statistics for “beverages and tobacco” from England… £1.5bn for 2015 And the same for Scotland… £4.5bn for 2015. You can find the source tables for exports here. So remembering the £3.95bn that the Scotch Whisky Association identified as the whisky industry’s contribution to the UK’s balance of trade… well it can’t be “hidden” in England’s £1.5bn, can it? It all gets attributed to Scotland. As does all the revenue the whisky association currently generates in Scotland. So can we please, for the sake of my sanity at least, put this one to bed? And if you still don’t believe me about whisky export duty, click here. AdvertisementsFormer President Obama warned Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to start taking the influence of fake news on his platform seriously ahead of President Trump’s inauguration, The Washington Post reported Sunday. Obama reportedly pulled Zuckerberg aside at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Peru in November and warned him that unless he cracked down on fake news, it would only get worse in the next election. ADVERTISEMENT Zuckerberg told Obama that fake news wasn’t a major issue on Facebook and that there was no simple way to address it, sources told The Post. Facebook is now facing intense scrutiny over its role in the 2016 election, after the company revealed it had sold roughly 3,000 political ads to Russia-based groups during the course of the election. Facebook handed the ads over to special counsel Robert Mueller and lawmakers are calling for representatives to testify before their committees about the ad sales. Zuckerberg promised earlier this week that he and other executives at Facebook would be more transparent about ad sales as they try to minimize the site’s role in influencing elections. “We will continue our investigation into what happened on Facebook in this election. We may find more, and if we do, we will continue to work with the government,” Zuckerberg said.A medical technician was charged with spreading hepatitis C to 30 New Hampshire hospital heart patients by allegedly reusing syringes he stole to inject himself with a potent narcotic, the U.S. attorney announced this afternoon. Federal investigators are checking for hepatitis C cases at hospitals in at least six other states where the technician worked when he was a so-called traveler. The states were not identified. David Matthew Kwiatkowski, 33, was charged with obtaining controlled substances by fraud and tampering with a consumer product, U.S. Attorney John Kacavas said at a news conference in Concord, the Fosters's Daily Democrat reports. He was arrested today at a Massachusetts hospital where he was receiving undisclosed medical treatment and will be extradited to New Hampshire when he is released, the Union Leader says. Kwiatkowski, a Michigan native, began working in Exeter Hospital's cardiac catheterization laboratory in April 2011 when he was a traveling technician. He became a full-time employee last October and was fired after the liver-damaging, viral infections were detected in late May. BLOG: N.H. hospital shuts lab after 4 patients get hepatitis C Kacavas said investigators uncovered evidence that Kwiatkowski has carried the disease since at least June 2010, although Kwiatkowski claimed he learned only in May that he was infected. Kacavas alleged that Kwiatkowski stole syringes, injected himself with fentanyl, then refilled the syringes with a different liquid to conceal the theft. The syringes were then used on patients. Kwiatkowski should not have had access to fentanyl. Kacavas would not say how investigators believe he got the powerful synthetic anesthesia drug. In addition to 30 heart-catheterization patients, one hospital employee has tested positive for the disease, which inflames the liver and can lead to cirrhosis, cancer, transplant or death. The Exeter News-Letter has more about the case. The outbreak has resulted in two dozen lawsuits, including a possible class-action suit that involves 90 people, a lawyer tells the Portsmouth Herald. He said 1,100 people may potentially be affected. Four years ago, Nevada experienced one of the nation's largest hep C outbreaks after another anesthesia drug was misused at two Desert Shadow Endoscopy Center clinics, infecting 114 patients. Some of the infected patients spoke about their slow recovery. The operator, Dipak Desai, has been indicted and is awaiting trial. Multiple lawsuits were settled, and a drug company paid out $552 million. Update at 5:26 p.m. ET: In a statement, Exeter Hospital says "pre-employment drug testing and standard and criminal background checks were performed" on Kwiatkowski before he was hired full time, which is the practice with all "travelers" -- medical technicians who move around the country on temporary assignments. The statement says that because "this remains an ongoing criminal investigation, we are unable to comment on any of the details related to the case" and that besides being a former employee, Kwiatkowski was a patient, "which further limits our ability to comment more specifically." After the outbreak was discovered, the hospital created a hepatitis C information and resources page.ANALYSIS: Even if we take Robert’s defences at face value it’s clear he has breached ministerial standards. Malcolm Turnbull must move against his own once more, writes Ben Eltham. It’s been a bad week for the federal Minister for Human Services and Veterans’ Affairs, Stuart Robert. Robert has been caught up in a sleazy donations scandal in which he appears to have lobbied a Chinese government minister as a favour to a Liberal Party donor. Even worse, he’s done a woeful job of explaining himself. His days in the ministry are surely numbered. The scandal involves a trip Robert took to China in 2014. While he was there, Robert met with senior Chinese government officials, including a Chinese minister. He also attended the signing of a mining deal between the giant Chinese steel corporation Minmetals and Nimrod Resources, an Australian mining company. According to the government, Robert took time off from his official duties as Assistant Minister for Defence, and was in China simply in a private capacity. Nimrod Resources’ executive chairperson is Paul Marks. Marks is a key donor to the Liberal Party – he has donated more than a million dollars to the Liberal Party in the past two years. $500,000 more came from Nimrod itself, in 2014, plus $431,000 from the investment company P. Marks Pty Ltd. In short, Marks is one of the Liberal Party’s most important individual donors. His relationship with Stuart Robert is well-known. Robert was the Liberal politician who introduced Marks to Tony Abbott. In March 2015, Tony Abbott attended a lavish birthday function for Paul Marks in Melbourne. As the Herald Sun’s Stephen Drill, Ellen Whinnett and Tom Minear reported last year, “how Mr Marks became such a good friend of the Liberal Party is still not clear.” “He was brought into the fold by Stuart Robert, the Queensland-based Assistant Defence Minister and the party’s most prolific and aggressive fundraiser,” Drill, Whinnett and Minear added. Marks was also part of an official Australian government reception in November 2014 for the signing of the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement. Marks even got a photo with Tony Abbott and Xi Jinping. So it’s not surprising that Stuart Robert – supposedly travelling as a private citizen – was in China a few months earlier, in August 2014, to be a part of Paul Marks’ landmark deal with Minmetals. Robert also met with a Chinese government minister, vice-minister for lands and resources Wang Min, the day after the signing ceremony. As Fairfax’s Primrose Riordan points out, representatives of Nimrod Resources were also at that meeting, according to an official Chinese government media release. And just to connect all the dots nice and neatly, Stuart Robert owns shares in Evolution Gold, a company associated with Paul Marks. Robert’s defence – that he took leave and was therefore “not acting inappropriately” – is somewhere between threadbare and farcical. The Minmetals media release lists Robert as the “Assistant Minister of Australian Department of Defence.” The Chinese government webpage explicitly states that Robert spoke with Chinese minister Wang Min about Australia welcoming mining investment. In Estimates hearings this morning, it emerged that the Department of Foreign Affairs understood the Chinese government to be dealing with Robert in a “ministerial capacity.” It beggars belief that Robert was able to access these high offices simply as a citizen of Australia. He was there because he was an Australian minister. I don’t know about you, but on my last overseas trip, I didn’t attend any big money signing ceremonies, or meet with any foreign government ministers. Given all this, it’s amazing Stuart Robert has not yet resigned. It’s even more astonishing Malcolm Turnbull hasn’t sacked him. You can’t get a clearer conflict of interest than this. You couldn’t find a clearer breach of ministerial standards than this. Robert’s fate hangs on an investigation by Malcolm Turnbull’s top public servant, the Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet Martin Parkinson. It’s hard to see how Robert can be vindicated. Let’s examine the relevant clauses of the current Statement of Ministerial Standards, dated November 2015. Under section 2.1 (entitled “Integrity”), the Ministerial Standards state: Although their public lives encroach upon their private lives, it is critical that Ministers do not use public office for private purposes. And in section 2.20 (“other forms of employment”), the Standards mandate that: A Minister shall not act as a consultant or adviser to any company, business, or other interests, whether paid or unpaid, or provide assistance to any such body, except as may be appropriate in their official capacity as Minister. Given that Stuart Robert has quite plainly used his position to advance the business interests of a friend and Liberal Party donor, he would seem to be in breach of both section 2.1 and 2.20. After all, Robert is trying to defend himself by saying he attended the signing ceremony in a “private capacity.” If that were true, then he couldn’t have been in China on official capacity as Assistant Minister for Defence, and he was therefore moonlighting in breach of section 2.20. Stuart Robert’s own defence is, in effect, an admission that he has breached the Ministerial Standards. Robert will be sacked, probably this afternoon or tomorrow. The Turnbull government will lose another minister for misconduct, and another cabinet reshuffle will be required. A reshuffle was inevitable anyway, as we found out this afternoon with the departure of Warren Truss and Andrew Robb. Now spots will have to be found in a rather general rearrangement of the cabinet swivel chairs. Turnbull will be reconfiguring his cabinet for the second time since taking office in September 2015. It’s beginning to feel a little like the brittle Gillard years, when cabinets reshuffled every few months, and Labor went through five small business ministers in one term of government. No wonder Malcolm Turnbull is having such trouble selling tax reform to the Australian people. Political infighting and the division of factional spoils have obviously been keeping him rather busy.Had Eric Hobsbawm died 25 years ago, the obituaries would have described him as Britain's most distinguished Marxist historian and would have left it more or less there. Yet by the time of his death at the age of 95, he had achieved a unique position in the country's intellectual life. In his later years he became arguably Britain's most respected historian of any kind, recognised if not endorsed on the right as well as the left, and one of a tiny handful of historians of any era to enjoy genuine national and world renown. Unlike some others, Hobsbawm achieved this wider recognition without in any major way revolting against either Marxism or Marx. In his 94th year he published How to Change the World, a vigorous defence of Marx's continuing relevance in the aftermath of the banking collapse of 2008-10. What is more, he achieved his culminating reputation at a time when the socialist ideas and projects that animated so much of his writing for well over half a century were in historic disarray, and worse – as he himself was always unflinchingly aware. In a profession notorious for microscopic preoccupations, few historians have ever commanded such a wide field in such detail or with such authority. To the last, Hobsbawm considered himself to be essentially a 19th-century historian, but his sense of that and other centuries was both unprecedentedly broad and unusually cosmopolitan. The sheer scope of his interest in the past, and his exceptional command of what he knew, continued to humble many, most of all in the four-volume Age of... series, in which he distilled the history of the capitalist world from 1789 to 1991. "Hobsbawm's capacity to store and retrieve detail has now reached a scale normally approached only by large archives with big staffs," wrote Neal Ascherson. Both in his knowledge of historic detail and in his extraordinary powers of synthesis, so well displayed in that four-volume project, he was unrivalled. Hobsbawm was born in Alexandria, a good place for a historian of empire, in 1917, a good year for a communist. He was second-generation British, the grandson of a Polish Jew and cabinet-maker who came to London in the 1870s. Eight children, who included Leopold, Eric's father, were born in England and all took British citizenship at birth (Hobsbawm's Uncle Harry in due course became the first Labour mayor of Paddington). But Eric was British of no ordinary background. Another uncle, Sidney, went to Egypt before the first world war and found a job there in a shipping office for Leopold. There, in 1914, Leopold Hobsbawm met Nelly Gruen, a young Viennese from a
they'll build on top of it? I, for one, can't wait to see. "So thank God. And thank you all. And: to the beginning." Laura is about to drink, but Tanako nudges her again. "Watch this," he hisses. A gap clears down the centre of the room, and a dining table appears. It snaps into existence, building itself in a tenth of a second. It is laid with fine china, silver cutlery, limitless wine and a hundred and twenty unique dishes of every conceivable aroma. It is as if the table was being held in some higher reality, separated from this one by a thin silk cloth, and then the cloth was ripped out from under it. Click goes the final tumbler in Laura's head. King takes his seat at the head of the table, and the others follow suit, picking up their conversations again, not perturbed in the slightest at the flatly impossible thing that has just happened. Laura and Tanako hang back. "They can create and destroy matter," Tanako says. "Do you get it? It was so easy, you can't even be sure which one of them did it. Look at their wrists, that's where their immortality comes from. Listen to what they're saying, really listen." "Something wrong, you two?" asks a diner, looking around at them. Tanako looks meaningfully at Laura. Laura heard the question in Urdu. She understood it in English. Everybody in the room is speaking a different language. Even Tanako has lapsed back into his native Japanese. She didn't realise. "Is this the dream?" she asks. "No. All of this happened. It's the recording," Tanako says. "I have all the hard proof you could ask for, once you wake up. I can tell you who all of these people are." Several heads have now turned in their direction. A man on the far side of the table stands up. He matches Tanako's description of Alexander Watson. "Excuse us," Tanako announces, ushering Laura back outside. * Too much information. Laura paces away across the enormous lounge, trying to unthread the words of the speech and the evidence of her eyes. "Conclusions?" Tanako asks. "It's 1969," Laura says. "Everybody knows that that year number has to be wrong. There is zero evidence, zero, that anybody had magic before Suravaram Vidyasagar discovered it in '72. That's not to say that nobody found it before he did, just that there's no proof. If anybody did get there first, either they didn't write it down, or couldn't duplicate it, or... kept it a secret. But these people-- my God, based on what I just saw, and based on where we're standing right now - which is in thin air - they must have got there decades before anybody else. If not centuries." Tanako shakes his head. "No. That was my first guess, but no." "I just saw a council of wizards having dinner in the sky. I just saw how magic is supposed to work. How it works in lucid dreams. You just think of something and it happens. You don't even need to wave your hand. They must have limitless power. Absolutely limitless. They're the ones who built the recursion artifact?" She lowers her voice and mutters to herself. "'Magic is our victory.' No magic words. No gestures. No equipment." "Call it deep magic. Call it wizardry, or māyā." Tanako's face is set. He stares at her across the room, willing her to come to his conclusion. Laura says, "How many people could they feed? If they wanted to?" "All of them." "...Magic is the leak," Laura guesses. "The only part they couldn't hush up." "Even that would be better than the truth," Tanako says. Exa Watson kicks the double doors open, so hard that one of the doors breaks from its hinges and cartwheels into the room, leaving a trail of demolished furniture and decor. Tanako shouts at Laura, "Eject!" One pace over the threshold, Exa pulls a perfectly ordinary pistol out of his jacket and shoots Tanako in the heart. Tanako keels backwards, vanishing before he hits the ground. Exa turns the gun on Laura and fires again. * And where now? Reality. Reality is a cramped metal stairwell, entirely devoid of light, running up and down for kilometres. It is the darkest and least interesting location. Laura arrives standing normally, but one of her feet is on a stair and the other is in thin air, so she falls into a hand rail. She's back in the grey ceramic armour, all except for the helmet. It weighs much more here. The darkness is thick as pitch. She follows the hand rail and descends the stairs gingerly, testing each step. Her boots clang. She waits for Kazuya to find her, as he did before. "Kazuya?...Nick?" Her voice echoes, and doesn't seem to stop echoing. After eight steps she reaches a landing. In total darkness, she explores carefully with her hands. She discovers cold concrete wall, more hand rails, and a cooling human body, wrapped in a wet dinner jacket. She immediately drops to her knees. " Dulaku surutai jiha, seven hundred en em. " In the red light of her right hand it is plain to see that Nick Laughon is dead. She hears a soft clacking coming from above her. Smart, hard-soled dress shoes on metal stairs. Alexander Watson appears at the next landing, moving swiftly, leading with his gun. He sees she's weaponless, and visibly drops out of firefight mode, keeping the gun trained precisely on her right eye as he descends a few more steps. "I don't understand," Laura says to him. "Why does this part have to be real? Nothing else is real. Magic isn't real." Exa fires. She falls.Work smarter To fight climate change, take a three-day weekend — every weekend. That’s the argument sociologist Alex Williams makes in an op-ed in the British newspaper The Independent. Shortening the workweek to four days in the developed world would dramatically cut carbon emissions. Most emissions are created by economic activity such as commuting to work, operating machines in factories, and running computers and air-conditioning in offices. Williams cites a 2006 study by the progressive American think tank the Center for Economic and Policy Research that found that fewer work hours would cut emissions. And having three-day weekends would give stressed-out Americans more time to take care of themselves and their families: go to the park, exercise instead of sitting behind the wheel of a car, cook instead of going to a fast-food drive-thru, maybe even read a book. (Well, a journalist can dream, can’t he?) In the U.S., we don’t even need to go down to a four-day week to help the planet. As Williams notes, based on the CEPR study, “If Americans simply followed European levels of working hours, for example, they would see an estimated 20% reduction in energy use — and hence in carbon emissions.” Sometimes doing less is more for the planet and for your quality of life.Every Tuesday Andy straps on the Oculus Rift and dives headfirst into the world of virtual reality in the Rift Report. Is it really the future of PC gaming? Let's find out. Now that I have your attention, let's talk about the dirty elephant in the room: sex games. As long as the concept of virtual reality has existed, people have been fascinated by the pornographic possibilities of the technology. Now, thanks to the Oculus Rift and accessible 3D dev tools like Unity and Unreal, those wet dreams are coming true. Sure, the Rift can whisk you away to fantastical worlds, but some people would rather just toss themselves dry to digitised filth. So it's no surprise that a number of adult games developed for the headset have appeared online, which I've bravely decided to test. The first game on our appalling menu is Sexy Space Adventure, in which you play as a starship captain who has sex with women, in space. Looking down I notice that my avatar is sporting an erect penis, and in front of me a naked woman is wandering around the room, occasionally bumping into walls. Galaxies and nebulas spin past a window reminding me that I'm in space. The character models are horrifying: the woman has empty, staring eyes and a nest of mad hair in need of some serious anti-aliasing. She's like something Silent Hill would conjure up. Worse still, she speaks in an eerie Stephen Hawking-style machine-generated voice. “Yeah, baby.” she drones emotionlessly. I jab at the number keys to swap between various sexual positions, jerking the mouse back and forth to thrust my terrible virtual groin, but there's no collision detection and I go straight through her. Then she inexplicably slides along the floor, leaving me stupidly humping the air. Somehow I detach the camera and have a surreal out of body experience where I watch myself lying face down on the floor as my glitched partner rotates slowly in the opposite corner of the room. I'm feeling decidedly unsexy, especially when I clip through her face mid-coitus and see two giant eyeballs floating in front of me. Sexy Space Adventure? More like Lynchian Sex Nightmare. Next we have Bathroom, which sees you wandering around, surprise, a bathroom as a woman who looks suspiciously like Lara Croft 'entertains' herself in the bath. By which I mean she's masturbating. Sexy Space Adventure was rubbish, but at least it was funny. This is just weird, and interaction is limited to circling the bath like a horny buzzard as she cycles through a handful of robotic fiddling animations. To be fair, the character model is pretty good, but there's something wrong with the proportions and she looks like a giant. I don't think much of the bathroom's decor either. Similarly limited in scope is VR Titties, which is about as artfully subtle as its name suggests. Here you stand motionless as a purple-haired anime lady fellates you in a Satanic sex dungeon. Continuing the trend of this week's column, it's more creepy than sexy. Occasionally she takes a break from her slurping and looks up at you with a cold, lifeless gaze. It's actually quite chilling, which is an emotion I rarely associate with sexual arousal. In the background another woman dances listlessly in a cage with her top off, and I wonder if anyone would ever find this more arousing than just watching normal porn. You do get the sensation of 'being' there, like in any Rift game, but you'll need a doctorate in disbelief suspension to see these uncanny virtual sex dolls as being even vaguely real. Then there's Lucid Dreams. Unlike the rest of the low-rent grot I've looked at so far, this is actually genuinely impressive. It transports you to an empty white void, in the centre of which is a row of, yes, naked women. They're staggeringly detailed—3D scans of real people with 8k resolution textures—and I don't think I've ever seen a computer render such realistic human beings before. Get in close and you can see folds in the skin, blemishes, moles, and other imperfections. If you're the kind of person who reads Playboy 'for the articles', you could argue that this isn't pornography, but rather a demo for the body scanning technology. But the way the models are posed makes it clear that it is, at least in part, designed to arouse. You can see for yourself here. The website of Veiviev Limited, the company behind Lucid Dreams, reads like something out of a dystopian science fiction novel: “We are at the cutting edge of digital and analogue human replication,” they say. “Our goal is to create more enjoyable and pleasurable artificial liaisons.” They've certainly nailed the models, but will they be able to animate them with the same level of realism? We're so naturally tuned to how other humans move that it won't take much to send those women tumbling into the uncanny valley. “We're working on movements,” they replied to a commenter on their website. “Bear in mind that this costs a lot of money. We don't have a budget like The Last of Us, so they will take time to implement. Everything is self-funded at the moment.” Unsurprisingly, all of these demos are from the male perspective. I did find a website that sells head tracking-enabled porn offering videos from a female point of view, but that's about as progressive as VR smut gets at this early stage of its existence. Still, it's a steadily growing subculture of indie Rift development, and it'll undoubtedly get more'sophisticated' – especially when combined with technology like FriXion, which uses something called 'haptic telepresence' to let you interact with peoples' genitals over the internet. Personally, I find the whole concept of virtual sex a bit sinister. Some may like the idea of a future where human intimacy is no longer shackled by the need for physical contact, but all I see are millions of sallow men sitting in dark rooms with their mouths hanging open, plastic boxes strapped to their heads, and their hands down their pants. One thing that could jeopardise Rift's future as a platform for explicit content is the recent Facebook buyout. The reason these tawdry sex games can exist is because anyone can make a game for it. You don't need a licence or any special Oculus software: just a program like Unity. If the social media giant makes the Rift closed and moderated like iOS, these games would have to go through an approval process. Zuckerberg has said that, beyond games, Rift will become a platform for “new kinds of experiences” like having “courtside seat at a game”, but I doubt he had Sexy Space Adventure in mind. Facebook are notoriously strict with adult content, deleting even partial nudity from peoples' profiles, so it's reasonable to expect this will extend to the Rift if its openness is affected. More optimistically, VR could be a way for people in long distance relationships to communicate more intimately than in a Skype call. BeAnotherLab's Gender Swap experiment, which uses cameras mounted on the Rift headset to let you'see' through the eyes of another person, could also have interesting applications for couples. There are doubtless many imaginative, positive ways to fuse virtual reality, technology, and sex waiting to be discovered, but there'll always be the grubby, sticky-fingered side too. You can expect a lot more examples of seedy, bedroom-coded tugware when the Rift is released—and rest assured, I'll be trying all of them, because journalism.The Media Research Center decided to take a look at coverage of Donald Trump by the "Big Three" (ABC, CBS and NBC) in his first 30 days in office to see how much they covered him and if they displayed any bias one way or the other. Well, unsurprisingly to anyone who's bothered to flip on the news anytime recently, MRC certainly found some bias and it certainly did not favor Trump. The first thing MRC points out in its analysis is just how "obsessed" the Big Three are over Trump. In his first 30 days of office, MRC analysts found that the networks dedicated 16 hours of their evening news coverage to Trump; in other words, "more than half (54%) of all of the news coverage during this period." So during this coverage of Trump, to which they dedicated 54 percent of their time, did they treat him fairly? Not only did Trump enjoy no "media honeymoon" afforded most new presidents, he was regularly raked across the coals with what MRC calculates is a stunning 88 percent of negative coverage. (By the way that abysmal 88 percent is actually 3 percent better than the 91 percent negative coverage of Trump MRC calculated during the election.) MRC explains its method for determing "media tone": Our measure of media tone excludes soundbites from identified partisans, focusing instead on tallying the evaluative statements made by reporters and the non-partisan talking heads (experts and average citizens) included in their stories. Overall, the conservative media watchdog found, the networks "crowded their stories with quotes from citizens angry about many of his policies, while providing relatively little airtime to Trump supporters," and their "anchors and reporters often injected their own anti-Trump editorial tone into the coverage." MRC provides some hilarious examples of "objective" journalists inserting their own opinions, including this gem from CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley on Feb. 6: "It has been a busy day for presidential statements divorced from reality." Well done, sir. As for some of the big stories of the month, MRC provides a few breakdowns of coverage bias, including a look at the most controversial of Trump's actions thus far, the pause on immigration from seven terror-risk countries: The biggest controversy during President Trump’s first month in office was the temporary ban on immigration from seven countries compromised by Islamic terrorism (Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen). The three evening newscasts spent more than 3 hours (188 minutes) on this topic alone, accounting for about one-fifth of all of the Trump administration’s coverage. Network coverage provided a megaphone to those distressed by Trump’s action, with NBC’s Lester Holt on January 30 beginning his newscasts from “the Statue of Liberty, which for nearly 130 years has symbolized the welcome arms of a country of immigrants.” As for Trump’s temporary ban, Holt quoted anonymous “critics” who “call it a solution in search of a problem, and an unconstitutional and thinly-disguised ban on Muslims.” The Big Three repeatedly incorporated coverage of anti-Trump protests in their reports. "[N]early an hour of coverage (56 minutes) was given over to anti-Trump protests on various topics, with nearly one-fifth (82 out of 442) of the Trump stories or briefs aired during these 30 days including at least some discussion of an anti-Trump protest," MRC notes. The Big Three's coverage of the controversy surrounding the resignation of Gen. Michael Flynn, Trump's other cabinet appointments, and Trump's various immigration policies all followed a similar pattern, reports MRC, the networks devoting an egregiously imbalanced amount of the airtime to voices and opinions dissenting with or criticizing Trump. So is the media the "opposition party"? Just 88 percent of the time. Read the full report here. More from the Daily Wire on media bias: Fake News Rap Sheet: Last Week the MSM Told THIRTY-SEVEN Lies SHOCK LIST: Last Week the National Media Spread THIS MUCH Fake NewsEver wonder what happens after you make an online order to when your package shows up at your door? Whether it takes 5 days or 5 weeks for you to get your order, a lot goes on behind the scenes. As soon as you complete your order, the order is sent to the vendor you purchased from and the item is subtracted from their inventory system. The ability for real-time view of inventory depends greatly on the complexity of the vendor’s inventory system. This is why you’re not always guaranteed your purchases until you actually complete the order; simply putting them in a virtual shopping cart is not enough. The order is then added to a warehouse control software and a unique order ID is created. Your order, along with other orders, is sent to someone who collects the items from their physical locations. Your item is then sent to a packing area and scanned against the invoice for quality control. Your item is packed along with any other items you ordered. The box is taped and placed on a conveyor system. Next, your box ID is automatically scanned, weighed and dimensioned. A shipping label is applied and scanned to verify it is the correct one. Finally, your box is sorted to the proper carrier and shipped until at last – it arrives at your front door. Phew! That is quite the journey.Mottled Cup Moth - Doratifera vulnerans Family Limacodidae This page contains pictures and information about Mottled Cup Moths that we found in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia. Caterpillar 20mm Mottled Cup Moth caterpillars are pale brown in colour, the bright warning colours white, pink and yellow in the middle. They show their stinging hairs when disturbed. Mottled Cup Caterpillar is also known as Chinese Junk because of their shape and their way of moving like ship at sea.. Cocoon diameter 8mm Cocoons look like a wooden cup, lip opened after the adult moth emerged. Those cocoon cups are easily found on stems of gum tree, which is the footplant of the caterpillars. The caterpillar does not show it sting when resting and feeding, only shows it stinging hairs when disturbed. If touch, will receive painful nettle-like stings, sometimes swelling into red lumps. The caterpillar feed openly in daytime. Adults body length 18mm At first, we had tried to raise the Cup Moth from caterpillar but without success. The caterpillar seemed not feeding when it was in the jar. It died a few days later. May be we did not find their right food plants. Later we found some Cup Moth pupa and found that they take more than four weeks in pupa stage during spring season of Brisbane. The moth was bright brown in colour, with hairy thorax. Raising Mottled Cup Caterpillars In the next year summer, we found a batch of small Mottled Cup Caterpillars. We tried to raise them them again. We brought them home and did more carefully this time. We found the caterpillars on a young gum tree. We bring along with some leaves from this gum tree as the food for the caterpillars. Small caterpillars length 5mm 5 days later, length 10mm We found that for the small caterpillars, they feed individually during the day time and state together after evening. They feed on new fully grown leaves on gum tree. They grew to double their length within 5 days. When they grew older, they did not stay together. 10 days later, length 20mm We put the caterpillars in a jar with a branch of leaves that we collected from the gum tree. The jar was covered by a cloth and tighten by rubber bend. We cleaned the jar everyday. We replace a new branch of leaves in the jar every two or three days because the caterpillar ate a lot. To keep the leaves fresh, we put them in our refrigerator. Their length was double for another 5 days. They look much the same except their strings look much stronger. Two weeks later, they grew up to about 25mm length, some of them start to make their cocoon. Watch carefully at the above first picture you will see the caterpillar turned itself inside out, weaving the cocoon inside. The second picture was one day later, when the cocoon became harden. Within three days, all the caterpillars turned into cocoons. Two weeks later, the little bright brown moths come out from their cocoons one by one. They come out during the mid-night. [ Up ] [ Mottled Cup Moth ] [ Black Slug Cup Moth ] [ Four-Spotted Cup Moth ] [ Fern Cup Moth ] [ Rainbow Cup caterpillar ] [ Green Slug Caterpillar ] Back to TopImage: timmossholder/Pixabay Terry Brown, owner of Brown's Tree Farm, welcomed me warmly into his modest farmhouse. We sat at the kitchen table in straight backed chairs, and looked out a large window at rows of fir trees outside, a red barn in the distance. The whole scene was awash in wispy, dry snow flurries. In the coming days and weeks, these trees would find themselves inside homes all over Chemung County, in Upstate New York. I had come to speak with him about the challenges of the Christmas tree business, and if he's concerned that it will get harder due to climate change. He recalled some of his greatest trials growing trees over the years. "A few years ago, I had this whole field—at least 2/3rds of it—full of Douglas fir. And they were beautiful. Then a virus came through—it was called," he paused a moment to retrieve the name from memory, "the Swiss needle cast—and it wiped em right out." And in his first year planting—some 40 years ago—he lost 4,000 trees in a drought. But while he's concerned about climate change on the whole, as a farmer, he's experienced see-saw weather patterns firsthand his whole life and is not entirely sure that it's going to impact the tree growing business anytime soon. "Things have definitely changed, you know, worldwide, and I understand the science of it, but as a lifelong farmer you always bounce back and say well 'jeepers, I've seen this before.' My dad is 94 and he's seen it all before." Christmas trees cover a wide spectrum of evergreens, with different species grown and sold in different regions of the US and world. Fir trees, like Balsam and Fraser fir, are the most popular here in the United States because of their soft needles and lush growth. Christmas trees are grown in almost every state in the nation with major centers of production in North Carolina, the Northeast, the Great Lakes region, and the Pacific Northwest. Despite competition from artificial look-a-likes (Most of which are produced in the Pearl River Delta region in China), Americans still love their all-natural trees. In 2015, 29.5 million trees worth $1.32 billion found their way into American households. How the Christmas tree industry as a whole is going to be affected by climate change is unclear, but individual tree species and the farmers growing them are going to be affected in myriad ways that are likely to cause some amount of disruption. Hotter and drier conditions are something most Christmas tree species will have to contend with all around the US. Whether these conditions change what types of species are grown and sold will depend on how severe they get, but it's not hard to imagine some tree types getting taken out of the equation. "Some can take it and some can't," said Brown. Dendrologist Donald Leopold, of the State University of Environmental Science and Forestry in Upstate New York explained to me via email that some evergreens like Scotch pine are able to withstand hotter conditions because of special features like thicker, waxier needles and deeper root systems that help them retain moisture. These types of conifers might make easier Christmas trees to grow in the future. "Fraser and balsam fir will always have a big fan club, but if they can't be grown as abundantly in the US due to climate change," he said. "Their price will likely increase and some people will simply not be able to afford them." If it gets particularly balmy in, say, the South, where a high percentage of Fraser firs are grown, Leopold surmised that "species rarely grown now, like Turkish fir, will become more common as this and other species are better adapted to warmer and drier conditions." A rising temperature also brings other, gnawing consequences to conifer trees: insect pests. "Most likely climate change will favor insects and diseases more than trees," said entomologist Paal Krokene, of the Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research, in Norway. Selling Christmas trees is ultimately a cosmetic industry, and rampaging bark beetles and sapsuckers that deform trees are bad for business. Slight malformations on a tree usually mean the scrap pile. "Christmas tree farmers don't tolerate much damage to their trees," he said. Jeff Owen, a Forestry Specialist from North Carolina State University, told me that farmers have been dealing with seasonal inconsistencies like drought and flood for as long as they can remember, and that they're masters at problem solving. But the thing that concerns him is shifting seasons that could make trees vulnerable. Taking a break from trimming Fraser firs to chat on the phone, he said "If we've had a really mild fall, growers get nervous and will delay harvest as long as they can to make sure the trees have had a chance to go dormant." Dormancy is a kind of tree hibernation. If trees aren't dormant when they're harvested, they can die. On the other side of winter, if early spring is particularly mild, "the trees can start trying to break bud one to two weeks earlier," said Owen. But he warned: "if you have the trees starting to grow too soon and then you get a hard freeze, you can lose that new growth. That's one of those things that is very hard for a grower to deal with." At his kitchen table, Terry Brown expressed a similar sentiment with me. "What is it going to do to the seasons?" he said, referring to climate change, his arms crossed. "If in April the weather is all of a sudden like June, that changes everything." If the tree industry is to be hit hard by climate change in the future, that's how, he thought. "Timing is everything in this business." Because of climate change, the most popular Christmas tree types could switch out for other hardier species—trading out some of the firs for more spruces, say. Perhaps live trees will even reach a price that causes some staunch real-tree-consumers to go against their morals and buy artificial trees (nothing says happy holidays like genuine PVC). Or maybe farmers will find a way, like they have so many times before, to overcome the challenges ahead and keep growing the species they've got. Brown leaned forward in his chair and folded his hands upon the table, eyes looking out at the rows of Christmas trees outside. "One thing I do notice is our summers—the heat," he said. "There is a lot of heat in that sun. I think more so than I can remember." Clearing his throat slightly, he added "I trim all of these trees by hand, and while I'm not as young as I used to be, I'm just not able to do as many in a day as I used to, because it's hotter than hell." "It's a wait and see," he said."Based on information received by the Aamulehti from a variety of sources, Sailfish OS operating system developer Jolla Oy has plunged into financial difficulties. The company will therefor start extensive lay-offs, which are informed today. More than a hundred employees have been working for Jolla. Juhani Lassila, Head of Communications at Jolla, confirms that more than half of the employees have to be laid off. According to Lassila, delivery of Jolla tablet devices to customers is intended to ensure, despite the difficulties. Lay-offs does not include the key persons. "We inform about the changes in the economic situation soon. We have been going on with a round of financing, which was supposed to expire in November. It has had delays", says Lassila. For the years 2014-2015 Jolla has had four payment default entries for a total amount of approximately EUR 10 000. Entries were charged by Intrum Justitia [collector], the Unemployment Insurance Fund [governmental fund] and the Suomen perintätoimisto [collector]. According to the payment default registry, the fees were collected except for one: Decrease of 500 Euro for the year 2014 for unemployment insurance fund is still outstanding. Head of Communications at Jolla, Juhani Lassila, says that he is not aware of payment defaults." Editorial Read also: Local Finnish newspaper Aamulehti, Tampere, Finland published the article below this morning:Original article by Taneli Koponen, AamulehtiTranslated to English by Simo Ruoho, Review JollaConsidering such a large lay-offs in a software company, we are looking at a situation where only the essential parts to keep the software alive are expected to be left in house.First offices to drop would without any doubt be everything hardware related like design and customer services (excluding required personnel to handle warranty cases), the marketing team, the software design team and the testing team. This is, of course, speculation, and it continues:Last parts to hold onto would obviously be a bug fixing and coding team, the legal department and the key personnel to handle the financial issues, hopefully to be solved later. Antti Saarnio has said on September that Jolla would need another big partner within the next 6 months (additional to Intex).For the Sailors under lay-offs, and for the community, this is of course sad news. There are now a lot of people looking forward for new opportunities, and those active in community are balancing between staying in as supporting Sailfish OS or moving on. The issue that Sailfish OS isn't open sourced yet might play a role in engaging the community as well.What's your plan? Standing up and shouting out loud for the future of Sailfish OS, saying, or silently moving on?RALEIGH, N.C. -- The former North Carolina learning specialist who questioned the literacy level of Tar Heels athletes and said UNC had committed academic misconduct has filed a civil lawsuit against the school. Mary Willingham resigned after the spring semester. But according to a lawsuit filed Monday in Wake County, she was demoted and the school retaliated against her after she raised concerns such as low reading levels for athletes and the existence of "paper classes" requiring only one research paper at semester's end -- which she says helped keep athletes eligible. A former UNC learning specialist who questioned academic policies for athletes, including players in Roy Williams' basketball program, is suing the school. Streeter Lecka/Getty Images Willingham is seeking to be reinstated to her job and damages of at least $10,000. The lawsuit also names the University of North Carolina public system that oversees the Chapel Hill school as a defendant. J. Heydt Philbeck, Willingham's Raleigh-based attorney, said school officials retaliated against her because she had "the courage... to tell the truth both internally and externally about how some of the UNC-Chapel Hill athletes were being cheated essentially in the education that they were supposed to be receiving." "It was troublesome for her and she let that be known," Philbeck said Tuesday evening. "It wasn't well received we contend by some officials at UNC-Chapel Hill." Philbeck said the lawsuit also seeks to prevent further retaliation if she returns to the school. In a statement, UNC vice chancellor of communications and public affairs Joel Curran said the school was aware of Willingham's lawsuit. "We respect the right of any current or former employee to speak out on important university and national issues," Curran said. "We believe the facts will demonstrate that Ms. Willingham was treated fairly and appropriately while she was employed at Carolina." Willingham was hired as a part-time learning specialist for athletes in October 2003 and to a full-time position in December 2004. She eventually "became disillusioned" by seeing "widespread" improper assistance and conduct before taking another position in 2010. She reported her concerns in a meeting that year with two school officials after the NCAA launched an investigation into the football program, but never heard back in response, according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit states that problems began after she told her supervisor she had spoken with a reporter from The News and Observer of Raleigh in summer 2011. She also started a blog about her experiences the following year. Willingham was then demoted last summer, required to report to weekly meetings with her supervisor and given new duties requiring extra training among other job changes. She also had to move to an office with "poor work conditions" shared by a retired professor, according to the lawsuit. Willingham complained about "hostile work conditions" and filed a grievance, but the school did not address her complaints, according to the lawsuit. A whistleblower advocacy group, the Government Accountability Project, has sent letters to school chancellor Carol Folt and system president Thomas W. Ross in recent months questioning whether Willingham was mistreated or harassed. That included criticism from school provost James W. Dean Jr., after Willingham told CNN in January that the majority of football and basketball players she researched from 2004-12 read at below-grade levels. The lawsuit states Willingham met with school officials in 2013 to discuss her research before going public. Three outside experts hired by the school later said Willingham's data did not support her literacy conclusions. According to the lawsuit, the school spent about $500,000 over two years "to wage a public relations campaign" against Willingham and her claims of "improper, unethical, illegal and even corrupt treatment and services" for athletes. The lawsuit was filed the same day UNC athletic director Bubba Cunningham said the NCAA is reopening its probe into academic misconduct because new information is available.Alex Usher is president of Higher Education Strategy Associates. Every September, Statistics Canada publishes its annual Tuition and Living Accommodation Cost survey. Inevitably, the press coverage focuses on the sticker price, and the narrative is driven by people claiming that education is increasingly unaffordable. But the sticker price is only part of the equation: while governments and institutions ask students to pay for part of the educational costs, they also find ways to lessen the burden. Every year, Canadian governments provide over $2-billion in tax credits, over $1-billion in grants and nearly $1-billion in loan remission to reduce the costs of education to students and their parents. All that money reduces the actual costs significantly. Story continues below advertisement How much? Well, consider the following findings from a new study from Higher Education Strategy Associates entitled The Many Prices of Knowledge, which looks at exactly this question. For some low-income students, Ontario is cheaper than Quebec. Ontario is famous for having the country’s highest tuition. But it also has one of the most generous student-aid regimes, particularly for first- and second-year students. So, a student from a family with total income of $40,000, paying $7,200 in tuition, would actually receive about $7,400 in grants. Add in another $1000 or so for a merit-based grant (which Ontario universities give to virtually every entering student with an 80 per cent average) and this student is actually paying net tuition of -$1,400 or so – which is substantially better than the -$400 net cost the same student would have in Quebec. Ontario is famous for having the country’s highest tuition. But it also has one of the most generous student-aid regimes, particularly for first- and second-year students. So, a student from a family with total income of $40,000, paying $7,200 in tuition, would actually receive about $7,400 in grants. Add in another $1000 or so for a merit-based grant (which Ontario universities give to virtually every entering student with an 80 per cent average) and this student is actually paying net tuition of -$1,400 or so – which is substantially better than the -$400 net cost the same student would have in Quebec. Students with Dependents on Average Receive over
goals. By all accounts the compliance rate is incredibly low, on the order of only 10 to 15 percent range, Semi official numbers say only 50,000 individuals registered. An official State analysis in 2011 estimated that there were approximately 370,000 so called “Assault Rifles” and well over a MILLION “large capacity magazines” in circulation. Yet as the Jan 1st 2014 deadline to register them with the State came, went and the paperwork was processed, officials discovered that only approximately 50,000 of the 370,000 semi automatic rifles had been registered and roughly 35,000 “large capacity (really standard capacity) magazines” were registered. ( http://tiny.cc/gojubx ) That triggered widespread dumbfounded confusion amongst state officials, including Governor Malloy, who seemingly cant seem to accept the fact that people are willfully refusing to comply with the arbitrary diktats of their tyrannical “leaders“. Since Jan 1st 2014, Malloy has come up with any number of excuses to explain what to him and others like him is incomprehensible. At various times blaming it on the Post Office closing early on Dec 31st 2013, for “confusion” and most recently at a Winter Governors Association Meeting last week he finally resorted to simply saying he refuses to believe the numbers are accurate and that people really are actually complying. ( http://tiny.cc/ivjubx ) See the a possible copy of a letter sent by the Connecticut State Police to one resident, whose registration paperwork was rejected, (right). The problem now becomes, even though the paperwork was rejected it is without a doubt certain that the Connecticut State Police kept the declaration of ownership and now have at least some official records of those who are not in compliance. It was reported late yesterday by the Manchester Journal Inquirer ( http://tiny.cc/9qlubx ) that letters are now going out to at least a certain number of gun owners that they have been found to be in non compliance with the law and were technically felons. By Ed Jacovino Journal Inquirer When state officials decided to accept some gun registrations and magazine declarations that arrived after a Jan. 4 deadline, they also had to deal with those applications that didn’t make the cut. The state now holds signed and notarized letters saying those late applicants own rifles and magazines illegally. But rather than turn that information over to prosecutors, state officials are giving the gun owners a chance to get rid of the weapons and magazines. The state is sending letters to 106 rifle owners and 108 residents with high-capacity magazines saying they can destroy the guns and ammunition, sell them to a federally licensed gun dealer, move the items out of state or sell them to somebody out of state, or make arrangements to turn them over to local or state police. Those who fail to do so could face serious criminal penalties. Once people realize they can’t keep the guns and magazines, “they’re going to get rid of them,” Michael P. Lawlor, the undersecretary for criminal justice policy and planning to Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, says. And that dear readers is the “shot across the bow” from the State of Connecticut. We know who you are and what you have and “your going to get rid of them “ according to Michael Lawlor. While he left out the rather obvious ‘Or Else” it is certainly implied. Lawlor is quite an interesting fellow in his own right, and apparently has quite a checkered past, including his own FBI File according to Mike Vanderbough's work uncovering his background. The information on Lawlor can be found on Vanderbough's website, Sipsey Street Irregulars. For those unfamiliar with Vanderbough, he, along with David Codrea were instrumental in breaking the Fast and Furious Scandal wide open months before anyone in the Mainstream Media even knew what it was. His sources are impeccable and there is no legitimate reason to doubt the veracity of what he has discovered about Lawlor's past. Registration leads to Confiscation The various Anti Gun Groups and their acolytes have dismissively laughed and ridiculed the idea that “Registration leads to Confiscation” in-spite of the fact that there is overwhelming evidence from around the world that that is exactly what happens. As I reported just a few days ago in another column, even The Obama Justice Dept has quietly admitted in an NIJ “white paper” that registration is pointless and ineffective unless coupled with confiscation. It happened in England, Australia, California and its been openly discussed and on some level implemented in both New York State as well as New York City The New York City Police Department is taking aim at owners of shotguns and rifles capable of holding more than five rounds, demanding such guns be surrendered, altered or taken out of the city. The demand came in the form of some 500 letters mailed out to owners of registered long guns that are in violation of a 2010 city ordinance. The first option for the letter's recipient is to, “Immediately surrender your Rifle and/or Shotgun to your local police precinct, and notify this office of the invoice number. The firearm may be sold or permanently removed from the City of New York thereafter.” as I wrote about this time last year. Even one of the oldest newspapers in the Country, the storied Hartford Courant, which once published seditious letters from “Silence DoGood” the nom de guerre of Benjamin Franklin writing against British Rule, has jumped on the bandwagon, going so far as to publicly encourage State Officials to use the States Background Check Database to identify those not in compliance and Prosecute them. That is right readers and fellow patriots, one of the original Thirteen Colonies and its most storied newspaper, both at the very forefront of a Revolution against tyranny and autocratic rule has transformed into nothing more the an unabashed water carrier for tyrannical statists like CT Gov Daniel Malloy. How far they have fallen. Things Are Coming To A Head. Will it be in Connecticut? No one knows for certain. But sooner or later, and by most accounts sooner is the most likely, there will be a raid on a gun-owners house, with overwhelming Para-military Police Force and either through intent or accident, shots will be exchanged, blood will be shed and another log will be thrown on a long smoldering fire of discontent with Government at all levels. As a FireFighter I am trained to recognize the behavior of smoke that indicates a “flashover” ( when the contents of a room or structure all reach spontaneous combustion temperatures at the same time and react with violent and instantaneous explosiveness), if you don't know the signs that a flashover is imminent or fail to see them for what they are, people get seriously injured or killed as a result. And what I see in the “smoke” of various gun control efforts indicates to me that a flashover of another sort is taking shape, and the end result is going to be ugly. About Dan Roberts Dan Roberts is a grassroots supporter of gun rights that has chosen AmmoLand Shooting Sports News as the perfect outlet for his frank, ‘Jersey Attitude' filled articles on Guns and Gun Owner Rights.As a resident of the oppressive state of New Jersey he is well placed to be able to discuss the abuses of government against our inalienable rights to keep and bear arms as he writes from deep behind NJ's Anti-Gun iron curtain. Read more from Dan Roberts or email him at [email protected] You can also find him on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/dan.roberts.18Human Rights Watch report says three Palestinians have been executed after 'confessions' apparently obtained under coercion Hamas security forces are routinely subjecting Palestinian detainees in Gaza to torture and abuse, according to a report by Human Rights Watch, which says three men have been executed on the basis of "confessions" apparently obtained under coercion. The report cites serious abuses such as arbitrary arrest, denial of access to lawyers and the use of torture during interrogations. "After five years of Hamas rule in Gaza, its criminal justice system reeks of injustice, routinely violates detainees' rights, and grants immunity to abusive security services," said Joe Stork of HRW. "Hamas should stop the kinds of abuses that Egyptians, Syrians and others in the region have risked their lives to bring to an end." The report, Abusive System: Criminal Justice in Gaza, calls for urgent reforms, including a moratorium on the death penalty. It cites the case of Abdel Karim Shrair, who, according to family and lawyers, was tortured under interrogation before being executed by firing squad in May 2011 after "confessing" to collaborating with Israel. Fourteen Palestinians have been executed since Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007. This week, the European Union condemned death sentences handed down last month to two men in Gaza, one for murder and the second for collaboration. The EU "considers capital punishment to be cruel and inhuman, failing to provide deterrence to criminal behaviour, and representing an unacceptable denial of human dignity and integrity", it said in a statement. HRWatch accused Hamas of failing to investigate alleged cases of torture and abuse, and of granting impunity from prosecution to security service officials. It said "intra-Palestinian political rivalry [between Hamas and Fatah] remains a significant factor behind many Hamas abuses against detainees in Gaza". The Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority in the West Bank also "arrests and detains Palestinians arbitrarily, including Hamas members or sympathisers, and similarly subjects detainees to torture and abuse", the report said.A couple of young Baha’is from Los Angeles recently created this video which includes a reading of Haleh Rouhi’s letter from prison. Rouhi was arrested in May 2006 in Shiraz along with other 53 Baha’is and charged with offenses relating to state security. These young people, along with Iranian Muslims, were engaged in a teaching project benefiting underprivileged children in Shiraz. In August 2007 three of the group, Raha Sabet, Haleh Rouhi and Sasan Taqva, were sentenced to four years in prison for “organizing illegal groups” and “propaganda on behalf of groups that are opposed to the Islamic regime”. In her letter from prison, dated 21 May 2009, Rouhi shared the story of her arrest and imprisonment. The video-slideshow below includes a reading of the English translation of that letter.I’m going to share the structure I use for templates when building a Django application — either from the ground up or when restructuring an existing application. The process is geared towards reusable apps, but the concepts involved are flexible. This is a framework, of sorts, and a style guide. This structure evolved organically for me over thousands of hours developing templates and it works well for me. Your mileage may vary. And, please, you are already organizing templates into app-specific subdirectories, right? Right? Before we start, I’ll share the structure of one of my basic Django apps, with templates. Gazette is a Django blogging app (yes, another one) that I’ve been working on, and which I will mine for examples throughout this article. gazette / __init__. py models. py views. py static /... templates / gazette / __base. html __l_single_col. html __l_right_sidebar. html __l_left_sidebar. html _article_full. html _article_summary. html _author_list. html _author_name. html _category_list. html _navigation. html _tag_list. html article_detail. html article_list. html author_list. html category_list. html tag_list. html Know Your Templates The first principle of my template development process comes straight from The Zen of Python: Readability counts. What this means in template development is that I should be able to glance at my template directory and instantly know what purpose each template serves. More importantly, when a client comes to me with a page in their application that requires an update, I shouldn’t have to hunt for which file contains the relevant code. It should require scanning two templates at most. To this end, I organize all of my templates into three distinct categories: extendable templates, includable templates, and page templates. Extendable Templates Extendable templates form the basic structure of your HTML pages. They are templates whose specific purpose is to be extended by other templates with the {% extends %} tag. To keep from conflating my extendables with my page templates I adhere strictly to never calling an extendable directly from a view and never extending a template which is not an extendable. By way of naming convention, I start all my extendable templates with double-underscores, i.e., __base.html. The most important template is __base.html which is the HTML scaffolding that all of your pages should contain. Generally this template should be pretty minimal. Mine almost always looks like something like this: {% load staticfiles i18n %} <! DOCTYPE html> <html> <head> {% block meta_tags %}{% endblock %} <title> {% block title %}{% trans "Django Gazette" %}{% endblock %} </title> {% block stylesheets %} <link rel= "stylesheet" href= " {% static "gazette/bootstrap/css/bootstrap.min.css" %} " type= "text/css" /> <link rel= "stylesheet" href= " {% static "gazette/css/base.css" %} " type= "text/css" /> {% endblock %} {% block javascript %} <script src= " {% static "gazette/js/jquery-1.7.2.min.js" %} " type= "text/javascript" ></script> <script src= " {% static "gazette/bootstrap/js/bootstrap.min.js" %} " type= "text/javascript" ></script> {% endblock %} {% block extra_head %}{% endblock %} </head> <body> <header class= "navbar navbar-fixed-top" > {% include "gazette/_navigation.html" %} </header> <div id= "main" role= "main" > <div class= "container" > {% block content %} {% endblock %} </div> </div> </body> </html> As you can see, I use Bootstrap when I’m starting a new project, but this approach is not Bootstrap-specific. When I write this base template, I like to code defensively. I think to myself, “If another developer (including myself in six months) comes to this project and needs to build a new template, how can I ensure that they can create any template they want, without having to change the base template.” The answer turns out to be through the use of plenty of obviously-named {% block %} tags to override and extend as necessary. I’ll talk more about {% block %} tags later on. At this point, if your app is very simple, you may not need much more than the __base.html template to provide your structure. You can move straight on to writing your page templates and includables. But if your app is particularly complex, you may want to build out a more thorough framework with some layout templates. In Gazette, I use three layout templates, whose names I start with __l_ (again, so I instantly know their purpose): __l_single_col.html, __l_right_sidebar.html, __l_left_sidebar.html. I stash these in the same directory with the other templates, in accordance with the Zen of Python: Flat is better than nested. However, if you need many more templates than three, you may want to create a layouts/ subdirectory. When I worked on a project with a particularly complex grid, I created just such a subdirectory and filled it with templates such as layouts/100.html, layouts/25_75.html, layouts/50_50.html, &c. Here’s an example of one of my layouts, __l_right_sidebar.html : {% extends "gazette/__base.html" %} {% block content %} <div class= "row" > <div class= "span8" > {% block main_col %}{% endblock %} </div> <div class= "span4" > {% block side_col %}{% endblock %} </div> </div> {% endblock %} It’s a very simple template — so simple that you might feel it’s unnecessary, but, believe me, this thin layer provides a lot of advantages when you’re building out your page templates later. Includable Templates Includable templates are templates that you intend to be included in page templates using the {% include %} tag. As with the extendables, I am strict in mandating that includables adhere to their purpose. You can also think of them as the building blocks that make up your site, glued together by your page templates. There are two primary reasons to make a chunk of your site includable: because you are going to reuse that particular module on multiple pages and you want to keep your template code DRY. because you want another developer to easily override a particular module in your app without having to gut your template structure entirely. As always, code defensively: be prepared for other developers (including yourself in six months) to want to modify and override your templates in ways you never dreamed of. And keep an eye on your balance. Too few includables will make small modifications infuriating to carry out, but too many will create spaghetti code that’s tough to browse. Page Templates Page templates are the meat of your app, but if you’ve built up some good extendables and maybe even includables before you get here, you’ll find them pretty easy to put together. They’re really just the glue that holds all your templates together. Your page templates are the ones that your views will call directly. They link your extendables and your includables together in synchronous harmony. For example, this is article_detail.html : {% extends "gazette/__l_right_sidebar.html" %} {% block title %}{{ article.title }} \| {{ block.super }}{% endblock %} {% block main_col %} {% include "gazette/_article_full.html" %} {% endblock %} {% block side_col %} {% include "gazette/_tag_list.html" with tags = article.tags.all %} {% include "gazette/_category_list.html" with categories = article.categories.all %} {% endblock %} As you can see, this page uses the __l_right_sidebar.html layout. The main column contains a full article. The side column contains both a tag list and a category list. It’s just about as easy to read as a template can be. I promised you the layer of layout separation would lead to increased awesomeness later, and it does: if I decide that I’d rather have the tags and categories on the left side of the page, all I have to do is change the first line of article_detail.html to: {% extends "gazette/__l_left_sidebar.html" %} and the content will all fall into place, right where I want it to. Better still, if another developer is overriding my templates and they prefer, say, 75% - 25% layouts to the 66% - 33% layout I wrote into __l_right_sidebar.html, then they can override that template to: {% extends "gazette/__base.html" %} {% block content %} <div class= "row" > <div class= "span9" > {# this is now 75% of the page #} {% block main_col %}{% endblock %} </div> <div class= "span3" > {# this is now 25% of the page #} {% block side_col %}{% endblock %} </div> </div> {% endblock %} and all the pages that use that layout will follow suit. As far as naming convention is concerned, when appropriate, I try to follow the naming conventions that Django’s generic views use, e.g., <object_type>_list.html, <object_type>_detail.html, <object_type>_form.html, &c. If the template you’re writing doesn’t easily fit into that categorization, just try to keep it fairly obvious which views it corresponds to when naming it. Some Notes on {% block %} and {{ block.super }} Django’s template inheritance system is wonderfully powerful, and it’s easy to get carried away. I often see structures in base (i.e., extendable) templates where developers place default content in their blocks: {% block main %} This is content for the front page of my application. {% endblock %} presumably with the intention of overriding that content when extending that template for use on other pages. I encourage you not to buy into this structure. It conflates your extendables with your pages and makes it harder to know where to look when updating particular template content. (“Is it in frontpage.html or is it in base.html?”) Instead, think of the block content in your extendables as content that you may want to reuse on various page templates with {{ block.super }}. The simplest example of this is the <title> element. I often see structures like this in base templates: <title> {% block page_title %}{% endblock %} Site Title </title> This not only strikes me as inelegant (Do we put the separator that goes between the page title and the site title — e.g., “Page Title \| Site Title” — in the base template or in page templates? What about pages that don’t have page titles?), but limits what a developer can do without modifying the base template. I’d much rather see a simple structure like this in your base templates: <title> {% block title %} Site Title {% endblock %} </title> Similarly with CSS or other assets, rather than <link rel= "stylesheet" type= "text/css" href= "base.css" /> {% block styles %} {% endblock %} or, heaven forbid, {% block styles %} <link rel= "stylesheet" type= "text/css" href= "base.css" /> {% endblock %} {% block extra_styles %} {% endblock %} This is convoluted and unnecessary, when a simple {% block styles %} <link rel= "stylesheet" type= "text/css" href= "base.css" /> {% endblock %} will suffice. Later, in your page template, you can add styles with: {% block styles %} {{ block.super }} <link rel= "stylesheet" type= "text/css" href= "specific_page.css" /> {% endblock %} Similarly, with the title you can: <title> {% block title %} Specific Page \| {{ block.super }}{% endblock %} </title> This, to my eyes at least, is more elegant — the blocks are better named, there are fewer of them, they more accurately express the thought behind the structure — and if you want to abandon the default styles or default title for a specific page, without abandoning your base template altogether, you still have the freedom to do so. {{ block.super }} is a powerful tool. Use it responsibly. A Few Final Notes Internationalization Especially if you’re writing templates for a reusable app, please internationalize your templates. It’s so gloriously easy with the {% trans %} and {% blocktrans %} tags. {% include %} and {% with %} For a really long time I was still writing terrible code like: {% with article.categories.all as categories %} {% include "gazette/_category_list.html" %} {% endwith %} Until I realized that this superior syntax has been available since Django 1.3: {% include "gazette/_category_list.html" with categories = article.categories.all %} For extra bonus encapsulation, try giving your includables exclusive context: {% include "gazette/_category_list.html" with categories = article.categories.all only %} Closing Tags HTML and Django Template Language are, by nature, nested, which sometimes impairs legibility, especially when dealing with long blocks. Django Template Language offers this useful optional syntax for keeping track of your blocks: {% block camelot %} Pretend this is so much content that you lose track of what block you're in before the end. {% endblock camelot %} But what about other cases? I often use template comments to mimic this structure for other HTML and template tags: <div class= "article-content" > A very long article. </div> {# /.article-content #} which I find greatly improves the legibility of my templates. Treat HTML and Template Tags Identically I used to believe that indentation of HTML tags should be treated separately from the indentation of template tags — perhaps out of a misguided belief that the indentation of outputted HTML actually mattered — which led to a lot of code like this: {% block navigation %} <nav id= "navigation" > {% with bookpage.book.pages.all as bookpages %} <ul class= "book-page-list" > {% for page in bookpages %} {% if page! = bookpage %} <li><a href= " {{ page.get_absolute_url }} " > {{ page.name }} </a></li> {% else %} <li class= "active" > {{ page.name }} </li> {% endif %} {% endfor %} </ul> {% endwith %} </nav> {% endblock %} Which, as it turns out is a lot less legible than what you get if you just treat template and HTML tags as equal citizens: {% block navigation %} <nav id= "navigation" > {% with bookpage.book.pages.all as bookpages %} <ul class= "book-page-list" > {% for page in bookpages %} {% if page! = bookpage %} <li><a href= " {{ page.get_absolute_url }} " > {{ page.name }} </a></li> {% else %} <li class= "active" > {{ page.name }} </li> {% endif %} {% endfor %} </ul> {% endwith %} </nav> {% endblock %} And there’s no good reason not to. What else? This structure evolved organically for me and continues to evolve. I’ll keep you abreast of further ideas for template architecture. What about you? Do you have particular tips and tricks for keeping templates organized and legible?They called her Bibi Perigosa in Rocinha, the largest favela in Rio de Janeiro. Bibi the Dangerous. She counted the money that her drug lord husband brought home, usually in bags -- about 270,000 ($345,000) a week. She was there when his gang bought automatic weapons from Paraguay, and she listened to his stories about how thieves and traitors were burned to death. When she found out that her husband had a mistress, she demolished the mistress's beauty salon. She once had her picture taken with a gold-plated submachine gun. Another photo shows her embracing her husband, who has pistols and hand grenades stuck in his waistband. But those days are gone. Today Bibi Perigosa is just Fabiana Escobar, her real name. Her ex-husband has been in prison for five years, and she barely manages to make ends meet. But instead of keeping quiet, she is speaking out about her experiences -- in part because she wants other women to have a better life. There are thousands of young girls in Brazil's slums who are intoxicated by the power, money and status of the drug lords. The role of women in the gangs is underestimated, says former police inspector Marina Maggessi. In fact, she adds, they are an important part of the organization, and are increasingly used as inconspicuous couriers. In Rio alone, the number of female prison inmates increased by 66 percent between 2007 and 2012. Currently more than 1,700 women are incarcerated in the entire state of Rio de Janeiro, mostly for offences related to the drug trade. Drug Trade Was Like 'Normal Business' Dark steps lead up to Escobar's house. In the past, the drug gangs' scouts used the rooftop terrace to keep an eye out for the police and rival gangs. The living room is furnished with pink imitation leather furniture and a makeup mirror, and a pit bull puppy is chewing on a stuffed animal on the red sofa. Escobar, 35, is wearing a denim skirt, a blouse and black leggings. There are still tattoos on her arms expressing her love for her ex-husband, Saulo de Sá Silva, 37. He was long the right-hand man of Rio's most-feared drug lord, Antônio Francisco Bonfim Lopes, known as Nem. Nem controlled Rocinha, and Saulo de Sá Silva was his deputy. With his dark hair, soft face and glasses, Sá Silva doesn't look anything like a cocaine baron. Bibi was married to Saulo, the coke baron, for 15 years. The relationship began like so many others, with plenty of love and little money. She was 17 and wanted to become a social worker, and she dreamed of having children and a little house. He was a 19-year-old mail carrier who wanted to get rich as soon as possible. So he became a drug dealer. According to the police, Sá Silva also delivered drugs along with the mail. He went to prison eight years ago, but after a few days he had sawed open the ventilation grille in his cell and escaped. The family, which had since come to include two children, found refuge in Rocinha, where Sá Silva was on good terms with the local drug lord. There the couple entered the big leagues in the drug business, and it was there that Fabiana became Bibi Perigosa, the gangster's wife. Her husband managed the business and she helped with the books. "It was almost like working in a normal business," she says. Rocinha was Nem's private kingdom, a city within the city, a giant labyrinth of colorful shacks and houses clinging to the hillsides like honeycombs. More than 80,000 people live in Rocinha, between the beach and the jungle, one of Rio's most beautiful locations. Taking Control of Rocinha Nem's gang was called "Amigos dos Amigos," or Friends of Friends. It consisted of 500 armed men, many of them little more than children. He provided half of Rio with cocaine and decided who was to live and who was to die. There was no police or military presence in the favela, and all power was in the hands of Nem's people. When a resident was robbed, he appealed to the drug lords for help. "When a boy stole a fan, he was punished by having gasoline poured over his hand and lit on fire," says Escobar. "Then they gave him a bucket to put out the fire." But the bucket was filled with more gasoline. Bibi Perigosa was the queen of this realm. She bought gold jewelry, clothing, a flat-screen TV, a beach house and a car. She rented a helicopter to drop rose petals over the favela for her husband Saulo. During parties in the favela, known as Baile Funk, the main purpose of which were to stimulate drug sales, she sat enthroned in her box high above the dance floor and had grilled crayfish and champagne delivered from expensive restaurants. Saulo bought an expensive motorcycle, which they drove at high speeds through the narrow streets of the favela at night. The other drug dealers also lived opulent lives. They bought the latest fitness equipment from the United States, and they had swimming pools and home movie theaters built. Drug lord Nem kept a small private zoo with toucans, monkeys and alligators. But now the war is over and the kingdom lost. Rocinha was pacified. In November 2011, soldiers and police occupied the district. They had announced their imminent arrival so as to avoid fighting, and not a single shot was fired. Then they raised the Brazilian flag, as if to announce: "We have the area under control." A few months ago, the governor opened a police station at the top of the hill and had 80 surveillance cameras installed. Now some 700 police officers patrol the neighborhood day and night. By next year's soccer World Cup, the government plans to recapture a total of 40 strategically significant favelas. Rocinha was number 28 on the list. It is a daring game with an uncertain outcome, but the strategy seems to be working so far. Murders and muggings have declined drastically, the pacified slums are flourishing and the real estate market is booming. There were 4,041 murders in the entire state of Rio de Janeiro last year, the smallest number since 1991. Exacting Revenge on Drug Lords But the drug trade continues, mostly by telephone. Many former drug lords are now in prison. Nem fled from Rocinha in 2011, but he was arrested during a roadside check in an upscale neighborhood. He had been hiding in the trunk of a car with fake diplomatic plates. "The police took away his environment," says the former drug lord's wife. The members of his gang scattered, some going to favelas that had not been taken over by the authorities, while others switched to legal jobs or car theft. "Without the favelas, the gangsters are like fish out of water," says Escobar. A thief stole her motorcycle. Corrupt police officers stole the gold jewelry when they searched her house. The flat-screen TV disappeared, the car became rusted and the beach house was sold for too little. Sá Silva is in the Bangu prison in the western part of the city, where Rio's most dangerous criminals are incarcerated. She visited him regularly at first, taking a minibus to the prison on Thursdays with the other wives of drug lords. "The truth is that we led a miserable life," says Escobar. "I was always on guard and always running away from something." Sá Silva was never able to leave the favela. "Once he stood on our rooftop terrace, looked out at the sea and wept. The beach was so close and yet unattainable." When the wives of drug lords don't end up in prison themselves, they often become lonely and bitter. Their husbands find mistresses, are killed in gun battles or are arrested. But Escobar doesn't want to become bitter. Instead, she wants to take revenge on her ex-husband, the coke baron. She recently rented a room at a motel and danced half-nude in front of a webcam, so that everyone could see her on the Internet. "That was how I made Saulo look like a fool in front of his friends." Most of all, however, she is exacting revenge by talking about the drug lords' business. She describes how Saulo set up an electronic bookkeeping system and prohibited the dealers from drinking alcohol while selling drugs. The social networking site Orkut was used for communication. According to Escobar's account, couriers brought the coca paste from Bolivia and Paraguay, and Saulo set up laboratories where the raw paste was processed into cocaine. The gang was soon supplying the drug to dozens of favelas. "Rocinha became a central market for cocaine," says Escobar, who insists she never took drugs herself. "For us it was just a business." She doesn't see herself as an accomplice. "I supported Saulo because he was my husband," she says. On the Road to Redemption Escobar says they abhorred violence -- a questionable claim given the many weapons the couple owned, including a bazooka, automatic weapons and assault rifles. They were constantly on the lookout for the police or enemy drug gangs. Five bodyguards were posted at her door when Escobar slept, yet she was still startled by any sudden noise. "We had spies who told us when the police were planning a raid." On one such occasion, she escaped across the rooftops while police officers raided her house. "We wanted to accumulate as much money as possible in a short amount of time, so that we could build a new life for ourselves," she says. Saulo promised her that they were almost there, and told her: "Start looking for a house on the beach." She bought an oceanfront villa in the northeast, but the police knocked on the door only a few days later. "I had to provide my tax number to buy the house, and that's how they found us," says Escobar. Sá Silva was arrested, while Escobar was questioned and then released. A dealer offered her a job developing a cocaine laboratory, but she turned him down, determined not to have anything to do with illegal drugs anymore. She opened a boutique instead, but people don't have as much money as they used to, when the drug trade was still flourishing. She closed the shop and leased the premises to a beauty salon. The shop is currently being renovated, but the old name, "Danger Girls," is still displayed above the entrance.Image caption North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un has ramped up anti-US rhetoric The UK has said it has "no immediate plans to withdraw" its diplomats from North Korea after its government warned their safety could not be guaranteed in the event of conflict. North Korea earlier asked foreign consulates in Pyongyang to consider evacuating employees. The Foreign Office said it was discussing its next moves with international partners. It comes amid escalating tensions on the Korean peninsula. On Thursday, David Cameron said he was "very concerned" about North Korea. The UK prime minister cited the nuclear threat posed by the regime led by Kim Jong-un as one of the reasons he was committed to maintaining a round-the-clock submarine-based nuclear missile system. 'Capital is calm' A Foreign Office spokesman said North Korea had informed a number of embassies of foreign countries and representatives of international organisations that they would be unable to guarantee their safety the event of conflict. They had asked them to respond by 10 April on what support the embassy would need in the event of any evacuation. He said: "We are consulting international partners about these developments. No decisions have been taken, and we have no immediate plans to withdraw our embassy." Image caption The heightened rhetoric may be part of Kim Jong-Un's efforts to prove himself The statement added: "In recent weeks, the North Korean government has raised tensions on the Korean peninsula and the wider region through a series of public statements and other provocations. "We condemn this behaviour and urge the North Korean government to work constructively with the international community, including over the presence of foreign embassies." BBC world affairs correspondent Mike Wooldridge says although the Foreign Office has not revealed how many staff work in the British embassy, it is believed to be fewer than 20. The Foreign Office said its next move included the possibility of amending travel advice. But it warned North Korea that it had obligations under the international Vienna convention to protect diplomatic missions and claimed the move was an example of the "continuing rhetoric" against the United States. Its travel advice currently says North Korea "has made a number of statements which have increased tensions on the Korean Peninsula". It adds: "These statements follow a satellite launch in December 2012 and suspected nuclear test this February. The FCO assess
cmpany. During Tillerson's decade in charge, ExxonMobil (XOM) was more focused on pumping oil in far-flung places like Russia and the deepwaters off Africa to see the revolutionary U.S. shale oil boom that was happening right at home. In the process, Exxon didn't embrace one of the biggest influxes of energy jobs that the country has ever seen. "Exxon missed out on shale. They dismissed it, didn't take it seriously," said Fadel Gheit, a veteran energy analyst who covers Exxon at Oppenheimer. Tillerson, who is leaving after a decade in charge, has admitted Exxon was late to the shale party. "What's gone on here in North America, has been, I think, nothing short of extraordinary. And I would be less than honest if I were to say to you we saw it all coming, because we did not, quite frankly," Tillerson said in a June 2012 speech at the Council on Foreign Relations. Tillerson said Exxon "grossly underestimated" the amount of shale oil in the U.S. and new technology's ability to affordably pump it. In many ways, ExxonMobil (XOM) CEO's legacy is tainted by his failure to believe in the American energy revolution. Related: Exxon would win if Tillerson helps lift Russian sanctions All of this means Exxon did not fully participate in the oil jobs boom either. Goldman Sachs has estimated that the shale oil and gas revolution created roughly 233,000 jobs between mid-2009 and late 2014. However, Exxon's U.S. workforce didn't expand much during that period. The company has said it employed just over 31,300 workers in 2014, compared with nearly 29,900 in 2009. As of the end of 2015, nearly 60% of Exxon's 73,500 total workers are employed outside of the U.S. It stands to reason that by missing out on shale and focusing overseas, Exxon did more hiring in foreign countries like Nigeria, Russia, Canada and Kazakhstan than in the Bakken oilfields of North Dakota or deep in Texas. That's another irony given Trump's shaming of Ford (F), Carrier (UTX), and other U.S. companies for shipping jobs overseas. In a statement, Exxon noted that it is the largest U.S. producer of natural gas and has invested billions of dollars along the Gulf Coast. "These investments will not only expand refining and chemical manufacturing capacity, but also bring economic growth and create jobs," Exxon said. Exxon said that Gulf Coast investments such as an expansion of its Beaumont polyethylene plant could create more than 28,000 temporary construction jobs and more than 1,200 permanent jobs over the next few years. Still, Tillerson's focus on searching for oil in Russia and elsewhere also runs counter to Trump's promise for "complete American energy independence." "America's incredible energy potential remains untapped. It's a wound that is totally self-inflicted," Trump said in a May speech. "Imagine a world in which our foes, and the oil cartels, can no longer use energy as a weapon." Trump blamed President Obama for keeping America "dependent on others." Tillerson seems to have a different view here. The Exxon man said in his 2012 speech that some fears about energy security are "not well-founded in fact." As long as it's reliable, Tillerson said "where it comes from should be of little consequence to us." Related: The problem with Rex Tillerson's Exxon nest egg To be fair, Exxon and Tillerson aren't alone in missing the shale boom. Saudi Arabia and OPEC were also caught badly off guard by the explosion of American oil and more recently by how resilient U.S. frackers have become. Exxon did eventually get into shale, but at a heavy cost. Exxon paid $41 billion in 2010 to acquire XTO Energy, a major natural gas producer that today also pumps lots of shale oil from Texas and North Dakota. However, even Tillerson later admitted the XTO deal was poorly timed because it occurred just after natural gas prices peaked and they've never recovered. Chevron (CVX) was also slow to hop on the shale train. However, analysts say Chevron has made more inroads with shale than Exxon since then. The problem for oil giants like Exxon and Chevron is they are so gigantic that it would take a ton of fracking to really move the needle. So they focused on hitting the jackpot by finding a large overseas discovery rather than setting up hundreds of wells in U.S. shale fields. Sign up for CNNMoney's morning market newsletter: Before The Bell Of course, U.S. production skyrocketed from a mere 4 million barrels per day in September 2005 to a peak of 9.6 million in April 2015, making it one of the world's top energy producing nations. Instead, Exxon ceded the shale game to more nimble players such as EOG Resources (EOG) and Continental Resources (CLR), which is run by vocal Trump supporter Harold Hamm. Because they saw the writing on the wall early, those pioneers are generating far bigger production gains today than Exxon -- and virtually all of it is coming from shale. "They were the first movers so they were able to snap up strong acreage at better pricing," said Stewart Glickman, energy analyst at CFRA Research. "The large companies like Exxon have been playing catchup." --CNNMoney's Chris Isidore contributed to this report.TORONTO – Toronto FC continues to prepare for the final match of their season-opening seven-game road trip, keeping one eye on the ailing Philadelphia Union side they’ll face this weekend before returning to a renovated BMO Field for their home opener on May 10. While there were plenty of familiar faces in training this week, a few noticeable absences were felt in the backline. Central defender Steven Caldwell and right back Mark Bloom remain out with their extended injuries, Caldwell dealing with an Achilles problem while Bloom tends to a quad strain. But it was the absence of goalkeeper Joe Bendik due to a minor foot issue that was most notable, with TFC head coach Greg Vanney indicating that the injury may force him into a change between the posts for Saturday’s match at the Union. “It’s nothing serious and we don’t see it taking too terribly long,” Vanney said of Bendik’s injury. “He’s questionable for the weekend so if it’s not this week, we’re optimistic for next week. I don’t see it as being a long-term thing. It’s an opportunity, should Joe not be able to go, for somebody to show us what they have and what they’re capable of doing.” Bendik has been a regular for TFC for three seasons now, excluding a minor pre-World Cup run out for Brazilian goalkeeper Julio Cesar at the start of last season. Should Bendik be unable to play this weekend, the start would likely go to backup ‘keeper Chris Konopka. Now in his sixth year in MLS, the 30-year-old Konopka has just two career regular season starts. Bendik’s current injury continues a worrying trend of defensive absences for Toronto FC, but Vanney says the data shows signs for optimism on the injury front. “It’s way better than it has been in the last two years,” Vanney said of the number of injuries TFC has dealt with this season. “The number of sessions that players are missing is a fraction of what it has been over the last couple of years. We’ve missed very little training and not too many games. We’ve been on the right path and guys are fit. This is going to be our real test, when we get into May and we play a lot of games back-to-back. That will be a real sign of how our overall fitness is and how our durability is. That’s the key to this league.” Vanney will need to call upon some of his options in depth once more, but one silver lining is the continued emergence of Canadian left back Ashtone Morgan. The 24-year-old Morgan’s next appearance will be his 100th across all competitions for TFC; he’d be the first player in club history to reach that milestone. “He’s absolutely deserving of it,” Vanney said. “He’s come in this year with a great mentality. He’s had a great preseason for us and he did an excellent job. For Ashtone, it was about confidence, you know, and having somebody who believes in him and gives him a little bit of information here and there on how he can continue to improve his game, because he’s still a young, developing player. He’s taken all of that on board. “He’s an eager learner. He’s slowed down some of his challenges and some of the things that got him in trouble before. He’s making better decisions now that he slows down. That’s the primary thing. He’s had an excellent run early in the season. Just that, alone, makes him very deserving of the opportunity to pick up his 100th cap.”NJ Governor Chris Christie giving a schoolteacher what-for YouTube There's no question that stories about the pay of public sector workers (especially the unionized ones) resonate intensely with folks. During a time when everyone's talking about austerity, and state and city governments face widespread solvency concerns, it's a great time to take pot shots at those who work for the government. And as POLITICO notes, everyone's taking part in the sport: Republicans around the nation have cheered New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, whose shouting match over budget cuts with an outraged teacher—"You don't have to" teach, he told her without sympathy—became a YouTube sensation on the right last week. And even Democrats, like the nominee for governor in New York, Andrew Cuomo, have echoed the attacks on unions. Christie is merely the most florid voice for a calculated, national effort to fundamentally reshape the debate on the labor costs that account for the bulk of government spending at every level. And at the core of the shift is a perception among many political leaders that public anger at civil servants is boiling over. "We have a new privileged class in America," said Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, who rescinded state workers' collective bargaining power on his first day in office in 2006. "We used to think of government workers as underpaid public servants. Now they are better paid than the people who pay their salaries." The big problem is the perceived lack of equality in sharing the pain. Private sector workers have seen layoffs and big paycuts. That's happened a bit in the public sector, but it's been far less visible, and the fact that the public sector is more unionized has helped the ones on the inside greatly fight reform. If things don't snapback soon, it feels as though the dam is about to break on this, and that in states like New Jersey, Illinois, California, New York, and others, the backlash against public sector workers -- whether fair or not -- is about to bite. Now: Click here to meet the 8074 MTA workers making more than $100,000 per year >There was quite a large article posted on leaks from the next Skyrim DLC yesterday here and as more info has come out, we've filtered out what we THINK is the most accurate. (Updated) Again, I want to point out that this is a reported 'leak' from a beta tester and we are going off of what they claim, so treat this as a rumor (and of course this info will be spoiler filled if true). Click Here - If you want to read the article that offered a large chunk of speculation and another update on the PS3 DLC status. Click Here - If you want to see the official Dragonborn DLC Trailer with screenshots. Click Here - If you want to see the official Dragonborn DLC Screenshots and details released by Bethesda. First off, a few leaked images (bad quality tv shots) from gameplay, then we'll get to the details. Achievements: Outlander - Arrive on Solstheim (20 G) Raven Rock Owner - Own a house in Raven Rock (20 G) Solstheim Explorer - Discover 30 Locations on the island of Soltheim (30 G) The Temple of Knowledge - Complete "The Temple of Miraak" (20 G) The Path of Knowledge - Complete "The Path of Knowledge" (20 G) At the Summit of Apocrypha - Complete "At the Summit of Apocrypha (40 G) Hidden Knowledge - Learn the secrets of 5 Black Books (40 G) Stalhrim Crafter - Craft an item out of Stalhrim (20 G) Dragon Aspect - Learn all 3 words of Dragon Aspect (20 G) DragonRider - Tame and Ride 5 dragons (20 G) New Shouts: Cyclone - creates a small tornado (that is pretty funny to use) Bend Will - force a dragon to fight with you. Dragon Riding - player hasn't gotten to this one yet. Dragon Aspect - creates the dragon armor from trailer and gives stronger shouts, stronger melee attacks and summon Ancient Dragonborn to fight with you when you get low on health. Can only be used once per day. Battle Fury - like Elemental Fury but for NPCs Start of the DLC: Cultists of Miraak are searching for the false dragonborn (you), and when they find you they attempt to kill you. Assuming you kill them first, you find a note on them that tells you what they are doing and where they came from. You find their boat docked at Windhelm and proceed to Solstheim. You don't have to complete the main quest to start the DLC, but the character of Miraak has different dialogue if you have already killed Alduin. The size of Solstheim is about equal to the reach and has its own seperate map. Player is about 30+ hours in and not finished yet, though said one could probably rush through the main quest in 10 hours. New Locations added: (Hubs): Raven Rock (can buy a player home there), Tel Mithryn (can buy a player home there as well), Skaal Village (follower is from here + is a new marraige candidate) (Imperial Forts): Fort Frostmoth, Ashfallow Citadel, Highpoint Tower (Shacks): Hrodulf's House, Abandoned Lodge (Caves): Frostmoon Crag (home to werewolf pack that you can talk with if you are one), Bristleback Cave, Castel Karstaag Caverns & Ruins, Glacial Cave, Benkongerike, Frossel, Hrothmun's Barrow (Landmarks): Brodir Grove, Altar of Thrond, Stalhrim Source, Horker Island (Island of Lord Tusk) (Nordic Ruins): Kolbjorn Barrow (quest to help excavate), Bloodskaal Barrow, Vaholok's Tomb, Gyldenhul Barrow. (Dwemer Ruins): Nchardak, Kagrumez, Fahlbtharz (All-Maker Stones): Earth Stone, Watern Stone, Wind Stone, Beast Stone, Sun Stone (Others): Northshore Landing Dock, Old Attius Farm, Snowclad Ruins, Headwaters of Harstrad, Moesring Pass, Bujold's Retreat, Haknir's Shoal, Saering's Watch, Thirsk Mead Hall, Broken Tusk Mine, Damphall Mine, & Miraak's Temple. (In Skyrim): Last Vigil New Creatures & Baddies: Werebears - no word on whether the player can become one yet, but all have been hostile so far. They transform into the bear after being near them a short time. The Morag Tong - They seem to act more like Silver Hand encounters where you fight against them a bit and have random encounters of them. No ability to join with them so far. Hostile Dunmer in Morag Tong armor. Serpent-like creature - Player won't describe this excactly, though says one is pictured in the trailer and won't give its exact name either. Lurkers - Extremely tough and frustrating enemies with plenty of health and dish out a lot of damage. Good challenge. About the size of giants and they are creatures that have'slipped' into Tamriel from H. Mora's realm. Ash Spawn - officially mentioned and pictured in Bethesda's releases. Rieklings - officially mentioned and pictured in Bethesda's releases. New Dragon types encountered. New Dwemer automation - a walking dwarven ballista. New Weapons & Armor: Deathbrand Armor - similar to stalhrim Two Unique Scimitars you can get by the end of the quests Bonemold Armor - Officially mentioned by Bethesda (heavy armor) Chitin Armor - Officially mentioned by Bethesda (possibly a light armor) Stalhrim Weapons and armor - Again, officially mentioned (many of these you can glimpse in the trailer and screenshots) Carved Nordic Armor & Weapons - a heavy armor Spears - I know there are some waiting for info on spears, but Bad News: Only the Reiklings have used them so far and if the player picks them up, they go into inventory as arrows. Morag Tong Armor - another light armor you can get off of attackers. New Thieves Guild Armor - though said to just be a non-buggy Linwe's Armor. Robes - Telvanni Robes and Miraak's Robes New Spells/Enchantments: Poison Rune Whirlwind Cloak Ash Shell - lets you encase enemies in ash (paralyze) or slow them down with damage. Waterwalking - back in enchantment and potion form A new Ring that allows resurrected creatures to explode into frost and fire damage. Staff Enchanting New Active Effect - from H. Mora's realm you can find a book that lets you choose from three active effects: Mora's Mercy, Mora's Wrath and Mora's Agony. You can return to the realm and choose a new effect if you want to replace it (sounds like a similar thing to the effect Parthurnax gives you, or the one you receive for the Nightengale quest) There are five books total, with three options per book, you can get five effects in all supposedly. New Summoning power - player doesn't want to spoil what it is, but says it's cool. Summon Spells - 3 mentioned:Ash Guardian, Ash Spawn, Seeker Other Notes: Bethesda did a great job with Hermaeus Mora's Realm. Twisting Hallways, walls with many books, a dark twisted look. HM is an integral part of the DLC. There is one quest that involved Thalmor, you can scare them off of Solstheim. All the great Dunmer houses exist, Hlallu is shunned due to its ties with the Empire, Redoran is the primary house on Solstheim, Telvani doesn't have a big presence. The Tribunal still exists, though not in the form shown in Morrowind. And you get a chance to join house Telvanni and get a home in a gaint mushroom. And last some random short comments mentioned: Delvin Mallory is Sapphire's Uncle (you will meet her father/his brother), Burnt Spriggans, Captain Falx Carius, Gratian Caerullius, King of the Little People, Mind Control, Serpents, Telvani Master Neloth. A new quest you can start if you are level 81: Ebony Warrior I will update this article with new information, so follow me on twitter (@the_xaraan) for the latest. Update: (after latest edit) The source has said 'he' is "done posting spoilers and that he did so because he thought Bethesda has been pretty stingy about info for something people will be buying in less than a week and haven't known exactly what they will get." Hopefully the info he provided will help people make that decision. Adding that he thinks this "is the best DLC Bethesda has put out." As for this article: If I find any info elsewhere, or more screenshots, I will post them (and have already added more pics). Bethesda themselves have contacted us, asking for our source; so whether this means this info is accurate or just part of an elaborate troll job from them is up to you to decide. Skyrim fans, be sure to check out our free webcomic series: A Journey Through Skyrim, coming out every tuesday (currently at issue 17 and nearing 500 pages of adventure).Image caption There is now less risk of treading on something unpleasant A Taiwanese city is keeping dog mess off its streets by offering prizes to owners who clear up after their pets. Officials in New Taipei City say that more than 4,000 people have collected 14,500 bags of excrement. For each bag they turned in, they were given a lottery ticket. A woman in her 50s won the top prize - a gold ingot worth $2,200 (£1,400). The scheme was due to end in October, but officials said it had been so successful it had been extended. The BBC's Cindy Sui in Taipei says that it has been credited with halving the amount of dog mess in the city, which is near the capital. Dog poo is a health hazard because it contains bacteria that can cause severe stomach upsets if ingested, including a roundworm infection called toxocariasis which is especially dangerous to children. As the scheme - which began in August - grew more successful, more prizes were added. On Wednesday some of the winners were picked. The woman who won is among a team of neighbourhood volunteers who already helped to clean up the streets, including by picking up dog mess. Smaller gold ingots, worth several hundred dollars, were given to four other prizewinners. A total of 85 people won prizes, including household appliances. City officials told the BBC they did not know whether the collectors were dog owners who were suddenly motivated by gold to be more responsible or whether they were other citizens who simply wanted to win. Now that the programme has ended, officials say that they hope people will have developed the habit of picking up dog mess. They say the city simply cannot afford to keep exchanging dog poo for gold.Every ‘Shooting Star’ must, eventually, fall — and what the American Economy experienced after the world’s most publicly scrutinized bailout happened to be no different. Four trifling years later, the American Economy sits down with Shruti Sehgal in a tiny, dim bar on the Lower East Side and opens up about everything: rehab, breaking up with the banks, the late night cocktails of sleeping pills, and even offers a few scrappy words of advice for the next American President. I can tell that the American Economy is not happy to see me. Hair unwashed, wearing a star-spangled Occupy Wall Street T-shirt, slurping a cheap Scotch on the rocks, conspicuously. The American Economy is looking Dickensian – too Dickensian – even for the bar we are in, which is the kind of place where faded, glitterless rockstars stopped hanging out because the Jukebox is never drunk enough to take home and the girls do not accept pennies. We are here, no less, to make light of an eerily dark situation: SS: Four years ago, our government bailed out America’s biggest financial institutions with $133 billion of your money. You weren’t exactly at the height of your professional career, but you were still managing. Then Wall Street totally crashed and the whole world was watching you, kind of hoping you’d screw up. You were being sweettalked at home while people overseas were backstabbing you. Without ripping the bandaid right off, what was that period in your life like? AE: Like a nightmare, only I couldn’t wake up. It’s surreal, the way everyone builds you up only to give you utter bullshit when you fall. Not to mention, there was no actual strategy for my recovery and taxpayers were freaking out. Suffice to say, I hit rock-bottom. I remember at one point during that summer I checked into Cirque Lounge in Utah for overexhaustion. Next thing you know, I’m a fucking coke addict and the bailout is all my fault. I mean, listen, if I could shave my head off in a single, ‘Eureka’ moment of self-understanding like Britney Spears did, I would. But my relationship with the Too Big To Fail Banks, it’s just not that easy. SS: How would you describe your relationship with the banks today? Or with Britney Spears, for that matter? AE: With the banks, it’s on the rocks. If my publicist gives me the greenlight, I will break up with them before the end of the year. I’ve tried to make it work, but the truth is I am sick of making the entire financial sector a priority in my life when I am only an option in theirs. It’s not worth it to me anymore. I cannot wait around for a real apology and expect the rest of the country to cut me slack and stand outside of the pool while I make up shitty excuses for why I’m holding my breath. As for Britney Spears. We don’t run in the same circles, but I deeply respect her work. I bumped into her at Bar Marmont in L.A. three years ago and we commiserated over vodka-redbulls. She told me that ‘ Life is an asshole and then you give him the entire settlement he asks for, but somehow he still gets full custody of the kids.’ I don’t plan on tying the knot until gay marriage becomes legal, so cheers to Anderson Cooper. But I put up with enough during the bailout to understand Britney. I get her sentiment. SS: I think America is going to be relieved to hear you are severing your relationship with the banks. According to the latest pollsters, Americans on average worry more about you than anything else. AE: Yeah, I’ve heard that. I hope Americans know I worry about them, too. You know, all I ever wanted was to create more jobs and build more dream homes for people. That I could have just stood by, doing nothing, while corporations were granted enough market freedom to forgo the common good for this country stirs in me more self-loathing than I can adequately express. If my memory serves me correctly…I had to take a ridiculous amount of Xanax and Ambien for months just to go to bed. Of course, I am healthy now and I do not participate in any sort of activity that could be construed in any way as harmful behavior. (Looking into the bottom of the glass.) For the record, I want Americans to know I haven’t spoken to Fannie and Freddie after fully understanding what they did. I was a naive judge of their character. I did not consider the consequences. I should have. I thought, if I just did my part, I could decide how they felt about me. I think it was David Foster Wallace who called what I was thinking at the time an “American Illness.” SS: Are you a big fan of David Foster Wallace? AE: I wouldn’t say I’m a big fan of anyone. But yeah, I guess I like David Foster Wallace. I read Consider the Lobster at the foodcourt in JFK once. The lady at Hudson News recommended it. SS: Who are your favorite writers? AE: I don’t read much. Anything by Matt Taibbi I can get my hands on. Adam Smith, obviously. Comic books. I love Superman. Noam Chomsky. I hated Naked Economics. SS: Why’s that? AE: If the core principles were that simple, I wouldn’t have screwed up. SS: I see. AE: I’m serious. You know what I think is missing from that book, besides a competent title? In fact, what is missing from this whole equation? SS: What? AE: Underneath this enormous balloon of capitalistic competition, where the deficit is bigger than any tit-job walking down Sunset Strip and the only thing college kids can look forward to after they graduate is unemployment benefits…is the one fact nobody can deny, and yet everyone always fucking forgets it. SS: Which is? AE: That I’m human. Me and every other goddamn national economy out there. Sure, on the surface level, we’re some fancy exchange of goods and services, but deep down inside, we’re just a bunch of morally-conflicted children of the earth with bad fathers and bleeding hearts. Like, no wonder I got fucked. Ever read that book with the limegreen apple on the front cover? Freakonomics? SS: Yes, actually. AE: Well, I’m that freak they’re talking about. SS: Let’s talk about the upcoming Presidential election for a minute. Who are you voting for? What are your general thoughts? AE: I’m nonpartisan. SS: No you’re not. AE: Fuck no, I’m not. SS: So? AE: So, I can’t tell you much for legal reasons and because the papparazo at the pooltable over there thinks he’s more icognito than James fucking Bond. But, I will tell you this: we have $1.2 trillion of deficit reduction to figure out before defense spending gets sliced in half, otherwise known as ‘sequestration.’ If Obama’s for the win then he needs to realize this is no simple math. As for Romney, if he even thinks about making massive cuts to social welfare programs, I will personally snap off his cock. (pause) There, I said it. SS: You did. AE: And that paparazzo totally heard it. SS: He did. (Standing up) AE: Fuck. I think I just pulled a Megan Fox.Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be playing host to Ivanka Trump at the dinner at Hyderabad’s Falaknuma Palace on November 28.The US-based businesswoman and daughter of US President Donald Trump will be introduced to Indian cuisine at the Nizam dining hall in Falaknuma Palace, which is touted as the world’s largest dining hall.The royal menu would include food from all regions of the country, including the famous Hyderabadi Biryani.There are two dinners planned at the palace. The most important guests will have dinner at the "101 Dining Hall", while other delegates will have the same menu served on the lawns outside.The magnificent dining hall at Falaknuma Palace is often called the world's largest. (Image: News18)The "101 Dining Hall", has a magnificently 108-feet long table with a seating capacity of 100 guests.The dinner will be followed by cultural events organised to highlight India's culture.The unique venue has sophisticated wooden interiors and ornate crystal chandeliers and exquisite acoustics.The exotic Falaknuma Palace in Hyderabad is owned by the Hyderabad Nizams. (Image: News18)The city of pearls, Hyderabad is all set to welcome Ivanka Trump and hundreds of other delegates from across the world for the 3-day Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) starting November 28.The IT corridor, which will host the summit has undergone a colorful makeover to woo the foreign guests.Trees and pavements leading to the Falaknuma Palace has been decorated in different colours. (Image: News18)Right from widening of roads to laying down new footpaths, the city has been transformed to create the best impression. Be it interesting paintings on the trees, lush green grass that runs along the road, or animal themed flower pots on the approach road leading to the venue, the city wears a vibrant new look which promises to be a visual treat for all.The flyovers have also been ramped up with colourful and creative art highlighting India's culture through paintings.Image: CERN Results presented Tuesday by physicists at the Large Hadron Collider offer the tantalizing hint of a new particle, possibly a very heavy variation of the Higgs boson. Both the ATLAS and CMS experiments, the LHC particle detectors responsible for the Higgs boson discovery, have found significant, unexpected spikes within data representing the energetic aftermaths of super-high energy proton collisions. The lucky number for both experiments is 750 giga-electronvolts (GeV). It's at this energy that physicists found an excess of photon particles (units of light, basically) within the showers of subatomic byproducts that result when heavier particles (like protons) are smashed together and annihilate. (The green lines in the illustration below would be photons.) Some of these byproducts exist for barely any time at all, but their existence can be inferred by looking for energy spikes such as this. Image: CERN If the results are confirmed by further data, they would indicate the presence of a new particle of around 1,500 giga-electronvolts produced in proton collisions and decaying almost immediately into two of photons of 750 GeV apiece. And the results do absolutely need confirmation. The statistical bump found by the ATLAS comes with a significance of 3.6 sigma, while the CMS group wound up with a 2.6 sigma excess at 750 GeV. These are not slam dunks by any stretch. In particle physics, 5 sigma is the standard for a discovery, corresponding to about a 0.00003 percent chance that the results happened just by dumb luck. A 3 sigma result, which is usually taken to indicate evidence of a discovery but not an actual discovery, means that there's about a 3 percent chance that the results could have occurred via dumb luck. A 2.6 sigma is not even evidence but it's also not nothing-nothing. (An interesting thing: The chance that a result could have happened by dumb luck is always there, even if it is approaching the infinitesimal.) More concretely, the CMS group registered 10 750 GeV events, while the ATLAS group nabbed 40. As noted in Nature News, the excesses would be completely unremarkable had they not occurred in tandem at separate detection experiments. "It is a little intriguing," ATLAS spokesperson Dave Charlton told the journal. "But it can happen by coincidence." French physicist Adam Falkowski, who'd been hinting about Tuesday's results on Twitter several days ago, has a good analysis at his Resonaances blog. For one thing, he contrasts the latest data spikes with what was seen of the Higgs boson three years ago. Then, unlike now, the interpretation of photon pairs (a diphoton) at 125 GeV was reasonably clear and shared by most physicists: the Higgs boson. A 1,500 GeV diphoton, however, could be any number of things, including one of several theorized additional Higgs bosons. That ambiguity adds a whole new level of excitement. "Most likely, this particle would just be a small part of the larger structure, possibly having something to do with electroweak symmetry breaking and the hierarchy problem of the Standard Model," Falkowski writes. "If the signal is a real thing, then it may be the beginning of a new golden era in particle physics." In any case, we will know more for sure when the next round of LHC data starts rolling in in 2016.The Kansas City Chiefs defense just suffered yet another blow. This might be the worst so far. Starting outside linebacker Justin Houston has been placed on the PUP list as he continues to rehab from an ACL injury. He'll be out at least six weeks, leaving Kansas City awfully thin at the linebacker position. The #KCChiefs placed OLB Justin Houston (ACL) on PUP list, so he’s out 6 games. They are hopeful for a midseason return. — Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) August 30, 2016 Houston had 30 tackles, 7.5 sacks and 2 interceptions last year. When healthy, he is one of the most feared pass rushers in the league and one of the most important players on the Chiefs. Unfortunately this is not the only injury news coming out of Chiefs' camp today. Josh Mauga, an interior linebacker, will miss the season with a labral tear. Josh Mauga is out for the season with a labral tear. — Terez A. Paylor (@TerezPaylor) August 30, 2016 Mauga had 58 combined tackles last season. Kansas City had one of the best defenses in the league last year, and it was expected that they'd be near the top in that department this year as well. While they are expected to get a boost from the return of star safety Eric Berry, these injuries serve as a major obstacle. It was reported earlier today that the Chiefs were interested in former Browns' linebacker Paul Kruger. Considering the extent of these injuries, that talk is sure to heat up.ROME — Politics has no monopoly on making strange bedfellows, as a senior Vatican official paid tribute to Hollywood on Thursday for raising the profile of family issues, specifically citing the American sitcom “Modern Family,” a show that features two married gay men who adopt a baby, plus an older divorced dad who remarries a woman half his age. Along with writings of Pope Francis and other Vatican initiatives, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia told the United Nations on Thursday that thanks to “phenomena like the media production ‘Modern Family,’ or same-sex marriage initiatives in a significant number of jurisdictions, the family has become the subject of increasingly intense interest and discussion.” Paglia is head of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for the Family, the office organizing a “World Meeting of Families” in Philadelphia in September that Pope Francis is scheduled to attend. Unfortunately, Paglia said during an event to mark the UN’s annual “Day of the Family,” discussion about the family has become “unproductively ideological.” It centers too much on definitions of the family unacceptable to one political current or another, and on economic considerations. “It is important to realize that the family is not an ideology,” Paglia said. Instead, he said, family is a complex of human relationships characterized by love, fidelity, commitment, sacrifice, trust, conflict, joy, fruitfulness, nurture, respect, celebration, protection, memory and faith. The archbishop called for recognition of the negative effect that the breakdown of families has on global initiatives such as the UN’s “Sustainable Development Goals,” a set of development benchmarks that 195 countries will sign in September. Pope Francis will open that session of the UN General Assembly on September 25, during a visit to the United States. “Not everything in every family is rosy,” Paglia said. “There’s violence, abuse, paternalistic excess. There are families with absent or irresponsible fathers.” He also said that women being left to provide for their children through paid work and unpaid care are a clear example of gender inequality. Paglia also said the family the Church has in mind is one in which “the relationship between genders is reworked with full respect for masculinity and femininity,” where the bond between generations is cultivated, and where the education of children respects their individuality. “Clearly, what the Catholic Church is striving for is a new, more authentic flourishing of the family, and with it all of society,” he said. Paglia said the church is so convinced that Pope Francis has convoked two summits of bishops from around the world
Who’s left who believes the easy money is to be made in China? Nobody. Anyone seeking high quality overseas production is moving factories to the U.S. for its appreciating dollar and cheap energy, or to Vietnam or other locales with low labor costs and depreciated currencies. For years, China bulls insisted China could crush the U.S. simply by selling a chunk of its $4 trillion foreign exchange reserves hoard of U.S. Treasuries. Now that China has dumped over $700 billion of its reserves in a matter of months, this assertion has been revealed as false: the demand for USD is strong enough to absorb all of China’s selling and still push the USD higher. The stark truth is nobody wants yuan any more. Why buy something that is sure to lose value? the only question is how much value? The basic facts suggest a 30% loss and a return to the old peg of 8.3 is baked in. But that doesn’t mean the devaluation of the yuan has to stop at 8.3: just as the dollar’s recent strength is simply Stage One of a multi-stage liftoff, the yuan’s devaluation to 8 to the USD is only the first stage of a multi-year devaluation. We need a new system, one we control from the ground up: A Radically Beneficial World: Automation, Technology and Creating Jobs for All. The Kindle edition is $8.95 and the print edition is $20.82.Alternative locations for the race are currently being discussed by Formula E organisers and promoters, with the disused Tempelhof airport and surrounding buildings having been given over to refugee camps in an organised humanitarian program by the German government. Hundreds of refugees and asylum seekers from countries such as Syria are already populating the disused terminals and hangars at the historic airport, which served as the venue for the inaugural Berlin ePrix last May. The date for the second event to be held at Tempelhof has already been ratified by the FIA for May 21. Commenting on the situation, Formula E boss Alejandro Agag told Motorsport.com that the situation was being closely reviewed, saying: "We are in contact with the local authorities and a final decision will be taken in the next few weeks. "We will completely support any decision of the German government during what is very clearly a huge humanitarian operation. "Germany remains a vital market for Formula E and we are determined to evaluate any option to stage a race there." The Berlin city government is believed to be planning additional accommodation for refugees on the airfield. However, in May 2014, almost three-quarters of a million Berlin residents voted to keep the 380 hectares of greenfield space at Tempelhof, essentially blocking government policy to sanction developers to build additional accommodation. The former airport could have the capacity to house 2,300 refugees by May. The reality remains however that a motor race at the venue is unlikely to be able to take place at Tempelhof amid the refugee crisis, and Motorsport.com understands that additional venues in the city are under consideration. It seems unlikely at this stage that the proposed Lugano street race in Switzerland would act as a direct replacement for a German race.Contents show] Members Edit Atticus Ava Bob Carter Fitz Grimweld Henderbeard Solaris The Adventure Edit We begin today's adventure deep in the Carnifex castle. Having faught off the initial attacking Carnifex, the party headed further into the Shrine of the Carnifex. Four more guards were waiting. The fight raged on, and as seems to be his habit, Solaris fell unconscious on his first attack. Bob's blade barrier tore into flesh and Grimweld made a break for the black staff of the Carnfex. The second he touched it, a thunder clap sounded and he was blown back, falling down the stairs. A Carnifex mage teleported in and headed for the northern room, leading the Henderbeards into the Hall of the Undead. The resident Hag was kept at bay, and the Carnifex mage died. Sensing impending doom, the leader, a lich of considerable power, grabbed the staff and teleported away. Bob's sunbeam blinded the remaining undead and Henderbeard snuck around to flank the monsters from behind. Then the unthinkable happened... Grimweld dropped unconscious and died. He spent the rest of the fight in the peaceful surroundings of Tito's resting place having tea and crumpets. Ava realized that she could try to get him back to life, so she hobbled on her stump over to Grimweld. Solaris pulled off many a Solaris Special, until he too succumbed to his curse. An untoward shot ricocheted back, knocking him unconscious and he too fell down the stairs. Carter also found that he has a signature move. It is the triple crit. He did it again this session. Without their leader, the rest of the undead revenants were quickly dispatched. The party was left with the decision to heal or jump through a rapidly fading teleportation circle. Seemingly cured of their aversion to using consumables, they gobbled mushrooms, drank potions and got ready for a fight. Carter, carrying Ava, stepped through first. The Carnifex were waiting. Both Carter and Ava took a cleaver to the face. The rest of the party was surprised to see Dorath Kir sitting on a huge throne in the room. With no time to think, combat started. A Carnifex summoned a clone of Henderbeard. Then Bizarro Bob, the clone of Bob showed up. Bob tried to silence the enemy, but Evil Henderbeard was too smart for his tricks and just walked out of the circle of silence. Both of the clones were soon stuck in Bob's entangle spell though. Fitz moved into the melee and went for the staff. Evil Henderbeard wrested it from his hands, polymorphed into a Carnifex, and was prepared to use it, when he was cut down, his robes, equipment, and body drifting away as a puff of smoke on the wind. Dorath Kir died. He was unconscious, and Grimweld slit his throat. Upon death, he and all of his possessions turned to dust. The last clone, Bizarro Bob, finally succumbed. He too could not face the combined might of the Henderbeards. Bob and Grimweld detected the evilness of the staff, and Fitz also knew it needed to be destroyed. Bob cast remove curse and Fitz dispelled its dweomer. With the destruction of the staff, a great alarm sounded in the castle. Everyone saw a dark gray henge appear, with a vision of the Guardian Mesa on the other side. The Carnifex already had a way into their plane! This inter-dimensional portal was almost ready to be put into use. As the last of the team headed through the henge, a loud rumbling sound started. Horrible shrieks echoed from the magical portal, and the Henderbeards watched as the fortress of the Carnifex started crumbling. You have bested us and thus, it is right to claim and rule our realms. Such is our law. Should this be your choice, you then become the defenders of the gate to the Pits of Banishment. Touch a henge for the power to be yours, or leave and never return. Clusters of horrified Carnifex poured out of the castle. Many of them heading toward the henge. Quick thinking saved the day. As Fitz pried up a symbol, the gate closed with a loud snap. Immediately after the first symbol was pried up, each henge started to glow with a golden aura. From each henge the rulers of the magical pocket realms appeared. As if they were a single entity, they all knelt and announced the following: Grimweld and Carter jumped at the chace to become demi-gods of their own realm. Ava, Henderbeard, Bob, and Fitz declined the offer, and headed down. As they left the plateau, they felt a surge of power. Having given up the chance to own a realm, they got other rewards. Bob, Fitz, and Henderbeard gained 50,000 XP. Ava gained true sight and ESP. With the threat of the Carnifex over, the party limped back to their headquarters in Pradaqa. As the ruler of the red realm, Carter was stuck. He was embroiled in an epic battle. An unending war. He would not soon grace the plane of the Henderbeards again. Grimweld enjoyed himself in the pursuit of the color blue and women. Sorabeth, the Law Giver, soon bent to his charms and agreed to be courted. Back at Pradaqa, Bob started healing and restoring the wounds of the group. He regrew an eye and a leg. Gave Ava back a foot, and everyone healed and rested. Feeling a lack of supplies, Bob headed south in his boat. He was in luck. Rolg did not have any major healing supplies in stock, but he did have some items he found in his travels, and joined Bob for a trip back on the Faronos. To Henderbeard, he sold a Barrel of Rolling, to Grimweld, a Barrel of Poverty. With that sale, Rold laughed a deep barrel chested laugh. Grimweld looked inside and his clothing and equipment vanished. The cover changed to leather strips, and Grimweld decided to put on the barrel. Rolg explained that his clothes had been transported to the Blue Realm. Rolg stepped off the ship and took out his wares from a seemingly endless haversack. To Ava, he sold a Steed, to Henderbeard, a new Guardian Familiar, to Fitz, the legendary Robe of the Arch Magi, and to Bob, a Teddy Bear. He spent the night at the tower and headed out in the morning, with a shopping list from Bob. A few other things happened concurrently. Some of the party wondered why Dorath Kir was still alive and drinking in the tavern with Qesnef. A strange lizard found the Henderbeards and agreed to fight with them on the condition that they one day help him find his god Zlntrlkopfr. Also, at long last, Grimweld heard some wings flapping in the distance. He knew right away that it was his dragon. He immediately bonded with it and flew off to the Blue Realm to get to know his new cohort, but before he left, he commissioned Atticus with making a saddle for him. XP Edit Fitz also found himself the owner of a basilisk egg. Can he raise it to be his familiar? Before Grimweld left for his pocket realm, he tried to scry on Ragnar. His spell worked, and what he saw scared him.Ragnar is now some form of undead who feasts on the flesh and blood of virgins. The demon is stronger than ever, and sitting on a throne overlooking the demon's praying and Ragnar's sacrifices was a strange being.The product of a demon and a human. A cambion demon. Who is this new threat? What power does he bring to the table? Can Carter ever stop the wars on his pocket realm and escape its confines? The demon quickly saw the scrying orb and sent a bolt of flame into Grimweld's eye, closing the link, but not before he saw an army of Taldor and Tlengle... Session XP: 30,000 Henderbeard, Bob, and Fitz gained an additional 50,000 bonus XP from the old realm leaders. Individula XP is recorded in this thread: https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/931986/individual-xp#post-944546 Loot Edit 8,000 gp 1000 pp 100 gems worth a total of 10,000 gp Potion of longevity Ring of protection +2 +2 shield Talisman of elemental travel (Water) Barrel of Poverty Barrel of Rolling Arabel's Huggable Bear Dori's Obsidian Steed of Wondrous Power Blade Guardian Items Comissioned to Rolg Edit 12 Potions of Healing 2 Scrolls of Mass Cure Wounds 1 Scroll of Ressurection 6 Extra Strong Healing PotionsWhen Ukrainians selected a Crimean Tatar singer to represent their country at the Eurovision Song Contest earlier this year, many Russians were indignant. The song performed by Jamala evokes the deportation of Crimean Tatars by Soviet dictator Josef Stalin and is widely viewed as a thinly-veiled criticism of Moscow's 2014 annexation of Crimea. But Russia's own Eurovision entrant, a favorite to win this weekend's contest, can hardly be described as an admirer of the Kremlin's seizure of the peninsula or the jingoism behind it. A video showing Russian contender Sergei Lazarev discussing the Crimean takeover has surfaced online, creating a stir among both fans and foes. In the two-year-old interview to Ukrainian television, Lazarev said he still considered Crimea to be part of Ukraine. "Maybe my own Russian fans will throw tomatoes at me, but this is the way it is for me," he said. "When I travel to Yalta, for me it's Ukraine." He added that he "won't take part" in concerts where Russian performers chant from the stage that Crimea and Russia are one nation. "I don't share this general euphoria," he said. Lazarev, whose grandmother is Ukrainian, also revealed that he had turned down invitations to tour Crimea. "At this stage I'm not ready to go there," he said. While Lazarev plans to sing about love at the upcoming Eurovision contest, his offstage comments have already sparked calls for a boycott from some Russian viewers. "I'll skip Eurovision this year," tweeted Dmitry Smirnov, a correspondent at the pro-Kremlin Komsomolskaya Pravda tabloid. "He doesn't support Russia but performs in its name on the European arena?" reads another tweet. His remarks mark a striking departure from the vast majority of Russian performers, who have either thrown their weight behind Crimea's annexation or kept their views to themselves. Those who have dared challenge the Kremlin about its actions in Ukraine, like veteran rock star Andrei Makarevich, have suffered a vicious backlash and lost countless fans in Russia. Lazarev, however, has substantially toned down his criticism since the 2014 interview. In subsequent comments on Ukrainian television, he claimed that his words had been taken out of context. And in April 2016, he refused to share his views on Crimea, telling the reporter that he no longer answered questions about politics. Lazarev was nonetheless reportedly spotted at a Eurovision event in this year's host city, Stockholm, wearing clothes by a Ukrainian designer, in what has been interpreted by some as a discreet gesture of support for his grandmother's homeland. The second semifinal of the contest takes place in the Swedish capital on May 12, and the final -- which Lazarev qualified for in the first semifinal on May 11 -- will be held on May 14.Perry gets the word from the Bosses Upstairs that he will be getting a Podcast Pilot with his “Comedy Pure Rock Resurrection” with Lisa Marie and talks about his goal of making money from the podcast. Perry seems to have come up with a new catch phrase that he subliminally continues to say throughout one part of the show and Mr. Adams calls in to introduce another song for Windy City Heat – The Musical, this one is about “Big Lou”. Show Summary Join the interaction on the social networks with the The Big 3 by following them on “facebook” and on “twitter” … Oh, if you’re in the Los Angeles area you should check out Don Barris who performs every late night at the World Famous Comedy Store in West Hollywood … Every Monday night @ 10:00 pm the club showcases Don and his weekly Ding-Dong Show, the longest running show in the history of the club, see the show where The Big 3 got their start! … If you’ve been living on the moon and haven’t seen the cult-classic film, Windy City Heat check that out to get a real background of what’s going on here. If you want to see “Classic Big 3” video from the past twenty-some years check out “The Big 3 LIVE” on the Video Podcast Network (VPN). www.youtube.com/big3podcast Show Gallery Show Trailer Big 3 LIVE Starring Don Barris, Walter Molinski, Perry Caramello Producer: Don Barris Associate Producer: Mary Jane Green Asst. To The Editor: Mattt Potter Sound Engineer: Vince Freeman Web Engineering: Jordan Miller $10 Shout-Out Send $10 cash to: 7510 Sunset Blvd. #153 Hollywood, CA. 90046One of my all-time favourite speeches comes from Wexford hurling legend Liam Griffin. According to legend, Griffin, who was the manager of the Wexford hurling team at the time, stopped the team bus so that he could give a tremendous speech to his players. This was before the Leinster final against Offaly in 1996: Who are you? Who are you? I’ll tell you who you are. When I’m finished speaking we are going to walk out of Wexford. Our goal is that the next time we set foot in this, our county, we will be Leinster Champions. On Friday night there was a report, on television, from Offaly and in mentioning the word tradition they sang their anthem. It made me think about tradition and its importance. And about this fantastic county of ours. A county of which we should be so proud. From the beach outside there to Courtown, Gorey, Ardamine, Blackwater, Curracloe, Wexford, Rosslare, Kilmore, Cullenstown, Fethard and The Hook. And back again to Ross, Mount Leinster, Rathnure and Enniscorthy. And of course Boolavogue. That’s who we are and that’s where we come from. Our people have real songs to sing. When they question the blood in our veins don’t you ever forget that our county has a proud past and when other counties failed, ours was the only one of 32 counties wherein the people, your forefathers, rose and shook off the chains of bondage. Listen to ‘Boolavogue’ and ‘The Boys of Wexford’ and then think of Offaly. Why should we fear Offaly or Kilkenny or any other Irish county? Nothing in our past suggests that we should. Look at your names. Great Wexford names. Think of all the memories that this county of ours holds for you. For many of the bones of our nearest and dearest lie buried in the clay beneath your feet. Like yours will, much sooner than you ever thought. This is our chance to make history. For which you will never be forgotten. You come from a fighting tradition and don’t ever forget it. Now we are going to walk up this road in silence. Out of our county. With the promise to each other that we will fight to the last – And remember! It is only for 70 minutes. Not like your forefathers who had to fight for days on end. We will promise to give absolutely everything in order that the next time we set foot on Wexford soil we will carry back the Leinster Cup. Today we are playing for a way of life. Breathe in now, long and hard and as you walk, think of yourself since childhood, of all the matches you played, all of your friends both alive and gone, and make this promise to yourself. Today is the day we will be proud again. And remember: “We are the boys of Wexford who fought with heart and hand.” That’s real tradition. Let’s go!To subscribe to Capitol Fax, click here. * UPDATED x1 * Rauner now undecided on HB40 Tuesday, Sep 19, 2017 * Yesterday, Illinois Review published a story about how it couldn’t get a response from the governor’s office about whether he would sign HB 40. Korecki finally did… When asked on Monday about Rauner’s past statements that he would veto HB40, [Gov. Rauner’s spokesman Hud Englehart] said: “I know that he hasn’t made up his mind,” on the issue. * From April 14, 2017… Governor Bruce Rauner will veto an abortion bill that could be within votes of passing the Illinois House when they return after spring break, his office told Illinois Review Friday morning. “Governor Rauner does not support HB40 and will veto the bill if it reaches his desk,” spokesperson Allie Bovis wrote in an email. * Back to today… (I)n recent weeks, Rauner has met with women across the state to listen to them on the topic, including those on public aid. The bill expands the public funding of abortion to Medicaid recipients and to those receiving state health care and it aims to preserve the legality of abortion in Illinois if the U.S. Supreme Court should strike down Roe v. Wade. Asked if the governor was still holding those meetings, Englehart noted the governor’s recent return from Asia, but added: “I know that he’s done that.” It sure looks like he’s laying the groundwork for a flip-flop. * And now that he has the revenues to operate the government and an education funding reform bill and a new PR emphasis on business recruitment, he can pivot left on “social issues” as soon as the petition filing season ends… [Rep. David McSweeney] questioned the role politics played in Rauner’s earlier public statements. He pointed to emails published in the Sun-Times last month that alleged First Lady Diana Rauner feared losing suburban votes if Rauner said he’d veto HB40. But then-staffers argued the governor had to walk a tight-rope with his Republican caucus who hated the bill but whose support he needed during an intense budget battle. In the end, Rauner said he would veto it. But Republicans bolted anyway, with 15 voting against Rauner on a key budget vote. So, the question is, do the Democrats send him the bill now to put him in a political trick box and maybe gin up a GOP primary opponent, or do they wait for him to say publicly that he’ll sign the bill to actually get something done? Personal PAC is arguing for the latter. Some partisan Dems are arguing for the former. Others say a third party option is a better idea against Rauner anyway, so go ahead and wait. Your own thoughts? * UPDATE * He dodged the question today… Hey Rich, we just posted our interview with @GovRauner with time markers on each question. HB40 comes up at 8:17. https://t.co/3aXMF848cT — The 21st (@21stShow) September 19, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller 30 Comments Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.Alinta Energy, WA’s biggest gas retailer, is being sold to a Chinese company following a dramatic last minute about-face on the company’s proposed $4 billion sharemarket float. Just a day after confirming the float had been delayed, Alinta revealed today the near 30 hedge funds and private equity owners which own the group had agreed a sale to Hong Kong-based Chow Tai Fook Enterprises. Controlled by Cheng Y Tung, CTFE is described by Alinta as a holding company with investments across 50 countries. Alinta’s management team, led by managing director Jeff Dimery, will remain with the group. The agreement comes just days after Labor won the WA election having waged a campaign against the privatisation of power generator Western Power that was based on the likelihood of it falling into foreign ownership. CTFE said in a short statement that it intended to grow the Alinta business “by pursuing appropriate investment opportunities in the Australian energy market as they arise”. Competition chief says power bills would be cheaper if Western Power were sold The West Australian Play Video Video Competition chief says power bills would be cheaper if Western Power were sold The deal is subject to the approval of the Foreign Investment Review Board. CTFE’s holdings include the Hong Kong-based conglomerate New World Development. Alinta would be its first major investment in Australia outside of property. The purchase agreement coincides with growing competition in the WA gas markets, led by Wesfarmers’ Kleenheat business and new arrivals AGL and Origin Energy. The utility has about 800,000 customers across Australasia, including 600,000 in WA where it controls about 85 per cent of the market. Alinta’s owners, the biggest of which is US private equity giant TPG, has followed a dual sale process for three years, seeking the easier option of a trade sale while exploring a sharemarket float. Under the float, it would have relisted on the Australian Securities Exchange next month, offering shares to its customers via an initial public offer that would have valued it between $3.5 billion and $4 billion. Sold by the WA Government to public investors in 2000, the then AlintaGas was bought by a consortium of Babcock & Brown and Singapore Power in 2007, with the former retaining the WA gas retail interests. TPG took on the business in a debt-for-equity swap after B&B collapsed after the Global Financial Crisis. CTFE’s investments straddle hotels, jewellery, retail and property. Its 60 hotels include the Beverly Wilshire in Los Angeles and The Carlyle in New York.Memes are the perfect microcosm for the cycle of pop culture, beginning as some underground hit, rising in popularity, and then finally reaching its chilling demise in the vast exosphere of your parent's social circle. Entertainment Weekly R.I.P. And in the short years they've become popular -- the broad concept of memes have also evolved. Only not in the fun "monkey learns to brain other monkey with a femur" kind of way... more like a "computer goes bananas and murders everyone" kind of way. Allow me to take you on a harrowing journey, starting in a quaint era known as "the late 2000s." Cue the Daughtry... 2007-2008: The Definition Of A "Meme" Drastically Changes Oh, sweet 2007. The world was a simpler, more innocent time devoid of Cinematic Universes and the Twilight Saga. We were saying adieu to both Harry Potter and the housing market. The first iPhone had just hit it stupid huge... and it looked like we were entering a crispy, bright dawn for the internet age. Little did we know of the cancerous seed which lurked deep in society's soil like a Chernobyl time capsule, one that would lead to horrendous acts of political maleficence and social upheaval. The darkness in which I speak was manifested in a budding blog called "I Can Has Cheezburger." No you fucking can't, you dead-eyed scourge. Continue Reading Below Advertisement Good people, believe me when I say that this adorable ashen puss-puss is patient zero for our contemporary state of online hostility and possibly the entire Trump presidency and by extension the very end of civilization as we know it. Or failing this, at least believe that it made the internet way more annoying. As we've mentioned before on Cracked, Richard Dawkins first defined a "meme" as an idea that spreads among society in an unplanned and effortless way. For example, the The Dancing Baby gif -- commonly seen as the first meme ever -- got its start as a sample file from a 3D program that inadvertently went viral. But as the idea of a "meme" evolved, so did its simplicity when the Cheezburger site boiled everything down to a single image accompanied by overlaying white text. Suddenly, "meme" became a template -- something anyone could make and forcefully spread -- effectively killing the fundamental definition of what a "meme" originally was.In a pointed statement in the battle over transgender discrimination in North Carolina, Guilford County Democrats reportedly have named the leader of the state’s LGBT rights organization to the General Assembly as a temporary appointment. Chris Sgro of Greensboro, executive director of Equality N.C., posted on his Facebook page on Saturday morning that he had been appointed to fill out the term of Rep. Ralph Johnson, who died last month after a stroke. “Friends, it is my honor to be appointed to the remainder of Representative Ralph Johnson’s unexpired term,” the Facebook entry says. “Ralph was a great leader for Greensboro and I have big shoes to fill. Amos Quick will fill the seat after January and have my support, but GCDP stepped up to make sure there is at least one LGBT voice in the NCGA as we push to ‪#RepealHB2‬ in the short session. I’m humbled by this morning. Onward!” Quick, a county school board member, defeated Johnson in the Democratic primary for the District 58 seat. The term begins in January, but the legislature will convene for a short session April 25. Johnson was elected to the House in 2014, filling the seat left open when Alma Adams ran for Congress. Sign Up and Save Get six months of free digital access to The News & Observer Sgro’s nomination by the county party executive committee goes to the governor, who is required to make it official with his approval. The choice of Sgro comes as the state has been embroiled over the enactment of House Bill 2, which precluded cities and counties from extending nondiscrimination rights to transgender people. It was sparked by the Charlotte City Council, which passed an ordinance allowing transgender people to use the bathroom of their gender identity. Equality N.C. has led the fight against the new law, much as it led the unsuccessful fight against amending the state constitution to define marriage as only between a man and a woman. Sgro has been executive director since 2013. Before that he was involved in national and state political campaigns, and was director of economic development for former U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan, a Democrat from North Carolina. He’s a native of Pennsylvania and married Ryan Butler in a ceremony in Canada, and then received a marriage license in Guilford County.Kinder Morgan Canada tried to bully the City of Burnaby, according to Mayor Derek Corrigan. Corrigan said Ian Anderson, the company’s president, stopped by his office on Wednesday “to complain” about the permitting process around the $7.4-billion Trans Mountain expansion project. article continues below He told the NOW Anderson put pressure on him “to do something.” “I explained to him that I can’t interfere.... It’s a regulatory function,” the mayor said. “He was disappointed. He basically told me he was going to go to the NEB, and I said, ‘Well, you’ve had success there on almost every occasion. I’m not surprised you’re going there, but I don’t see any reason for the National Energy Board to intervene. Our staff are doing their job.’” An interview request with Anderson has yet to be returned. The next day, Oct. 26, the Texas-based company announced it has asked the NEB to proceed with construction in Burnaby without local permits. In a statement, Kinder Morgan said it spent “many months” working “in good faith” to obtain municipal permits – efforts that were “without success.” “The city’s failure to act in a timely manner raises serious issues of jurisdiction that we are compelled to bring to the board’s attention,” read the statement. Kinder Morgan said its doors remain open to the City of Burnaby and it “would welcome the opportunity to discuss a solution.” The twinned pipeline would carry bitumen from Edmonton to Burnaby at nearly three times the pipeline’s current capacity. The project has faced fierce opposition from First Nations groups, the cities of Burnaby and Vancouver, environmental organizations and the provincial government. The pipeline is scheduled to be up and running by December 2019, but if it gets pushed back, the company stands to lose between $30 and $35 million each month the project is delayed, according to an affidavit from Michael Davies, Kinder Morgan’s vice-president of operations. Loss of revenue “is likely to exceed” 90 million each month. In an email to the NOW, the NEB’s James Stevenson said Kinder Morgan’s request is under review and the national energy regulator will take the time it needs “to make the right decision.” Corrigan maintained city staff have to do their “due diligence” when approving permits. He refuted a statement made in Davies’ affidavit that referenced a National Observer story, which claimed “the mayor believed the permitting process was a legitimate method of slowing down the project.” “The National Observer contacted me to tell me that the affidavit misquotes them. I have never said something like that, and I’ve never indicated that,” he said. “I’m a lawyer. I understand exactly what we’re doing, and I’ve been in this job for a long time, so that kind of allegation is just mischievous.” If the NEB grants Kinder Morgan’s request, the mayor said it could set a very dangerous precedent. “It would be one in which the province would be forced to respond. The federal government would be put in a tremendously awkward position if the NEB felt they could walk in and start interfering with local government processes and overruling them simply because of allegations made by the proponent that this wasn’t moving as quickly as they wanted it to.” Corrigan added the city is prepared to take legal action if the NEB gives Kinder Morgan the go-ahead for construction. “I would expect our MPs will be taking it up in the House of Commons. I can’t see that the provincial government won’t have to enter and protect the integrity of our municipal processes because they’re a result of provincial statutes,” he explained. “This isn’t going to be comfortable for Kinder Morgan. They’re bullying, and I’m not prepared to accept that. Our staff have to be able to protect the interests of our community, and they have to protect the ecology of the conservation areas and parks that (the pipeline’s) moving through.”In January, the European Commission dropped its yearly Flash Eurobarometer of quality of life in European cities, a huge survey of how happy people in hundreds of cities across Europe are. The survey asks people to rank their satisfaction with everything from the sports facilities available in their area to how good the public transport system is. We took the European Commission's data and chose those cities where the highest percentage of citizens said they were "very satisfied with the life they lead" and ranked them. In other words, we found out where in Europe people are happiest with their lives. You might think that Europe's biggest, most vibrant metropolises like Paris, Rome, and London are where people enjoy life most, but in general it's actually smaller, less busy cities, where people are at their happiest. Check out the list below. Slides View As: One Page 19. Essen — 51% very satisfied, 42% satisfied. Citizens of the northwestern city, the ninth largest in Germany, are some of the most satisfied in Europe. Famous sites in the city include the botanical garden, and a huge outdoor pool, used during Germany's surprisingly hot summers. 18. Manchester — 52% very satisfied, 40% satisfied. A former industrial powerhouse, and the spiritual home of George Osborne's "Northern Powerhouse". Manchester's citizens are the third most satisfied people in Britain. 17. Amsterdam — 52% very satisfied, 41% satisfied. One of just a handful of capital cities on this list, Amsterdam is known for its beautiful canals, museums, and the fact that everyone rides a bike. Maybe that's why they're all so happy. 16. Stockholm — 52% very satisfied, 43% satisfied. Stockholmers take the award for the second happiest in Sweden, with only 3% of people saying they're dissatisfied with their lives. 15. Antwerp — 52% very satisfied, 45% satisfied. Antwerp is the biggest city in the Flanders region of Belgium, home to 500,000 people. More than 250,000 of those people said they were "very satisfied" with their lives, making it the happiest city in Belgium. 14. Groningen — 53% very satisfied, 38% satisfied. You'd be forgiven for never having heard of Groningen, a Dutch city home to just under 200,000 people, but people living in the city are pretty happy with their lot. Only one Dutch city scored higher. 13. Cardiff — 53% very satisfied, 40% satisfied. The Welsh capital has undergone a major regeneration in the past couple of decades, and that's paid dividends. 93% of all Cardiff's citizens are satisfied with their lives. 12. Rotterdam — 55% very satisfied, 38% satisfied. Rotterdam is probably best known as one of the world's largest and busiest ports, but all that shipping seems to make citizens really happy. In fact, nowhere in the Netherlands scored higher. 11. Belfast — 55% very satisfied, 40% satisfied. Another British capital city to make the list, only one British city got higher scores from its citizens than Belfast in Northern Ireland. A massive 95% of people said they were happy with their lot. 10. Newcastle upon Tyne — 56% very satisfied, 37% satisfied. Newcastle, in the north east of England, officially has the happiest people of anywhere in the UK. With scenery like the Quayside (pictured below) it's not a huge surprise. 9. Vienna — 56% very satisfied, 39% satisfied. One of the largest cities to make the cut, Vienesse citizens can take advantage of one of the world's most beautiful cities. Despite how amazing Vienna is, it isn't even the happiest city in Austria. 7. Malmo — 60% very satisfied, 36% satisfied. Sweden's third largest city is also its happiest, with a huge 96% of its 320,000 citizens are satisfied with their lives. 6. Oslo — 60% very satisfied, 38% satisfied. The capital city of Norway is the country's happiest city. It's no wonder Norwegians are satisfied, last year the country was voted the world's most prosperous by the Legatum Institute. 5. Graz — 64% very satisfied, 33% satisfied. Austria's most satisfied city is home to around 270,000 people, who get to take advantage of its famous modern art museum, and its status as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. 4. Zurich — 64% very satisfied, 34% satisfied. Switzerland's financial centre frequently ranks amongst the best cities on earth to live in, and its citizens seem to know it. 98% of people living in Zurich say they're happy with their life. 3. Reykjavik — 66% very satisfied, 31% satisfied. People living in the capital of Iceland, and the only large city on the whole island, get to take advantage
father's proclivity to stick out his tongue while absorbed in work. He later adopted it as his own signature, displaying it each time he drove to the basket.[6] In 1996, he founded a Chicago area Boys & Girls Club and dedicated it to his father.[70][71] In his 1998 autobiography For the Love of the Game, Jordan wrote that he had been preparing for retirement as early as the summer of 1992.[72] The added exhaustion due to the Dream Team run in the 1992 Olympics solidified Jordan's feelings about the game and his ever-growing celebrity status. Jordan's announcement sent shock waves throughout the NBA and appeared on the front pages of newspapers around the world.[73] Jordan then further surprised the sports world by signing a Minor League Baseball contract with the Chicago White Sox on February 7, 1994.[74] He reported to spring training in Sarasota, Florida, and was assigned to the team's minor league system on March 31, 1994.[75] Jordan has stated this decision was made to pursue the dream of his late father, who had always envisioned his son as a Major League Baseball player.[76] The White Sox were another team owned by Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf, who continued to honor Jordan's basketball contract during the years he played baseball.[77] In 1994, Jordan played for the Birmingham Barons, a Double-A minor league affiliate of the Chicago White Sox, batting.202 with three home runs, 51 runs batted in, 30 stolen bases, 114 strikeouts, 51 base on balls, and 11 errors.[78] He also appeared for the Scottsdale Scorpions in the 1994 Arizona Fall League, batting.252 against the top prospects in baseball.[75] On November 1, 1994, his number 23 was retired by the Bulls in a ceremony that included the erection of a permanent sculpture known as The Spirit outside the new United Center.[79][80][81] "I'm back": Return to the NBA (1995) In the 1993–94 season, the Bulls achieved a 55–27 record without Jordan in the lineup,[37] and lost to the New York Knicks in the second round of the playoffs. The 1994–95 Bulls were a shell of the championship team of just two years earlier. Struggling at mid-season to ensure a spot in the playoffs, Chicago was 31–31 at one point in mid-March.[82] The team received help, however, when Jordan decided to return to the Bulls.[83] In March 1995, Jordan decided to quit baseball due to the ongoing Major League Baseball strike, as he wanted to avoid becoming a potential replacement player.[84] On March 18, 1995, Jordan announced his return to the NBA through a two-word press release: "I'm back."[6] The next day, Jordan took to the court with the Bulls to face the Indiana Pacers in Indianapolis, scoring 19 points.[85] The game had the highest Nielsen rating of a regular season NBA game since 1975.[86] Although he could have opted to wear his normal number in spite of the Bulls having retired it, Jordan instead wore number 45, as he had while playing baseball.[85] Although he had not played an NBA game in a year and a half, Jordan played well upon his return, making a game-winning jump shot against Atlanta in his fourth game back. He then scored 55 points in the next game against the Knicks at Madison Square Garden on March 28, 1995.[36] Boosted by Jordan's comeback, the Bulls went 13–4 to make the playoffs and advanced to the Eastern Conference Semifinals against the Orlando Magic. At the end of Game 1, Orlando's Nick Anderson stripped Jordan from behind, leading to the game-winning basket for the Magic; he would later comment that Jordan "didn't look like the old Michael Jordan"[87] and that "No. 45 doesn't explode like No. 23 used to."[88] Jordan responded by scoring 38 points in the next game, which Chicago won. Before the game, Jordan decided that he would immediately resume wearing his former number, 23. The Bulls were fined $25,000 for failing to report the impromptu number change to the NBA.[88] Jordan was fined an additional $5,000 for opting to wear white sneakers when the rest of the Bulls wore black.[89] He averaged 31 points per game in the series, but Orlando won the series in 6 games.[25] Second three-peat (1995–1998) Jordan was freshly motivated by the playoff defeat, and he trained aggressively for the 1995–96 season.[90] The Bulls were strengthened by the addition of rebound specialist Dennis Rodman, and the team dominated the league, starting the season at 41–3.[91] The Bulls eventually finished with the then-best regular season record in NBA history, 72–10; this record was later surpassed by the 2015–16 Golden State Warriors.[92] Jordan led the league in scoring with 30.4 ppg[93] and won the league's regular season and All-Star Game MVP awards.[6] In the playoffs, the Bulls lost only three games in four series (Miami Heat 3–0, New York Knicks 4–1, Orlando Magic 4–0). They defeated the Seattle SuperSonics 4–2 in the NBA Finals to win their fourth championship. Jordan was named Finals MVP for a record fourth time,[52] surpassing Magic Johnson's three Finals MVP awards. He also achieved only the second sweep of the MVP Awards in the All-Star Game, regular season and NBA Finals, Willis Reed having achieved the first, during the 1969–70 season.[36] Because this was Jordan's first championship since his father's murder, and it was won on Father's Day, Jordan reacted very emotionally upon winning the title, including a memorable scene of him crying on the locker room floor with the game ball.[6][53] In the 1996–97 season, the Bulls started out 69–11, but missed out on a second consecutive 70-win season by losing their final two games to finish 69–13.[94] However, this year Jordan was beaten for the NBA MVP Award by Karl Malone. The Bulls again advanced to the Finals, where they faced Malone and the Utah Jazz. The series against the Jazz featured two of the more memorable clutch moments of Jordan's career. He won Game 1 for the Bulls with a buzzer-beating jump shot. In Game 5, with the series tied at 2, Jordan played despite being feverish and dehydrated from a stomach virus. In what is known as the "Flu Game", Jordan scored 38 points, including the game-deciding 3-pointer with 25 seconds remaining.[95] The Bulls won 90–88 and went on to win the series in six games.[94] For the fifth time in as many Finals appearances, Jordan received the Finals MVP award.[52] During the 1997 NBA All-Star Game, Jordan posted the first triple double in All-Star Game history in a victorious effort; however, he did not receive the MVP award.[96] Jordan and the Bulls compiled a 62–20 record in the 1997–98 season.[37] Jordan led the league with 28.7 points per game,[44] securing his fifth regular-season MVP award, plus honors for All-NBA First Team, First Defensive Team and the All-Star Game MVP.[6] The Bulls won the Eastern Conference Championship for a third straight season, including surviving a seven-game series with the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference Finals; it was the first time Jordan had played in a Game 7 since the 1992 Eastern Conference Semifinals with the Knicks.[97][98] After winning, they moved on for a rematch with the Jazz in the Finals.[99] The Bulls returned to the Delta Center for Game 6 on June 14, 1998, leading the series 3–2. Jordan executed a series of plays, considered to be one of the greatest clutch performances in NBA Finals history.[100] With the Bulls trailing 86–83 with 41.9 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, Phil Jackson called a timeout. When play resumed, Jordan received the inbound pass, drove to the basket, and hit a shot over several Jazz defenders, cutting the Utah lead to 86–85.[100] The Jazz brought the ball upcourt and passed the ball to forward Karl Malone, who was set up in the low post and was being guarded by Rodman. Malone jostled with Rodman and caught the pass, but Jordan cut behind him and took the ball out of his hands for a steal.[100] Jordan then dribbled down the court and paused, eyeing his defender, Jazz guard Bryon Russell. With 10 seconds remaining, Jordan started to dribble right, then crossed over to his left, possibly pushing off Russell,[101][102][103] although the officials did not call a foul. With 5.2 seconds left, Jordan gave Chicago an 87–86 lead with a game-winning jumper, the climactic shot of his Bulls career. Afterwards, John Stockton missed a game-winning three-pointer. Jordan and the Bulls won their sixth NBA championship and second three-peat. Once again, Jordan was voted the Finals MVP,[52] having led all scorers averaging 33.5 points per game, including 45 in the deciding Game 6.[104] Jordan's six Finals MVPs is a record; Shaquille O'Neal, Magic Johnson, LeBron James and Tim Duncan are tied for second place with three apiece.[52] The 1998 Finals holds the highest television rating of any Finals series in history. Game 6 also holds the highest television rating of any game in NBA history.[105][106] Second retirement (1999–2001) Plaque at the United Center that chronicles Jordan's career achievements. With Phil Jackson's contract expiring, the pending departures of Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman looming, and being in the latter stages of an owner-induced lockout of NBA players, Jordan retired for the second time on January 13, 1999.[107][108][109] On January 19, 2000, Jordan returned to the NBA not as a player, but as part owner and president of basketball operations for the Washington Wizards.[110] Jordan's responsibilities with the Wizards were comprehensive. He controlled all aspects of the Wizards' basketball operations, and had the final say in all personnel matters. Opinions of Jordan as a basketball executive were mixed.[111][112] He managed to purge the team of several highly paid, unpopular players (such as forward Juwan Howard and point guard Rod Strickland),[113][114] but used the first pick in the 2001 NBA draft to select high schooler Kwame Brown, who did not live up to expectations and was traded away after four seasons.[111][115] Despite his January 1999 claim that he was "99.9% certain" that he would never play another NBA game,[53] in the summer of 2001 Jordan expressed interest in making another comeback,[116][117] this time with his new team. Inspired by the NHL comeback of his friend Mario Lemieux the previous winter,[118] Jordan spent much of the spring and summer of 2001 in training, holding several invitation-only camps for NBA players in Chicago.[119] In addition, Jordan hired his old Chicago Bulls head coach, Doug Collins, as Washington's coach for the upcoming season, a decision that many saw as foreshadowing another Jordan return.[116][117] Washington Wizards comeback (2001–2003) Jordan as a member of the Washington Wizards, April 14, 2003 On September 25, 2001, Jordan announced his return to the NBA to play for the Washington Wizards, indicating his intention to donate his salary as a player to a relief effort for the victims of the September 11 attacks.[120][121] In an injury-plagued 2001–02 season, he led the team in scoring (22.9 ppg), assists (5.2 apg), and steals (1.42 spg).[6] However, torn cartilage in his right knee ended Jordan's season after only 60 games, the fewest he had played in a regular season since playing 17 games after returning from his first retirement during the 1994–95 season.[23] Jordan started 53 of his 60 games for the season, averaging 24.3 points, 5.4 assists, and 6.0 rebounds, and shooting 41.9% from the field in his 53 starts. His last seven appearances were in a reserve role, in which he averaged just over 20 minutes per game.[122] Playing in his 14th and final NBA All-Star Game in 2003, Jordan passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the all-time leading scorer in All-Star Game history (a record since broken by Kobe Bryant).[123] That year, Jordan was the only Washington player to play in all 82 games, starting in 67 of them. He averaged 20.0 points, 6.1 rebounds, 3.8 assists, and 1.5 steals per game.[6] He also shot 45% from the field, and 82% from the free throw line.[6] Even though he turned 40 during the season, he scored 20 or more points 42 times, 30 or more points nine times, and 40 or more points three times.[36] On February 21, 2003, Jordan became the first 40-year-old to tally 43 points in an NBA game.[124] During his stint with the Wizards, all of Jordan's home games at the MCI Center were sold out, and the Wizards were the second most-watched team in the NBA, averaging 20,172 fans a game at home and 19,311 on the road.[125] However, neither of Jordan's final two seasons resulted in a playoff appearance for the Wizards, and Jordan was often unsatisfied with the play of those around him.[126][127] At several points he openly criticized his teammates to the media, citing their lack of focus and intensity, notably that of the number one draft pick in the 2001 NBA draft, Kwame Brown.[126][127] With the recognition that 2002–03 would be Jordan's final season, tributes were paid to him throughout the NBA. In his final game at the United Center in Chicago, which was his old home court, Jordan received a four-minute standing ovation.[128] The Miami Heat retired the number 23 jersey on April 11, 2003, even though Jordan never played for the team.[129] At the 2003 All-Star Game, Jordan was offered a starting spot from Tracy McGrady and Allen Iverson,[130] but refused both. In the end, he accepted the spot of Vince Carter, who decided to give it up under great public pressure.[131] Jordan played in his final NBA game on April 16, 2003, in Philadelphia. After scoring only 13 points in the game, Jordan went to the bench with 4 minutes and 13 seconds remaining in the third quarter and his team trailing the Philadelphia 76ers, 75–56. Just after the start of the fourth quarter, the First Union Center crowd began chanting "We want Mike!" After much encouragement from coach Doug Collins, Jordan finally rose from the bench and re-entered the game, replacing Larry Hughes with 2:35 remaining. At 1:45, Jordan was intentionally fouled by the 76ers' Eric Snow, and stepped to the line to make both free throws. After the second foul shot, the 76ers in-bounded the ball to rookie John Salmons, who in turn was intentionally fouled by Bobby Simmons one second later, stopping time so that Jordan could return to the bench. Jordan received a three-minute standing ovation from his teammates, his opponents, the officials, and the crowd of 21,257 fans.[132] National team career Jordan on the "Dream Team" in 1992 Jordan played on two Olympic gold medal-winning American basketball teams. He won a gold medal as a college player in the 1984 Summer Olympics. The team was coached by Bob Knight and featured players such as Patrick Ewing, Sam Perkins, Chris Mullin, Steve Alford, and Wayman Tisdale. Jordan led the team in scoring, averaging 17.1 ppg for the tournament.[133] In the 1992 Summer Olympics, he was a member of the star-studded squad that included Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and David Robinson and was dubbed the "Dream Team". Jordan was the only player to start all 8 games in the Olympics. Playing limited minutes due to the frequent blowouts, Jordan averaged 14.9 ppg,[134] finishing second on the team in scoring.[135] Jordan and fellow Dream Team members Patrick Ewing and Chris Mullin are the only American men's basketball players to win Olympic gold medals as amateurs and professionals.[133][134] Post-retirement Jordan on a golf course in 2007 After his third retirement, Jordan assumed that he would be able to return to his front office position as Director of Basketball Operations with the Wizards.[136] However, his previous tenure in the Wizards' front office had produced the aforementioned mixed results and may have also influenced the trade of Richard "Rip" Hamilton for Jerry Stackhouse (although Jordan was not technically Director of Basketball Operations in 2002).[111] On May 7, 2003, Wizards owner Abe Pollin fired Jordan as the team's president of basketball operations.[111] Jordan later stated that he felt betrayed, and that if he had known he would be fired upon retiring he never would have come back to play for the Wizards.[65] Jordan kept busy over the next few years. He stayed in shape, played golf in celebrity charity tournaments, and spent time with his family in Chicago. He also promoted his Jordan Brand clothing line and rode motorcycles.[137] Since 2004, Jordan has owned Michael Jordan Motorsports, a professional closed-course motorcycle road racing team that competed with two Suzukis in the premier Superbike championship sanctioned by the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) until the end of the 2013 season.[138][139] In 2006, Jordan and his wife Juanita pledged $5 million to Chicago's Hales Franciscan High School.[140] The Jordan Brand has made donations to Habitat for Humanity and a Louisiana branch of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America.[141] Charlotte Bobcats/Hornets On June 15, 2006, Jordan bought a minority stake in the Charlotte Bobcats, becoming the team's second-largest shareholder behind majority owner Robert L. Johnson. As part of the deal, Jordan took full control over the basketball side of the operation, with the title "Managing Member of Basketball Operations."[142] Despite Jordan's previous success as an endorser, he has made an effort not to be included in Charlotte's marketing campaigns.[143] A decade earlier, Jordan had made a bid to become part-owner of Charlotte's original NBA team, the Charlotte Hornets, but talks collapsed when owner George Shinn refused to give Jordan complete control of basketball operations.[144] In February 2010, it was reported that Jordan was seeking majority ownership of the Bobcats,[145] who changed their nickname to the Hornets in 2014.[146] As February wore on, it became apparent that Jordan and former Houston Rockets president George Postolos were the leading contenders for ownership of the team. On February 27, the Bobcats announced that Johnson had reached an agreement with Jordan and his group, MJ Basketball Holdings, to buy the team pending NBA approval.[147] On March 17, the NBA Board of Governors unanimously approved Jordan's purchase, making him the first former player to become the majority owner of an NBA team.[148] It also made him the league's only African-American majority owner of an NBA team.[149] During the 2011 NBA lockout, The New York Times wrote that Jordan led a group of 10 to 14 hardline owners who wanted to cap the players' share of basketball-related income at 50 percent and as low as 47. Journalists observed that, during the labor dispute in 1998, Jordan had told Washington Wizards then-owner Abe Pollin, "If you can't make a profit, you should sell your team."[150] Jason Whitlock of FoxSports.com called Jordan a "sellout" wanting "current players to pay for his incompetence."[151] He cited Jordan's executive decisions to draft disappointing players Kwame Brown and Adam Morrison.[151] During the 2011–12 NBA season that was shortened to 66 games by the lockout, the Bobcats posted a 7–59 record. Their.106 winning percentage was the worst in NBA history.[152] "I'm not real happy about the record book scenario last year. It's very, very frustrating", Jordan said later that year.[153] Player profile Jordan goes to the basket for a score in 1987 Jordan was a shooting guard who was also capable of playing as a small forward (the position he would primarily play during his second return to professional basketball with the Washington Wizards), and as a point guard.[25] Jordan was known throughout his career for being a strong clutch performer. With the Bulls, he decided 25 games with field goals or free throws in the last 30 seconds, including two NBA Finals games and five other playoff contests.[154] His competitiveness was visible in his prolific trash-talk[155] and well-known work ethic.[156][157] As the Bulls organization built the franchise around Jordan, management had to trade away players who were not "tough enough" to compete with him in practice. To help improve his defense, he spent extra hours studying film of opponents. On offense, he relied more upon instinct and improvisation at game time.[158] Noted as a durable player, Jordan did not miss four or more games while active for a full season from 1986–87 to 2001–02, when he injured his right knee.[25][159] He played all 82 games nine times. Jordan has frequently cited David Thompson, Walter Davis, and Jerry West as influences.[160][161] Confirmed at the start of his career, and possibly later on, Jordan had a special "Love of the Game Clause" written into his contract (unusual at the time) which allowed him to play basketball against anyone at any time, anywhere.[162] Jordan had a versatile offensive game. He was capable of aggressively driving to the basket, as well as drawing fouls from his opponents at a high rate; his 8,772 free throw attempts are the 11th-highest total in NBA history.[163] As his career progressed, Jordan also developed the ability to post up his opponents and score with his trademark fadeaway jump shot, using his leaping ability to "fade away" from block attempts. According to Hubie Brown, this move alone made him nearly unstoppable.[164] Despite media criticism as a "selfish" player early in his career, Jordan's 5.3 assists per game[23] also indicate his willingness to defer to his teammates. After shooting under 30% from three-point range in his first five seasons in the NBA, including a career-low 13% in the 1987–88 season, Jordan improved to a career-high 50% in the 1994–95 season.[23] The three-point shot became more of a focus of his game from 1994–95 to 1996–97, when the NBA shortened its three-point line to 22 ft (6.7 m) (from 23 ft 9 in (7.24 m)).[165] His three-point field-goal percentages ranged from 35% to 43% in seasons in which he attempted at least 230 three-pointers between 1989–90 and 1996–97.[25] For a guard, Jordan was also a good rebounder (6.2 per game).[23] In 1988, Jordan was honored with the NBA's Defensive Player of the Year Award and became the first NBA player to win both the Defensive Player of the Year and MVP awards in a career (since equaled by Hakeem Olajuwon, David Robinson, and Kevin Garnett; Olajuwon is the only player other than Jordan to win both during the same season). In addition, he set both seasonal and career records for blocked shots by a guard,[166] and combined this with his ball-thieving ability to become a standout defensive player. He ranks third in NBA history in total steals with 2,514, trailing John Stockton and Jason Kidd.[167] Jerry West often stated that he was more impressed with Jordan's defensive contributions than his offensive ones.[168] He was also known to have strong eyesight; broadcaster Al Michaels said that he was able to read baseball box scores on a 27-inch (69 cm) television clearly from about 50 feet (15 m) away.[169] NBA career statistics Legend GP Games played GS Games started MPG Minutes per game FG% Field goal percentage 3P% 3-point field goal percentage FT% Free throw percentage RPG Rebounds per game APG Assists per game SPG Steals per game BPG Blocks per game PPG Points per game Bold Career high † Denotes seasons in which Jordan won an NBA championship * Led the league NBA record Regular season Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG 1984–85 Chicago 82 82 38.3.515.173.845 6.5 5.9 2.4.8 28.2 1985–86 Chicago 18 7 25.1.457.167.840 3.6 2.9 2.1 1.2 22.7 1986–87 Chicago 82 82 40.0.482.182.857 5.2 4.6 2.9 1.5 37.1* 1987–88 Chicago 82 82 40.4.535.132.841 5.5 5.9 3.2 1.6 35.0* 1988–89 Chicago 81 81 40.2.538.276.850 8.0 8.0 2.9.8 32.5 1989–90 Chicago 82 82 39.0.526.376.848 6.9 6.3 2.8.7 33.6 1990–91† Chicago 82 82 37.0.539.312.851 6.0 5.5 2.7 1.0 31.5* 1991–92† Chicago 80 80 38.8.519.270.832 6.4 6.1 2.3.9 30.1* 1992–93† Chicago 78 78 39.3.495.352.837 6.7 5.5 2.8.8 32.6 1994–95 Chicago 17 17 39.3.411.500.801 6.9 5.3 1.8.8 26.9 1995–96† Chicago 82 82 37.7.495.427.834 6.6 4.3 2.2.5 30.4* 1996–97† Chicago 82 82 37.9.486.374.833 5.9 4.3 1.7.5 29.6* 1997–98† Chicago 82 82 38.8.465.238.784 5.8 3.5 1.7.5 28.7* 2001–02 Washington 60 53 34.9.416.189.790 5.7 5.2 1.4.4 22.9 2002–03 Washington 82 67 37.0.445.291.821 6.1 3.8 1.5.5 20.0 Career 1,072 1,039 38.3.497.327.835 6.2 5.3 2.3.8 30.1 All-Star 13 13 29.4.472.273.750 4.7 4.2 2.8.5 20.2 Playoffs Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG 1985 Chicago 4 4 42.8.436.125.828 5.8 8.5 2.8 1.0 29.3 1986 Chicago 3 3 45.0.505 1.000.872 6.3 5.7 2.3 1.3 43.7 1987 Chicago 3 3 42.7.417.400.897 7.0 6.0 2.0 2.3 35.7 1988 Chicago 10 10 42.7.531.333.869 7.1 4.7 2.4 1.1 36.3 1989 Chicago 17 17 42.2.510.286.799 7.0 7.6 2.5.8 34.8 1990 Chicago 16 16 42.1.514.320.836 7.2 6.8 2.8.9 36.7 1991† Chicago 17 17 40.5.524.385.845 6.4 8.4 2.4 1.4 31.1 1992† Chicago 22 22 41.8.499.386.857 6.2 5.8 2.0.7 34.5 1993† Chicago 19 19 41.2.475.389.805 6.7 6.0 2.1.9 35.1 1995 Chicago 10 10 42.0.484.367.810 6.5 4.5 2.3 1.4 31.5 1996† Chicago 18 18 40.7.459.403.818 4.9 4.1 1.8.3 30.7 1997† Chicago 19 19 42.3.456.194.831 7.9 4.8 1.6.9 31.1 1998† Chicago 21 21 41.5.462.302.812 5.1 3.5 1.5.6 32.4 Career 179 179 41.8.487.332.828 6.4 5.7 2.1.8 33.4 Legacy Jordan in 1997 Jordan's talent was clear from his first NBA season; by November he was being compared to Julius Erving.[31][33] Larry Bird said that he had "Never seen anyone like him", that Jordan was "One of a kind" and the best player he had ever seen, and comparable to Wayne Gretzky as an athlete.[170] In his first game in Madison Square Garden against the New York Knicks, Jordan received a standing ovation of almost one minute.[33] After he scored a playoff record 63 points against the Boston Celtics on April 20, 1986, Bird described him as "God disguised as Michael Jordan".[40] Jordan led the NBA in scoring in 10 seasons (NBA record) and tied Wilt Chamberlain's record of seven consecutive scoring titles.[6] He was also a fixture on the NBA All-Defensive First Team, making the roster nine times (NBA record shared with Gary Payton, Kevin Garnett and Kobe Bryant).[171] Jordan also holds the top career regular season and playoff scoring averages of 30.1 and 33.4 points per game,[6] respectively. By 1998, the season of his Finals-winning shot against the Jazz, he was well known throughout the league as a clutch performer. In the regular season, Jordan was the Bulls' primary threat in the final seconds of a close game and in the playoffs; he would always ask for the ball at crunch time.[172] Jordan's total of 5,987 points in the playoffs is the second-highest in NBA history.[173] He retired with 32,292 points in regular season play,[174] placing him fourth on the NBA's all-time scoring list behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone, and Kobe Bryant.[174] With five regular-season MVPs (tied for second place with Bill Russell—only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has won more, with six), six Finals MVPs (NBA record), and three All-Star Game MVPs, Jordan is the most decorated player in NBA history.[25][175] Jordan finished among the top three in regular-season MVP voting 10 times,[25] and was named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History in 1996. He is one of only seven players in history to win an NCAA championship, an NBA championship, and an Olympic gold medal (doing so twice with the 1984 and 1992 U.S. men's basketball teams).[176] Since 1976, the year of the NBA's merger with the American Basketball Association,[177] Jordan and Pippen are the only two players to win six NBA Finals playing for one team.[178] In the All-Star Game fan ballot, Jordan received the most votes nine times, more than any other player.[179] "There's Michael Jordan and then there is the rest of us." —Magic Johnson[6] Many of Jordan's contemporaries have said that Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time.[168] In 1999, an ESPN survey of journalists, athletes and other sports figures ranked Jordan the greatest North American athlete of the 20th century, above such luminaries as Babe Ruth and Muhammad Ali.[180] Jordan placed second to Babe Ruth in the Associated Press' December 1999 list of 20th century athletes.[181] In addition, the Associated Press voted him the greatest basketball player of the 20th century.[182] Jordan has also appeared on the front cover of Sports Illustrated a record 50 times.[183] In the September 1996 issue of Sport, which was the publication's 50th-anniversary issue, Jordan was named the greatest athlete of the past 50 years.[184] Jordan's athletic leaping ability, highlighted in his back-to-back Slam Dunk Contest championships in 1987 and 1988, is credited by many people with having influenced a generation of young players.[185][186] Several current NBA players—including LeBron James and Dwyane Wade—have stated that they considered Jordan their role model while they were growing up.[187][188] In addition, commentators have dubbed a number of next-generation players "the next Michael Jordan" upon their entry to the NBA, including Penny Hardaway, Grant Hill, Allen Iverson, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Vince Carter, and Dwyane Wade.[189][190][191] Although Jordan was a well-rounded player, his "Air Jordan" image is also often credited with inadvertently decreasing the jump shooting skills, defense, and fundamentals of young players,[185] a fact Jordan himself has lamented. I think it was the exposure of Michael Jordan; the marketing of Michael Jordan. Everything was marketed towards the things that people wanted to see, which was scoring and dunking. That Michael Jordan still played defense and an all-around game, but it was never really publicized.[185] During his heyday, Jordan did much to increase the status of the game. Television ratings increased only during his time in the league.[192] The popularity of the NBA in the U.S. declined after his last title.[192] As late as 2015, Finals ratings had not returned to the level reached during his last championship-winning season.[193] Jordan receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama at the White House. In August 2009, the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts, opened a Michael Jordan exhibit that contained items from his college and NBA careers, as well as from the 1992 "Dream Team". The exhibit also has a batting glove to signify Jordan's short career in Minor League Baseball.[194] After Jordan received word of his acceptance into the Hall of Fame, he selected Class of 1996 member David Thompson to present him.[195] As Jordan would later explain during his induction speech in September 2009, when he was growing up in North Carolina, he was not a fan of the Tar Heels and greatly admired Thompson, who played at rival North Carolina State. In September, he was inducted into the Hall with several former Bulls teammates in attendance, including Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, Charles Oakley, Ron Harper, Steve Kerr, and Toni Kukoč.[196] Two of Jordan's former coaches, Dean Smith and Doug Collins, were also among those present. His emotional reaction during his speech—when he began to cry—was captured by Associated Press photographer Stephan Savoia and would later go viral on social media as the Crying Jordan Internet meme.[197][198] In 2016, President Barack Obama honored Jordan with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.[199] Personal life Jordan married Juanita Vanoy in September 1989, and they had two sons, Jeffrey Michael and Marcus James, and a daughter, Jasmine. Jordan and Vanoy filed for divorce on January 4, 2002, citing irreconcilable differences, but reconciled shortly thereafter. They again filed for divorce and were granted a final decree of dissolution of marriage on December 29, 2006, commenting that the decision was made "mutually and amicably".[200][201] It is reported that Juanita received a $168 million settlement (equivalent to $209 million in 2018), making it the largest celebrity divorce settlement on public record at the time.[202][203] In 1991, Jordan purchased a lot in Highland Park, Illinois, to build a 56,000 square-foot (5,200 m2) mansion, which was completed four years later. Jordan listed his Highland Park mansion for sale in 2012.[204] His two sons attended Loyola Academy, a private Roman Catholic high school located in Wilmette, Illinois.[205] Jeffrey graduated as a member of the 2007 graduating class and played his first collegiate basketball
at the changes that we've made and you say it is about our internals, but you look at a party like the British Conservative Party that used to determine its leaders where the hereditary peers used to select the leader of the conservative party. Now, it's opened up to the membership. This is happening around the world with parties of both the left and the right. People increasingly want to participate in their democracy and they understand that participation is more than just voting on polling day. TONY JONES: Okay. I want to hear from Corinne Grant. Do you see it as Malcolm Turnbull does or do you think this could be the ALP Spring? CORINNE GRANT: I think it's very magnanimous of Malcolm to say that, you know, that the party decides their leaders. I think if you did open it up to the Liberal Party membership to decide who their leader is they might choose you over Tony. MALCOLM TURNBULL: Well, very kind of you. You are off to a great start complimenting me like that. CORINNE GRANT: Yeah. I just wonder whether - I think it is a good idea to go to the membership and get them more involved and I think you are right, that we are moving into a world where people do want more of a direct say in how connected they are to their politicians and the way that their country runs, but I wonder whether you end up spending your time in Opposition running around a country trying to shore up votes instead of sitting down and nutting out what you're going to do when you get back into Parliament? Do you see that becoming an issue? ANTHONY ALBANESE: No, because you'll do it really quickly in terms of there is a process of 30 days... CORINNE GRANT: Okay. ANTHONY ALBANESE:...in which you determine who the leader is, that occurs in other political parties. TONY JONES: So a 30 day national campaign with potentially four candidates? ANTHONY ALBANESE: Potentially, that's right. CORINNE GRANT: Yeah. ANTHONY ALBANESE: And wouldn't that be a good thing? It happened in England. You have a look at where Labour was positioned after a considerable defeat after the last election in England and you had two brothers bizarrely running against each other, David and Ed Miliband. It enthused and re-energised the Labour Part so that - and that took a much longer process. As Malcolm said, it was more complex than the system we're suggesting that's pretty simple: one vote, one value for every rank and file member matched with the Caucus membership. I think it would be a very positive way to spend, frankly, the first 30 days because you would be talking about ideas and people would undoubtedly be coming on shows like this and on various media outlets engaging in the debate about the future of the party. I mean one of the problems, I think, that we don't have enough of in politics is it's so confrontational in recent times that part of the new politics is about ideas and I think that's a genuine criticism of all sides of politics at the moment. You would have that debate and inevitably, given the nature of communications these days, it would be public. TONY JONES: Okay. Miriam, what do you think? Is this an ALP Spring or a delusion? MIRIAM LYONS: Look, I think this is a very important and long overdue reform. You know, Labor started out as the party of social democracy and I think for too long it's forgotten the democracy bit and I think that the closed culture that's developed in Labor is part of what has led to the sort of New South Wales Labor disease that, you know, we have all been so frustrated by and not just party members like Anne. I think the general public has been really frustrated particularly, you know, by this fact that it doesn't seem like there is only one poll that counts anymore. There is dozens. So, you know, I do think this is really important. I wonder whether the unity will remain after the election if the Coalition were to win the next election. You know, it may be a united front federally but of course we have seen sitting members turned over in Victoria or in the Northern Territory. So this is not necessarily just a Labor Party disease and I think what you are talking about in terms of the global trend here is very true and I think it is partly that really big old established parties are being forced to open up because they know that everybody is just completely sick of this closed political culture. You know, you see the rise of movements like the 5M movement in Italy, where people are just frustrated by politics in general, and I think that that frustration explains a lot of Kevin Rudd's personal popularity and why that's been so enduring. TONY JONES: Bill Leak, maybe you could give us an insight in the cartoonist's mind. If you had to represent the new democratisation of the ALP, how would you represent it visually? BILL LEAK: The first thing I'm reminded of is an old joke when I was - a sort of a variation on a joke when Rudd undertook to - well, you just go in. The 30 days seem to be the magic figure all the time. In 30 days he is going to clean up the New South Wales right or the New South Wales branch of the Labor Party and I thought in one of his many conversations with God, you know, I can imagine God saying to him "Now, look, Kevin, if you want to get into heaven, you can either clean up New South Wales Labor or empty the Pacific Ocean out with a bucket. You've got 30 days" and I think Kevin would pause for a moment and say "Oh, bugger it, give me the bucket.0" TONY JONES: Well, he had already spent 40 days in the wilderness. BILL LEAK: Well, that's right. His wilderness days are over. TONY JONES: Let's move on. Our next Dean Shachar. LABOR LEADERSHIP REFORM DEAN SHACHAR: Mr Albanese, you have just made reference to the situation in the United Kingdom with the Labour Party there and the Miliband brothers. I'm not sure how aware you are of the facts there, however trade unions did play a role in that decision as well. In fact it could be argued, based on the facts, that the other Miliband brother did have the support in Caucus, while Ed, the current leader, got his support from the trade unions. So you've just said then that you would like to see that sort of model implemented here and it would be good. So are you really just saying that trade unions should continue to have that sort of influence over your party? ANTHONY ALBANESE: No, let's be very clear. One vote one value is the system that we are putting forward and the Caucus will have a 50% balance with that. So there is no trade union component whatsoever in we are putting forward. What we want is... TONY JONES: That's the fundamental thing, isn't it? I mean do you accept that it is Kevin Rudd's antagonism of trade union power that has actually driven you in this direction so quickly? ANTHONY ALBANESE: Not at all. Not at all. A number of us have been talking about this for a long time and in terms of there was a debate in the Labor Party Caucus a while ago about the choice - who gets to select the front bench and I argued that wasn't the question. The question was democratising the party and giving the members a say in electing the leader. That's exactly what this does and that's why I referred to - the UK system is very different. We haven't adopted the UK model but, nonetheless, the UK model that has votes for members of affiliated unions get to participate as well as party members. What happened with that process was a re-energising of Labour and if you look from a very early stage the Opposition has been very competitive, whereas you would expect a first-term Opposition usually struggles. TONY JONES: I've got to ask you this though: when we see headlines like the one in the Fin Review today - I will come back to you actually. Good. Keep your hand up there. The Fin Review today had a headline: "Howes and Shorten split". I mean, is that an indication that union influence is beginning to wane in the Labor Party? ANTHONY ALBANESE: Look, I think it's really overestimated in terms of unions - one of the things that this membership change will do, the democratisation - I want to encourage trade union members to join the Labor Party and be active in the Labor Party. I think it's a matter of one vote, one value will do that whether you are a trade unionist or an activist in some community organisation or a small business person. It doesn't matter. You will get one vote, the same vote as everyone else and I think that's going to be really important in spreading the membership and saying to them that they have rights, which are valued. TONY JONES: Okay. Just before I come back to our questioner, here is a fundamental question: I mean, is this democratisation going to spread to the selection of candidates? Will you have primary votes in individual seats for candidates? ANTHONY ALBANESE: Well, we have, of course, here in New South Wales, rank and file pre-selection of candidates and we have also had some experimentation including for the Sydney City Council. We had a primary and there was some primaries conducted in Victoria as well in some State seats that were really successful. TONY JONES: Can we expect to see that at a Federal level? ANTHONY ALBANESE: I certainly would support a trial of it in some seats. It's a bit difficult between now and the federal election, there is obviously not time but in future... TONY JONES: So there will be no ballots for the current candidates who are lining up in controversial ways in different seats right now? In Lawler? ANTHONY ALBANESE: Well, it takes more time. To hold a primary it takes months, not days or weeks and in terms of given the timing of the federal election, that's not possible. But I think there will be primaries in the lead-up, for example, to the next New South Wales State election, including in absolutely winnable seats. And that will be a really important way to mobilise support for those candidates, because you'll ensure that they're actually connected with the community and, therefore, the community has a sense of ownership to campaign for them. TONY JONES: Okay. ANTHONY ALBANESE: I think it's smart politics, as well as being a good thing for re-energising the party. TONY JONES: All right. So I'm going to go back to our questioner up there. Go ahead. DEAN SHACHAR: Just before you made reference whereby a leader would need to - could only be sort of knifed again if the other member had 75% support within the Caucus. But if, as is likely, Kevin Rudd goes on to lose the next election, the leadership would be vacant. In that scenario, a leader could get 70% of the membership vote and only 31% of the Caucus vote and then become leader with a minority of Caucus wanting them. Wouldn't this continue the same instability, dysfunction and chaos we have seen over the last six years? ANTHONY ALBANESE: No, because they would, having been elected under that process, be the leader until the next term. DEAN SHACHAR: But it's a minority of Caucus that has elected them. 69% don't want them. ANTHONY ALBANESE: But in terms of - but the point is it is not just about the Caucus. It's actually about, at the end of the day, often in politics and it is one of the things that we have to recognise and I think has been recognised with this change and I'm hopeful the Caucus will adopt it in a couple of weeks: at the end of the day it's not the votes inside the Caucus that matters, it's the votes in the Australian population that matters. And you can't do anything unless you're in government. So we've got to engage. We've got to engage with the Australian people. This system does just that and if it means that the Australian people's views is more important than the Caucus's views, well, so be it. TONY JONES: I'm just going to interrupt you there. We have got another questioner up the back. I'll quickly take your question and then we'll move onto other subjects. FROM THE FLOOR AUDIENCE MEMBER: Yes, Mr Albanese, Kevin Rudd has been Prime Minister now for about a fortnight, shouldn't he be busy running the country rather than sorting out the Labor Party? ANTHONY ALBANESE: I think we've been pretty busy... MALCOLM TURNBULL: Tony, can I just say something on this? ANTHONY ALBANESE: I think it is hard to argue we haven't been busy running the country in terms of we've had, in 12 days to be precise - in 12 days we've had the launch of DisabilityCare Australia by Kevin Rudd in Newcastle. We had the Prime Minister represented the nation at the memorial service for Mr Yunipingu, one of the great Indigenous Australians of our time. We've had, in terms of a change in policy and negotiations with over the education package in terms of the Better Schools Program. Today I met with the Business Council of Australia, with all of their senior chief executives of major Australian companies with the Prime Minister and the Treasurer and other representatives. TONY JONES: Anthony, I think we might sort of... ANTHONY ALBANESE: I think we're working. TONY JONES: All right. Malcolm Turnbull, briefly? MALCOLM TURNBULL: Well, I am very touched by Anthony's concerns about democracy but the Prime Minister should be chosen by the people of Australia and the time to do that is at an election and we should have an election now. TONY JONES: Thank you and let's move along. The next question comes from Keith Lawler. ABBOTT - DEBATE KEITH LAWLER: It seems clear that one of the major issues contributing to Tony Abbott's poor polling as preferred Prime Minister in recent days is his failure to present clear policies on a range of issues. So my question is does his refusal to debate Prime Minister Rudd on issues such as debt and deficit, asylum seeker policy and other issues indicate that he has nothing of substance really to offer or is it simply that e lacks ticker? TONY JONES: Corinne Grant, I will start with you. CORINNE GRANT: It's the lack of detail. He still keeps holding up that little booklet - what's your little booklet called, Malcolm? MALCOLM TURNBULL: Real Solutions. CORINNE GRANT: Real Solutions. TONY JONES: That was said with real enthusiasm. CORINNE GRANT: Awkward. Very awkward. See he cradles it like a baby and just goes, "Here, this is it. These are my real solutions". And today he launched a policy about cutting red tape, I think it was. And somebody said, "Well, okay, how are you going to do that?" And he paused and then he said, "We'll get rid of the carbon tax." I went, "Oh, we've heard that. We've heard that. Come up with something new. Put some detail into it." There still doesn't seem to be - there only seems to be boats and carbon tax and that seems to be it. MALCOLM TURNBULL: There is a huge amount of detail out there. CORINNE GRANT: Where? Where? MALCOLM TURNBULL: You know, if you don't... CORINNE GRANT: Floating around? MALCOLM TURNBULL: If you don't read it, I mean in my own area, the broadband... CORINNE GRANT: Where would I read it? In the little Real Solutions? MALCOLM TURNBULL: No, the broadband policy is on the web. It's about 60 pages. CORINNE GRANT: And it's incomprehensible, Malcolm. MALCOLM TURNBULL: No. TONY JONES: No, that's not fair. MALCOLM TURNBULL: No. No. Well, Corinne, you can't have it both ways. You can't say you are not releasing any policy and then when I point you to one you say, "Oh, I couldn't understand it," or "It's incomprehensible." I mean, that's... CORINNE GRANT: I didn't say I couldn't understand it. MALCOLM TURNBULL: Look, can I just say with respect to the debate issue, you know, we do have a debating chamber for politicians. It is called the House of Representatives and if Kevin Rudd wants to debate Tony Abbott on all of these issues, and Tony Abbott certainly wants to debate him, he should recall Parliament, we should go back to Parliament on the schedule and we can debate all of those things in the Parliament. If, on the other hand, Mr Rudd wants to have an early election, and we certainly agree that's a very good idea and we'd encourage you, Albo, to have an election and get on with it, then, of course, Mr Abbott will debate him in the National Press Club or anywhere else because that's what you do during election campaigns. TONY JONES: Malcolm Turnbull, is it unique for an Opposition Leader to refuse the opportunity for three cracks at a sitting Prime Minister before the election even begins? MALCOLM TURNBULL: I don't know. I don't know the answer to that. I am not a statistician. TONY JONES: Can you think of an occasion where an Opposition Leader has refused that kind of opportunity for public debates on policy with the Prime Minister? MALCOLM TURNBULL: Well, look, Tony Abbott is not refusing to debate Kevin Rudd. What he is saying is if we are going to an election, if you call an election, I'll be there at the Press Club. If we're governing - if the election is being pushed out and out so Kevin can go to St Petersburg or whatever else he wants to do, then bring the Parliament back, it's due to come back in August anyway, bring it back early and we'll debate these things. We have a debating chamber. It is called the Parliament. It's called the Parliament and that's where the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition debate. TONY JONES: So, but I mean, is there - he already did at least have one debate outside of the Parliament and outside an election with Kevin Rudd, so he has obviously changed his opinion on this, because that was a debate on health. He didn't win it. ANTHONY ALBANESE: Didn't go well. TONY JONES: According to the public. MALCOLM TURNBULL: Look, Tony Abbott was so hopeless in his advocacy against Kevin Rudd that you guys, Albo, despaired of Kevin Rudd's ability to win an election and removed him as leader. I mean, you know, Tony Abbott was responsible for creating the environment where you got rid of Kevin Rudd. ANTHONY ALBANESE: Well, why doesn't he front up, Malcolm, Thursday? MALCOLM TURNBULL: Well, why don't you bring Parliament back? ANTHONY ALBANESE: Thursday. You just said you wanted an election. MALCOLM TURNBULL: Look, anyway, you don't need Tony Abbott. Kevin can debate himself. He can. He can. I mean, look, take immigration. Kevin '07 can say, "Stop the boats." And then he can duck around to the other side of the platform and Kevin '13 can say, "Oh, you can't stop the boats. You can't tow those boats back." MIRIAM LYONS: To be fair, Malcolm, Tony Abbot could do the same on carbon tax. MALCOLM TURNBULL: On economics - no, Kevin has had so many positions on economics, he doesn't need to have a debate. MIRIAM LYONS: As has Tony Abbott. MALCOLM TURNBULL: He can be a panel. Kevin could be the whole panel. He's had '07 fiscal Conservative; '08, the government should be at the centre of the economy; '09 spend, spend, spend. MIRIAM LYONS: Yes, a global financial crisis happened in the meantime. MALCOLM TURNBULL: '013, we've got to cuddle up to the business community. I mean there is a whole range. CORINNE GRANT: But at least we know what they are. Tony Abbott never comes out and speaks to the people. We don't know what he thinks. That's why I want the debate. MALCOLM TURNBULL: Tony Abbott - Tony Abbot - you could never accuse Tony Abbott of being a faceless man. He is on television all the time. CORINNE GRANT: There are no faceless men in the ALP anymore either. We have seen them all far too many times. MALCOLM TURNBULL: I would like... ANTHONY ALBANESE: He is never here. He's never here. MALCOLM TURNBULL: Well, he was on 7:30 report earlier this evening. ANTHONY ALBANESE: He keeps ducking the big debates. TONY JONES: I want to hear from the other panellists. So, Bill, what do you think about this? Is he ducking a debate or just waiting to have it in a property forum? BILL LEAK: Well, I'd like to see as many debates between now and the election, whenever it is, as is possible and I agree with Malcolm's basic position that these things should take place during an election campaign but something strange happened in February this year when Julia Gillard actually announced when the election would be and although she said she'd be putting aside days for governing and days for campaigning, it seemed to me like one endless campaign ever since and I'm, frankly, sick and tired of this presidential approach to politics and elections where it is sort of like Australia hasn't got talent or, you know... MALCOLM TURNBULL: Or remember what - I don't know whether it was original but Latham always used to say that politics is show business for ugly people. BILL LEAK: Yes, that's right. But it is sort of popularity contest stuff. And I think if we do want to make it a context of ideas, and Kevin Rudd is suggesting a series of debates, well I think let's have them, let's make it a contest of ideas and let's forget about the fact that officially we are not in election campaign mode because whether we like it or not, we have been for months. TONY JONES: Well, we'd like to open up this forum to that possibility if anyone would like to use the Q&A set and the Q&A audience, we can have the debate right here. Miriam Lyons, what do you think? MIRIAM LYONS: Look, I am sure that Kevin Rudd is looking forward to debating an empty chair but, to be honest, I think that the contributions that Tony Abbott has made to Australia's public debate over the last four years, you know you want to have a serious conversation about Australia's future, our economic future, a whole bunch of serious social problems and you may as well be debating an empty chair. You know, I think that, you know, to your credit, Malcolm, the broadband policy is a serious, well-referenced, detailed policy but it's an exception. That Real Solutions bull - booklet is full - booklet. It's full of superficial slogans. You know, I think that this regulation, you know, we're going to save a billion dollars by cutting regulation example is great. What regulation are you going to cut: the bank regulation that was so effective in shepherding Australia through difficult economic times where we, you know, ended up suffering from the global financial crisis a lot less because we had a well-regulated sector? Are we going to cut regulation of, say, installing home insulation? Yeah, you know, that's a great idea. Yeah. You know, I mean, you... MALCOLM TURNBULL: I can give you some examples. One of the biggest problems we've got at the moment is we have so many layers of environmental and planning approvals and I saw this when I was Environment Minister. It has got ridiculously too many tiers. One of our policies is without walking away from any of the legal obligations is to have a one-stop shop for environmental approvals for planning purposes. Now, that is a huge saving. Now, that is a very big save... MIRIAM LYONS: I would be very keen to see what it meant by, "without walking away from the legal obligations." TONY JONES: Hang on. Just hang on a sec. I think we need to hear the answer finished there. Go ahead. MALCOLM TURNBULL: Well, I can explain it. I can explain it. I mean it simply means that you... TONY JONES: If you could just do it briefly. MALCOLM TURNBULL: No, well, it means you delegate to the State the Federal Government's authority under the EPBC Act, with the ability to call it back obviously, if you're unhappy with what they're doing. But when I was Environment Minister, I can tell you there were people doing residential subdivisions at Mission Beach in Queensland who had to come all the way down to Canberra to get Federal approval because there was, you know, a threatened species under the EPBC Act. Now, it makes much more sense to delegate that to the State planning authorities and save all of that time and expense. Now, that's one. So this is not, you know, wafty or anything like this. There is a lot of very specific work that we have done. TONY JONES: Okay. We're going to another question on policy. It is a video. It's a video. It's from James Brotchie in Brisbane. NBN JAMES BROTCHIE: As the inventor of the Internet in Australia, Mr Turnbull, I would expect you to understand the importance of high-speed uploads especially as more and more data moves to the cloud and a greater number of citizens begin telecommuting. Given that you have alienated an entire generation with your marginally cheaper and much slower broadband policy, how can you allay concerns that the Coalition simply doesn't get technology and lacks a strong vision for Australia's future? MALCOLM TURNBULL: Well, marginally cheaper, it is about $60 billion cheaper so it depends on what you think is marginal but the reality is that our policy is a fully worked out one which will ensure that all Australians get very fast broadband and they get it much sooner, much cheaper, at less cost to the taxpayer and it will be more affordable. The problem with Labor's vision of running fibre to every premises, every house, every flat, business and flat and so forth is that it simply isn't happening. The project has barely reached 15% of its target to date. That's the target as at June 30 and so far they've passed around 2% of all the premises they're meant to pass with fibre by 2021. So this project is going to take decades and decades and decades and what we have got is a plan that uses a mix of technologies and will get the job done promptly. TONY JONES: Now, can I just - the questioner is not here obviously because he asked a video. But just to follow up on one of the key parts of what he said, do you get much greater upload capacity with fibre than copper? MALCOLM TURNBULL: Well, yes, you can. Well, let me just get this. This is not a dichotomy between fibre and copper. ANTHONY ALBANESE: Oh Malcolm. MALCOLM TURNBULL: No, please let me explain this. If you have got an exchange there and you've got your house there, there is going to be anything from 2, 3, 4,000 metres to the pillar in the street, the node. All of that copper is being replaced under our scheme, as indeed under Labor's. The only difference is what do you do with the last 400 or 500m and that is where three-quarters of the cost is. So what we are proposing is you use modern technologies which enable you to achieve very high speeds, up to 100 megabits per second, over that in much shorter time: a quarter of the time, a quarter of the cost. TONY JONES: The question was about uploading and... MALCOLM TURNBULL: Well, uploads and downloads are normally set in the ratio of 4:1. So if you had an 80 meg download product, the upload would be 20 megs. You need, at best, a couple of megs to do video conferencing. So the reality is the Internet is becoming - while people are uploading more, it is actually becoming more asymmetrical, not less. TONY JONES: Okay. MALCOLM TURNBULL: And the reason for that is because there's so much - the thing that's driving bandwidth demand is the video, you know, entertainment. That is - you know, Netflix alone consumes over a third of all the bandwidth in the United States. That's one movie download business. So, you know, the idea that everyone needs to have symmetrical bandwidth is simply not right. TONY JONES: Okay, Anthony Albanese, new Minister for Communications and self-confessed non-tech head, how do you answer that? ANTHONY ALBANESE: The question - no. No. I am not an engineer but what I do understand - what I do understand is the importance of uploads as being the key and the NBN will allow uploads of 400 megs, 1,000 meg downloads for a total cost of $30.4 billion in terms of equity. Malcolm's plan is 29.5 billion and it gets you 25 megs and it is... MALCOLM TURNBULL: Your plan will cost $100 billion. ANTHONY ALBANESE: Now, you said it was 90 previously. It's gone up $10 billion in the last minute. MALCOLM TURNBULL: It will cost 90. ANTHONY ALBANESE: That's nonsense. MALCOLM TURNBULL: On very conservative assumptions, it will cost $94 billion. ANTHONY ALBANESE: That's complete nonsense. MALCOLM TURNBULL: Well, which of our assumptions is wrong, Anthony? ANTHONY ALBANESE: That's complete nonsense. MALCOLM TURNBULL: The plan has been out for three months. ANTHONY ALBANESE: Well, do you want to listen? MALCOLM TURNBULL: You haven't been able to pick one hole in it. ANTHONY ALBANESE: It is complete nonsense, their plan. What we have with the NBN is something that's real and is being rolled out right now. It met its targets for June 30. You can look at the actual cost, because it is being rolled out. You can look at the cost and compare it with what the predictions are and they're on track and the upload factor - the upload factor - I was in Bendigo last Friday with a company, Keitch Engineering. What they're doing - what they're doing is uploading the material so that if you want to order a screw these days, you get it sent to you, you upload the file and you - this is a company that's a steel and metal fabrication. It is currently exporting products to Germany, exporting car components to Germany. For that company, the NBN is absolutely critical. In Coffs Harbour, there are people which were switched on last week. There are people in their home, elderly people, who can upload their basic health, blood pressure, get their sugar levels checked, upload that data, talk to a nurse at a hospital, be it Gold Coast or Sydney or somewhere else, that keeps the elderly person in their home for longer, makes sure that they don't have an acute crisis. If we think about education and think about what kids are going through now, it is the uploads that is the key that will transform our economy and for a very - why would you buy an inferior product for basically 29 bucks rather than 30? That's the difference in terms of equity between the two and frankly, you know, our plan compares, I think - is about the future. To go on about copper as being the future, which is what your plan would do, is a silly as those people who 100 years ago argued that iron wire was good enough and we didn't need copper. MALCOLM TURNBULL: No, look... TONY JONES: No, Malcolm, can I just interrupt there because I am very afraid this could turn into a debate and we're not yet in an election... ANTHONY ALBANESE: They don't like debates. MALCOLM TURNBULL: No, but I want to make two points. Now, Anthony referred to an engineering official that needed to have a lot of bandwidth to upload CAD files and so forth. And that is exactly the sort of firm premises that would have that would have fibre under any - certainly under our scheme. The question is: do you need to provide that sort of bandwidth to every flat, every house, every cottage in Australia? And the answer is there isn't the need for it and the cost differential is tens of billions of dollars. Now, as far as uploading medical information, like blood pressure and so forth, the bandwidth required for that is negligible, it is absolutely negligible. MIRIAM LYONS: But isn't it true that a lot of health care companies that are being involved in the current trials are saying that they don't want to rely on the copper network because they think of it as unreliable? MALCOLM TURNBULL: That's not right. I mean, in fact if you are talking about monitoring vital signs, if you think about it, the signals that you are sending involve so little data, because it is just, you know, your blood pressure is X and so forth, what takes up a lot of data is big visual files. You know, so video or big design files. So for vital signs, actually, some of the best techniques are obviously wireless devices because they follow the patient where they go. So, you see, the point is this shouldn't be - I have been involved in the Internet much of my life, right? I didn't invent it. I hasten to add, Al Gore did that, you know. ANTHONY ALBANESE: Tony Abbott thinks you did. MALCOLM TURNBULL: Well, he is confusing me with Al Gore perhaps. TONY JONES: It is an easy mistake. MALCOLM TURNBULL: It is. It is. But the bottom line is there is huge amount of money involved here and when Labor got in in 2007, there were 2 million houses or premises in Australia that couldn't get basic broadband, couldn't download a YouTube video. They still can't. So after six years and billions of dollars, the people that have had no broadband are no better off and that's a fact. MULTIPLE SPEAKERS TALK AT ONCE TONY JONES: Let's hear from a couple of other panellists. Bill Leak, copper/fibre do you care? BILL LEAK: Well, I do but - in fact, I love sort of visionary nation-building projects but I love the idea of them. And we've got a very poor track record of actually putting them in place in Australia. We are not very good at them and as Anthony was saying, you know, well, yes, I think the broadband rollout is a wonderful thing and he is talking about how brilliantly it is going but I have this awful feeling that it we might be nearing the end of the Asian century before I see them rolling down my street and I only live an hour and a half north of Sydney but I can't get TV reception when it's raining and if we are starting to talk about the wonders of wireless, I have to step outside to use the mobile phone. I'm only an hour and a half from where we are sitting right here. And I'd throw in a little anecdote. And that is because I have an uncle who worked for Telecom. I've worked out that it must have been in about 1972. He showed me this wonderful thing. He said, "This is called optical fibre." It was like strands of hair. And he and a group of other people within telecom were trying to convince management that this stuff was the way of the future. He said what we've got to start doing is rolling this stuff out, replacing all of the copper wire with it. I didn't understand a word of what he was talking about and, you know, with all the sort of foresight that you'd expect, management at Telecom told him to pull his bloody head in. TONY JONES: Well, I tell you what, I am going to stop it there so we can go to other subjects. Our next question... MALCOLM TURNBULL: Can I make one point about Coffs Harbour? TONY JONES: Yeah. MALCOLM TURNBULL: Anthony, when you were up in Coffs Harbour and you mentioned you were launching the NBN up there, remember when you went to that place to do the demonstration of video conferencing? Remember that? ANTHONY ALBANESE: Yeah. Yeah. MALCOLM TURNBULL: You know that there was no fibre connected there? ANTHONY ALBANESE: Yeah, absolutely. MALCOLM TURNBULL: That was actually done on ADSL. ANTHONY ALBANESE: Absolutely. I do know that. MALCOLM TURNBULL: So you were there talking about the joys of... MIRIAM LYONS: It is not the point though, is it? ANTHONY ALBANESE: What we were... MIRIAM LYONS: It's about what we haven't done yet. It's not about what we're doing now. MALCOLM TURNBULL: So what was that rotten copper system? That was the rotten copper system... ANTHONY ALBANESE: No. No. What we were doing was turning on 14,000 homes in Coffs Harbour that are connected now. That's what we were doing. MALCOLM TURNBULL: But
] In addition to sparking the interest of the Internet community, User 927 inspired a theatrical production, written by Katharine Clark Gray in Philadelphia. The play, also named User 927, has since been cited on several of the same blogs that originally discovered the real user's existence.[17] As time has passed, more artistic renderings of individual user logs have appeared. A series of movies on the web site Minimovies called "I Love Alaska" puts voice and imagery to User 711391 which the authors have labeled as "an episodic documentary".[18] See also [ edit ] References [ edit ]Craft brewers in Australia have turned to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in an effort to stop other governments subsidising their foreign counterparts. ABC reports that the Australian Real Craft Brewers Association (ARCBA) accuses US microbrewers in particular of gaining an unfair advantage in the Australian market. Many governments offer tax breaks to producers that brew under a pre-determined amount of beer each year. In the UK, it's called the Small Brewers' Relief scheme and was introduced by former Chancellor Gordon Brown in 2002. Under the initiative, those brewing less than 60,000 hectolitres qualify for reduced beer duty. The smaller you are, the better the saving: those producing less than 5,000 hectolitres qualify for a 50% tax break, but the rebate falls as the amount brewed goes up. These sorts of tax breaks, argue the ARCBA, distort the market. The organisation's chairman David Hollyoak said: "Australia is in a very unfair position because in 22 out of the 33 Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development [OECD] countries are providing substantial reduced tax rates for their small brewers, and under the general agreement of trade and tariffs that is deemed a government subsidy." Craft brewing has taken off around the western world and in Australia, is growing at 13% per year, with local media estimating that the number of craft breweries in the country rose from 86 to 175 in the decade to 2013. It's US microbreweries who seem to be the main target for the accusations, with the ARCBA singling out the Californian company Sierra Nevada for particular criticism. Hollyoak told ABC: "We've had quite a few members say they've lost taps at hotels or fridge space to Sierra Nevada products." Sierra Nevada is far from what would be defined as a craft or microbrewery in the UK. The company employs more than 400 people and has brewing facilities around the US. It brews almost a million hectolitres of beer each year and is the seventh-largest brewer in America. One UK industry insider says that any WTO challenge would not impede on UK brewers, because very few who qualify for "microbrewery" status export much (if any) of their produce. But in the US, the source says the government "shifts the goalposts" in order to allow companies such as Sierra Nevada to benefit from subsidies. It's also understood that the company has received significant capital from the state government in exchange for setting up a premises in North Carolina. In Australia, the standard beer duty is 10% on the unit. In the US, it is determined on state-by-state basis and in California, where Sierra Nevada is brewed, it stands at 7.25%. In the UK, the standard beer duty is 20%, but as explained, smaller brewers can earn a significant tax break by brewing small amounts. There are precedents for such a case at the WTO – which sets the rules of international trade for its 160 member states. In 2006, the European Union brought a case against Canada for giving tax exemptions to its beer and wine industry, which it claimed were "inconsistent with Canada's obligations" as a member of the international trade architecture. The pair reached a mutually agreed solution in 2008, which allowed EU exporters to benefit from reduced customs duties in Canada. The US brought India to the WTO in 2007 because India imposed "additional duty" on beer, wine and distilled spirits from the US. A judgement reached in 2008 found that India did not have to remove the extra tariffs.Late in 2013 a brand new interstate highway interchange opened along I-96 at Latson Road near Howell, Michigan. The cost of this single, basic “diamond-shaped” interchange was $32 million dollars. While many people in suburban Livingston County are probably thrilled with a new exit on I-96, let’s think about the cost for a minute. Thirty-two million dollars? Hummm? Having passed by that location innumerable times in the past 20 years I don’t ever recall a traffic jam along that six-lane wide stretch of interstate unless there was an accident or bad weather. More likely, paralleling Grand River Avenue is the problem, as a myriad of big boxes have blossomed along it over the years. Shame on all of us planners and the decision makes for allowing that to happen when we know better. So, how is it decided to address sprawl and congestion on Grand River Avenue? The powers that be decided to read from the same old tired script of building more highway capacity. The problem with this scenario is it will only perpetuate more sprawl and congestion as the “mirage” of more capacity invites more usage and ultimately more sprawl and congestion. In other words, society keeps making the same damn mistake over and over again. I am not trying to pick on the Latson Road interchange, as it just happens to be the newest addition to the region’s highway network. But the “so-called” experts at MDOT and elsewhere need a wake-up call and it pointed out that they are creating a self-fulfilling prophecy by not pursuing more sustainable transportation options to address congestion issues. Perhaps, that’s the point – it is in the best interest of those organizations that are primarily road agencies to create the need for more roads. It’s creates long-term job security. On the other hand, with $32 million, many medium-sized cities could construct their entire bicycle infrastructure network. My guess is that an impressive start-of-the-art network of paved off-road bike trails, added bike lanes, erected a bike bridge or two, plus added a bunch of pedestrian-friendly infrastructure serving most, if not all of the Howell area could have been built for that tidy sum. Given that more jobs per dollar are created from building new bicycle infrastructure than highway projects, there was a lost opportunity to put more money per capita back into the local economy. Lastly, add in the health and fitness benefits derived from an active transportation network and the Howell area could have also seen health insurance rates/costs decline for area businesses. Road funding advocates will argue that they are the ones who pay for new highways and interchanges with their taxes. WRONG! Gas taxes and fees only cover 51 percent of the cost of road construction and maintenance. So you are starting off in a giant funding hole that will only get worse with time. Furthermore, since cyclists create less wear and tear on the road infrastructure (less usages and lighter vehicles), the average bicyclist actually contributes approximately $500 more per year to road care and maintenance in the taxes/fees they pay than the average automobile driver. Instead, Howell has a brand-spanking new highway interchange that given 5 to 10 years tops will be drowning in cars and a sea of fast food joints, motels, big box retail, and parking lots…lots of parking lots – and we only have ourselves to blame for the mess that we created. AdvertisementsNow it makes sense, as opposed to making cents, why the Rangers did not place Derek Stepan on long-term injured reserve and clear temporary cap space that could have been used to recall a defenseman during last week’s three-game trip through western Canada. Stepan sustained two broken ribs as a result of the hit he took from Matt Beleskey in Boston on Nov. 27. Under the collective bargaining agreement, a player on LTI is ineligible to play for at least 10 games and 24 days. That means Stepan would not have been available until the Blueshirts’ Dec. 22 match at the Garden against the Ducks, and would have been forced to miss a minimum of 12 games on the schedule. But despite the Rangers’ initial forecast of a four-to-six week recovery period, Stepan — who missed his ninth straight in Tuesday’s 4-2 Rangers victory at the Garden over the Oilers — seems likely to return either Thursday night in Minnesota or the following night in Winnipeg. So while maintaining Stepan on IR rather than seeking the long-term exemption prevented the Blueshirts from recalling a defenseman who might have played in Edmonton or Calgary after Dan Girardi’s knee swelled in the wake of blocking a shot in Vancouver on the first game of the trip, the decision will allow them to activate their invaluable center two or three games earlier than would have otherwise been permitted. With Brady Skjei in the lineup, the Rangers dressed five of their own first-rounders (Marc Staal, 2005; Chris Kreider, 2009; Dylan McIlrath, 2010; J.T. Miller, 2011; Skjei, 2012) for the first time since Nov. 21, 1998, when Brian Leetch, Dan Cloutier, Manny Malhotra, Alex Kovalev and Niklas Sundstrom played in the Blueshirts’ 2-2 tie in San Jose, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. The Blueshirts dressed 10 first-rounders overall, including Rick Nash (Columbus); Derick Brassard (Columbus); Ryan McDonagh (Montreal); Kevin Hayes (Chicago); and Emerson Etem (Anaheim) Until Tuesday, Girardi had played in 682 of a possible 687 games (plus 108 of 108 in the playoffs) since his Rangers/NHL debut on Jan. 27, 2007. This marked only the fifth game of the defenseman’s career he had missed because of injury (he was rested in the 2013-14 season finale) and the first since Feb. 7, 2013. Barring a setback, Kevin Klein, who missed his seventh straight since suffering an oblique injury on Nov. 30, is expected to return as soon as Thursday in Minnesota. If not, then Friday in Winnipeg. The Wild are likely to have Jarret Stoll, claimed on waivers from the Blueshirts on Tuesday, in their lineup.cityscape Why are Young Torontonians Moving into Tiny Micro Condos? The inexpensive(ish) way to live downtown? Go small. When Sean Solowski saw his 27-square-metre apartment for the first time, he was struck by the huge windows and the flood of natural light. It was 2009, and Solowski had just moved from Ottawa, where he had been studying, back to his native Toronto. The apartment was on the second floor of a building dating back to the early 1900s near Dundas and Gladstone, and even though it was considerably smaller than most studio apartments, it was perfect for the 33-year-old. In Ottawa, where he received his graduate degree in architecture from Carleton University, Solowski lived in a 51-square-metre apartment, and sizing down meant getting rid of some of his belongings. “It really makes you think, ‘What are the essentials of life?’” he says. Because the apartment only has one closet, he put many of his possessions on display. Two shiny motorcycle helmets are perched on the wall above an orange swivel armchair. A streamlined and expensive-looking Cervèlo road bike hangs from another wall. “Plan for things to have more than one function,” says Solowski, who made the best of his tiny pad with a futon couch that folded into a bed at night and a work desk that doubled as a dining table. Solowski isn’t the only Torontonian purging his belongings and sizing down into a tiny apartment. Today, condominium developers are turning to micro condos to satisfy a growing need for downtown real estate. In the last year alone, the number of micro condos in Toronto’s new housing market has risen to 11 per cent, up from five per cent, according to a study from Urbanation. Micro condo units appeal particularly to the younger crowd—people in their late 20s and early 30s who want to live and work in Toronto’s vibrant downtown core. The condos are smaller, cheaper, and easier to clean and organize, ideal for a young person who has recently landed their first professional job and may want to find a beginner’s footing in the city’s expensive real estate market. Over the last decade, Toronto has experienced a massive condo boom. There are more condos under construction here than any other city in North America. Since 2005, the Ontario government has focused on controlling urban sprawl and has introduced policies to protect farmland and ecological regions near the Greater Toronto Area. As a result, Toronto’s downtown core has seen a dramatic increase in condos, and the growth spurt doesn’t appear to be slowing down. Toronto is about to join other big cities with its first official micro condo building, called Smart House. Construction is now underway at the corner of Queen Street and University Avenue, and a move-in date is set for 2017. Like Solowski’s building, Smart House will have units of varying sizes, but it’s the first building in the city to market itself as a space for tiny but luxurious living. Micro condos are units that measure under 45 square metres. In recent years, these suites have been taken to the extreme, with apartments regularly measuring under 27 square metres in some of the world’s largest and most populated cities, like New York, London, and Tokyo. Although these apartments are smaller than normal, they’re far from cramped. The suites are often packed with clever objects that turn saving space into an organizational art form. This is particularly true in Smart House, where special multi-functional furniture is built right in and allows residents to move into a pre-furnished apartment decorated by II BY IV DESIGN. The furniture at Smart House includes “beds that tuck into the wall to become a sofa or desk, kitchen counter tops that can expand or retract, a dining table built into the kitchen island, and niche shelving and movable partitions.” The kitchen features a downsized stove with just two burners, a pull-out fan that stows into an overhead compartment, and a pull-out cutting board that folds into the countertop. Despite all these space-saving intricacies, Nadine Burdak, the marketing manager at II BY IV DESIGN, says that it’s always hard to downsize and squeeze life into 27 square metres. “Small space living is a lifestyle—one that is about editing and prioritizing, really looking at what is important,” she writes in an email. Burdak suggests that buying smaller furniture and fitting the custom-built closet with extra organizers can help residents make the most of their space and avoid feeling overwhelmed. To fill this need for interchangeable living, there are several condo-friendly stores all over the city that deal in furniture and organizational systems. Queen West’s NEAT is one of these stores where customers can find toothbrush holders that can be attached to the wall to save counter space, vanity organizers to keep lipsticks in line, and garbage cans designed to fold against walls when they’re not in use. NEAT also has skinny shelves to fit in tight corners and floor cushions, for spaces where chairs would take up too much space. Pouneh Rouhani loves using floor cushions in her apartment. The 32-year-old real estate developer uses them in her 42-square-metre, two-storey loft apartment in Liberty Village. The second floor is big enough to fit a queen-sized bed and even has a second washroom. Rouhani says that the high ceilings and great lighting make her forget how small the space is. Living in the tiny space, Rouhani adds, has contributed positively to her social life. Since entertaining friends at her place is hardly an option, she has been inspired to go out more often. She usually meets her friends at bars and restaurants or at her sister’s apartment, which is in the same condo complex. “People go out more so you don’t need as much space,” she says. Rouhani prefers paying lower rent for the smaller space and spending her savings on going out or travelling. Solowski agrees with Rouhani, and says that the increased demand for small living spaces has created more need for public spaces, like parks, in our cities. He has also noticed that many condominium complexes are building amenities—yoga studios, gyms, and rooftop gardens—where residents can get out of their apartments and socialize. Solowski adds that since there is more demand for downtown real estate in big cities like Toronto, it’s inevitable that square footage will shrink, but he thinks that the need for small spaces will in turn create demand for small family housing. “People can’t live in 300 square feet [27 square metres] their whole life, they have to get out,” he says. But, as it turns out, Solowski is giving up tiny living. After spending five years in his studio apartment, Solowski moved in with his boyfriend last June. The couple found a 93-square-metre apartment in Little Italy. Solowski is excited to live with his partner. “Every space is like a little project,” he says—though this one is a bit bigger.Two men are dead are after a murder-suicide late Sunday afternoon in the parking lot of the Dairy Queen in Latonia. This story has been updated with the identity of the victims and initial circumstances around the case. See below. Witnesses at the scene reported to The River City News that they heard six or seven shots and saw four children run from the scene to the Latonia Liquor store across Decoursey Avenue. When police responded, a man was found dead inside a silver vehicle. A second man was transported by ambulance from the scene and also died. The second man is believed to be the children's father. Next of kin had not been notified as of 8 p.m., according to a statement from Covington Police Chief Spike Jones. The scene was still active and the body of the driver of the silver vehicle, killed in the shooting, remained inside the car covered by a white sheet. Victim's body remained in silver car at right Sunday evening/RCN According to Jones, there was a pre-arranged meeting every couple weeks for Zuriel Turk to spend a few hours with his four biological children who range in age from ten to fifteen. On Sunday, the kids were brought to the Dairy Queen by their stepfather, Mark Kroening, believed to be 62. "Unfortunately on this occasion, Mr. Turk brought a handgun for whatever reason to the prearranged visitation and shot and killed the stepfather and then turned the weapon on himself and ended his own life in front of his four children," Jones said Monday. Turk's body remained on the scene during the investigation while Kroening was transported from the scene by ambulance. The four children are now safe with family, Jones said. Police opened Decoursey Avenue two hours after the shooting but Daniels Street directly south of Dairy Queen remained closed as of 8:20 p.m. A crowd of spectators remained circled around all sides of the DQ speculating about what happened. The popular Dairy Queen was closed immediately following the shooting. The children were removed from the scene and taken to a safe place, The River City News was told. More information on this developing story will be posted here as soon as it is available. Join the conversation at The River City News Facebook & Twitter pages. Story & photos by Michael Monks, editor & publisher of The River City News"The sailor guardians of the outer solar rim!"With a recent optimization fix sailor moo no longer knows surf and whirlpool but instead has earthquake which reminded me of sailor uranus ground attack, but also you'll wonder why i placed R (one of the misdreavous we caught in the burned tower) instead of queendra and the thing is i feel she has her own thing in the party and i feel forcing her with moo was...well forceful but something i did witness with R was that before we caught her she had the thing of never attacking L and instead just using LICK (insert OneHand Lesbian joke) so it brought me the idea of having these two as a pair.Misdreavous hair really made it easy to draw the connectionStickyFlamesTV Profile Joined September 2012 Canada 317 Posts Last Edited: 2013-02-20 23:16:57 #1 Sticky Flames Gold/Platinum/Diamond Weekly #36 Format: 1v1 Single Elimination When: Thursday Feb 21, 2013 Time: 7pm EST (6:30pm EST Check-In) Tournament Link: Prize: 1hr Free Coaching + TOP 4 invited to GPD Invitational Stream: Admins: SFJoriko, SFSharpkills, SFJunior, GZSwanson GPD Invitational: Map Pool WCS Ohana WCS Cloud Kingdom WCS Daybreak WCS Antiga Shipyard GSL Metropolis GSL Abyssal City GSL Whirlwind Players must be registered with Visit our Website Z33k Group: Twitter: @Stickyflames Facebook Youtube: RaidCall: StickyFlames (ID:5585048) The FINAL 4 Invites of the February Invitational are on the line! GL HF! Format: 1v1 Single EliminationWhen: Thursday Feb 21, 2013Time: 7pm EST (6:30pm EST Check-In)Tournament Link: HERE Prize: 1hr Free Coaching + TOP 4 invited to GPD InvitationalStream: StickyFlamesTV Admins: SFJoriko, SFSharpkills, SFJunior, GZSwansonGPD Invitational: http://www.z33k.com/z/orr WCS OhanaWCS Cloud KingdomWCS DaybreakWCS Antiga ShipyardGSL MetropolisGSL Abyssal CityGSL WhirlwindPlayers must be registered with Z33K to participate.*Visit our Website Stickyflames.com Z33k Group: Here Twitter: @StickyflamesYoutube: Here RaidCall: StickyFlames (ID:5585048)The FINAL 4 Invites of the February Invitational are on the line!GL HF!Rob Ford and four other mayoral candidates debated transit, finances and leadership on Wednesday, during a televised debate that saw the incumbent repeatedly tout his record over the past four years, while taking a few digs at his opponents along the way. In alphabetical order, Olivia Chow, David Soknacki, Karen Stintz and John Tory were the four other candidates participating in the debate, which was broadcast on City News and kicked off at 5 p.m. In total, more than 40 people are seeking Ford’s job in the October election — though Wednesday’s debate featured only the incumbent and four other high-profile contenders. More than an hour into the debate, Ford was hit with a direct question from a reporter about the drug-related scandal that has clouded his administration for much of the past year. Asked to explain how voters can trust his judgment, Ford said they should look to his record as mayor. "People have heard the story. It’s rewind, rewind, rewind," Ford said. "People know my track record. They know they can go to sleep at night, knowing that their tax dollars are being watched." Ford's fellow candidates stayed away from directly asking him about a so-called crack tape and other scandals that have made the incumbent mayor world famous. Olivia Chow (left) and David Soknacki (centre), look towards Rob Ford (right) during a televised debate on Wednesday. Two other high-profile contenders, John Tory and Karen Stintz, took part in the debate. (Nathan Denette/Canadian Press) When Ford was pushed during an earlier exchange in the debate on his ability to lead, he suggested that three of the opponents in the room lacked respect for taxpayers and the fourth was inconsistent in her support for subway development. Stintz said she heard Ford "talk a lot about respect for the taxpayer," but she suggested that elected officials had an obligation to act as role models. "Some do have respect for taxpayers, Karen, you’re absolutely right. And some don’t," Ford responded. In a reference to Soknacki and Chow, Ford said that "unfortunately these two people to my right do not." He then added Tory to that list and remarked that Stintz had "been all over the place on the TTC." Until recently, Stintz had served as the chair of the Toronto Transit Commission in addition to her regular duties as councillor. But she stepped down from that role immediately before formally filing her papers to run for mayor. Chow a target, too On several occasions during Wednesday’s debate, mayoral contenders took apparent shots at Chow and her affiliation with the New Democratic Party. Chow had sat for more than eight years in the House of Commons as a New Democrat, representing the Toronto riding of Trinity-Spadina. She resigned her seat in order to pursue her current mayoral bid. During the back-and-forth of the debate, Chow was more than once cast as being an NDP candidate in the mayoral election, or words to that effect. In his opening remarks, Tory referred to "Olivia Chow, the NDP’s candidate for mayor," before going on to criticize her positions on subway-related transit issues. In a segment of the debate that related to finances, Stintz twice referenced the fact that the city could not go back to "NDP budget practices." Chow had sat on the budget committee when she served as a city councillor in the past. Later on, Stintz said that both Soknacki and Chow were once "part of Team [David] Miller…and we heard loud and clear in the last election that voters wanted change. They didn’t like those NDP spending practices." But Chow had her own jabs for her opponents. Moments after the mayor’s opening remarks referenced that he had been elected to "stop the gravy train," Chow said Ford needed to go "because your gravy train has turned into a train wreck." The mayor also made reference to the NDP. "Everybody can talk about saving money: I've done it," he said. "We don't need a left-wing tax-and-spend NDP government." 'Taxed to death' From the very start of the debate, Ford stuck to the theme that he has delivered on keeping a close watch on public money. He boasted about his first term as mayor and said that when he was first elected four years ago, he heard from many people who told him they were "sick and tired" of "being taxed to death." Rob Ford wants to waste $1 billion on his transit plan in Scarborough - Toronto mayoral candidate Olivia Chow Ford said the city had "the lowest tax increase over the last three years compared to any North American city." He said residents had also benefited when he eliminated a vehicle registration tax, when he cut back council’s budget and when he contracted out some garbage collection. Some of his opponents, however, took aim at the mayor's support of a subway extension in Scarborough and the amount of money it will cost to make it a reality. Soknacki said that Ford had come to power pledging respect for taxpayers, but that the mayor then pushed for a subway extension in Scarborough that will cost $1 billion. "His plan disrespects taxpayers," Soknacki said. "Truth is, he’s never bothered to look at the price tag." Chow also took a shot at the Scarborough subway plan. Candidates speaking over each other "Rob Ford wants to waste $1 billion on his transit plan in Scarborough," she said. There were also some testy exchanges when the candidates had three minutes to mix it up on the finances issue. "People have heard the story. It’s rewind, rewind, rewind," Toronto Mayor Rob Ford said at the first televised mayoral debate, when asked about the crack cocaine scandal. (Nathan Denette/Canadian Press) Ford addressed Soknacki as "Mr. Ex-Budget Chief" and he accused him of causing "a mess" that had to be cleaned up. Soknacki, who served as a budget chief under former mayor David Miller, said that Ford had only been able to achieve savings through surpluses that were delivered under the previous administration. Chow pointed to the experience that both she and Soknacki had from their prior stints on council. "David Soknacki and I actually are the two persons on this panel that have been on a budget committee that did the hard, line-by-line work," Chow said. "And you sunk the ship," Ford said, in a comment that drew some laughter. Several candidates were speaking at the same time at various points during the debate, making it difficult to hear the entirety of all exchanges. Transit, finances and leadership Wednesday’s debate was to focus on three core topics — transit, finances and leadership. Each candidate had one minute to lay out their position on each of those topics. A bell rang to signify that their time was up. After those individual statements, the mayoral contenders had several minutes of open debate on each topic. Coun. Karen Stintz is seen in an image captured during a debate of mayoral candidates on Wednesday. She is one of 40 people seeking to become the mayor of Toronto this October. Rob Ford, the current mayor, is seeking re-election. (Nathan Denette/Canadian Press) Transit was the first topic of debate. Chow and Soknacki spoke about their desire to build a light-rail line in Scarborough, rather than the subway that council has approved. Tory, Stintz and Ford opposed this concept. "I’ll cancel the three-stop subway extension proposed by Rob Ford that requires the largest tax increase in the city’s history — $1 billion," Soknacki said during his to turn to deliver a one-minute statement before the transit debate got underway. Chow charged that Ford had championed a subway project in Scarborough "just so he can say: 'Subways, subways, subways,' in this campaign." 'Focus on the fix' She said a "better choice" was to build above-ground transit that would be built faster, with more service stops and be delivered at a lower cost. Stintz spoke immediately after Chow and Soknacki during the transit section of the debate. John Tory was among the five mayoral candidates who participated in a televised debate on Wednesday. (Nathan Denette/Canadian Press) "What you have heard is the wrong approach," she said. "We have had this fight. Now we need to focus on the fix." Tory said the city needs to build both the subway in Scarborough and a proposed downtown relief subway line, which has not been approved. "We don’t need to open old debates, procrastinate, divide. That’s what we’ve done. We need to build," he said. "All of the governments have agreed to build and to finance the Scarborough subway. I will get on with implementing that decision and making it work." Ford, who is seeking a second term as mayor, was clear about his preference for subways. "There is no competition here, folks. This is a no-brainer. We cannot support LRTs," Ford said. Ford argued that "subways are efficient and they move people the quickest." The Oct. 27 election is still nearly seven months away.Stars defenseman Stephane Robidas still has a ways to go on his road to recovery from a broken leg, but he took a step forward in the process this week, hitting the ice to start skating on his own. He skated for the first time since the injury on Monday and then was on the ice again today at the team’s practice facility in Frisco. “It’s pretty good. It’s better than I expected, to be honest,” Robidas said of his first couple skates. “A little bit of it is pain, a lot of it is mental. You’ve got to trust it. We just did a little skating, no stop and start, no pivoting. I went forward, laps where I did c-cuts and kind of pushed on one leg. Obviously the stride is not the same, but I try to keep it as close as possible. Monday I couldn’t do any crossover to one side, but by the end of today I was able to do some. Progress.” Small bits of progress on a lengthy road back. “Got a ways [to go], but at the same time just to get on the ice and skate and get a feel for the ice,” said Robidas. “The first time I skated I really wasn’t sure what to expect and it went really well. Today, it went even better. That’s positive. I wasn’t sore after that. I’ve got to push it, but I’ve got to be smart at the same time where I don’t overdo it. That’s why we go Monday, Wednesday, Friday for the first two weeks just to see how I react.” Robidas was injured in the Nov. 29 game against Chicago when his skate got stuck in a rut and he broke his leg. He had surgery the next morning. The timetable on the injury was put at four to six months, meaning the earliest possible return would be late March. Robidas remains optimistic he can return this season. “It’s not close, but at the same time it is getting closer,” Robidas said. “I am trying to figure out that I am going to need so much practice with the team, maybe I could be there at this time and this is what is going to happen next. Your time table is getting closer and closer. I feel like I have more of a defined goal now, I have an idea of where I am going and what date and where maybe I can play. To me that is positive. And just to have a goal, at least I am training for something and that I’ll be able to be back and playing this year.” Here come the Bruins The Stars continue their homestand Thursday, and the Boston Bruins will be coming to town. The Stars defeated Boston, 3-2, in a shootout on Nov. 5 and there was a lot of hype surrounding that game as Tyler Seguin returned to Boston for the first time since his trade to Dallas. The hype may not be the same this around, but the Stars do expect another tough game with the Bruins, one of the top teams in the East. “I don’t know what it’s going to be like. They’re a good team and I am going to be ready for that,” Seguin said. “They’re one of the best teams in the league. Anytime you go up against those teams they are tough nights, but every night you try to go in the same way.” “It will be different [than the last time],” said Stars forward and former Bruin Rich Peverley. “It’s any other game, is the way I am looking at it. I’m sure they are, too. We need the win as much as they do. We’ve got to play our best because we have to continue getting points.” Stars practice lineup Here’s how the Stars lined up in Wednesday’s practice. Ray Whitney did not skate. Stars coach Lindy Ruff said it was a maintenance day for Whitney and that he should be ready to go Thursday vs. Boston. Jamie Benn – Tyler Seguin – Erik Cole Antoine Roussel – Cody Eakin – Ryan Garbutt Shawn Horcoff – Rich Peverley – Valeri Nichushkin Dustin Jeffrey – Vernon Fiddler – Alex Chiasson Alex Goligoski – Trevor Daley Brenden Dillon – Jordie Benn Kevin Connauton – Sergei Gonchar Kari Lehtonen Dan Ellis This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club. Mark Stepneski is an independent writer whose posts on DallasStars.com reflect his own opinions and do not represent official statements from the Dallas Stars. You can follow Mark on Twitter @StarsInsideEdge.Get the biggest Wolves FC stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email Everton have made contact with Wolves manager Nuno Santo as they look to replace departed manager Ronald Koeman. The Toffees sacked Koeman after the club's defeat to Arsenal, they currently have Dave Unsworth in temporary charge. The form of Wolves under Santo has not gone unnoticed with the Everton hierarchy and they have shortlisted him as a potential new manager. Contact has been made between the Merseyside club and Santo's agent, Jorge Mendes. The information has been leaked by respected journalist Guillem Balague who announced the news on Twitter. He stated: "Everton have contacted Nuno as ONE OF the potential candidates to replace Koeman. His agent Jorge Mendes is listening, no decision made yet." The Wolves hierarchy will be keen to fight off any such interest in their man, especially with the club sitting at the top of the table and in the middle of a seemingly very successful partnership. Wolves are currently the eighth best team in the country this season. That's the according to the Football League Power Rankings which reviews team from all four professional divisions. The stats are calculated based on match results, standard of opponents (at the time of match played), win/loss, margin, league position differential, clean sheet and away win. Wolves currently have a total score of 524.17 after their fine start to the campaign which has seen them pick up a total of 29 points from their 14 matches so far. This sees the top performing side in the Championship despite being behind Sheffield United in the table. Man City lead the way with a huge total of 753.49 with city rivals Man United in second with 594.53. Nuno Santo's side head to Norwich City tonight looking to reclaim their place at the top of the Championship after Sheffield United leapfrogged them on Saturday. Wolves fans will be hoping for another job in the Power Rankings with a return to form at Carrow Road. David Prutton is backing Wolves to bounce back from the surprise defeat at Queens Park Rangers on Saturday and get back to winning ways when they take on Norwich City this evening. Many expected Wanderers to make light work of QPR at Loftus Road, but Matt Smith’s goal in the final ten minutes upset the odds and Nuno Espirito Santo’s side lost ultimately third game of the season. EFL pundit Prutton, though, is expecting Wolves to respond and create further problems for Daniel Farke’s Canaries, who suffered a 2-1 defeat of their own against Derby at Carrow Road on Saturday. “Norwich’s good run came to an end at the weekend but they were a bit unfortunate with their scheduling last week and looked a bit tired against Derby,” Prutton told Sky Sports. “And it doesn’t get any easier for them as they look to host a Wolves side who will be desperate to bounce back from their defeat against QPR, and I think they’ll do that at Carrow Road.” By also predicting that Sheffield United will be held in a 2-2 draw at QPR, Prutton is expecting that Wolves will in turn head back to
in old rats were ameliorated or hypomethylated by short‐term CR. Venn diagram analysis of DMRs also supports this finding (Fig. 1). Thus, the methylation of these genes occurring at an early phase of calorie restriction may contribute to the CR‐dependent phenotypes, such as longer lifespan (Fig. 4). Our data show that short‐term CR could regulate age‐dependent methylation patterns throughout the genome in a gene‐specific manner. Recent studies suggest that CR reverses aging‐dependent DNA methylation at specific loci involved in oncogenesis and genomic stability (Vaquero & Reinberg, 2009; Munoz‐Najar & Sedivy, 2011). For example, methylation of the proto‐oncogene RAS was higher in CR rats than in rats fed ad libitum (Hass et al., 1993). Hypermethylated promoters are recognized by transcriptional repressors, which would silence an oncogene and contribute to the cancer‐preventative effects of CR. For example, the tumor suppressor genes CDKN2A (p16INK4a) and TP53 are downregulated by CR via promoter methylation and histone acetylation (Li et al., 2010b). Figure 4 Open in figure viewerPowerPoint Summarized explanation of methylome changes with age and the short‐term CR effect. Hypermethylated biological processes are indicated with red letters, and hypomethylated biological processes are indicated with green letters. Few reports have described the regulation of methylation by short‐term CR. CR is the most consistent way to increase lifespan and delay the onset of diverse aging‐associated diseases (Fontana & Klein, 2007). CR reverses the decreasing trend in methylation that occurs with aging, an effect associated with increased activity of DNA methyltransferase 1 (DNMT1) (Li et al., 2011). CR also changes DNMT3A levels in the mouse brain, suggesting that changes in methylation are associated with the effects of CR on brain function (Chouliaras et al., 2011). In human stem cells, DNMT genes play a critical role in the regulation of cellular senescence (So et al., 2011). Thus, CR may change the expression and activity of DNMTs, thereby altering DNA methylation. Although these phenomena are observed in long‐term CR studies, indeed CR's effects may happen at an initial phase of long‐term CR (i.e., short‐term CR). CR results in energy and nutrient depletions that lead to dramatic physiology and biochemical changes in single cells as well as organisms. However, to elucidate the molecular mechanism that regulates the whole‐genome methylation process during aging and short‐term CR (and/or long‐term CR) requires further studies. The epigenetic regulation of proteins also can modulate the effects of CR. The NAD+‐dependent protein deacetylase SIRT may be linked to aging and CR. SIRT1 expression and activity decrease with age, but increase with CR (Marton et al., 2010; Kitada et al., 2013). SIRT modulation by CR also affects histone acetylation. Histone acetylation is regulated by acetyltransferases and histone deacetylases (HDACs). The acetylation levels of lysines 9, 27, and 56 in histone H3 and lysine 16 in H4 were found 30% higher in CR rats than in rats fed ad libitum (Kawakami et al., 2012). These data suggest that the effect of CR on lifespan may also involve CR‐modulated epigenetic regulation of HDACs and histones. In this current study, kidney tissue was selected for investigation based on its sensitivity to redox change, high metabolic activity, inflammatory responsiveness, and its proven suitability for aging studies (Jung et al., 2009b). Although the selection sites of the upper cortex regions of rat kidney tissues were carefully performed, we could not exclude the possibility of including some degree of noncortex tissue. Hence, this technical problem might impose some limitation on the interpretation of our results. In summary, we have performed a comparative and comprehensive genomewide DNA methylation analysis of young, old, and OCR (old with short‐term CR) rats to investigate age‐related methylation and the effects of short‐term CR on age‐related DNA methylation. We found the DMRs in old and old with short‐term CR rats, and pathway enrichment analysis of promoter regions in the age‐related DRMs showed that the age‐related alterations in DNA methylations significantly affected the genes involved in the age‐related degenerative diseases. However, those kinds of pathways were not observed from the DMRs in the OCR rats. Our results suggest that short‐term CR could partially ameliorate age‐related methylation changes in promoters in old rats. Therefore, we propose that the aberrant methylation found in the promoter regions of disease‐related genes during aging may indicate increases in susceptibility to age‐related diseases. The CR‐induced methylation changes that ameliorate age‐dependent aberrant methylation may be important for the CR effects such as the health‐ and life‐prolonging phenotypes.What is West Coast Swing? Simple definition: West Coast Swing is a form of swing dancing that is danced in a slot to moderate tempo blues, R&B and, in recent times, contemporary music. It is the smother, sexier version of the swing dance family. Its basic patterns are both 6 and 8 beats, but those patterns can be varied by +/- 2 beat increments. It is characteristically highly musical and can adopt many nuances from other forms of dance. This makes West Coast Swing a highly versatile dance form. Some history of West Coast Swing West Coast Swing seems to have been born during the late 1930s through early 1950s, the same time-frame of many of the other forms of Swing: East Coast Swing, Lindy Hop, Jitterbug, Balboa, Shag, DC Hand Dancing, TX Push etc). West Coast Swing, as the name implies, was the regional form of Swing dancing in California and the west coast of the United States. There are many theories on people who influenced the development of West Coast Swing. Some say that Dean Collins, was influential when he arrived in CA in 1937 after learning and dancing Savoy style swing in New York City. Others indicate that Arthur Murray taught people the dance he had learned in California, even though he called it Western Swing (a name that is often misleading since West Coast Swing is not specifically done to country music). The term "Western Swing" remained in many ballroom/studio environments through the 1960s. By the 1970s, the dance was being called California Swing and took on the contemporary music of the time; in 1978, the dance was documented as West Coast Swing; and in 1988, West Coast Swing became the state dance of California.1 From the late 1980s through present dance, West Coast Swing has become recognized as one of the most versatile dance forms. Dance events specifically featuring this dance from 1980 to 2000 helped to expose dancers around the country to a dance that can be enjoyed to traditional swing, blues, R&B, some cha-cha, some samba, and a lot of popular/contemporary music. Since 2000, the internet (YouTube) and variety shows such as "30 Seconds to Fame" and "So You Think You Can Dance" have propelled West Coast Swing into the forefront. Today, West Coast Swing can be found throughout the United States and Internationally. There are instructors, dancers and events in the USA, Canada, France, England, Russia, and Australia. 1. Skippy Blair on Contemporary Social Dance" Skippy Blair. 1978. What does West Coast Swing look like Strictly Swing (improvised dancing) with his wife, Anna, at New Year's Dancin' Eve, January 2011. Special thank to Strictly Swing (improvised dancing) with his wife, Anna, at New Year's Dancin' Eve, January 2011.Special thank to Don Peters for this video Improvised West Coast Swing dance with Erik Novoa & Heidi Groskreutz in 2006. The basic idea 1. The Follower goes from point A to point B, in a straight line (slot) in 6 beats. 2. The Leader is the center point of the dance (similar to a fulcrum). If the Leader moves out of the way, the follower goes from point A to point B. If the Leader stays in the way (remaining in the slot), the follower goes from point A and returns to point A. 3. For the first beat of almost any pattern, the Leader walks backwards with the left leg and the Follower generally walks forward with her right leg. 4. Movement is generally smooth, not bouncy. 5. The last 2 beats of the pattern are called an "Anchor-Step" and are usually done "in place". 6. The basic rhythm of the dance is Walk, Walk, Tri-ple-Step, Anch-or-Step (the "Tri-ple-Step" is hyphenated up to denote is cha-cha-cha or quick-quick-slow feel). Beginner Videos: Click on the link If you would like to see beginner videos of West Coast Swing. Music for West Coast Swing West Coast Swing has a large variety of music both in genre and tempi. In its present-day form, tempi ranges from approximately 80 bpm (beats per minutes) to 160 bpm. As far as I know, there isn't another partner dance form that has such a wide range of tempi. As previously mentioned, West Coast Swing can be done to many genres of music, here are some examples: Swing - Fly Me to the Moon (Frank Sinatra) Blues - I Got the Blues (Brother Yusef) R&B - Touch (Ray Charles) Pop - Way You Make Me Feel (Michael Jackson) Cha-Cha - Smooth (Santana) Rock & Roll - Stagger Lee (Fabulous Thunderbirds) Soul - Respect (Aretha Franklin) Folk-Rock - Before the Worst (The Script) Acoustic - Man In the Mirror (James Morrison) Here is some of my favorite West Coast Swing music. Why people love West Coast Swing West Coast Swing is highly engaging. The basic form of the dance is moderately challenging (compared to merengue). Because of its variety of tempi, it can be a slow, medium or fast dance. Because of its variety of genres, it can be danced to many different types of music. This allows people to pick and choose an "infinite" amount of music to which to dance and makes it attainable for a large spectrum of age ranges and abilities. Its smooth and sometimes sexy quality allows for a large range of freedom of expression and lyricism. This allows couples to choose whether to have a "fun" or "intimate" style of dance. Best of all, West Coast Swing can adopt many movements and styles from other dances such as Hustle, Tango, and Salsa. Why people might struggle with West Coast Swing Although, the basic patterns of West Coast Swing can be learned very quickly, the nuances of technique, musicality and style is a never-ending educational quest. The basic patterns of West Coast Swing use two different rhythm structures: 2 Walks (double-beat rhythm) and Triple Steps (triple-beat rhythm) done over a 6 beat time-frame, which is asynchronous to an 8 beat musical phrase (2 measures of 4 beats). Understanding and overcoming that initial unintuitive aspect can be challenging to a newcomer to partner dancing. However that off-phrase aspect of the swing family is what makes West Coast Swing so unique and musical. It generally takes a newcomer 2-4 one-hour lessons to begin dancing the basic form of the dance - approximately 7 patterns. It takes approximately 90 days dancing to develop social, functional usage of West Coast Swing. It takes a lifetime of fun to master one of the most useful and rewarding partner dances. Getting Started If you would like to start West Coast Swing, try our beginner classes in Norwalk, CT or contact me for more information.Talk about saving the best for last! The final day of the this year’s Integrity Toys W Club Dolly Days event saw the unveiling of the fourth Exclusive W Club doll of 2017, and this Adèle Makéda Faces Of Adèle Gift Set certainly does not disappoint! In fact, this isn’t just one doll but three dolls as, thanks to the Quickswitch mechanism, she can transform into any of her three sculpts. In a departure from the usual Quickswitch at the neck, this doll will switch at the upper torso and will feature both the FR 6.0 Bust and the NU.Face 3.0 Bust. The complete set can be displayed using the new ‘Museum Podium Doll Stand’. Faces Of Adèle also includes 2 outfits, lingerie, 1 pair of boot, 2 pairs of shoes, and jewellery! This is the first time that Fashion Royalty stalwart Adèle has been produced as a Club Exclusive. The Faces Of Adèle gift set was designed by rising Integrity Toys star designer, Jessy Ayala and has reportedly been in production for quite some time. Well, it was worth it and I am very excited to be able to order this set and have all three of Adele’s incarnations! Without further ado, feast your eyes on all the amazing photos below. #91422 The ‘Faces Of Adèle’ Adèle Makéda Dressed Doll Gift Set, The Fashion Royalty Collection, 2017 W Club Exclusive Edition Size: TBA Estimated Arrival: Late Spring-Early Summer 2018 Pricing: $200.00 US + S & H per Gift Set (Limit of One Per W Club Membership) Head Sculpts: Adèle 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 (All Three Included!) Body: One FR 6.0 Complete Body + 1 FR 6.0 Bust + 1 NU. Face 3.0 Bust Foot Sculpt: Traditional High-Heeled Feet Skin Tone: A-Tone Hair Color: Raven (V. 1.0), Blond (V. 2.0) and Dark Brunette (V. 3.0) Eyelashes: Yes, Hand-applied (on All Three Sculpts) Quickswitch: Yes (Switchable at the Torso Level, Not the Neck Knob) The beautiful Adèle Makéda is a 12.5-inch fully articulated fashion doll that comes with not one, but three different sculpts that encompass the various incarnations of the character through the years. Each head features hand-applied eyelashes and has either fully rooted or velvety soft flocked hair (on Adèle version 1.0) depending on the case. As the bodies feature removable parts, you can swap out Adèle’s look by removing her bust (instead of having to remove the head, solely). A gorgeous electric pink gown that suits her lovely skin tone to a “T”, an intricately designed daytime dress that features ultra-chic, modern graphic embroideries and a lingerie set that includes two different bras to better display the busts elegantly on the newly developed “Museum Podium” stand are also included with this set. But, best of all, this set also includes all the amazing little extras that you have come to expect from an Integrity Toys gift set- long boots, two pairs of shoes and two complete jewelry sets- just what you will need to make this fashionista look perfectly stylish over and over again! A W Club members-only exclusive. So, you know how this set is three in one? Well, you can literally have three dolls by ordering the extra body sets on offer for $30! Yes, just $30 dollars extra and you will have THREE complete Adeles! Take my money, now! Well, I am one happy W Clubber with this amazing Gift Set… but what do you think of the Faces Of Adèle? Will you be adding this(these) beauty(s) to your collection? Let me know in the comments section below!SEVEN of the world’s eight most violent countries lie on the bloody trafficking route from the cocaine fields of the Andes to the nostrils of North America. So it is unsurprising that Latin American leaders are fed up with the way drugs are policed. The international rules on prohibition were laid down by the United Nations more than 50 years ago, making drug policy difficult for individual countries to reform. But diplomats and do-gooders are finding ever more chinks in prohibition’s legal armour. The latest attempt came on May 17th, when the Organisation of American States (OAS), a regional inter-governmental club, presented a report that pushed the limits of what can be said about drugs in polite diplomatic company. Drawn up with the input of academics, officials, policemen and others (including a journalist from The Economist), it envisioned a future in which by 2025 cannabis is legal in much of Europe and the Americas, a regional market for coca-leaf (cocaine’s raw ingredient) is in operation, and the UN’s anti-drug conventions are up for renegotiation. Get our daily newsletter Upgrade your inbox and get our Daily Dispatch and Editor's Picks. This was only one of four “scenarios”; the OAS took pains to make clear it was not advocating or even forecasting such changes. The approach was suggested by Juan Manuel Santos, the president of Colombia, where the same technique has been used to negotiate with rebels in past peace talks. Three other scenarios outlined in the report were worthy but tame. None contained new policy proposals. Though big on radical ideas, the report was timid in evaluating them: its 190 pages contained not a single recommendation. Nonetheless, it is the first time legalisation has been seriously explored by an inter-governmental organisation. Such outfits are normally “burial grounds” for innovative ideas on drug policy, says Ethan Nadelmann, head of the Drug Policy Alliance, a pro-legalisation group. Countries such as Uruguay, which later this year may become the first to legalise the recreational use of pot, “will be reassured that what they are doing is a legitimate possibility”, says Kasia Malinowska-Sempruch of the Open Society Foundations, another pro-legalisation body, funded from the deep pockets of George Soros, a financier. State governments in America that have taken their own route to legalisation may be heartened, too. The report will be debated at the OAS’s annual summit next month in Guatemala; the government there is perhaps the hemisphere’s most radical on drug policy. Otto Pérez Molina, the president, has called for the legalisation—and strict regulation—of all narcotics, including the hard ones. A former military man who has burned down his fair share of cannabis fields, he makes a strange ally to the libertarian-minded legalisation movement. But he has said that fighting the drug war only made him realise its futility. He has appointed Fernando Carrera, a former local head of the Open Society Foundations, as his foreign secretary. Meanwhile in Europe, politicians in Denmark, Switzerland and the Netherlands are badgering their national governments to legalise marijuana along similar lines to the states of Colorado and Washington across the Atlantic. New Zealand is about to pass legislation to regulate “legal highs”. Defenders of international drug laws can expect no respite.Garibaldi is Sick: Vet Visit 1 Owner’s blog: This post is going to be about Garibaldi Rous’ medical condition involving his teeth and our trip to Texas A&M University School of Veterinary Medicine for the diagnosis. If you haven’t been following the developments so far, you can follow this link to fill yourself in. Contrast the two photos shown above. The first shows Garibaldi’s glorious teeth in December, 2011. Nice and straight. The bottom photo shows his teeth on Sept. 9, 2012. You can see that his bottom teeth are no longer straight. I wish I’d known that this is an important sign of tooth problems in capybaras so I could have been watching for it. As it is, it happened incrementally so that I thought it was the same thing as humans needing braces. It isn’t. According to his vet, this is a signal of infection in the tooth’s root that causes the tooth to become loose and allows it to rotate. But I’m jumping ahead of myself. It’s a long drive to the vet school in College Station. According to google maps, it is 118 miles between here and there, so we had to leave fairly early in the morning for our 1 pm appointment. Rick rode in the backseat with Gari while I drove. You can tell Gari wasn’t feeling well because he let Rick hug him. Of course, being in the car always makes Gari nervous but having Rick with him helps. We got there a little early. Instead of going straight in, we decided to let Gari stretch his legs in one of the large animal clinic’s livestock paddocks. Lucky for Gari, the paddock had a leaky faucet and some nice mud puddle. Lucky for us, there was a hose to wash him off with afterward. This is Gari with our veterinary student. She took his history and a bit of his physical and she stayed with us most of the time he was going under. This time, Dr. Hoppes, our vet, decided to give him a bit of a nasal spray tranquilizer before he got his shot. That worked to calm him down fairly well. If there’s one thing Gari is, it’s a fighter. He tried with all of his might to stay awake. Finally, just when Dr. Hoppes was about to give him another dose of anesthesia, we got him to lie down in his bed and he went under immediately. He might look like he is comfortably relaxing in the above photo, but actually he is unconscious. One of the good things about going to the vet school is that there are lots of specialists and equipment. They had him hooked up to all the latest technology to monitor his breathing, pulse, body temperature and the oxygen content of his blood. Then it was off to xray. I have to admit, I don’t really understand this image of his xrays. I took this image of the computer screen with my camera. Later I’ll have them give me the real xrays, which are digital, as you can see. Once I have the full set of images, I think it will make a lot more sense. At any rate, the news wasn’t good. There are dark pockets near the base of some of his molars on the bottom right and also his right, lower incisor. Those dark pockets indicate infection. I don’t think this infection is the same thing as a cavity since it is outside of the tooth itself. According to the vet, that infection allows the tooth to become loose and rotate. Some of Gari’s molars have rotated quite a bit. One of the rotated molars had developed a sharp point that was digging into Gari’s tongue. That is what caused his mouth to foam. At this point, Dr. Hoppes told me Gari will need to see the veterinary dentist. However, the dentist is not available until Nov. 19th at the earliest. He is out of town. In the meantime, they needed to file down the sharp points on Gari’s teeth so that he can eat. The video shows the vets working on filing down some of the points of his teeth. The problem only affects the teeth on Gari’s right side, and it is worst on the bottom molars. The teeth on his right side are perfect. The question is, why did this happen? Dr. Hoppes says this is most likely due to diet; Gari is not eating enough tough, abrasive food, such as grass. I can’t argue with that. This is probably partly due to his being kept indoors when he was young so that he didn’t learn normal grazing habits. And then there is the terrible drought that our part of Texas has been experiencing for the two years Garibaldi has been with us. To put it mildly, the grass here is not lush. A second possibility could be that Gari hurt his mouth on the right side somehow and that caused him to avoid using that side for chewing. This would have caused the teeth to wear improperly, which would have caused him to use them even less. It is easy to see how a vicious circle can develop where the teeth get worse and worse and he uses them less and less. Currently, Garibaldi is taking pain killers and antibiotics. Hopefully this will bring the infection under control while we wait for him to see the veterinary dentist. Dr. Hoppes thinks the dentist will want to pull some teeth but I am really hoping it won’t come to that. We will probably get in to see the dentist on Nov. 29th or 30th. Garibaldi is feeling pretty good right now. He is able to eat better than he has in the past few weeks. He hates being force fed his pills and I am so glad he is a non-biter! I dissolve the pills, which are a special peanut butter flavor that he supposed to like but doesn’t, in critical care and use a 60 ml syringe to force feed him. He hates that. Well, he’d better get used to it because I’m keeping him on antibiotics until he goes back. He cannot end up another Maple WoMER. In case you are wondering, Maple seems to be doing fine. She goes back to her vet on Tuesday to get her eye sewed shut, assuming there is no more infection. Seriously, there better not be, I really cannot afford it.TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — A Taiwanese flight with 58 people aboard clipped a bridge shortly after takeoff and careened into a shallow river Wednesday in the island’s capital of Taipei, killing at least eight people, state media said. Parts of the wrecked fuselage of the turboprop ATR 72 jutted out of the Keelung River just a couple dozen meters (yards) from the shore near the city’s downtown Sungshan airport. The main section of fuselage was on its side, missing a wing. Rescuers clustered around the plane in rubber boats more than two hours after the crash, and could be seen pulling carry-on luggage from an open plane door. The country’s Central News Agency said eight people were killed out of 26 that had been pulled from the plane. The rescue was continuing. CNA said the flight from Taipei to the outlying island of Kinmen lost contact with flight controllers at 10:55 a.m. and the fuselage landed in the Keelung River near the city’s downtown Sungshan airport. As many as 31 passengers were from mainland China, Taiwan’s TVBS news broadcaster said. Kinmen lies just off the Chinese coast, making it a convenient way to return to the mainland after traveling to Taiwan. The plane also hit a taxi, the driver of which was injured, as it flew into the river, TVBS reported. It was the second of TransAsia’s French-made ATR 72 planes to crash in the past year. Last July, a flight crashed while attempting to land on the island of Penghu off Taiwan’s coast, killing 48 people and injuring another 10. Stormy weather and low visibility were suspected as factors in that crash.The act of viewing a web page is a complex interaction between a user's browser and any number of web servers. Unlike reading a book, viewing a web page involves copying the data held on the servers onto the user's computer, if only temporarily. Logic encoded within the page may cause more copying to take place, perhaps from other servers. The combined material may be displayed or otherwise used within the original page often without the user's explicit knowledge or consent. For an end user, it is usually impossible to tell whether a given image or video displayed within a page originates from the server the page comes from or from some other location. In addition to browsers and webservers, many other kinds of servers live on the Web. Proxy servers and services that combine and repackage data from other sources may also retain copies of this material. These intermediary services may transform, translate or rewrite some of the material that passes through them, to enhance the user's experience of the web page or for their own purposes. Still other services on the web, such as search engines and archives, make copies of content as a matter of course. This is, in part, to facilitate the indexing necessary for their operation, and in part to provide value to their users and to the original authors of the web page. These intermediaries, we argue, should be treated differently by the law based on how much control they have over the underlying material and how they process it. Examples of the kind of legal questions that have arisen related to material that originates on other sites include: The Wikipedia page on Copyright aspects of hyperlinking and framing discusses these and several other examples. 2.1 Background Many content publishers seek to control the use of their content on the Web. In some cases, they employ means that do not take into account the Web's true architecture, and do not use the technical mechanisms available to them. A few illustrative examples are provided below. Licenses that describe how material may be copied and altered by others tend not to distinguish between a proxy compressing a web page to make it load faster and someone editing and republishing the page on their own website. To illustrate, the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs defines the terms (emphasis added): Adaptation means a work based upon the Work, or upon the Work and other pre-existing works, such as a translation, adaptation, derivative work, arrangement of music or other alterations of a literary or artistic work, or phonogram or performance and includes cinematographic adaptations or any other form in which the Work may be recast, transformed, or adapted including in any form recognizably derived from the original, except that a work that constitutes a Collection will not be considered an Adaptation for the purpose of this License. For the avoidance of doubt, where the Work is a musical work, performance or phonogram, the synchronization of the Work in timed-relation with a moving image ("synching") will be considered an Adaptation for the purpose of this License. Distribute means to make available to the public the original and copies of the Work through sale or other transfer of ownership. Reproduce means to make copies of the Work by any means including without limitation by sound or visual recordings and the right of fixation and reproducing fixations of the Work, including storage of a protected performance or phonogram in digital form or other electronic medium. Consider, now, the following questions: Does using the automatic Google Translate service (which can be invoked automatically within Chrome) count as an "adaptation" of a Work, given that it's a translation, or is it only non-automated translations that would count? When a document is made available on a website, the original owner still retains their copy, it is not transferred, so does this count as "distribution"? If someone accesses a document released under this license on the web, it has to be copied onto their machine in order to be displayed; does this mean anyone accessing the document "reproduces" it? Terms and Conditions statements on websites also list acceptable and unacceptable behavior on a site, with any browsing on the site implicitly indicating acceptance of the terms. These generally do not take into account the behavior of proxies. For instance, one standard set of Terms and Conditions includes: You may view, download for caching purposes only, and print pages from the website for your own personal use, subject to the restrictions set out below and elsewhere in these terms of use. You must not: (a) republish material from this website (including republication on another website); (b) sell, rent or sub-license material from the website; (c) show any material from the website in public; (d) reproduce, duplicate, copy or otherwise exploit material on our website for a commercial purpose; (e) edit or otherwise modify any material on the website; or (f) redistribute material from this website except for content specifically and expressly made available for redistribution (such as our newsletter) It is not possible to view material on the web without it being downloaded onto your computer, so forbidding downloading except for caching purposes essentially means that people cannot view the page. In addition, many proxies automatically transform the documents that pass through them, for example to compress them so that they take up less bandwidth for mobile consumption or to introduce advertisments into pages that are accessed free of charge. Should this be prohibited? Limits placed on the use of a website often include limitations on automatic indexing of the website, without exceptions for search engines that make the website discoverable or archives that ensure its longevity. For example, the set of terms and conditions quoted above goes on to say: You must not conduct any systematic or automated data collection activities (including without limitation scraping, data mining, data extraction and data harvesting) on or in relation to our website without our express written consent. Search engines rely on systematic data collection from websites in order to provide users with accurate search results, and archives do so in order to retain websites for posterity. So, these terms and conditions, if adhered to strictly, put the website out of the reach of search engines and hence makes it undiscoverable; surely this is not in the best interest of the website. Another problem is that automated agents (webcrawlers, spiders, robots) that gather information from the web are unable to read these terms and conditions; the only things they understand are the technical signals that a website provides about what is permitted. See more on this below. As another example, the terms and conditions for gsig.com include: Use of Materials: Upon your agreement to the Terms, GSI grants you the right to view the site and to download materials from this site for your personal, non-commercial use. You are not authorized to use the materials for any other purpose. If you do download or otherwise reproduce the materials from this Site, you must reproduce all of GSI?s proprietary markings, such as copyright and trademark notices, in the same form and manner as the original.... You may not use any "deep-link", "page-scrape"?, "robot", "spider" or any other automatic device, program, algorithm or methodology or any similar or equivalent manual process to access, acquire, copy or monitor any portion of the Site or any of its content, or in any way reproduce or circumvent the navigational structure or presentation of the Site. It would be simpler and more effective for the site to use technical means for controlling what webcrawlers, spiders or robots access on the site, namely a robots.txt file which is a set of machine processable instructions instructing automated web agents what thay can and cannot do. They could also exempt automated web agents from the Terms and Conditions as discussed below. Many sites have a linking policy that limits what links can be made to the site from other sites. These conditions are not backed up through relatively simple technical mechanisms that would prevent such links from being made. For example, the website at quotec.co.uk has a linking policy that includes: Links pointing to this website should not be misleading. Appropriate link text should be always be used. From time to time we may update the URL structure of our website, and unless we agree in writing otherwise, all links should point to http://www.quotec.co.uk. You must not use our logo to link to this website (or otherwise) without our express written permission. You must not link to this website using any inline linking technique. You must not frame the content of this website or use any similar technology in relation to the content of this website. Technically it is straightforward to prevent linking to pages that the website does not want others to link to: you simply do not give these pages URLs or make the URLs undiscoverable. This is likely to be more effective than asking people to read and adhere to the Terms and Conditions. Several techniques for controlling linking and inclusion are discussed in section 6. Techniques. Legislation that governs the possession and distribution of unlawful material (such as child pornography, information that is under copyright or material that is legally suppressed through a gag order) needs to exempt certain types of services, such as caching or hosting, as it would be impractical for such services to police all the material that passes through their servers. This does not, however, always happen and intermediaries are often held accountable for material that did not originate with them and have no control over. An example of good legislation that does exempt intermediaries the UK is the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 Schedule 13; from the Explanatory Notes (emphasis added):So what if I told you that Brewers fans ranked in the top five fan bases in baseball -- and Mets fans ranked among the five worst? Or what if I told you that Padres fans ranked higher than Cubs fans? Or that Indians fans ranked higher than Dodgers fans? Heck, I know exactly what you’d say, actually. First off, you’d say: “Hey Stark, when did you misplace your frigging mind?" Ticket City And then, once you realized that approach wasn’t getting you anywhere, you’d say, much more politely: “Could you please show me the data that proves that? Why, thank you.” Well, gee. You’re welcome. Now here comes the part where I say: “Don’t blame me. I didn’t come up with these MLB Fan Power Rankings. The incisive data-crunchers at TicketCity.com did.” They then directed them our way, and we found them fascinating. So you and I get to peruse these rankings together (here's the list -- with all their data included) and see what we think. But if you really want to know what I think, here are my Top 10 Reactions to the Fan Power Rankings, with some hopefully incisive insights mixed in there that will help both of us make sense of it all: 1) RED SOX AT NO. 1? I noticed constantly that these power rankings didn’t seem to correspond with the All-Star voting. Red Sox fans may be consumed by the daily soap opera of their fine franchise, but the only guy they voted for enough to get him into the top five at any position was Xander Bogaerts, who finished fourth at shortstop. But when I looked at the data, it was obvious why they still ranked No. 1. TicketCity ranked each franchise by percent of Twitter and Facebook followers, compared with the size of their metro area. The Red Sox were No. 1 in Facebook following and a close second to the Cardinals in Twitter followers. So they clearly hashtagged their way to the top. 2) METS AT NO. 27? I don’t dispute that Mets fans ought to rank below Yankees fans, no matter how you crunch this data. But I actually think all the teams in two-team markets wound up being ranked too low, for
Ball-jointed head, hinged neck - ball-hinged shoulders, swivel right biceps, - ball-hinged elbows, ball-hinged wrists (front-back hinged wrists) - ball-jointed torso, - ball-hinged hips, swivel thighs, - double hinged knees, and hinged-rocker ankles. This armored figure hides the articulation very well. The articulation on this figure is tight, just a tad loose on the hips and ankle, but not much. As expected, it is limited on areas like shoulders and hips because the armor. This figure includes a blaster. Captain Phasma can hold the blaster on either hand, and it has a tight grip on it. This blaster looks like a repainted silver/grey of the one from the Snowtrooper, which in turn is similar to the Stormtrooper blaster with an added stock. In all, this figure is really awesome. I highly recommend to get this figure at a store or if Amazon LLC have it in stock, jump at it.China hits back over claims supergirl swimmer's on drugs: Diplomatic storm grows over teen who swims faster than Ryan Lochte after U.S. coach says win was 'impossible' Chinese swimmer Ye Shiwen smashed world record by a second and her own personal best by five seconds Coach John Leonard said history suggested doping could be involved Called feat 'impossible' and said tests would prove if she had taken drugs Swam last 50m faster than U.S. champion Ryan Lochte in the men's finals A diplomatic storm was brewing last night over Olympic swimming sensation Ye Shiwen. The Chinese 16-year-old was forced to deny using drugs after a respected US coach called her gold medal-winning performance ‘unbelievable’. But her defiant pledge that the world record-breaking swim on Saturday – which saw her outpace the winner of the men’s event – came purely from ‘hard work and training’ failed to defuse a doping controversy gripping London 2012. Scroll down for IOC reaction Record breaker: Ye Shiwen knocked five seconds off her personal best and broke the world record by more than a second as she stormed to gold in the 400m individual medley in the London Olympics Beaten: Ryan Lochte, pictured, was slower than Ye over the last 50 metres of his own medley race John Leonard, the US executive director of the World Swimming Coaches Association, described Saturday’s swim by ‘Supergirl’ Miss Ye – who last night broke the Olympic record in another event – as ‘unbelievable’ and ‘disturbing’. He also made the extraordinary suggestion that the Chinese could be using genetic manipulation to enhance performances. Outspoken: Top US swimming coach John Leonard called the feat 'unbelievable' His claims came as anti-doping officials revealed that cleaners and security staff have been asked to spy on athletes in the Olympic Village and report anything suspicious that could be linked to performance-enhancing drugs. Miss Ye’s gold medal came in the 400m individual medley, in which she swam the last 50m of the freestyle leg in 28.93 seconds – compared with the 29.1 seconds that 27-year-old American Ryan Lochte managed in the men’s event minutes earlier. Her time for the whole event was more than five seconds better than her previous best. Pressed on the use of drugs she told the China News Service last night: ‘There is absolutely no problem with doping. The Chinese have always had a firm policy about doping. My results come from hard work and training and I would never use any banned drugs. The Chinese people have clean hands.’ But Mr Leonard compared the final 100m swum by Miss Ye as being ‘reminiscent’ of some old East German swimmers, several of whom were subsequently exposed for using performance-enhancing drugs. He said Miss Ye looks like Superwoman, adding: ‘Any time someone has looked like Superwoman in the history of our sport they have later been found guilty of doping.’ If someone could outpace one of the fastest male swimmers in the world and finish three-and-a-half lengths ahead of her nearest female rival, he said, ‘all those things, I think, legitimately call that swim into question’. Head and shoulders above: The teenager (centre) holds an unassailable lead during her gold medal winning 400 metre medley race Ye said her success was due to her training since she was identified as a potential champion Medal winners: Ye Shiwen shows off the gold alongside the United States' Elizabeth Beisel, left, and compatriot Li Xuanxu following the final Mr Leonard also called for an investigation into the Chinese, saying they could be using genetic manipulation. ‘It is a result that demands an explanation – it is unprecedented,’ he told the Mail. Genetic manipulation in animals, he said, had given added strength and oxygen usage. ‘Who knows what it can do to humans?’ he added. CHINA: A HISTORY OF DRUG USE Questions over Shiwen's performance come after a string of Chinese swimmers tested positive for doping in recent years. China won 12 of the 16 women's titles at the 1994 world championships in Rome but these achievements were sullied less than a month later when seven Chinese swimmers tested positive for banned drugs at the Asian Games in Hiroshima. At the 1998 world championships in Perth, four Chinese competitors were sent home after testing positive for steroids. It came a week after one of their team mates and her coach were caught smuggling human growth hormone at Sydney Airport. China's top backstroke swimmer and record holder Ouyang Kunpeng, now 29, was given a lifetime ban after he tested positive for the same substance a month before the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The ban was later changed to two years. In 2009, five junior Chinese swimmers were banned for two years by the country's swimming association after they tested positive for the anabolic agent clenbuterol - a performance-enhancing drug. And in June Chinese state media said 16-year-old Li Zhesi, part of the country’s winning team at the 2009 World Championships, had tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug, EPO, which boosts the body’s oxygen supplies. And he said Miss Ye’s performance had brought ‘back a lot of awful memories’ of Irish swimmer Michelle Smith’s winning performance at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996. Smith was banned for four years in 1998 for tampering with a drugs test. As a gold medal winner, Miss Ye will have been automatically drug-tested. The first four in each race are routinely tested. Last night she continued her astonishing success by setting a new Olympic record in the semi-finals of her best event, the 200m individual medley, with a time of 2 mins 8.39 seconds. Jonathan Harris, London 2012’s head of anti-doping, said that organisers had made security, cleaning, events services and others ‘very aware of the issue of doping, so if they were to come across practices, paraphernalia, whatever it may be, then they would bring it to our attention and, of course, we would investigate this and treat it as intelligence.’ A source close to the British swimming team, who did not want to be named, said yesterday: ‘There has been a lot of talk since Saturday about the Chinese swimmers, particularly Ye, and how they are managing to come out of nowhere and achieve these incredible times. 'We all know about the kind of punishing regimes the Chinese swimmers are put through.’ One insight came on Sunday. After winning silver in the 100m butterfly, Chinese athlete Lu Ling said: ‘In China we’re used to study, study and train, train and then rest. I think our way of thinking has many limits. In Australia I’ve been invited to barbecues with my teammates – that would never happen in China.’ Officials say there have been 1,461 drug tests carried out so far in this Olympics – no results are yet known – and that testers can take samples at any time. Prof John Brewer, Board Member of UK Anti-Doping and Director of Sport at the University of Bedfordshire, said: 'The drug testing procedures in place at the London 2012 Olympics are extremely rigorous and the storage of samples for eight years after the Games makes doping an very high risk strategy. 'We should not be surprised by exceptional performances since Gold medal winning athletes are inevitably different to the rest of us due to their talent, training and lifestyles. 'It's also worth remembering that China has a vast pool of talent to choose from due to the size of its population, so we should not be too surprised when an individual with exceptional talent emerges.' Congratulations: Ye Shiwen hugs Xuanxu Li after her victory at the Aquatics Centre at the Olympic Park Sensation: Ye Shiwen managed to swim the final 50m length in the race in a time of 28.93, a time that was quicker than the men's champion Ryan Lochte Disappointed: Lochte shakes hand with Michael Phelps after they won silver in the 4x100m relay Reminiscent? Irish swimmer Michelle Smith won four medals in Atlanta in 1996 - but was later found to have contaminated drug tests in an attempt to hide drug use VIDEO: British Olympics Chief: Ye Shiwen is clean, end of story VIDEO: Ye Shiwen video. The IOC reacts to China supergirl swimmer allegationsEtowah County Judge William "Billy" Ogletree today sentenced Joyce Hardin Garrard, 50, to life in prison without parole for forcing her granddaughter to run for hours until she collapsed and died. Garrard, wearing a burgundy T-shirt, spoke briefly before the sentence was passed, telling Ogletree the only thing she would change would be "my granddaughter being with me as always." She added, "What you give me is what I'll have to do." Garrard was found guilty of capital murder in March in the 2012 death of Savannah Hardin, her 9-year-old granddaughter. A jury of 8 men and 4 women spent about three-and-a-half hours deciding to convict her, and then took about the same time to recommend she spend the rest of her life in prison. The jury vote was five for death and seven for life in prison. District Attorney Jimmie Harp today said the jury decision of life imprisonment was the right call. "I stand behind what the jury recommended," Harp said, following the hearing. "We talk about the death penalty, but life inside of Julia Tutwiler Prison... until the point in time when you cease to exist, is a death sentence to me." Prosecutors said Garrard forced the child to run for more than three hours as punishment for lying about eating candy bars on Feb. 17, 2012. Witnesses testified they saw Garrard in the yard of the child's home shouting at her to continue running through the afternoon. Savannah collapsed and died days later in a Birmingham hospital. Garrard testified that she never forced the child to run, but both a state pathologist and one testifying for the defense told the jury Savannah's death was caused by extreme physical exertion. Dani Bone, Garrard's defense attorney, said Garrard was glad the judge followed the recommendation of the jury. As he did following the trial, Bone said he plans an appeal of her conviction. "Joyce handled this like a Christian woman with strong faith, and I'm very proud," Bone said.PayPal hired a new PR executive to help manage the company’s brand, according to PR Week. Ben Edwards will work to help consumers understand how PayPal can offer safer, simpler, and more affordable ways to manage and move money. He will also work to let merchants know that PayPal is their “true payments partner,” PayPal spokesperson Martha Cass told the publication. That echoes the mission laid out by PayPal CEO Dan Schulman who said last month after the company split from its parent, eBay, “As an independent company, we see a tremendous opportunity for PayPal to expand our role as a champion for consumers and partner to merchants, and to help shape the industry as money becomes digital at an increasingly rapid pace.” Edwards will have his work cut out for him – PayPal is facing more serious rivals in recent years thanks in part to the rise of mobile commerce, from feisty startups to large financial institutions. He is an Oxford-educated former journalist who comes to PayPal from IBM, which he joined in 2010, where he was responsible for designing and deploying IBM’s digital platform to the marketing organization, spanning marketing automation, analytics, content management, CRM and client experience. Sponsored Link Edwards will report to Christina Smedley, PayPal’s global brand and communications officer.Halt the cover speculation! For the first time ever, in the history of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit, we're crowning three separate cover models—Ronda Rousey, Ashley Graham and Hailey Clauson. Tonight on Sports Illustrated Swimsuit 2016 Revealed, viewers got a first look at SI Swimsuit 2016 as our three covers were unveiled. The cover ladies were joined by their fellow models, as we announced everything from model search to virtual reality and beyond! "Every single woman that is booked for this magazine is cover worthy," explained Assistant Managing Editor MJ Day. "The collective beauty in the magazine is overwhelming. SI has always been and will always be about the models; the pictures you see here are a celebration of them. "The three covers of Hailey, Ronda and Ashley celebrate the new SI Swimsuit. All three women are beautiful, sexy and strong. Beauty is not cookie cutter. Beauty is not 'one size fits all.' Beauty is all around us and that became especially obvious to me while shooting and editing this year's issue." On choosing Ronda Rousey's cover: "Ronda Rousey is a cultural phenomenon. She is the perfect combination of beauty, brains, brawn and humility. She possesses a spirit bigger than the space around her, and it is both infectious and inspiring. She's a Phoenix, as fiery and beautiful as any mythical creature ever depicted." On choosing Ashley Graham's cover: " Ashley Graham is a sultry, feminine masterpiece. I dare you not to stare at her. Ashley commands your attention in her photographs. She owns her sexiness in a way that every woman should. Her confidence is contagious." On choosing Hailey Clauson's cover: "Hailey Clauson is the definition of a modern bombshell. Learn a little about her and you'll appreciate her beauty even more. Even as unsettling as her beauty can be, one minute in her company and you'll feel like you've known her for years." BONUS: Get a first look at our 2016 SI Swimsuit cover models! 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Russia’s National Antiterrorist Committee said in a statement that the decision was made “to guarantee conditions for the further normalization of the situation in the republic and for the development of its social and economic spheres.” The committee did not mention troop withdrawals, though Russian officials said they would now have more legal leeway to scale down the number of federal military and security forces. While the violence in Chechnya has declined, it seemed likely that many troops and security forces could remain for some time. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Chechnya has been perhaps the most troubled region in Russia, the site of two wars that caused thousands of deaths.Steven Knowles, Beyond Evangelicalism: The Theological Methodology of Stanley J. Grenz (Ashgate, 2010). Reviewed by Jonathan Heaps Jonathan Heaps has an MA in Philosophy from Boston College and lives in a small intentional Christian community in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is a peculiarity worth noting that Stephen Knowles’ overview and critique of Stanley Grenz’ later theological methodology contains little in the way of, well, methodology. Which is to say, it lacks much specific talk about method. In its place, Beyond Evangelicalism offers extended analysis and criticism of the philosophical concepts and presuppositions at work in contemporary Evangelical theology. I have to say, Knowles handles this unruly gang of philosophies and theologies with aplomb. He has gone to the admirable effort of mapping the conceptual terrain in which evangelical theology finds itself and narrating the genealogy of Grenz’ particular approach to that terrain. He also offers some even handed middle paths between what he feels are needlessly entrenched conservatives and overly enthusiastic post-modern apologists. I commend (and recommend) Beyond Evangelicalism heartily on this score. However, I would like to hold a magnifying glass up to how Knowles offers a good deal of discussion on what Grenz and others think about what theologians think about, but scant examination of how theologians think about what they think about, Grenz included. There’s a real issue here, beyond any failure to live up to the sub-title and despite my own anxiety about peevish nit picking. The philosophical assumptions a thinker employs about the objects of his or her inquiring and theorizing undoubtedly affect the manner in which he or she go about inquiring and theorizing. They are not, however, identical with the method used to inquire and theorize. For example, Knowles makes much of Grenz’ attempts to develop an evangelical theology that is not dependent on correspondence theory and realism. Neither truth-as-correspondence nor realism are methods or methodologies. They are conceptual commitments about the ontological status of knowing and known, respectively. Knowles has much to say about Grenz’ concepts about concepts, but fails to provide insight into how Grenz develops the concepts he does from theology’s sources and their philosophical periphery. To only focus on methodological presuppositions and ignore methodological activity opens one up to the very postmodern, anti-metaphysical arguments that evangelicals are trying to stave off. If the only admissible grounding of Grenz’ theology, in Knowles’ estimation, is a proper conceptual apparatus, then Knowles is enacting or performing his own foundationalism for the reader. Thus, only concepts will be examined in the argument and those that are not foundationalist will be a priori unacceptable according to the implied first principles of Knowles method. For example, one comes to realize that the title, Beyond Evangelicalism, is for Knowles an indictment of Grenz’ pre-theological commitments. Knowles holds Grenz’ work to the criterion of whether or not his conceptual foundations would be acceptable to the Evangelical community of theologians. When Grenz attempts to move away from Enlightenment over-dependence on classical foundationalism, Knowles argues for a diplomatic adoption of soft-foundationalism, not necessarily because it’s a superior philosophy of knowledge, but because Evangelicals won’t accept an anti-realist understanding of Christian doctrine. Those first principles, the astute postmodern reader will be quick to point out, are rather blatantly not self-evidently objective. They are, instead, the products of the socially constructed standards of a community of discourse; namely, evangelicalism. Knowles’ very articulation of what counts as “true methodology” is not grounded in a correspondence to an objectively best method. Though his protestations against the abandonment of correspondence and foundationalist commitments in Grenz reveal an inconsistency with his own methodology, Knowles’ admiration of Alasdair MacIntyre’s communitarian epistemology helps to smooth things out some. Toward the end of Beyond Evangelicalism, Knowles suggests alternatives for an evangelical theology that takes postmodern developments seriously. There, he takes the time to praise Alastair MacIntyre’s Whose Justice? Which Rationality?, quoting at some length about the constitutive role of tradition and community in any and every form of inquiry. For MacIntyre, all arguments begin “in and from conditions of pure historical contingency,” namely a given community that confers authority “upon certain texts and certain voices.”# Knowles applauds MacIntyre for granting this contingency while maintaining that real development can occur through further discourse in (and even between) these communities of inquiry. Indeed, it is the authenticity of these communities’ shared practice and discourse that grounds the arguments themselves, such that “to justify is to narrate how the argument has gone so far.”# In this light, Knowles’ criteria for Grenz’ philosophical foundations amounts to throwing his hat in a particular community-argument and holding Grenz to the standard of how the conversation has gone so far. Insofar as Grenz identified himself as an Evangelical theologian, this seems perfectly methodologically consistent. That methodological consistency, however, still doesn’t retrieve for Knowles even a chastened objectivism. Instead, this method of community practice and discourse (which likely has a much smaller ax to grind with Grenz’ Holy Spirit grounded knowing-in-community) resembles the Gadamerian hermeneutics articulated for church folk in Merold Westphal’s Whose Community? Which Interpretation?. That approach, however, demands fidelity not to a set of presuppositions (though it takes the role of presuppositions seriously), but to the ongoing activity of conversation. It is for this reason I’ve insisted on a more precise meaning of “methodology.” The authenticity of our theologies is found more in how we proceed than from where we begin. This activity, however, is not a method in the sense of a set of rules guaranteeing objectivity. However, it is a method the same way “method acting” is a method: an open structure for utilizing one’s history in a fresh moment to perform/interpret/understand truthfully. Objectivism, no matter how humble, is for us no longer.General Adolf Heusinger (August 4, 1897 – November 30, 1982) was a German military officer, whose career spanned the German Empire, the Weimar Republic, Nazi Germany and West Germany. Heusinger joined the German Army as a volunteer in 1915 and later became a professional soldier. He served as acting Chief of the General Staff of the Army for two weeks in 1944, and was head of the military cartography office when the war ended. He later became a general for West Germany and served as head of the West German military from 1957 to 1961 as well as Chairman of the NATO Military Committee from 1961 to 1964. Biography [ edit ] Early career [ edit ] Heusinger was born in Holzminden, in the Duchy of Brunswick, German Empire. He entered the Prussian Army in 1915, becoming an officer in 1917. Following the war, Heusinger was retained in the Reichswehr of the Weimar Republic. In 1931, Heusinger was assigned to the operations staff of the Troop Office (Truppenamt) in the Ministry of the Reichswehr, the German Army's covert General Staff in circumvention of the Treaty of Versailles, which forbade that institution. In August 1937, Heusinger was assigned to the Operations Staff of the re-established Army General Staff. He served there, being promoted to lieutenant colonel on March 20, 1939, and remained in that position until October 15, 1940, when he became its chief. World War II [ edit ] Heusinger (1st from left) attending a briefing with Adolf Hitler on 1 June 1942 With the outbreak of the Second World War, the German Army High Command (the OKH) assumed its wartime organization. Heusinger accompanied the field staff and assisted in the planning of operations for the invasions of Poland, Denmark, Norway, and France and the Low Countries. He was promoted to colonel on August 1, 1940, and became chief of the Operationsabteilung in October 1940, making him number three in the Army planning hierarchy, after the Chief of the General Staff, General Franz Halder, and the Deputy Chief of the General Staff/Chief Quartermaster, General Friedrich Paulus. After the invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, the OKH became primarily responsible for planning operations in that theater, while the Armed Forces High Command (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, or OKW) was responsible for other theaters. Halder was replaced as Chief of the General Staff in September 1942 by General Kurt Zeitzler. Heusinger remained chief of the Operationsabteilung and was promoted to Generalleutnant on January 1, 1943. In June 1944, Zeitzler became ill, and on June 10, Heusinger temporarily assumed his office as Chief of the General Staff of the Army. In this capacity, he attended the meeting at Adolf Hitler's Wolf's Lair on July 20, 1944, and was standing next to Hitler when the bomb planted by Claus von Stauffenberg exploded. Heusinger was hospitalized for his injuries in the explosion, but was arrested and interrogated by the Gestapo to determine his role, if any, in the July Plot. Although there was evidence that Heusinger had had contacts with many of the conspirators, there was insufficient evidence to directly connect him to the plot, and he was freed in October 1944. However, he was placed into the "Führer-Reserve" and was not assigned to another position until March 25, 1945, when he was made chief of armed forces mapping department (Chef Wehrmacht-Kartenwesen). He was taken prisoner by the Western Allies in May 1945. Post-World War II [ edit ] An internee from 1945 to 1947, Heusinger testified during the Nuremberg Trials. In 1950, he became an advisor on military matters to Konrad Adenauer, the first Chancellor of West Germany. He served in the Blank Office Amt Blank, the office headed by Theodor Blank, which became the West German Ministry of Defense in 1955. With the establishment of the West Germany Armed Forces Bundeswehr in 1955, Heusinger returned to military service. He was appointed a Generalleutnant (lieutenant general) on November 12, 1955,[1] in the Bundeswehr and chairman of the Military Leadership Council (Militärischer Führungsrat). In March 1957, he succeeded Hans Speidel as chief of the Bundeswehr's all-armed forces department (Chef der Abteilung Gesamtstreitkräfte). Shortly thereafter, in June 1957, Heusinger was promoted to full general and named the first Inspector General of the Bundeswehr (Generalinspekteur der Bundeswehr), and served in that capacity until March 1961. In April 1961, he was appointed Chairman of the NATO Military Committee in Washington, D.C., where he served until 1964, when he retired. He was, according to news reports, wanted by the Soviet Union in the early 1960s for war crimes committed in the occupied Soviet territories. Heusinger died in Cologne on November 30, 1982, aged 85. According to documents released by the German Federal Intelligence Service in 2014, Heusinger may have been part of the Schnez-Truppe, a secret army that veterans of the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS sought to establish in the early '50s.[2] References [ edit ] ^ This was actually a promotion from his Wehrmacht rank of Generalleutnant. Until 1945, the German Army general officer ranks of Generalmajor (major-general) and Generalleutnant (lieutenant-general) were equivalent to one-star (brigadier or brigadier general) and two-star (major general) ranks, respectively. The Bundeswehr uses a NATO-standardized rank structure, with addition of the one-star rank of Brigadegeneral and Generalleutnant the equivalent to three-star rank in the British and American armies. ^ Wiegrefe, Klaus, "Files Uncovered: Nazi veterans Created Illegal Army", Spiegel Online, 14 May 2014 Further reading [ edit ]“Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” remains unstoppable at the world’s multiplexes, hitting $838.3 million worldwide after three weeks. The eighth “Star Wars” movie grossed $3.8 million domestically at 4,157 locations on Thursday, giving it $455.2 million in its first 21 days. It trails only “Finding Dory” at $486 million among 2016 releases. The Disney-Lucasfilm tentpole is already the 11th-highest earner of all time at the domestic box office, trailing the total cume of “Avengers: Age of Ultron” by less than $4 million. “Rogue One” pulled in $5.4 million internationally on Thursday to reach $383 million, led by the U.K. with $69.7 million, Germany with $38.2 million, France with $31.3 million, Australia with $30.2 million, and Japan with $29.1 million. “Rogue One” launched in China on Friday. The China opening should be impressive, given that “The Force Awakens” took in $124 million in that market — by far the strongest international performance in that territory. Director Gareth Edwards and stars Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Donnie Yen, and Jiang Wen attended the Beijing premiere on Dec. 21. The worldwide total for “Rogue One” is already the seventh highest of 2016 and the 53rd highest of all time, topping the entire run of Paramount’s “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” in 2009. “Rogue One” opened a year after “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” debuted and reeled in $770 million domestically in three weeks — on its way to a record $936 million by the end of its run. “Star Wars: Episode VIII” hits theaters on Dec. 15, 2017.You must enter the characters with black color that stand out from the other characters Message: * A friend wanted you to see this item from WRAL.com: http://wr.al/13QxT — A proposal that codifies a statewide nondiscrimination policy in employment and public accommodations and prohibits North Carolina cities or towns from enacting stricter guidelines was signed into law by Gov. Pat McCrory late Wednesday after clearing the General Assembly in less than nine hours. "I have signed legislation passed by a bipartisan majority to stop this breach of basic privacy and etiquette which was to go into effect April 1," McCrory said in a statement. "Although other items included in this bill should have waited until regular session, this bill does not change existing rights under state or federal law. "It is now time for the city of Charlotte elected officials and state elected officials to get back to working on the issues most important to our citizens." All Democratic members of the Senate walked out of the chamber in protest Wednesday evening, leading to a 32-0 vote for the Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act. "This bill essentially ties a noose around the necks of the cities and counties, and it smothers their ability to govern in a way that their citizens think they ought to," Senate Minority Leader Dan Blue said as other Democrats left. "We're not participating in this effort that you make to roll back the clock in this state, to take away powers from local governments." Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger criticized the walkout. "Running out and ducking this vote is a serious breach of their duty to their constituents," he said. On Wednesday afternoon, the House voted 84-24 in favor of the bill as state lawmakers rushed to push it through the General Assembly in a one-day special session. "This is historic," said Rep. Dan Bishop, R-Mecklenburg, noting that North Carolina has never had a nondiscrimination statute. The bill excludes gays and lesbians from discrimination protections, however, prompting an outcry from LGBT advocates, some corporations and Attorney General Roy Cooper, the Democratic candidate for governor. Chris Sgro, executive director of Equality North Carolina, called it the "worst anti-LGBT bill in the entire nation." "The bill tears away at the fabric of my community by overturning and pre-empting vital protections for gay and transgendered people," Sgro said. "He [McCrory] goes back on his word again by signing legislation coming out of an expensive and unnecessary special session." "That the North Carolina legislature would convene a costly special session specifically to invalidate and prohibit the expansion of civil rights for LGBT people is disgraceful," Eric Wachter, associate regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, said in a statement. "Equality, fairness and the desire to stand on the right side of history are reasons enough for legislators to reject this odious and discriminatory legislation." At #RedHat we strongly value diversity: https://t.co/XDfUVzC1OL. HB#2 is a clear step backwards. Sad day. #WeAreNotThis — Jim Whitehurst (@JWhitehurst) March 23, 2016 Biogen opposes #NCGA attempt to undermine equality in NC via #HB2. We support advancing the power of difference https://t.co/RlxgLt3JBC — Biogen (@biogen) March 23, 2016 Dow opposes #NCGA attempt to undermine equality in Charlotte. Let's focus on policies that make #NC stronger and more competitive. - KK — Dow Public Policy (@DowPolicy) March 23, 2016 "Discrimination is wrong, period. That North Carolina is putting discrimination into the law is shameful," Cooper said in a YouTube video posted by his campaign. "Our commitment to the fair treatment of all individuals, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, has not changed and is at the core of our NCAA values," NCAA spokeswoman Gail Dent said. "It is our expectation that all people will be welcomed and treated with respect in cities that host our NCAA championships and events." Greensboro and Charlotte are scheduled to host regional games in the NCAA men's basketball tournament in the next two years. A similar religious rights measure is pending in Georgia, where corporations and even the NFL have said they'll avoid doing business in the state if it becomes law. The North Carolina bill also doesn't include disabled people among the groups protected from discrimination, but Bishop said other state statutes already protect them. Rep. Grier Martin, D-Wake, tried to amend the bill so it included gays and lesbians among the protected groups, as well as veterans, but the Republican majority voted to table that suggestion. The Senate Judiciary II Committee likewise tabled an attempt Wednesday evening by Sen. Terry Van Duyn, D-Buncombe, to add gender identity to the bill for protections against discrimination. Bathroom debate prompted bill The legislation is in response to an ordinance passed last month by the Charlotte City Council that broadly defines how businesses treat LGBT customers. The ordinance includes a provision that allows transgender people to use public bathrooms that correspond to their gender identity. Social conservatives have railed against the Charlotte ordinance for weeks, saying it violates the religious freedom of business owners and puts women and children at risk by allowing sexual predators to go into women's bathrooms. "If God didn't give you access to a male or female bathroom via your anatomy, neither should we give you access via either ordinance or legislation," John Amanchukwu, executive director of Upper Room Christian Academy in Raleigh, told members of the House Judiciary IV Committee on Wednesday morning. Chloe Jefferson, a junior at Greenville Christian Academy, called the prospect of a boy in the girl's bathroom or locker room at her school "completely frightening," adding that dealing with body image is hard enough for teen girls without having boys around when they change clothes or go to the bathroom. "I am not the only girl scared," Jefferson said. Charlotte business owner Heather Garofalo encouraged lawmakers to outlaw local anti-discrimination ordinances, saying they threaten her religious right to choose not to serve LGBT customers. "Business owners like myself, we would be forced to check our deepest-held beliefs at the door or suffer fines of $500, jail time, lawsuits," Garofalo said. "I am asking for a right to provide for my family." But several transgender people pleaded with lawmakers to defeat the proposal, saying they are just as scared to go into bathrooms where they don't feel comfortable. "I can't use the men's room. I won't go back to the men's room. It is unsafe for me there. People like me die there," said Madeleine Goss, a Raleigh woman who said she was bullied as a boy in Hickory because of her gender identity. "I have the right to be safe too," a sobbing Angela Bridgeman told lawmakers. "I feel bullied by you guys," Skye Thomson, a 15-year-old transgender boy from Greenville, told senators. "Imagine yourself in my shoes, being a boy walking into a ladies room. It's awkward and embarrassing and can actually be dangerous." "Are you really interested in me being spit on and pushed around and shoved because of who I am in a restroom?" asked Rev. Michael Slack, a transgender man. "Legislating mistreatment, hatred and misunderstanding is shameful." The bill would require people to use the bathroom that aligns with the gender listed on their birth certificate. Backers noted that North Carolina law allows people who have undergone a sex change to amend the gender on their birth certificates. California and Texas also allow people to amend their birth certificates, but it was unclear Wednesday whether other states had similar regulations. "This is really not about bathrooms. It's about fear," said Rep. Rodney Moore, D-Mecklenburg. "The spirit of the bill is not what it says it intends to do." Rep. Tricia Cotham, D-Mecklenburg, said the bill resorts to fear-mongering and "flies in the face of" attempts to move North Carolina forward. "We must be a state that is inclusive and welcomes in North Carolina and protects everyone," Cotham said. "You are absolutely not protecting children, and you're not protecting women." But Rep. Dean Arp, R-Union, said "prisoners have more privacy" than people in public bathrooms under the Charlotte ordinance. "How compassionate is it to strip North Carolina citizens of their right to privacy?" Arp said. Cotham
Eve? The authors suggest when the evidence of multiple human ancestors raises the question of how the imago may have emerged within the natural order, a dynamic perspective suggests that the capacity to be an image bearer could have arisen regardless of context or even ancestors—as long as the sufficient constellation of capacities necessary to relate to God, other, and creation were present.... Through the processes of evolution, humans eventually had the capacity to bear the image of God in a way that was distinct from their predecessors.6 While an arguably novel concept, it seems that making the image of God a process rather than an endowment, a clear statement in Genesis 1:26 and 1:27, only muddies the waters more by adding a spectrum of mental capabilities and spirituality to the already-existing spectrum of physical morphologies that supposedly make up human evolution. We are again left with a nebulous and unsatisfying answer as to how, in an evolutionary paradigm, man became an agent of God, bearing His image with a purpose. Why would God use a cruel and senseless process to bring about man to then, supposedly, shepherd the creation already stained with blood, disease, and death? What exactly is man supposed to have dominion over, when mankind had been developing already under the dominion of nature, red in tooth and claw?7 And, most importantly, why would we need a Savior if we were already developing a godliness-of-sorts and if death and disease were longer residents of the world we supposedly evolved to shepherd? This view also, with no stated or clear “Adam” and “Fall,” would elevate man, the “first Adam(s),” into the role of the “last Adam”—to rescue the world, instead of being stewards of a perfectly created world in which we wreaked havoc.8 And where are those potential-but-not-quite image-bearers now—dead and buried with their not-quite soul? In such an indefinite model, perhaps some answers could be posited to these questions, but sticking with God’s clear account of when and how man became a living soul bearing the image of God precludes the questions entirely and makes sense of the entirety of Scripture whereby a “first Adam” dooms creation and a “second Adam” restores it. The Bible should be our foundational source for understanding the image of God and how and why we are here—and everything else it touches on. As man is “dynamic,” so are his ideas, constantly changing, but none satisfactory for every time and place. Yet ironically, one theme is becoming more and more constant, and that is trying to force millions of years into the roughly 6,000-year, straightforward timeline of the Bible. But our God, as only He could do, has given us timeless truth in His Word. Nothing has falsified a single claim, including a young age for the earth and a global Flood. Answers in Genesis wants people to know that our Creator has provided answers in the Bible ( Romans 15:4 ; 2 Timothy 3:16 ). We call Christians to diligently search His Word and to abandon concocted ideas that go against what God recorded for us ( 2 Timothy 2:15–16 ). Want to know what the Scriptures say about man and the image of God? The next article in this in-depth series will show through the biblical account that sound answers are available, unlike those provided by any evolutionary or old-earth model. Read Part 2 of this series: “What Is the Image of God?” Find out more about the gospel and how it depends on the first three chapters of Genesis with a literal Adam, sin bringing death, and the promise of the Seed of woman that would crush the serpent in Good News. Further ReadingAn Orthodox Jewish friend asked me, with some real perplexity in her voice, why I wasn't Orthodox. "You love Torah study. You davven [pray] regularly. What keeps you from being Orthodox? I don't understand it." This is my stuttering, inadequate response. I will try to answer as best I can. I am a religious Jew, but I am not Orthodox. For some that is an impossible contradiction in terms. It is not for me. For me, it is a matter of belief and integrity. I am a religious Jew because I believe in God as the One, HaBorei Chei Haolamim -- the Source and Soul of the universe. I love Torah study and try to find a way to learn something sacred every day. I believe in prayer. I take the mitzvot -- the commandments -- very seriously as an everyday part of my life. I am a passionate supporter of the State of Israel as both the Jewish homeland and a democracy open to all. I also have an instinctive love of Jewish people as members of my family. But I do not believe the Torah was written by God and literally dictated. I believe it was told and retold by the ancient Israelites about their experiences and then eventually written down over time. After centuries the Torah was edited together, most likely in the time of Ezra. The Torah isn't fiction, and it isn't nonfiction; it is in the in-between place called autobiography of real memories passed down through the generations. It is sacred to us because it is the vocabulary that Jews have used for centuries to talk about God, and it mirrors the human condition. We learn Torah to understand what our ancestors believed, to learn what the Rabbis taught, and know ourselves. I do not believe that Jews are am segulah, God's treasured, chosen people. I believe that we are people, with an identity that is unique and remarkable, but I don't believe our souls are different from others. I believe that all people are made in God's image. I also do not believe in the literal resurrection of the dead, or that a moshiach [messiah] will appear on the top of the Mt. of Olives to save us. I do not pray for the rebuilding of a Third Temple and the reinstitution of animal sacrifice. I believe that Olam Haba is not the World to Come but is the World that is Potentially Already Here, not in heaven but on earth. I believe our job is to make our world into that world by relieving suffering. I believe in a Zionism committed to Israel's security and eventual coexistence. I believe in free will and consequences. I believe that there is no conflict between religion and science. I do not believe God rewards and punishes, either on a macro or personal level. I believe that often you reap what you sow, but also the world is imperfect. Sometimes the most important bracha [prayer/blessing] we can say is: Baruch Atah Adonai Eloheinu Melech Haolam Borei [Blessed are You the Eternal our God Ruler of the universe who creates] Good Enough. Sometimes it just has to be good enough. I believe in inclusion. I do not believe that gays and lesbians are sinners, as some ignorant people still claim, or that women are "so holy" that they have to be kept away from certain public aspects of Judaism. I believe that God made every soul unique and precious, and I am responsible to whoever is before me. I believe that ethics comes first. I love the rituals of Judaism, but I believe that some rituals, namely keeping kosher, keeping Shabbat strictly, and following the order of the entire traditional siddur, have become so overly complicated that they alienate rather than bring together, which is contrary to what they were intended to do in the first place. The letter of the law has often become divorced from the spirit of the law. I believe that sometimes simpler is better. I believe in the beauty of Judaism. I love the sound of the shofar on Rosh Hashanah, the challenge of fasting and the melodies on Yom Kippur, building a sukkah, and sleeping outside on Sukkot. I get an electric charge from reading the end of the Torah and immediately starting it again on Simchat Torah. I love staring at Hanukkah candles. I love eating dates -- the Biblical honey of the land flowing with milk and honey -- at a Tu B'Shvat seder. I love being ridiculous on Purim. I love hearing children sing the four questions on Passover. (I do not love gefilte fish, but I tolerate it with horseradish.) I love seeing our youth chant the Ten Commandments on Shavuot for Confirmation. Most importantly, Shabbat -- with family meals, study, and prayer -- is my most sacred time. The most important moment is when my wife and I bless our children. I believe in speaking in the name of the prophets at Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. I believe that Judaism is more than just going to services and lighting candles of various kinds; it is about social justice and actually doing something to make the world a better place. I believe not only in a Promised Land but a Promised World. I believe in tikkun olam -- the obligation and the dream of fixing the world. I feel much better about myself after I have brought food to our local food pantry or having delivered free groceries to someone in need. And I believe in praying and studying every day. Every single day without exception. For me, prayer is also tikkun olam -- fixing the world -- but on the inside. My inner world needs fixing too. I believe in loving and serving God and loving your neighbor as yourself. So you see, I am a deeply religious Jew, but belief separates me from the Judaism of previous centuries and the Judaism of some of my present-day family members. God gave each one of us two amazing gifts: a religious tradition to guide us, and a conscience with which to make decisions. I thank God for both, and I will abdicate neither.A day before he signed the Paris Agreement on climate change at the United Nations headquarters last week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stopped by a Brooklyn gym, where he gave boxing lessons to a group of disadvantaged youth. While Trudeau put the youngsters through their paces, for the past six months it’s the prime minister’s passport that has been getting a workout. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau heads to a news conference following a meeting with French President Francois Hollande at the Elysee Palace in Paris in November. ( Adrian Wyld / THE CANADIAN PRESS ) According to Trudeau’s daily itineraries and information provided by the Privy Council Office, since being sworn in on Nov. 4, 2015, Trudeau has spent 30 days of his term travelling internationally. By comparison, Trudeau’s predecessor, Stephen Harper, was outside Canada on 16 days during his first six months. The two men also contrasted sharply in the timing and purpose of their early travels. Harper made his first visit abroad one month into his term, when in March 2006 he spoke to Canadian troops in Afghanistan and declared his government wouldn’t “cut and run” from the war. Trudeau took his first trip just nine days after being sworn in, when he flew to a G20 meeting in Antalya, Turkey. There he staunchly defended his decision to pull Canadian jets out of the bombing mission against Daesh, also referred to as ISIS or ISIL. Article Continued Below Since then, Trudeau has travelled to: the Philippines, for an APEC summit; London, where he met the Queen; Paris, for the COP21 climate meeting, and Washington, where U.S. President Barack Obama feted him with a state dinner. He’s also swung by Malta, Davos, Switzerland, Washington (again) and New York City (twice). The prime minister’s office didn’t respond last week to requests for comment about Trudeau’s travel schedule. NDP MP Niki Ashton is among those who have questioned when Trudeau’s activities abroad is time well-spent, and last Thursday took to Twitter to criticize his Brooklyn gym appearance. In an interview, Ashton said she believed that many of the prime minister’s international visits were for worthy purposes. But, describing Trudeau as the “selfie prime minister,” she said she was troubled by the fact that the Canadian leader held a photo-op with a group of disadvantaged New York youth while he has yet to visit places like Cross Lake. The First Nation in Ashton’s northern Manitoba riding declared a state of emergency last month in the midst of a suicide crisis. “These kids (in Cross Lake) don’t have a drop-in centre, they don’t have a recreation centre, never mind a boxing ring. Why’s he working with young people in Brooklyn when he’s the prime minister of Canada?” she asked. Interim Conservative Leader Rona Ambrose said “international travel is important to any prime minister’s job, as long as they are actually doing their job while travelling. I’m not sure inviting TV cameras to film a boxing workout would qualify. We will continue to hold the prime minister accountable for actual accomplishments on his international trips, beyond self-promotion and photo ops.” Foreign policy experts say there is value in Trudeau’s foreign visits. Paul Heinbecker, chief foreign policy adviser to former prime minister Brian Mulroney, estimated that Trudeau may have met “as many international leaders perhaps in his first six months as Harper did in his first six years.” Article Continued Below Heinbecker said that Harper “did us no favours” by missing out on those face-to-face meetings, because personal relationships between leaders often determine how governments prioritize requests from foreign countries. “Everybody wants to have their issues dealt with in Washington by the president... Your issue isn’t going to get to his desk and certainly not going to get to the top of his agenda unless he cares about what you think, unless that he knows that you’re coming,” he said. Harper’s light foreign itinerary during the early part of his tenure shouldn’t be read as a failure to advance Canada’s interests, according to Fen Hampson, because the world and Canada’s place in it were much different 10 years ago. There are now far more international summits that world leaders are expected to attend, said Hampson, a professor at Carleton University’s Norman Paterson School of International Affairs. Also, Ottawa has been forced to seek out new trading partners overseas because the 2008 financial crisis showed Canada can’t rely on the U.S. to generate prolonged growth. “I think what we’re seeing is an emphasis on the marketing of Canada, the branding of Canada, the selling of Canada,” Hampson said. “Clearly the person who can make the best case and the best argument for that is the prime minister himself.” Read more about:Should Internet Service Providers Be Able To Discriminate Data? It must be Wednesday, because network neutrality has been popping up (again) recently around the tubes. The landscape is always evolving and the latest happenings include the dismantling of some FCC policies enforcing net neutrality, which we all knew was bound to happen anyway. The effects have been felt immediately and can have a huge impact on how we use and interact with the Internet. I often have trouble grasping the entire controversy surrounding net neutrality, so I’d first like to try to make some sense of it all and then I’ll provide the correct, albeit futile, solution. The Internet service provider is a relatively new concept. Dating back to the widespread commercialization of the Internet in the mid-1990’s, support of the technology first relied upon the existing infrastructure maintained by telecommunications companies, namely AT&T. For the better part of a century, AT&T operated as a government-approved monopoly in the provision of telephone service. AT&T owned and operated their nationwide telecommunications network until 1984 when antitrust allegations forced the regional division of the company. Henceforth, control over the telecommunication infrastructure was divided amongst AT&T’s divisions as well as new competition (e.g. MCI, Sprint, CenturyLink), and every company had the same reliance on a ubiquitous backbone infrastructure. Regardless, this meant that the ownership and management of the underlying backbone infrastructure remained in the hands of a limited number of companies – the same companies selling access directly to consumers. With adoption and commercialization of the Internet in a state of continual expansion, Internet service provided by telecommunication companies steadily became a more important service. In its expansion, the public perception of Internet service availability placed it alongside other common utilities such as electricity, water, sewage, and telephone. Similar to Internet service, those common utilities inherently require a robust infrastructure: oil and gas pipelines, telephone and electric grids, and water lines. Dissimilar to other basic utilities however, Internet service and its infrastructure, detrimentally, are not considered to be common carriers. A common carrier, as defined by the NCTA, is a private company that sells their services to everyone on the same terms, rather than a company that makes a more individualized decision about who to serve and what to charge. In the modern era, where mainstream services enabled by the Internet – email, social networking, media consumption, media creation, productivity, weather, photo management, document management, gaming, academia, research, news, politics, cloud storage, backup, automotive, auction, health, shopping, travel, navigation, et cetera – it seems absurd that Internet service is not consider a common carrier among the likes of electricity, water, and even road infrastructure. In the construction era of the Internet in the mid-1990’s, Internet service shared the same dedicated lines as the telecommunications infrastructure – the same infrastructure that is indeed classified as a common carrier. However, the Internet service which shared the same existing infrastructure as the telephone system does not qualify. It was established in the Telecommunications Act of 1996 that telecommunication service is to be defined as the offering of telecommunications for a fee directly to the public, or to such classes of users as to be effectively available directly to the public, regardless of the facilities used and as a corollary, the same text defines information service as the offering of a capability for generating, acquiring, storing, transforming, processing, retrieving, utilizing, or making available information via telecommunications, and includes electronic publishing, but does not include any use of any such capability for the management, control, or operation of a telecommunications system or the management of a telecommunications service. In other words, any telecommunication service provider is not considered a common carrier when it is providing Internet service and, therefore, is outside of the regulation enforced under the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The important question in 2014: does the distinction between telecommunication and information service still have merit? With the advent of technological innovations in the past decade, such as the smartphone, the tablet, and highly available Internet-enabled services, the connectivity landscape has continued to converge and blur the lines of the connectivity paradigms of the past. Logically, it follows that as companies such as Comcast and Verizon conglomerate and evolve to fit the demands of new technologies (and the customers that demand it), that the definitions and qualifications of a common carrier be reevaluated for 2014. The Internet landscape of the 1990’s bares minimal resemblance to the Internet 18 years later. In fact, the very legislation passed in 1996 was an amendment to the Communications Act of 1934 which created the Federal Communication Commission and established regulations on wire and radio communication. Over the course of 62 years, the laws governing radio communication had become outdated and did not properly account for the advent of a ubiquitous telephone system. In terms of communication and networking technology, innovation has seemingly accelerated exponentially – in less than two decades, the paradigm has moved beyond telephone-based communication. Put simply, given the limitations in availability and bandwidth in the early days of the Internet, there could not have been any certain way to know how vital and ubiquitous Internet-enabled markets would become 20 years later. The major companies providing Internet service play a pivotal role relative to emerging technologies enabled explicitly through the advent of ubiquitous Internet availability. The continuing growth of the Internet infrastructure coupled with advancements in the semiconductor industry enable new services and technologies to arise. Netflix operates a world-class digital video delivery service to subscribed customers for a competitive rate; Netflix also recently entered the content creation space through original series productions. Skype provides both voice and video communication between multiple parties as both free and paid services; Skype is widely considered to be responsible for the popularization of the consumer video communication market. However marvelous Netflix’s and Skype’s services, the continued sustainability of the business models of these two services provided by Netflix and Skype are uncertain. The largest Internet service providers are companies with diverse investments and interests: in addition to Internet service, they provide other services such as cable, telephone, and cellular. Comcast, for example, also operates in the film and broadcast production industries as well as professional sports. Netflix is infinitely dependent on having an available infrastructure through which to send data to customers; this puts Comcast, the owner of the infrastructure, in a powerful and potentially destructive relationship with Netflix. That Netflix now accounts for over 30 percent of downstream traffic in North America has put Comcast in defensive position where it is now incentivized to discriminate against Netflix in favor of its own video and cable services. Because of Netflix’s massive traffic footprint, Comcast has essentially held Netflix’s customers hostage as it lobbies Netflix for compensatory payment for the surge in traffic that their streaming video services brings. Comcast is able to make such demands of Netflix because Comcast is not classified as a common carrier. Rather than run the risk of losing customers due to degraded or restricted content, Netflix obliged. In exchange for additional payment, Netflix, on behalf of its Comcast customers (customers that are already paying both Comcast and Netflix for primary access), insures their steaming video service remains high quality on Comcast connections. The power that currently resides in the major Internet service providers of the United States is detrimental to the very technological advancements on which consumers now heavily rely. The precedent set by Netflix and Comcast illustrates a harrowing future where access to Internet services is tiered and restricted. In a preferred traffic paradigm, new business ventures that depend on the Internet backbone will be discouraged – if Netflix had not been an early player in the streaming video market, it would be impossible for Netflix to reach a sustainable business model given the major Internet service providers discriminating against their traffic. Data discrimination is the antithesis of the philosophy of the Internet: it stifles innovation and therefore keeps the dominant players in power. Ubiquity and availability of Internet service has quickly evolved to become a basic utility to the likes of electricity and water. To that end, the outdated laws governing regulation of telecommunication and information services should evolve to reflect the intrinsic nature of Internet and Internet-enabled services. Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. DisqusChris Jericho, on crutches after the blindside beating he received from Universal Champion Kevin Owens during the Festival of Friendship two weeks ago, was lambasted yet again by KO, this time via a surprise attack from the champion in Regensburg, Germany REGENSBURG, Ger. – On Saturday night, Universal Champion Kevin Owens laid waste to his former friend, the already injured United States Champion Chris Jericho, in the midst of WWE Live’s Road to WrestleMania Tour through Germany. Due to injuries sustained last week at the hands of Owens during the “Festival of Friendship” on Monday Night Raw, Jericho was deemed unable to compete on the tour. Nevertheless, the outspoken Superstar made a surprise appearance on crutches before the crowd in Regensburg, interrupting The Prizefighter’s imminent contest against Roman Reigns. Unamused, KO proceeded to unleash another ruthless attack on his erstwhile best friend. Will Owens suffer any fallout for his actions? How will this affect Jericho on The Road to WrestleMania? Find out Monday night at 8/7 C on Raw, when The Prizefighter’s WWE Fastlane opponent, Goldberg, is scheduled to appear.Additional stock of PlayStation 4 hardware could be made available in time for launch to fulfil some pre-orders placed after August 5, Sony UK boss Fergal Gara has told VideoGamer.com. Speaking to us at Gamescom, Gara reiterated that Sony had advised retailers to "cut off pre-orders with the implicit promise that they offer day one [delivery]," before adding that there "may be some more" stock secured for the UK launch. "The way I'd summarise it is that we have a responsibility to our retailers to help them manage expectations for their consumers," said Gara discussing the console's stock situation. "I've been a retailer myself and there's nothing worse than a frustrated consumer. Therefore we're just one step removed from that, so our responsibility is to help the retailer to manage that. "So we have advised them to cut off pre-orders with the implicit promise that they offer day one. I think anybody who ordered up to August 5 was doing so on the expectation that they will definitely get it for day one. So what we're saying to retailers is that all of those people up to that date, we're confident we'll meet all of them for day one. "There may be some more, but now start your book for it may be day two when you get yours. As we finalise the exact allocation by retailer, what they'll be able to do is satisfy them all up to August [5] - maybe some more - on day one, and therefore nobody's going to go too far and cause themselves a problem. We're just trying to be as responsible as we possibly can because demand is so high and ahead of expectations." Sony warned retailers earlier this month that pre-orders placed from August 6 may not be fulfilled in time for launch, and announced last week that it had already secured over one million pre-orders for the console. There have previously been rumours suggesting that Sony is withholding PS4 stock in order to have additional units available to sell in stores on launch day. And though Gara wouldn't confirm whether that is the case, he says there's "nothing sinister" going on behind the scenes. "There's nothing sinister or overly clever about it, and it certainly isn't a PR stunt. It's a real high demand situation and helping retail to manage that responsibly," he says. PlayStation 4 launches in the UK on November 29 for £349. A range of official bundles will also be available.Flip the part over and you can see the results. Both the part and the table show clean breaks, darned near flush. Compare their impact to the screw holes nearby and you might find yourself jumping on their bandwagon too. Any stragglers rising above the surface can be leveled with a quick scrape of a putty knife or a straight edge. Don't bother with a chisel, you'll only damage your deck. Additionally, they can be machined flat or, unlike that broken brass screw you're loudly cursing, sanded smooth. The pros: Polymer nails are easy to use, hold very well, and break off cleanly. The cons: They require some tweaking to get the air pressure right, they don't work well through harder materials, and they only come from limited suppliers. The conclusion: If you've got flat sheet stock of fairly soft material and are looking for a fast way of securing it, then use some of these, you won't regret it ;) James Irmiger Lead DC - Facilities Manager TechShop SOMA www.techshop.comOn the Slave-Trade To the Editor of the Federal Gazette March 23d, 1790. Sir, Reading last night in your excellent Paper the speech of Mr. Jackson in Congress against their meddling with the Affair of Slavery, or attempting to mend the Condition of the Slaves, it put me in mind of a similar One made about 100 Years since by Sidi Mehemet Ibrahim, a member of the Divan of Algiers, which may be seen in Martin’s Account of his Consulship, anno 1687. It was against granting the Petition of the Sect called Erika, or Purists who pray’d for the Abolition of Piracy and Slavery as being unjust. Mr. Jackson does not quote it; perhaps he has not seen it. If, therefore, some of its Reasonings are to be found in his eloquent Speech, it may only show that men’s Interests and Intellects operate and are operated on with surprising similarity in all Countries and Climates, when under similar Circumstances. The African’s Speech, as translated, is as follows. “Allah Bismillah, &c. God is great, and Mahomet is his Prophet. “Have these Erika considered the Consequences of granting their Petition? If we cease our Cruises against the Christians, how shall we be furnished with the Commodities their Countries produce, and which are so necessary for us? If we forbear to make Slaves of their People, who in this hot Climate are to cultivate our Lands? Who are to perform the common Labours of our City, and in our Families? Must we not then be our own Slaves? And is there not more Compassion and more Favour due to us as Mussulmen, than to these Christian Dogs? We have now about 50,000 Slaves in and near Algiers. This Number, if not kept up by fresh Supplies, will soon diminish, and be gradually annihilated. If we then cease taking and plundering the Infidel Ships, and making Slaves of the Seamen and Passengers, our Lands will become of no Value for want of Cultivation; the Rents of Houses in the City will sink one half; and the Revenues of Government arising from its Share of Prizes be totally destroy’d! And for what? To gratify the whims of a whimsical Sect, who would have us, not only forbear making more Slaves, but even to manumit those we have. “But who is to indemnify their Masters for the Loss? Will the State do it? Is our Treasury sufficient? Will the Erika do it? Can they do it? Or would they, to do what they think Justice to the Slaves, do a greater Injustice to the Owners? And it we set our Slaves free, what is to be done with them? Few of them will return to their Countries; they know too well the great Hardships they must there be subject to; they will not embrace our holy Religion; they will not adopt our Manners; our People will not pollute themselves by intermarrying with them. Must we maintain them as Beggars in our Streets, or suffer our Properties to be the Prey of their Pillage? For men long accustom’d to Slavery will not work for a Livelihood when not compell’d. And what is there so pitiable in their present Condition? Were they not Slaves in their own Countries? “Are not Spain, Portugal, France, and the Italian states govern’d by Despots, who hold all their Subjects in Slavery, without Exception? Even England treats its Sailors as Slaves; for they are, whenever the Government pleases, seiz’d, and confin’d in Ships of War, condemn’d not only to work, but to fight, for small Wages, or a mere Subsistence, not better than our Slaves are allow’d by us. Is their Condition then made worse by their falling into our Hands? No; they have only exchanged on Slavery for another, and I may say a better; for here they are brought into a land where the Sun of Islamism gives forth its Light, and shines in full Splendor, and they have an Opportunity of making themselves acquainted with the true Doctrine, and thereby saving their immortal Souls. Those who remain at home have not that Happiness. Sending the Slaves home then would be sending them out of Light into Darkness. “I repeat the Question, What is to be done with them? I have heard it suggested, that they may be planted in the Wilderness, where there is plenty of Land for them to subsist on, and where they may flourish as a free State; but they are, I doubt, to little dispos’d to labour without Compulsion, as well as too ignorant to establish a good government, and the wild Arabs would soon molest and destroy or again enslave them. While serving us, we take care to provide them with every thing, and they are treated with Humanity. The Labourers in their own Country are, as I am well informed, worse fed, lodged, and cloathed. The Condition of most of them is therefore already mended, and requires no further Improvement. Here their Lives are in Safety. They are not liable to be impress’d for Soldiers, and forc’d to cut one another’s Christian throats, as in the Wars of their own Countries. If some of the religious mad Bigots, who now teaze us with their silly Petitions, have in a Fit of blind Zeal freed their Slaves, it was not Generosity, it was not Humanity, that mov’d them to the Action; it was from the conscious Burthen of a Load of Sins, and Hope, from the supposed Merits of so good a Work, to be excus’d Damnation. “How grossly are they mistaken in imagining Slavery to be disallow’d by the Alcoran? Are not the two Precepts, to quote no more, ‘Masters, treat your Slaves with kindness; Slaves, serve your Masters with Cheerfulness and Fidelity,’ clear Proofs to the contrary? Nor can the Plundering of Infidels be in that sacred Book forbidden, since it is well known from it, that God has given the World, and all that it contains, to his faithful Mussulmen, who are to enjoy it of Right as fast as they conquer it. Let us then hear no more of this detestable Proposition, the Manumission of Christian Slaves, the Adoption of which would, by depreciating our Lands and Houses, and thereby depriving so many good Citizens of their Properties, create universal Discontent, and provoke Insurrections, to the endangering of Government and producing general Confusion. I have therefore no doubt, but this wise Council will prefer the Comfort and Happiness of a whole Nation of true Believers to the Whim of a few Erika, and dismiss their Petition.” The Result was, as Martin tells us, that the Divan came to this Resolution; “The Doctrine, that Plundering and Enslaving the Christians is unjust, is at best problematical; but that it is the Interest of this State to continue the Practice, is clear; therefore let the Petition be rejected.” And it was rejected accordingly. And since like Motives are apt to produce in the Minds of Men like Opinions and Resolutions, may we not, Mr. Brown, venture to predict, from this Account, that the Petitions to the Parliament of England for abolishing the Slave-Trade, to say nothing of other Legislatures, and the Debates upon them, will have a similar Conclusion? I am, Sir, your constant Reader and humble Servant, HISTORICUS.Step by step Story Writing process Overcome writer’s block, write fiction daily, have fun, and rapidly improve your skills In this article I will share a simple, step by step writing process that has helped me to break through my writer’s block, and gave me the confidence in my ability to write regularly. I hope that it will help aspiring writers to develop their skills in the fastest, most fun way possible. My biggest dream in life is to master the art of writing fiction — to expertly create imaginary worlds and witty, insightful ideas. I desperately want to become a great writer, but the process of practicing this craft turned out to be way more difficult than I have ever expected — it felt confusing and overwhelming, and staring at a blank page, struggling to come up with ideas, is outright excruciating. The main problem I faced was the lack of clear and attainable goals, a straightforward process I could regularly practice to improve my skills. I wanted to be able to competently go from a blank page to the complete story, to feel like I can write consistently and understand what I’m doing, instead of being stressed and wondering whether I can do this again. To overcome this, I’m using Nulis which helps me to break down the process of going from an idea to the complete story into series of small, specific steps. Following, is the description of the each step. Get a prompt To get started — go to this list and pick a writing prompt that you like. Starting with a prompt is a great way to make sure you always have something to write about, and replying to the prompts in this list will help your stories to get noticed and receive feedback — which is extremely important for growing as a writer. Create a template Open this url to create a story template: It will to guide you through the process of writing a story, step by step, by asking you questions, and giving you small, clear, attainable goals to accomplish. Basically, it works like this: You start with your general story concept, just an idea with a tagline. That is the “root’ of your story tree. You then break it down into more details — acts, and story arcs. Which you then break down even further — into scenes. By answering the questions in the template, you will be able to figure out all the information you need to know to create an awesome, well-crafted story. The questions are designed to be easy to answer, get your mind to generate ideas, and to always give you the tools that will help you to solve any problem you encounter, without ever getting confused, overwhelmed, or stuck in a writer’s block. This makes writing process interactive, and incredibly easy to begin and continue. Just create cards, write down your ideas, and keep refining and modifying your tree, until you finally have a complete story. Like a painter starting with a rough draft and gradually improving it until it becomes a masterpiece. Note that this template is meant to give aspiring writers all the ingredients they could possibly need to competently craft a story, but often you will not have to know all of this. Always feel free to skip or ignore the things that are not helpful at the moment, and focus on accomplishing your goal(writing a complete story) in the easiest and most effective way possible. Remember, these are not rules, just tools. Also, a lot of the information will be already given to you by the prompt, so all you have to do is to fill in the missing pieces. Practice writing and completing the story The template will take you through the complete process of writing: Brainstorming your world/character/story ideas Coming up with a plot and outlining your story Turning your outline of scenes into the first draft Improving the draft until your story is awesome Treat this process like solving a puzzle, or playing a computer game — because that is the most fun, and optimal way to learn writing. Try to stay in the Flow — simplify your goals when you’re feeling overwhelmed, take on more interesting challenges when you’re feeling bored. Also, learn about Deliberate Practice. Strive to make progress and move forward, no stopping, and keep in mind your main purpose — completing your story, getting it done. This is the only thing hat matters, because this is the only process you can control that makes you a better writer, and leads you to creating awesome things. Repeating this process (writing in the flow and with deliberate practice) will take you past the stumbling blocks most writers face, bring you a lot of joy and the sense of progress, and increase your level of expertise as rapidly as humanly possible. Share your story and receive feedback Finally, you are
- June 13, 2018 National Association of Manufacturers Shopfloor Main article Goad Company (Independence, Missouri) – $1,000 bonuses to employees. Gray Skies Distillery (Grand Rapids, Michigan) -- Expanding production: Gray Skies has been in business for around two and a half years and has recently been able to expand production because of one specific aspect of the GOP tax law. It's called the Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act, which was an amendment to the big picture bill Trump signed into law in December. There's a lot to the law, but here's why it matters to Gray Skies and other distilleries like it: excise taxes are much, much lower for them now. 80% lower to be exact. "The instant a drop of alcohol is produced, tax is owed on that," said Steve Vander Pol, who co-founded Gray Skies and serves as the head distiller. The law reduces excise taxes on producers from $13.50 per proof gallon for the first 100,000 gallons produced to $2.70 per proof gallon. "We're talking thousands of dollars every quarter that we're saving," Vander Pol said, "and obviously for someone on this sized scale to write a check that's reduced by 80% is pivotal. It's been huge for us." - June 4, 2018, WZZM article excerpt Green Recovery Technologies, LLC (New Castle, Delaware) — $1,000 bonuses for all seven employees: "We are a startup waste-to-value biochemical company of seven that believes in the direction the country is going and that our best days are ahead of us. These tax reductions benefit our workers by providing an instant no cost wage hike. Paying the bonuses in a low tax environment was an easy decision for GRT since we know that this low cost capital is being invested in the local community where it will be spent on goods and services as well as being by employees into their retirement savings accounts.” — Kenneth Laubsch, President and CEO, Green Recovery Technologies, LLC Griffith Trucking, Broadway Express, Heartland Peterbilt, Heartland Classics (Effingham and Newton, Illinois) – $1,000 bonuses: In President Trump’s State of the Union address Tuesday evening, he made the case that his recent tax law is the reason why companies across the country have announced bonuses, wage increases and other benefits for their employees. Tony Griffith, who owns three companies in Effingham, agrees wholeheartedly. So much so that this week he announced to his 65 full-time employees that he will be giving each of them a $1,000 bonus. -- Husband and wife Kristi and Rich Stoddard, who both work at Heartland Peterbilt, are also excited about the bonuses. With three children, they say it's a more than welcome gesture. “Anytime your paycheck increases, it’s definitely a good thing for your family," said Kristi Stoddard. "It’s nice to see they’re putting money back into the middle class." -- For the Stoddards and others, every bit counts. "We’ll be able to pay more bills," said Rich Stoddard. "We might be able to go out for dinner. Do the little things we might not be able to do until this kicks in. Honestly, your paycheck, you know where it’s going even before you get it. Now we have a little extra." – Jan. 31 Effingham Daily News article excerpt Groomer’s Seafood (Corpus Christi, Texas) – Expansion of distribution facilities. Haciendas at Grace Village (Las Cruces, New Mexico): hiring additional employees: “Haciendas at Grace Village had planned to expand in the future but the company is moving forward now because of lower taxes according to Coppedge. The assisted living facility which has 49 employees may hire as many as 40 additional people.”—Feb 23. 2018, Albuquerque Journal article excerpt Harford Alarm Company (Bel Air, Maryland) – $1,000 bonuses for all 13 employees. Hinee Gourmet Coffee (Helotes, Texas) — Plans to upgrade systems/equipment and enhance wages, benefits, and bonus programs: Jeff and Mary Marsh have owned and operated Hinee Coffee in Helotes, Texas for the past seven years. Since they opened their doors, their business has expanded to two locations and eleven employees – seven of whom are full-time. Hinee Coffee’s staff ranges from students to single moms. When it comes to the recently enacted tax reform, Jeff is most excited about passing along additional savings directly to his staff. The Marshes plan to use the extra income Hinee Coffee saves in taxes for increases in hourly wages, benefits packages, and bonus programs. The reduced corporate tax rate also incentivizes business owners to reinvest in their companies. In the past, when Hinee Coffee needed new equipment or repairs, they would typically delay these costs as long as possible. After seeing tax savings, they are now hoping to upgrade their systems and expand. When asked if the tax code was simpler to navigate, Jeff said, while they are still working with their CPA, he’s already noticed the reduction in paperwork for filing taxes. “When we’re not focusing on the paperwork, we have more time to focus on the operations of the business.” — Feb. 5, 2018 “Hurd on the Hill” column by U.S. Representative Will Hurd (R-Texas) HT Metals (Tucson, Arizona) - Purchasing new equipment: His Tucson-based company, HT Metals, cuts pieces for aerospace and medical device industries. In early May, Ruiz told a crowd gathered in Tempe to see Vice President Mike Pence that he recently spent a couple hundred thousand dollars on a new machine. “And, we get to expense it immediately,” he said. - May 16, 2018, KJZZ.org article excerpt Hunter Chase & Associates (Springfield Township, Missouri) – Employee bonuses; purchase of new trucks and investment in equipment: Hunter Chase & Associates employs 30 people and provides concrete construction primarily for municipalities in the St. Louis area. The construction management company was able purchase new trucks and handed out bonuses to its employees. “We reinvested half a million dollars into new equipment trade off and doing deferment of maintenance that we have just not been able to feel like we could afford to do,” Hartman said. – March 15, 2018 Fox Business Network article excerpt Industrial Weldors & Machinists (Duluth, Minnesota) - Investing in employee pensions, hiring new employees: “This is an American success story of generations,” Pence said of IWM, a third-generation family business that gets 70 percent of its work by rebuilding massive rock crushers used to extract taconite iron ore on the Iron Range. Trump tax cuts helped the business and its employees, Pence said — including thousands of dollars in investments by the company into IWM employee pensions earlier this year. “That’s what it’s all about,” Pence said. It was an easy fact to check after the vice president’s remarks. All four sibling owners of the company were on hand — Dawn Bergh and her brothers Rick, Rob and Randy Abernethy. Bergh confirmed the pension investments for the company’s 32 employees. “The boilermakers’ pension is in the toilet,” Bergh said. “They’re worried about it. We wanted to give them something that would keep them around. It’s really hard to get employees. We’re hiring right now for both a welder and a machinist.” - August 8, 2018, Twin Cities Pioneer Press article excerpt Iron Horse Energy Services Inc. (Eolia, Missouri) – bonuses for all 93 employees; due to a lower tax burden the company is also continuing to cover 100 percent of healthcare. Said one employee: “We were also able to maintain 100% payment of Health care even after the astronomical yearly increases created by the affordable care act. We were looking at considerable employee participation in payment of premiums occurring this year. Thank you Mr Trump for being a business man.” Information First, Inc. (Manassas, Virginia) -- $500 cash bonus for all 15 employees. InUnison Inc. (Idaho Falls, Idaho) – Tax reform bonuses to employees. Jamison Door (Hagerstown, Maryland) - Employee bonuses, facility expansion, growing workforce by 115%, investing in new technology: Jamison Door, which manufactures temperature-controlled doors, has been a family-owned business since 1906. The company’s commitment to the men and women on its shop floor means that every single employee is sharing in the benefits of tax reform. Jamison’s 120 employees received two bonuses, each equivalent to one week’s salary—first in August, in anticipation of tax reform, and again in February, after the new law took effect. That is just the beginning: this year, Jamison plans to do even more, offering another raise to its employees. Jamison Door is also taking advantage of tax reform and using its tax savings to reinvest in its business. That means growing its facilities, investing in new technology and creating skilled jobs in the Hagerstown plant. Over the next year, Jamison is adding more than 50,000 square feet in new manufacturing space. “Right now, we’re in the process of adding a significant-sized facility to add different product lines,” added Chairman and CEO John Williams, referencing his company’s plan to expand a product line of high-speed roll-up doors. “It’s a 400 percent increase in plant size.” “We are spending about $1.5 million on new state-of-the-art equipment in our main plant, which makes foamed-in-place cold storage doors, and more than $3.5 million on the new plant for high-speed roll-up doors. These are significant investments for a company our size, and we feel comfortable making these investments because of the favorable business climate and the benefits of the lower tax rates.” Expanding the company’s facilities also means Jamison will need more workers, and it plans to increase hiring dramatically. Over the next three years, Jamison plans to increase its workforce by more than 115 percent. “Tax reform has absolutely made it more feasible to undertake these projects,” explained Williams. “Tax reform is necessary for us to keep expanding and to keep our business strong.” - July 5, 2018, National Association of Manufacturers article excerpt JimRinehart.com State Farm agent (Seaside, California) – pay raises for employees: I am a self-employed Insurance Agent for State Farm Insurance with 3 full time employees in my office in Seaside, CA. Because of President’s tax reform I gave all of my staff a pay raise starting Jan 1 2018. – Jim Rinehart, State Farm Agent Jones Auto & Towing (Riverview, Florida) – the company, which provides 24-hour wrecker service, roadside assistance, emergency towing, and fuel delivery etc. will put two additional trucks into service, which will add two more full time jobs: “The tax cuts are putting two more tow trucks on the road for my business. This will add two more full time job openings that will help two more families. And it will put a little more money in the bank for my family. My wife is a registered nurse and has a 401k which is doing better this last year than in the previous 13 years!! Thanks to President Trump!!! Thankfully I will be taken delivery of my new trucks in two weeks and hitting the road! MAGA!” – Guy Jones, Jones Auto & Towing Jordan Winery (Healdsburg, California) -- $1,000 bonuses for each of its 85 employees In response to the tax cut bill that passed this week, John Jordan, owner of Jordan Winery in Sonoma County, California, announces that he will give all eligible winery employees a $1,000 bonus as a result of the passage of the 2017 tax reform bill. Jordan challenges fellow business owners to pledge their $1,000-per-employee commitments before the end of 2017 at a new website, www.1Country1K.com. Created to encourage more business owners to share new tax savings with their employees, 1 Country 1K is a new movement born after the announcements by AT&T, Comcast and Fifth Third Bancorp that each company would award every eligible U.S. employee a $1,000 bonus, thanks to the new tax cut bill. Jordan wanted a simple campaign that would make it easier for more companies—especially small businesses—to do the same this holiday season. "The heart of any successful business is its employees," said John Jordan, the 45-year-old entrepreneur and philanthropist behind The John Jordan Foundation. "In a tightening labor market, it's more important than ever for employees to feel valued and acknowledged. Take home pay for most American workers will increase in 2018, but why wait? Just imagine if we can get 5,000 small businesses, each with around 200 employees, to join us in giving $1,000 bonuses to their employees. We'd be putting close to $1 billion into the pockets of working Americans even before the withholding tax tables change." – Dec. 22, 2017 Jordan Winery press release Joseph’s Lite Cookies (Sebastian, Florida) – $3,000 - $4,200 salary increases, new computer systems, new product packaging: "As the president and CEO of Joseph’s Lite Cookies in Florida, I run a family-owned, sugar-free cookie business. We bake more than 12 million sugar-free cookies a day, in addition to supplying other diabetic-friendly products. I employ numerous workers who stand to directly benefit from the Republican tax overhaul. Why? Because lower rates and increased deductions leave me with more resources to expand business operations and reward hardworking staffers. Because of the tax bill, I’m purchasing new computer systems and creating new product packaging for international expansion. More importantly, I’m giving raises to four key employees — half of our workforce — which range from just over $3,000 to nearly $4,200. My top employees have earned greater financial security, and the Republican tax package made it a reality for them. Because of President Trump’s commitment to lowering rates and increasing deductions, we are now experiencing the largest tax-induced investment revolution ever. Never before have we seen such a frenzy of pay hikes, 401(k) increases, and bonuses due to a single piece of legislation. Democrats scoff at their own peril. – Feb. 5, 2018 Washington Examiner news article excerpt Junk King (Reno, Nevada) -- Purchase of additional truck; increased hiring: These provisions allow job creators to save money on a new oven, delivery vehicles or added storefronts the moment they buy them. Perhaps more importantly, small business owners are left with more resources for new hiring, wage increases and bonuses. For my own business, an environmentally friendly debris, clutter and junk removal franchise in Reno, tax savings will translate to hiring more workers and investing in another truck to keep up with demand. If there’s one thing I’ve learned since opening Junk King three years ago, it’s that success in my business is also indicative of the economic health of the Greater Reno area. When homes and commercial property are sold, or families and businesses decide to upgrade their spaces, they need junk removal services. Just as the 2018 tax cuts will allow me to invest in more employees and new equipment, they also give American families the leg up to finance the projects they had once put off under harder economic times. -- Jan. 26, 2018 Nevada Independent op-ed excerpt by Brian Cassidy, owner of Junk King Kalb Industries of Nevada, Ltd. (Las Vegas, Nevada) – pay raises for employees who have been with the company three months or longer: We received a tax cut from the bill that Congress passed last night and as part of our family, we would like to pass along some of that savings to you all. On your next payroll check, all employees that have been here more than three months will receive a raise on their next check. Again thank you all for all the hard work, and dedication this year. – Dec. 20, 2017 note to employees Kauai Cattle LLC – employee bonuses Keg Creek Brewing (Glenwood, Iowa) - Expanding operations, purchasing new equipment: “A small brewery in Glenwood, Iowa, in Mills County called Keg Creek is expanding their operations and investing in new equipment as they grow.” - June 11, 2018, Rep. David Young statement on U.S. House Floor Kimmins Contracting (Tampa, Florida) – $1,000 tax reform bonuses to employees: "With the Trump tax cuts, I was able to put 80 percent of our savings back into the pockets of my team members. Lowering taxes, cutting regulations and focusing on how to help businesses succeed is what what we'll need to continue to grow our state's economy," said Williams. Williams announced that, with the money he saved from the tax reform, he gave each of his employees a $1,000 bonus this year, while continuing to invest in equipment for his business. – April 6, 2018 Adam Putnam for Governor press release excerpts Koehler Flooring, Inc. (Green Bay, Wisconsin) – This family carpet and flooring company gave $1,000 bonuses to seven full-time employees: “The tax reform bill is a huge win for the USA and will have positive effects on our floor covering business. Our customers have more capital to use for expansion and remodeling which is great news for all construction trades. There is more work to be done on the tax code but it's nice to see this recent reversal on punishing success. My crew was very happy to receive their tax reform good news.” -- David Koehler, President. Kramerica Properties (Merced, California) – this small family-owned company gave each of the six employees a $2,000 tax reform bonus: My employer Kramerica Properties, a small family owned company gave each employee $2,000 once this tax bill was signed by our President. In fact, on election day, the owners gave us the day off and once Trump won the election, we got the whole weekend off and paid for. Only having 6 people employed, it is much easier and fun to celebrate these "small crumbs". I would also like to add that instead of the office listening to music station, we only listen to KMJNOW conservative radio, & the best part is all employees are Hispanic & love calling to the radio station. Hispanics for Trump. – M. Alcaraz, Kramerica Properties Kris-Tech Wire (Rome, New York) - Expanding operations, purchasing new equipment: On the tour, Graham Brodock the President and CEO informed Rep. Tenney that Kris-Tech Wire has reinvested in the company as a result of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Kris-Tech is building an addition and acquiring new equipment-thanks to the newly created ability to write off equipment charges. Kris-Tech has over 400 employees and a deep commitment to continuing to invest in the facility and employees here in Rome. - August 2, 2018, Rep. Claudia Tenney press release excerpt Landmark Reporting, Inc. (Orlando, Florida) — $500 bonus checks for all three employees: “I own a small business in Orlando, Florida with three employees. It is a business that I DID BUILD and have owned and operated for over 35 years. After I saw the increase in take-home pay in all of our paychecks after President Trump’s tax cut implementation, I wrote bonus checks of $500 each to my employees. On the Memo line, it’s labeled 'President Trump Tax Cut Bonus.’ — Candy Morgan, owner, Landmark Reporting, Inc. Land & Co. (Wyoming, Michigan) -- $1,000 bonuses for full-time employees; $500 bonuses for part-time employees; $250 bonuses for seasonal workers: Land & Co., which operates 19 apartment communities in West Michigan, announced it will give its employees a special bonus of up to $1,000 in response the federal tax cut legislation signed recently by President Donald Trump. "Land & Co. believes the Trump Tax Cut has generated a more optimistic vision for the future of business in West Michigan and the United States of America and wants their wonderful employees to be a part of and share in that vision," the company said in a statement attributed to its owners, Roger Lucas and Dan Hibma on Monday, Feb. 5. Land & Co.'s 151 full-time employees will each get $1,000; its 17 part-time workers will get $500 and its nine seasonal workers will each get $250. – Feb. 5, 2018 Mlive.com article excerpt Lee Container Company (Homerville, Georgia) - Purchase of new equipment, business expansion: “Lee Container Company in Homerville, which I visited a couple of weeks ago, said the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act will enable them to purchase more equipment and grow their business.” - March 20, 2018, Rep. Buddy Carter statement on House floor Leak Sealers (Lumberton, Texas) – bonuses to its 100 employees: “Female-owned engineering company Leak Sealers says it's handing out bonuses to its 100 employees, joining major retailers like Lowe's and Walmart Inc. that are investing in workers after Congress approved a tax cut that will help businesses.” – Feb. 8 2018, The Beaumont Enterprise article excerpt Liberty Landscape Supply (Jacksonville, Florida) - Expanding operations and services offered to customers, hiring a new employee: Mike Zaffaroni calls the newest piece of equipment at his landscaping company in Jacksonville, Florida, his “Tax Cut Truck.” He had long wanted to expand the services he offers to his customers and says the tax cuts President Donald J. Trump signed into law six months ago were the motivation he needed to buy the $80,000 truck and forklift. “Without the tax cuts, we’re not so sure it would have been the right move for us financially,” he said. Under the new tax law, Mr. Zaffaroni will be able to write off the entire cost of the purchase this year. Along with the lower tax rates and other benefits of the law, he says his accountant estimates he’ll save 7 percent to 10 percent on his taxes this year. That’s a big saving for a small company like his, and it’s money he’ll reinvest in his business. “We’re going to be able to expand, we’re going to add a product line, we’ll be able to deliver more materials than we were able to before,” Mr. Zaffaroni said. “We’ve actually already hired another driver, so that also adds another job.” I toured Mr. Zaffaroni’s company, Liberty Landscape Supply, soon after he was named Florida’s National Small Business Person of the Year, and just days after the truck was delivered. “It makes it very real,” he told me. “A lot of America doesn’t really understand the implication these tax cuts have on each individual small business.” - June 29, 2018, White House article excerpt Lima Pallet Company (Lima, Ohio) – Pay raises, new jobs, purchase of new equipment: Lima business owner Tracie Sanchez said the tax cut has helped her business. Now she’s adding 15-20 jobs and finishing a half a million dollar expansion project. "Within probably the first week, we ended up giving all of our employees a raise, which has been much needed," said Sanchez, president, and owner of Lima Pallet Company. "We haven’t been able to do that for several years in a row. We also invested in some equipment. We hope to have that hooked up here within the next 30 days." Portman said growth can already be seen and more is expected. – March 26, 2018 WLIO News article excerpt Lupo’s Meat Plant (Endicott, New York) - Increased wages, ability to maintain healthcare coverage: Company President Sam Lupo says recent tax cuts have allowed the business to raise wages and maintain healthcare. He says maintaining a small business all comes down to building strong employees. "Our long-term employees see that, they feel it, they've taken ownership, so then when we have new employees come in, they're taking those employees under their arm, and they're saying, 'hey, we're more than just a spiedie company, we're involved in our community," said Sam Lupo, Sam A. Lupo & Sons President. The plant has been in businesses for more than 60 years and currently has 45 employees. - May 4, 2018, Spectrum News Article Excerpt Mack Molding (Arlington, Vermont) - Major facility upgrades: Mack Molding, an injection molder and contract manufacturer based in Vermont, announced this week that it is investing $5.4 million to upgrade two existing facilities in response to “favorable tax changes” and a surging economy. - July 16, 2018 National Association of Manufacturers article excerpt Magellan Transport Logistics (Jacksonville, Florida) - Expanding facility operations, hiring more employees: “Just last month, Mr. Speaker, I toured Magellan Transport Logistics, a service-disabled, veteran-owned logistics company in my hometown of Jacksonville, Florida. They are adding at least 100 new jobs in the next 5 years and were able to acquire a new 47,000- square-foot facility. During the tour of the facility, we were told by the company’s CEO that this expansion is a direct result of the tax cuts that the business received from the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act. This is just one example of the differences that these cuts are making to improve the way of life for countless Americans in Florida and across the Nation. I have heard from many small businesses throughout my district who are thriving unlike never before because of these landmark reforms.” - May 17, 2018, Rep. John Rutherford statement on U.S. House Floor Marlin Steel (Baltimore, Maryland) - Increased workforce by 10 percent, new investments in machinery: At Marlin Steel, which only buys American steel and exports to 39 countries, we have already done just that. We increased our workforce by 10 percent to manage more than $1 million in new USA-made equipment. Tax reform gave us the confidence to make these important investments — investments not just in our company but in the lives of hardworking Marylanders. One of the machines we bought makes products here in Baltimore that we will export to Mexico two times a week. Our existing employees are also better off, given that tax cuts mean they are taking home more money in their paychecks. It’s a little extra security after years of economic anxiety and uncertainty. One of our employees put the savings toward buying his new house. Some of our new employees hired since tax reform have also achieved important life goals: One bought a car; another moved to a new apartment; and a third is able to pay off debt, support his daughter and move to a new apartment. - June 21, 2018, Baltimore Sun article excerpt McFarland Interiors (St. Charles, Missouri) – Upgrade equipment, invest in new product lines, hire more contractors: For small business like mine, we were granted a new 20 percent tax deduction. This means we can protect 20 percent of our earnings from taxation. I agree with the respondents of a recent small business survey conducted by Bank of America that this tax code provision is a “game changer.” With these added funds, I am able to upgrade my equipment, invest in new product lines and hire more contractors. According to a list compiled by Americans for Tax Reform, I am one of just hundreds of businesses across the country to reinvest its tax code savings into its employees. No wonder small business and consumer sentiment are pivoting around all-time highs as both groups have more cash on hand because of these tax cuts. – August 23, 2018, Kansas City Star article excerpt Metallix (Shrewsbury, New Jersey) - Employee bonuses, investing in business growth: First order of business? Giving each of Metallix’s 98 workers a $1,000 bonus, an unexpected surprise that came just days after tax reform took effect. “From the outset, the company wanted to share the benefits of tax reform with our employees,” said Maria Piastre, president of Metallix. “On February 14, every employee received a net $1,000 after-tax bonus in response to tax reform. Coming so soon after our usual end-of-year bonuses, it was completely unexpected by Metallix employees, and we were all very happy to receive it.” Metallix wasn’t shy about tying these bonuses directly to tax reform. Each employee also received a letter from Metallix owner Eric Leiner, who explained that tax reform was going to mean a big boost to the company—and that he wanted to make sure employees were receiving their share of the good fortune. Metallix employees clearly took this sentiment to heart. Piastre said that, months after the bonuses were given out, many employees still had Leiner’s letter hung proudly at their desks. Piastre also explained that Metallix was using some of the benefits of tax reform to grow their business—and that significant investments were now more feasible because the company’s taxes had been so substantially lowered. - August 2, 2018, National Association of Manufacturers article excerpt Mid-AM Metal Forming (Rogersville, Missouri) – bonuses for 140 employees: Mid-AM Metal Forming is giving its 140 employees cash bonuses. The local company is one of many companies, like Jet Blue and AT&T, giving employees a bonus because of the tax law reform. "Mid-AM Metal Forming is excited about the positive implications the tax reform package will have both on the manufacturing industry and its employees," President Steve Johnson said in a news release. "We have very dedicated employees that assist in making us a success. We are excited to surprise all of them with this reward.” The company does metal stretch forming, bending, metal fabrication and painting services, according to the news release, serving aerospace, automotive, marine and architectural purposes. – Jan. 6 2018, OzarksFirst.com article excerpt Miles Fiberglass (Oregon City, Oregon) - Hiring more employees, increasing wages, implementing profit-sharing bonuses for existing employees: Lori Miles-Olund, who is the president of the family-owned business that her father founded in 1963, explained how Miles Fiberglass plans to pass along the benefits to its employees: “We increased our starting wage by 9 percent, which bumps everyone up the chart,” Miles-Olund said. “We’ve also implemented a new training program, ‘Learn to Earn.’ Every time employees learn a new skill, they get an hourly pay increase of $1.00, $1.50.” She reported that, even as expenses like health insurance have gone up on the employer side, tax reform means that Miles Fiberglass will not be passing those added expenses along to its employees. And, since many employees commute from more than an hour away, Miles Fiberglass is also helping make these long commutes more affordable, providing a flat-rate gas stipend. “We also anticipate implementing our bonus program again this year,” Miles-Olund said, noting that it had previously been on hold for quite some time due to the economic climate. Once implemented employees will start receiving a quarterly profit-sharing bonus, meaning that, as Miles continues to succeed, employees will directly benefit. Miles Fiberglass also plans to expand its facilities and workforce dramatically. “We anticipate our sales to double this year due to the economic climate,” Miles-Olund told the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), adding that demand for composite component parts is “far more than we’d seen in the past.” – June 1, 2018, National Association of Manufacturers article excerpt Mincey Marble (Gainesville, Georgia) – Bonuses of up to $1,000 based on length of service: “As the owner of a family business, I want to share how tax reform is benefitting Americans at every level. Companies big and small are passing along tax savings to the workers who help build our economy. I hope that the bonuses Mincey Marble is providing encourage other businesses in our great state to pay it forward, because the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is the kind of meaningful change that can help transform communities by bringing relief to American workers and families,” said [Mincey Marble President and CEO Donna] Mincey. Employees at Mincey Marble will receive bonuses of up to $1,000 depending on their length of service with the company. Even employees hired this year will see a bonus, and the checks are scheduled to arrive during the week of Valentine’s Day as a sign of the company’s appreciation for its associates. – Jan. 31 2018, press release Mooneyhan’s Auto Service (West Columbia, South Carolina) - Hiring new employees, business expansion: Since then, small businesses across the Second District are expanding and creating jobs. Bill Mooneyhan, of Mooneyhan’s Auto Service in West Columbia, announced he is adding a new bay on to the shop and hiring additional employees. - February 21, 2018, The Lexington Ledger article excerpt Move It Or Lose It Moving LLC – employee bonuses. Muncie Aviation Company (Muncie, Indiana) – Tax reform bonuses for all employees: Muncie Aviation Company will pay a bonus to all employees during the first week of March, "due in part to the Trump (Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017) and in part to the record economic results posted by the company for 2017," the company announced this week. "The company believes that the favorable business climate will increase opportunities in the coming years," a release stated. A reception for the employees/owners will be held immediately after the awarding of the bonus at Merk's restaurant, which is located in Muncie Aviation's administrative building at the Delaware County Regional Airport. -- The company employs 55 full-time and eight part-time people. – March 2, 2018 Star Press article excerpts MusicNotes (Madison, Wisconsin) – Salary increases for employees: The new year brings a new salary increase for all 55 employees at Musicnotes, Inc., the worldwide leader in digital sheet music based in Madison, Wisconsin. Effective January 1st, the 3% salary increase is tied specifically to corporate tax reform and is in addition to Musicnotes' existing annual raises to eligible employees. "We're genuinely appreciative of our loyal and gifted team at Musicnotes and we are thrilled to share the benefit of lower corporate taxes with them," said Executive Chairman, Tim Reiland. "It's the right thing to do and it's also smart business." After a strong 2017 sales performance, Musicnotes was named to the Internet Retailer Top 1000 list for the 13th straight year in 2017 and garners over half of the worldwide digital sheet music market, according to traffic statistics from SimilarWeb. The company has sold products to over six million customers since 1998. "Musicnotes has paid a full corporate tax rate over the past several years," indicated Reiland. "Beyond the Jan 1 salary increases, we will accelerate hiring plans and also have increased flexibility regarding technology projects and investment opportunities in 2018 and beyond." – Jan. 8 2018, MusicNotes press release Nine Line Apparel (Savannah, Georgia) - Employee bonuses: “The bonuses range from $500 to $20,000” - March 28, 2018, Rep Buddy Carter video excerpt Northco Products, Inc. (Albany, New York) – this small business was able to hire one new employee, give all employees bonuses ranging from $100 - $971 after taxes; the company is also investing in a new building: The opportunity to do better for our employees and business was an exciting event. We took a leap of faith that congress would pass the historic tax reform. In doing so, we were able to hire one new employee, and give all of our employees bonuses including our intern, who is involved in a local high school’s program for students with autism. These bonuses varied from $100 to $971 (after tax based on the duration of their employment with us. On top of this, we decided to invest in a new building and name for the business.The building we chose is the former headquarters of our family business. Moving into this new building will provide our employees with more space and higher quality work environment and location. The name we chose also ties in with our roots as a successful and respected family business. The Historic Tax Reform presents us with the opportunity to rebuild a once great family focused business, Standard Copy - AJ Crandall, President Northco Products, Inc Northeast Vapor Supplies (Old Saybrook, CT) -- Bonuses of between $50 - $300 for the five employees. Northwest Motor Services (Longview, Washington) - Raising pay and hiring new employees: A few weeks ago, I visited Northwest Motor Services in Longview – a local business that employs 33 people and repairs industrial motors for factories and industrial facilities. Their outlook on new opportunities was far more optimistic than what I’ve heard from local employers in years. They’d just given their employees raises, and were excited about additional business that may stem from tax cut-driven economic growth – and hiring more people as a result. - July 9, 2018, Rep. Jaime Herrera statement on the House floor Ole Smoky Distillery (Gatlinburg, Tennessee) - bonuses for non-senior management employees, purchasing new equipment, opening a new distillery, hiring new employees: “We are very supportive of the new tax programs, as they are providing an opportunity for us to further invest in our team and business activities,” said Robert Hall, CEO of Ole Smoky Distillery. “We greatly value all our very talented employees, and are always striving to do what is best for them and the surrounding community. We will be using some of our tax savings to reward many of these hardworking individuals, as well as increasing our investment in new business endeavors. We couldn’t think of a better day to make this announcement.” The moonshine distillery will be using some of the tax cut savings to provide bonuses for all employees below senior management, proportional to their tenure with the company. Additionally, because of its rapid business growth, the company has created many more jobs, particularly in East Tennessee, and plans to continue that growth by investing further in its Sevier County distilleries and expanding its footprint to Nashville, where it plans to open a 4th distillery and retail/entertainment location in the fall. New equipment has already been installed at the company’s largest distillery, the Holler, in order to expand production capacity. More equipment is on order for its Pittman Center bottling facility to continue the capacity expansion of that facility. - April 17, 2018, Ole Smoky Distillery press release excerpt Omaha Track (Omaha, Nebraska) — $500 bonuses. Smaller corporations such as Omaha Track have reached out to let us know that they too are sharing the benefits of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act with employees,” said Rep. Don Bacon. “The 200 employees of Omaha Track will each receive an extra bonus of $500 as a result of the tax reform. That’s not crumbs to hard working middle class families.” The
child. The main topic of the interview was Milo’s recent Twitter ban and the recent trolling of Ghostbusters star Leslie Jones, which has been repeatedly and disingenuously blamed on Milo throughout the media. Moran asked Milo whether or not he would call Leslie Jones “a dude” to her face to which Milo replied that he “probably would”, this greatly angered Moran who said, “Then you’re an idiot.” Discussing the body positivity and “healthy at any size” movement, Moran queried Milo “You’re going to go after somebody’s body to go after their ideas, what grade are you in? Are you a 13-year-old?”, Milo then explained his particular brand of controversy-creation saying, “If my rudeness creates conversation, provokes people into saying ‘oh what a monster’ and then 20% of people start talking about what I was actually saying, I will consider my career to be a terrific success.” Moran at this point in the interview had shown himself to be considerably biased against Yiannopoulos, blaming him for Leslie Jones’ Twitter trolling and insulting Yiannopoulos’ intelligence. Search engine and news aggregator Bing featured the interview in their Top Stories section with the title “Interview Goes Badly.” Lucas Nolan is a conservative who regularly contributes articles on censorship and free speech to Breitbart. Follow him on Twitter@LucasNolan_ or email him at [email protected] RIBEIRO Arrest Details 1321 NW 13th St. Miami, FL 33125 Visitation Guidelines Clothing that resembles a correctional employee (officer or civilian) uniform, such as all green or a green and white skirt/pants and shirt combination. Clothing that resembles an inmate uniform, such as orange, red, white, colored scrubs. Hats or head covering. Visitors who claim they are required to wear a hat or head covering because of a documented medical reason, must submit to a search of the head wear by removing said item. A supervisor shall review all medical/religious claims, witness the search, and ensure the incident is documented. Tight fitting, see-through, provocative and/or revealing clothing of any kind e.g., spandex, sheer, netting, torn or frayed attire, bathing suits, body suits, athletic shorts, hot pants. Tops that are cut low; reveal more than 2 inches of cleavage, more than 4 inches of the back, or any portion of the abdomen; halter tops, tube tops, tank tops, spaghetti straps, sleeveless/muscle shirts, strapless shirts. Shorts above 3 inches form the knee e.g., micro/mini shorts. Skirts and dresses above 2 inches from the knee e.g., micro/mini skirts. Slits in skirts/dresses must not exceed mid-thigh when seated. Non-prescription sunglasses Hooded garments or clothing with offensive lettering. Contact Visit Advisory All detention Facilities visitors must be dressed appropriately. Failure to comply with the following guidelines will result in denial of admission to the facility and/or suspension of the visit. Visitors must comply with established security measures (metal detector devises, frisk and canine searches, etc.) prior to being permitted to enter the secure area of the detention facility. Visitors with medical or religious claims, which prohibit exposure to metal detector devices must provide the medical documentation if applicable, and consent to a frisk search. A supervisor shall review all medical/religious claims and be present during the frisk search. Frisk searches of visitors shall be conducted in a discreet area and in accordance to DSOP 11-031. Anyone refusing to consent to a frisk search and/or comply with established security measures, shall be denied access into the facility and directed to leave the premises immediately. Visitors are encouraged not to wear footwear, garments including underwire bras, or other items which may contain metal e.g. jewelry, hairpins, etc., as they may cause the metal detector to alert, subject the visitor to a frisk search, and/or prevent their admission into the facility. When able, metal items should be removed prior to walking through the metal detector. All items shall be subject to further search. Visitors must have on appropriate undergarments and remain properly dressed at all times. Visitors are prohibited from wearing:All visitors must wear shoes at all times. Flip-flops, high heels more than 3 inches and sandals which are not secured to the ankle by at least one strap are prohibited. Shoes worn by visitors may not be exchanged with inmates. The Shift Supervisor will make the final determination as to compliance with this policy and admission into the facility.Effective October 5, 2009, inmate contact visits were eliminated, except under extenuating circumstances as authorized by the respective facility supervisors, throughout Miami-Dade County’s six correctional facilities. Inmates will continue to be afforded with the ability to have regular under glass visits. Visits are allowed on certain visitation days and times as specified in a list compiled by the inmate and approved by the corrections facility. This initiative has been enacted to enhance security within the system and to streamline costs that have been incurred by the Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation Department. The Miami-Dade County Corrections and Rehabilitation Department is the largest jail system in Florida and the seventh largest in the country. On average, the Department has nearly 7,000 persons incarcerated in its five detention facilities located throughout Miami-Dade County. Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation Department remains committed to providing professional correctional services.The buzz of the surprise team of the 2013-14 season is starting to wear off. Normally it’d be time to take another swig, but we’ve all been drinking this fun juice for 56 games already. Do we keep drinking or is it time to go home? In other words, coming off back-to-back losses at home, it’s now a fair question to ask: Are the playoffs starting to slip away from the pleasantly surprising Phoenix Suns? With 25 games left to play, the Suns sit in the last available playoff spot, 1.5 games ahead of the Memphis Grizzlies and 5.5 games ahead of the Minnesota Timberwolves, the latest team to come into Phoenix and get a big road win. The Grizzlies have won 11 of their last 15 games and are enjoying a healthy Marc Gasol and Mike Conley. The Wolves have been riding the All-NBA talents of Kevin Love all season long, but they’ve started to make good on their surprisingly good point-differential and have won four of their last five games. As for the Suns? They’re still missing Eric Bledsoe … and Goran Dragic may have tweaked his ankle in the third quarter of Tuesday night’s game. Nobody’s making excuses for the Suns; the Wolves have more cause for complaining about injury woes than any playoff hopeful team with Nikola Pekovic and Kevin Martin both missing significant time this season. But Chase Budinger has returned, guys like Dante Cunningham and even Shabazz Muhammad are starting to give the Wolves meaningful minutes and it won’t be long before both Martin and Pekovic are back on the floor. The Suns still don’t have a timetable for Bledsoe’s return and if the Dragon’s ankle is even a remotely serious problem, Phoenix’s playoff odds go down the drain. No timetable or target date yet. “@ThePleissIsRite: @TheMattPetersen How soon do you think until we see Bledsoe back on the court?” — Matt Petersen (@TheMattPetersen) February 26, 2014 Dragic had to leave the game in the third quarter and went to the training room to have his ankle re-taped. But he returned in the game (only to foul out). In that 3:46 the Suns had to play without him, Phoenix fans got a good look at what to expect if Dragic’s ankle isn’t ready to go after tweaking it last night. In the game’s final minutes without the Dragon, the Suns went 1-for-9 from the field and were outscored 15-6. Ish Smith, who had been having a terrific game to that point, understandably disappeared under the pressure of having to conduct the offense without the reassurance the Dragic would eventually take over. Smith had seven points and seven assists off the bench and, as always, was a welcome burst of energy and speed for the reserves. But the Suns couldn’t execute on either end without their floor general down the stretch and at this point, Dragic missing even a single game the rest of the season could hurt Phoenix’s chances of making the postseason. Why? Just take a look at the Suns’ tough schedule the rest of the way. Of their remaining 25 games, 15 are against Western Conference teams. Of those 15, 11 come against playoff-bound or playoff hopeful teams: the Oklahoma City Thunder (twice), Los Angeles Clippers (three times), San Antonio Spurs, Golden State Warriors, Memphis Grizzlies, Dallas Mavericks, Portland Trail Blazers and Minnesota Timberwolves. With the Grizzlies and playoff-desperate Wolves hot on their heels, the Suns’ margin for error gets smaller every single day. All in all, the Suns are still okay. They’ve got a respectable lead over Memphis and even in defeat, have been competitive with everyone. But unlike past games, the Suns have struggled to execute down the stretch. Dragic fouling out hurt last night, but Phoenix was already in danger of falling apart before the Dragon picked up his sixth. However, the Suns have a +3.2 point differential, good for eighth in the West. And according to John Hollinger’s Playoff Odds on ESPN.com, Phoenix makes the playoffs in 73.8 percent of 5,000 computer simulations. But it wasn’t too long ago that the Suns had hopes of gaining a playoff seed higher than their point differential indicated. An imminent Eric Bledsoe return could be the only thing that would keep that dream from slipping away, because it’s unclear how much longer the West’s biggest All-Star snub can carry this team for, even with Markieff Morris having three consecutive huge nights. Before, the Dragon was raining down fireball 3s on his enemies. Now, the Suns are running on Dragon fumes and it’s unclear how much longer they can hold out.It wasn’t long before the sun lowered below the skyline, casting the city into a grey dusk. The street lights came on one at a time, pools of light driving back the shadows. The streets remained quiet and desolate. There was no official curfew, but only a fool would be caught outdoors after dark where those monsters could still see as clearly as if it were high noon. Monty was by the window, looking through the accumulated grime for any sign of movement. This close to the dwindling edge of the green zone made everyone in the room tense. He turned back and came to sit with the group he had gathered. Ted watched him out of the corner of his eye, still unsure of Monty’s motivation. Nothing waited for him on Tirastir but he seemed more eager than anyone else to get there. Ted trusted Monty with his life after all but living with him and the girls for months, but there was still that seed of doubt that was planted six months ago when the voyacs came from beyond the stars. Doubt and fear became the centerpieces of Stoneforge, making everyone anxious, a finger always near the trigger. The voyacs were still a mystery, a riddle of biology and astronomy that had yet to be solved, and no one was willing to take on the challenge anymore. Ted knew firsthand how those feelings could change a person. The group remained silent, waiting for the last of the sun’s light to vanish. Darkness offered no cover from the voyacs, but it left the General’s remaining watchmen blind. No one had tried for the quarries and its buried spacecraft in weeks but the road leading out of the green zone was still well guarded. The building they were in had once been a home, now abandoned and converted into a safe house. The only people to use it were those trying for the quarries. The news of the spacecraft had sparked interest in Stoneforge for a variety of reasons. Now it was seen as the final beacon for a future where humanity could survive. The voyacs hadn’t left the moon so far as anyone was aware but they were a violent species. In the early weeks of their arrival, when the humans killed the monsters by the dozen, swarms of voyacs would journey to where their fellows had fallen and kill anything in sight. Great swarths of Stoneforge had been reduced to rubble as a result. Ted twiddled his thumbs, waiting for the darkness. If the General had actually done something, asked for additional troops or told the truth to Tirastir instead of falsifying records to make them think all was fine on Karex, perhaps something would be different. Ted had never found out why she tried to keep the crisis a secret. Monty took out his knife and began to carve symbols into the wooden table. Ted knew it was the semi-secret code detailing the patrol times of the voyacs. The information was known but could be forgotten. If Ted and the others weren’t successful tonight, the next group would need all the help they could get. The sound of metal scraping wood turned to silence. The last of the light had vanished from the city and their room was wrapped in blackness. Ted’s eyes had adjusted and he could see almost as well in the dark as he could in the light. Monty sheathed his knife and stood. The rest followed, grabbing their packs from the floor and going to the window. All the street lights were on, casting islands of light in the growing ocean of Karex’s night. The closest voyac patrol came to within a block of the current edge of the green zone. Nevertheless, the four of them looked out the window, looking for deeper shadows amongst the night and listening for the voyacs’ constant clicking. Clouds began to cover the sky, blocking most of the light from Tirastir. Lily was the first out the door with Monty taking their six. The door shut with a whisper of hinges and the near-constant wind of Karex lowered to a dull moan. Lily led the way through a predetermined path between the buildings. Each time they came to an intersection in the alleyways, Ted could faintly see the markings carved in the stone that showed the safest path. There was no physical demarcation separating the green zone from the red but Ted still knew when they crossed the line. The streets were unlit, the darkness lodging itself into every available corner. The buildings were more derelict here. Chunks of debris were scattered across the streets and alleyways, invitations for a twisted ankle. The group’s progress was slow as a result. They kept to the deepest shadows, more out of a sense of instinct than any conviction of safety. Where the buildings were tightest, the wind grew to a whistle. Lily came to an abrupt stop, her gun against a shoulder. Ted held up his twin pistols, his ears suddenly alert to the faint clicking almost hidden by the wind. His eyes scanned the area, looking for shapes that didn’t belong. With the wind whipping through the alley it was impossible to tell from which direction the clicking was coming. For a moment Ted thought about grabbing the flashlight that Monty had given to him when they had arrived at the first checkpoint. He knew the thought was ludicrous; there was no time. A shadow removed itself from the side of a decrepit building. Ted and Lily fired, the night blooming with light for a heartbeat. The voyac was outlined in shadows of red and black, its eye a pale expanse. Ted dodged out of the way as a beam of energy sizzled the air where he had been standing. As he rolled, he saw Monty and Rachel firing at a voyac that had tried attacking from their rear. Ted took a wild shot, the plasma toroid burning the stone of the building. Scrambling to his feet, Ted took shots at the lead voyac, wanting to clear a way through the alley. The wind tugged at his jacket, forcing him to lean into the gust. Lily had found cover behind a fallen stone, the lead voyac’s attention on her. Ted fired with both pistols, knowing it would diminish his accuracy but desperate for anything. He saw a toroid strike the voyac’s exoskeleton, a circle burning itself into the creatures irregular shell. A chunk of stone half-seen in the night sailed overhead and struck the lead voyac on its burn. Ted whipped around to see Monty pushing Rachel into cover, another rock in his hand. The rear voyac lay dead at their feet. “Run!” Monty shouted and threw his stone. The voyac dipped out of the way before rushing towards Monty, its pupil disappearing as it prepared to release its energy beam. Ted emptied his pistols at the voyac and the monster spun, its beam raking across a building, raining more debris onto the alley. An electrical bolt struck it from behind and its attention was back on Monty. “Go! Run!” he shouted again and he took off running, back the way they came. The voyac followed in pursuit, ignoring its easier prey. Ted was almost too stunned to move. He inched further up the alley before Rachel took him by the arm and got him moving at a decent clip. Lily vaulted over her cover and the three of them went running down the alley, heedless now of the debris littering the ground. Ted looked behind him just as another, smaller bolt of electricity shot towards the clouded sky, its source unseen. Rachel and Lily were in front of him, Monty somewhere behind, possibly dying even now. Ted knew he wouldn’t have a better chance. Holstering a pistol and unsheathing his knife, Ted slashed at his own leg, parting cloth and skin. It burned. He sheathed the knife and let out a yelp that wasn’t faked. The girls turned at the sound and Ted leaned against the nearest wall. He thought he may have cut himself worse than he had intended. Without a word, Lily draped Ted’s arm over her shoulder and he let her take some of his weight. Rachel took point as Ted hobbled towards the next checkpoint with Lily’s help, hoping he would be able to come back alive. To be continued… AdvertisementsStory Highlights 44% of U.S. millennials say their information is kept private Traditionalists least likely to say companies keep info safe Various hypotheses for why millennials have this trust level PRINCETON, N.J. -- In spite of high-visibility data breaches, 44% of millennials in the United States believe that their personal information is kept private "all" or "most of the time" by the businesses or companies they do business with. This is the highest of all major U.S. generational groups. Just over a quarter of millennials (26%) believe that their personal information is kept private "little" or "none of the time," while the remaining 30% believe it is kept private "some of the time." On the other end of the age spectrum, the most skeptical generation is traditionalists, Americans aged 70 and older. Twenty-nine percent of traditionalists believe that their personal information is kept private all or most of the time, while just over a third (35%) believe it is kept private a little or none of the time, making this the only generation to have a higher rate of distrust than trust. Thirty-six percent say it is kept private some of the time. Generation X and baby boomers fall in between these two groups, suggesting that expectations of personal privacy are age-related. Overall, 36% of Americans believe their personal information is kept private all or most of the time, with 31% saying it is kept private little or none of the time. A third (34%) say it is kept private some of the time. Millennials Defy Expectations for Their Generation There is a school of thought about millennials and privacy suggesting that because millennials have never known a world without smartphones, apps, the Internet or computers -- and the inherent risks to privacy these things pose -- they should have lower expectations about the security of their personal information than other generations do. This is because, the thinking goes, everything is available online these days, and even information that is not easily accessible is increasingly vulnerable to hackers. But another perspective argues just the opposite. To its adherents, millennials should actually have higher expectations about the security of their personal information than other generations because they understand how technology works and are fully aware of the inherent risks, but believe technology will keep their personal information safe. Finally, there is a slightly different version of the latter hypothesis. According to this perspective, millennials should actually have higher expectations than other generations about the security of their personal information simply because they are naïve in the ways of the world -- they have no experience to make them think otherwise. In other words, millennials have the least life experience of all generations. A corollary of this view is that members of the oldest generation -- traditionalists -- should not only have the greatest life experience (and be more jaded or cynical as a result) but the lowest expectations of personal privacy. Implications In spite of the oft-heard refrain that millennials are not trusting, these results suggest that in some cases -- particularly where the privacy of personal information is concerned -- millennials are fairly trusting, at least more trusting than skeptical. Whether this effect is simply the result of life experience and youth, or some other combination of factors, remains to be determined. In recent years, millennials (as well as all other generations) have been exposed to a significant number of high-visibility data breaches. Knowledge of these breaches alone would likely make people question the privacy and security of their online personal information. But millennials seem to rise above this, remaining trusting in the face of an abundance of evidence that their online data may not be very secure. Survey Methods Results for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted Feb. 23-March 3, 2015, on the Gallup U.S. Daily survey, with a random sample of 1,525 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. For results based on the total sample of national adults, the margin of sampling error is ±2.5 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. For comparisons between or within the total sample for each generation, the margin of sampling error is ±5.9 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. Each sample of national adults includes a minimum quota of 50% cellphone respondents and 50% landline respondents, with additional minimum quotas by time zone within region. Landline and cellular telephone numbers are selected using random-digit-dial methods. Learn more about how the Gallup U.S. Daily works.Introduction In the world of accessories the number one thing you see MTG players do is add plastic card sleeves over their cards. The primary reason is because it will help prevent the cards from gaining any wear and tear it comes from bare shuffling the cards. Long has it been that the top brands of the market being Dragonshield, KMC, and Ultra Pro have shown some degradation over time. Most likely due to production cost cutting or whatever have you. Well there seems to be a new competitor on the market and they’ve taken it by storm. That manufacturer’s name is Ultimate Guard. They’ve taken the deck box market by storm by coming out with some fairly affordable high end boxes like the Sidewinder and the well regarded Flip N’ Tray. And now, they’ve entered the sleeve market with a product that I actually kinda like with first impressions. Sleeve Size and Packaging The sleeve we’re looking at today is the Supreme UX Matte Sleeve. The sleeve is a standard size being 66x91mm (according to the box) making it about the same size as Ultra pro and KMC sleeves meaning it cuts a little close to the top of the card, but not really enough for the card to push out of the top even when double sleeving. Note I’m using blackened inner sleeves, this is to help show how tight the fit is. There’s plenty of room overall inside the sleeve itself and it feels like it’s just a little wider than what a Dragonshield sleeve is which makes it much easier for double sleeving. The little bit of room offered here definitely helps the card slide right in place without having to bend the cards and thus avoid warping them. As for the packaging these sleeves come in a larger bulk sleeve packed in a paper box. That box is not reusable as a deck box like Dragonshield’s does, but most people won’t care about that anyways. My biggest complaint is that the back doesn’t have an English product description (Only Dutch, French, Spanish, and Italian) this is mostly due to Ultimae Guard being a European company I imagine. Shuffle Feel Well initially the shuffle feel is not bad at all. It’s not a double matte sleeve and the front is glossy which down the line could degrade the feel a small bit, but that’s a review for later down the line. That said the clarity the front has rivals KMC so your foils actually look really good in these sleeves. The matte texture on the back is well made. It’s not rough like Dragonshield’s, but not as “glossylike” as KMC’s. It’s about an in between blend of the two, which serves this sleeve quite well and should hold up for some time. Conclusion & Grade I actually like these sleeves. It’s best to squeeze the air out of them when and if you double sleeve them and pack them tight in a deck box before you really get to using them. But, the shuffle feel is pretty good fresh and the process of sleeving isn’t too bad overall. The sleeve feels fairly thin, but a stress test show their fairly tough when just ripping them apart by hand. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being literal garbage to 10 being the greatest sleeve on Earth I put these about…. 8.4 of 10. I’ll run this weeks events with them and see how well they hold up. I purchased two packs of 80 so I have plenty of spares on me in case I do find that they rip and tear easier than I think. Advertisements"What's beef?" Christopher Wallace once asked. Is beef having a ceremony to celebrate the Super Bowl champions, but not having anyone within the organization show up? NFL Bracketology Vote for the greatest play in NFL history: NFL.com has picked the 64 best plays ever, and over the next three weeks we are asking fans to cast their votes for the best. Vote now! That's what happened in Baltimore on Friday. The Orioles held their home opener and honored the Ravens. No one from the Ravens was on hand for the pregame ceremonies. The question stems from the Orioles declining to move their Sept. 5 home game so the Ravens could host the NFL Kickoff game -- an honor typically reserved for the world champs. The Ravens will begin the season on the road. The two stadiums are so close that it would have been a logistical nightmare to have the games going on at the same time. The Orioles are scheduled to host the Chicago White Sox at 7:05 p.m. ET that day. The team was willing to move the time of game, but the Ravens and the NFL passed. Did the Ravens hold a silent protest and boycott the Orioles' ceremony? "Due to conflicts of schedule and prior commitments for each person, unfortunately, today didn't work out," Ravens spokesman Patrick Gleason said in an email to The Baltimore Sun. "It was determined that those invited would try to reschedule an opportunity to attend a different game this season." Neither team said who was invited and the Orioles gave a "no comment" when asked about the situation. This should be settled "Anchorman"-style on the Inner Harbor. Joe Flacco gets to chuck the trident at Nick Markakis outside of the Rusty Scupper. (Would an Omar Little-Stringer Bell analogy be more appropriate here?) Follow Kareem Copeland on Twitter @kareemcopeland.Who Heidi Klum fornicates with is no longer an issue for her ex-husband Seal. The model and the singer, who separated in 2012, showed some big love on Sunday night as they kissed goodbye after dining out with their four children at Nobu in New York City. Making the photo way more interesting than your average shot of friendly celebrity exes? Seal's new girlfriend, Erica Packer, is seen looking on at the divorced pair. And she's smiling. Like, really smiling. It seems that Erica knows she has nothing to worry about. Heidi and Seal — who were once so into each other that they renewed their wedding vows each year (and let's not even get into their controversial art collection) — initially had a bitter split, with Seal publicly blasting the Project Runway guru for "fornicating with the help" when she moved on from their marriage with her bodyguard, Martin Kirsten. But they've long since made nice, reuniting for kiddie birthday parties and sharing more than one friendly kiss for everyone to see. Besides, Seal and Erica's relationship sounds pretty serious. While they recently went public with their romance, an unconfirmed report circulated over the weekend that the Australian singer and model might be pregnant with the couple's first child. It remains to be seen, of course, but Erica already has a large brood of her own. Her ex-husband is Mariah Carey's new billionaire boyfriend James Packer — are you following? — and they have three children together. And you already know that Heidi has moved on. Just weeks ago, the America's Got Talent judge publicly declared her love for her younger art dealer beau, Vito Schnabel, with whom she recently enjoyed a sexy summer getaway in the south of France. All's well that ends well, right? Looks like it.Sunday Night Animation Doubleheader Premieres on Adult Swim Squidbillies and Mr. Pickles Deliver Back-To-Back Laughter Starting September 21st New original animated series Mr. Pickles debuts on Sunday, September 21st at Midnight (ET / PT) on Adult Swim followed by the epic return of fan favorite Squidbillies at 12:15am (ET / PT) for an eighth season. These two series are guaranteed to leave you loving Sunday night and hating Monday morning even more than you already do! Mr. Pickles is Adult Swim's newest original animated series set in the small, old-fashioned world of Old Town that is slowly being taken over by the modern world. The series centers on the lives of the Goodman family and their innocent six-year-old son Tommy, whose best friend is the family's lovable border collie, Mr. Pickles. The two roam around Old Town together getting into classic adventures. Unbeknownst to Tommy and everyone else, except Tommy's Grandpa, Mr. Pickles has an evil streak and frequently wanders off to kill, mutilate and hump his deserving victims. But the one thing everybody knows about the sweet and adorable dog is that he loves pickles and he gets one every time he's a good boy. Mr. Pickles, a HotHouse production, is created and executive produced by Will Carsola (HBO's Funny or Die Presents) and Dave Stewart (HBO's Funny or Die Presents) and executive produced by Michael Rizzo. Along with guest star Brooke Shields, a great cast of voice-acting talent including Frank Collison (Eagleheart), Jay Johnston (The Sarah Silverman Program), Kaitlyn Robrock (Golan the Insatialbe), Carsola, and Stewart, is sure to entertain even the faintest of heart. America's fourth favorite animated family returns for season eight of Squidbillies, featuring brand new grandiloquent episodes. Watch as the Cuylers kick the ass of America's toughest issues, including marriage inequality, taint cancer, speciesism, and the impending Russian snake apocalypse. It's good clean family fun for childless families! To celebrate its new season on Adult Swim, Squidbillies will once again entertain audiences with a plethora of music stylings. Season eight of Squidbillies brings you a new cover of its theme song each week including renditions by Centro-matic, Dwight Yoakam, Todd Rundgren and King Khan and the Shrines. You'll just have to tune in to hear them all first hand. Squidbillies is created, written and produced by Dave Willis and Jim Fortier. Adult Swim (AdultSwim.com), launched in 2001, is Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.'s network offering original and acquired animated and live-action series for young adults. Airing nightly from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. (ET/PT), Adult Swim is basic cable's #1 network with persons 18-34 and 18-49, and is seen in 99 million U.S. homes. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner company, creates and programs branded news, entertainment, animation and young adult media environments on television and other platforms for consumers around the world.What would an international expert think of Montreal’s recent architecture? To find out, the Montreal Gazette took French architecture critic Emmanuel Caille on a walking tour of downtown and Griffintown. He also visited the $52.6-million indoor soccer stadium that opened last year in the St-Michel district. Caille, the editor of the Paris-based architecture magazine “d’a”, was in town to take part in a panel discussion last week on architectural criticism, organized by the Maison de l’architecture du Québec and the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC). Caille’s verdict on our fair city ranged from a thumbs-up for the pricey new soccer stadium to shocked incredulity over a new hotel annex to the Mount Stephen Club, a historic mansion at 1440 Drummond St. Built from 1880-83 for Lord Mount Stephen, the first president of the Canadian Pacific Railway, it has been in the news recently after suffering structural damage during construction of the annex. Caille, an architect as well as an editor, did not comment on the structural problems, but he did give a visual assessment of the hotel addition, an 11-storey cement-panel structure tucked behind the mansion. “It’s quite brutal in the city,” he said. From de Maisonneuve Blvd., the hotel addition presents a view of three blank walls with a shed-style roof. “It’s astonishing. It’s bizarre,” he said. Caille was also perplexed by the front façade, dotted with small windows of different sizes. “What is not obvious is what relationship there is between this building and the mansion. I don’t see any,” he added. The hotel addition shows why projects should not be conceived in isolation, Caille said. City planners should have put forward a vision for the entire block, which includes an outdoor parking lot on de la Montagne St. that would have made a better site for a high rise, he said. Interesting alleyways and outdoor spaces could have been included, he said. “Everybody is turning their back to one another,” he said of how the different properties on the block don’t relate to each other. At the Ritz-Carlton hotel on Sherbrooke St., Caille said a glass condo addition completed in 2013 is a good example of how to update a historic building for modern use. But he criticized white PVC windows on the hotel’s Sherbrooke St. façade for their thick frames and mullions, which don’t suit the building. “That’s horrible,” he said. “Windows are the eyes of a building. When women use an eye pencil to emphasize their eyes, it changes everything.” In Griffintown, Caille was unimpressed by the banal architecture of condo towers that have sprouted in recent years in the former industrial district, which is undergoing rapid transformation. But the former Dow Planetarium at 1000 St-Jacques St. W. caught his eye. Built in 1966, it closed in 2011. The city turned it over to the Université du Québec’s École de technologie supérieure in 2013. ÉTS announced it would transform the building into a “creativity hub” but so far the building has sat vacant. Caille said the domed landmark has great potential to be recycled for a new vocation. “When a building is dirty and dilapidated, people don’t see its beauty. You have to see the beauty underneath the neglect,” he said. Today there is a consensus that older heritage buildings should be preserved but it’s still difficult to rally public opinion behind buildings from more recent eras, like the 1960s, Caille said. The Deloitte Tower, a new 26-storey glass office tower between the Bell Centre and Windsor Station, is nothing to write home about, in Caille’s opinion. “It’s developer architecture,” he said. “There’s nothing interesting about it.” Built by developer Cadillac Fairview, it is part of the $2-billion, nine-tower Quad Windsor project. That includes the 50-storey Tour des Canadiens, which will be Montreal’s tallest condo tower for about a year, until the even taller nearby L’Avenue tower is completed. Most people don’t notice the difference between good and bad architecture when a building is new, Caille said. But over time, the defects of bad buildings grow increasingly obvious, while the good ones become beloved monuments, he said. “People go to New York to see the architecture of the 1920s and 30s,” he said, referring to landmarks like the 1931 Empire State Building and 1928 Chrysler Building. “Good architecture always pays off in the long term.” Unfortunately, much development is driven by short-term considerations, he said. While a developer can walk away from a mediocre building once it’s sold, city-dwellers are stuck with it, he said. “For him, it’s no problem. But for the city, it’s a tragedy,” he said. “Today’s architecture is tomorrow’s heritage,” he noted. Caille is a strong proponent of architectural competitions, which he sees as a way to seek out the best talents and ideas. “It forces people to think and it shows that for every problem, there are many solutions. It’s a way of accessing brainpower,” he said. The St-Michel soccer stadium has been criticized for its high price tag but Caille hailed it as an example of excellent design. The ecological building designed by Saucier & Perrotte has three glass walls overlooking a park in the St-Michel environmental complex. Caille said the stadium could be a catalyst for improvements in the hardscrabble north-end neighbourhood. During Tuesday’s panel discussion, Paul Goldberger, a Pulitzer Prize-winning former architecture critic for the New York Times and the New Yorker, said that unlike other types of journalists, architectural critics rarely have an immediate impact on public opinion. “Architectural criticism must take a very long view,” he said. “One learns to think of one’s influence as more gradual, as shifting tastes and judgment over time.” Goldberger, author of books including Why Architecture Matters, published in 2009, has written that the critic’s job is not to push for a particular architectural style, but rather to advocate for the best work possible. He said the time in his career when architectural criticism enjoyed greatest
But Salad Oh come on. Do you really think entire cultures would shun animal products if all they got to eat was salad? Do you expect major world religions would embrace the notion that eating lettuce lights the path to nirvana? Do you think politicians and celebrities by the score would sacrifice taste and satisfaction merely for another photo-op? (Okay, well, maybe yes on that last.) In truth, anyone alive in our world today knows this one isn’t true. The industrialized world is riddled with vegan and vegetarian restaurants offering everything from haute cuisine to bean burgers. Walk into any bookstore and pick up one of the latest vegetarian or vegan cookbooks and you will likely see anything BUT salad. Amazon features roughly 9,000 vegetarian or vegan cookbooks, with more added almost daily. If each book averages 100 recipes, that would add up to 900,000 ways to use romaine. Hmmm. The newest books range from the wildly popular Thug Kitchen, which mingles its superior instruction with hilarious profanity (not that the F-word is never mentioned in my kitchen, but trust me, anyone with a mouth like that you don’t want to meet in a grudge match) to Oh She Glows, which is authored by one of my favorite cooks and vegan recipe gurus, Canadian Angela Liddon, who, if you check out her website at www.ohsheglows.com, you will learn has wimplessly battled gluten-intolerance and an eating disorder, and looks more like a fashion model than anything else. Check into Pinterest this morning, and you’ll find veg recipes for Cinnamon Rolls, Southwestern Stuffed Mushrooms, Peanut Thai Vegetable Stew, Oklahoma Cheeseburger, Mediterranean Rice Casserole, Vegan Roast, Red Curry Lentils, Lemon-Kissed Blueberry Lentils, Chocolate Dessert Hummus, Chickpea Omelet, AND Black Forest Cookie Dough Truffles. Does any of this sound wimpy to you? In my own new cookbook–Blue Moon Gluten-Free Vegan (scheduled for an October, 2014, release from Booktrope), will be full of dishes like Exotic Black-eyed Chili, Sunny Pasta Salad, Sunday Oat Cherry Cake, Two-bean Curried Bisque, Caulifredo Sauce, Biscuits and Red-eye Gravy, Everyday Grilling Burgers, Not Meat Loaf, and Gingersnappishes. And then there is me, poet and literary author, veteran mother and grandmother, dozens of pounds overweight thanks to having been born attached to a writing desk and chair, a former body-builder with a Godzilla of a sweet tooth and a glare that would level Attila the Hun, and, who, soft-hearted as I am, having survived a life of hard-scrabble living and despite my liberal leanings, is anything but wimpy, and despite having inhaled a time or two, is anything but a hippie (although I do approve of my oldest grandchild’s new-found affinity for peace signs over princesses). And, even if that were not the case, trust me, those 1960s, war-protesting, culture-challenging, back-to-the-land farmer hippies were ANYTHING but wimpy. That in itself is a monstrous stereotype, and I defy anyone under thirty to—intellectually or physically—arm wrestle a single 70- or 80-something one of them. Image from http://www.ifood.tv/blog/not-all-vegetarians-are-sameOmaha City Council approved a contract for the Omaha Police Department to purchase 460 new automatically activated body cameras Tuesday afternoon. The department currently has 115 uniformed officers equipped with the cameras, but the additional 460 would mean every officer on the force now has one. “It’s a win-win situation for everyone. Not only does it protect our citizens, but it also protects the officers as well," Omaha Police Deputy Chief Kerry Neumann said. The cameras will be supplied by Axon Enterprise, Inc. and will cost $1,377,383.17. The bill is being taken care of through a donation from the Omaha Police Foundation. “The cameras are funded philanthropically, so it’s a sign that the private community supports this effort as well. We’ll be one of the first cities in the entire country to have automatic body cams," city councilman Pete Festersen said. The cameras are activated automatically through a variety of ways which the department can choose, and OPD chose to have them under what is called full activation. “Automatic activation includes any time an officer turns on their emergency lights on a cruiser, any time an officer has their in-car video camera gets turned on, any time an officer pulls out a taser and activates that taser, and then any time an officer pulls out their handgun," Dep. Chief Neumann said. The cameras can be turned off, but Neumann said it should only be for small things like private conversations among officers or things like restroom breaks. “We have policy that our cameras should be on any time we have interaction with citizens, so any time we go to a disturbance call, those cameras are required to be turned on," Neumann said. Dep. Chief Neumann tells 6 News many officers are ready to go to full integration. The department will receive 160 cameras by May 1 of 2018, another 150 by December 2018, and the last 150 by the end of 2019. The cameras are being purchased in phases due to video storage cost.Receiving an email from John Buellens, one of the founding members of Kinfolk Bicycles, always brightens up my inbox. It’s always guaranteed to contain superb photos of their gorgeous frames, hand crafted by Master Bulder Shiuchi Kusaka in Kansai, Japan. This track bike is no different, a pure track bike assembled with old-school components. Kinfolk is more than a bike company, it’s the collective consciousness of numerous creative minds spanning the cities of Brooklyn and Tokyo. The Kinfolk Studios in Brooklyn features a rotating selection of DJ’s, art exhibitions and music, while the Kinfolk Lounge in Tokyo is “is a mecca for international travelers, design aficionados, neighborhood regulars, and drinkers with biking problems.” The nucleus, however, are the frames, emblazoned with the ethos, ‘Run With The Hunted’. This fine example was built up by Bartek Kolacz, who wanted a bike built around 80s Japanese track parts. The ensemble marrys a Suntour Superbe drive train and rare, NOS Kyokuto pedals to Superbe hubs and Araya rims. The cockpit and seat mast is all Nitto and it’s all topped with a Kashimax Aero saddle. Special thanks to John Buellens for the scoop and to Bartek Kolacz for the gorgeous photos.Newcastle United has today appointed former Under-21s scout, Steve Nickson, as the club's new head of recruitment following the departure of former chief scout Graham Carr last week. Steve will work closely with manager Rafa Benítez and assumes responsibility for the organisation and management of player recruitment at all levels across the club. Steve, along with Rafa and managing director Lee Charnley, will evaluate all aspects of United's player recruitment function, including the processes and systems used for scouting players at all levels throughout the club to ensure Newcastle United is best positioned to achieve its targets in this and future seasons. Manager Rafa Benítez said: "I'd like to congratulate Steve and welcome him to his new role with the club. "Steve has done an excellent job in the scouting department at Under-21 level and I am very confident that he will bring his many strengths to this new role, improving and building on our first team recruitment strategy, as well as that at all levels throughout the club."Adventure Time is finally going to delve into Finn’s mysterious past through an eight-part miniseries starting in the new year. Cartoon Network announced today that Adventure Time: Islands would follow Finn the Human, BMO and Susan Strong as they leave the land of Ooo and voyage across the ocean to figure out parts of Finn’s past. According to a press release from the network, the trio will encounter new creatures, friends and islands. Through exploring Finn’s past, the show will finally answer one of fans’ most asked questions: What happened to all of the other humans? Finn and Susan are human beings, but all of the other humans have been mysteriously absent. Adventure Time: Islands marks the second miniseries the show has had since it began. The first, Adventure Time: Stakes, aired in November 2015 and followed Marceline the Vampire Queen. The new eight-part series will air over four nights on Cartoon Network. It will premiere on Jan. 30 and run through Feb. 2. The trailer for the series can be seen above.Sega Sammy Holdings will acquire Index Corporation, the parent company of Japanese publisher and developer Atlus, for ¥14 billion ($140 million) in November, according to the company. According to Sega's business transfer agreement notice, Sega expects to "achieve steady flows of revenue" through the acquisition of Index's video game IPs. Further revenue growth is expected by exploiting the IPs across online PC gaming and smartphone content. The company also aims to "maximize the value of acquired IPs" by releasing them across pachislot, pachinko and amusement machine segments. Sept. 18 marked the conclusion of business transfer agreement, according to the notice, and Nov. 1 is the tentative due date for the transfer of Index, pending approval from the court under by Civil Rehabilitation Act.. Sega Dream Corporation was established on Sept. 5 as a subsidiary of Sega Sammy Holdings to oversee the transfer of Index operations. Sega Dream Corporation's name is slated to change in the future. According to reports last month, there were roughly 20 companies vying to buy Atlus from Index Corporation and bidding had reportedly reached ¥20 billion ($203 million). Citing sources familiar to the situation, Bloomberg Japan reported at the time that bids for Atlus exceeded ¥5 billion more than Index Corporation's expected ¥15 billion. Index, which filed for bankruptcy on June 27 and had its stock delisted on July 28, reportedly owes debts of ¥24.5 billion ($224 million). An Atlus spokesperson told Polygon in July that the company's "day to day is unaffected and our games are still shipping." Polygon has reached out to Atlus and Sega for comment. Update: Updated with information from the Sega Sammy Holdings notice.One of the great things about baseball’s statistical revolution is that you can confirm your observations. For example, last Sunday the Red Sox had a good chance to win their seventh game in a row and sweep the pitiful Mariners. Instead, they lost 5-0. Worse, perhaps, was that Boston’s offense didn’t show up. Or at least that’s how it seemed at the time. However, against Mariners starter/reliever Christian Bergman, the Red Sox did get runners on. In the bottom of the first after a Mookie Betts ground out, Dustin Pedroia doubled and Xander Bogaerts singled. Then Andrew Benintendi grounded into a double play. In the second inning, Hanley Ramirez was hit by a pitch, but after a Mitch Moreland out, Jackie Bradley grounded into a double play. In the third inning Sandy Leon walked to lead off the inning but then Deven Marrero grounded into a double play. In the fourth inning (yes this is still going) Pedroia led off with a single, Bogaerts made an out then Benintendi grounded into a double play. For those of you scoring at home, that’s six runners on with less than two outs, and thanks to four double plays, nothing to show for it. Double plays will ruin an inning, but four double plays will ruin a game. This has been a recurring problem for the Red Sox this season. Prior to Thursday’s games, the Red Sox led all of baseball in grounding into double plays, with 59. 59 twin killings in 52 games. That’ll do in some rallies. However, leading baseball in grounding into double plays isn’t all bad. Well, actually, strike that. It is all bad. It’s terrible, in fact. But what isn’t terrible or even bad is what lies behind the double plays. For instance, to ground into a double play you have to first have a runner on base. That takes skill. Teams that tend to do well in the on-base percentage department tend to ground into many double plays. The double plays aren’t good but the team with more runners on base is going to end up scoring more runs, even with the double plays, ugly and supremely annoying as they may be. As of Thursday morning, the Red Sox, Astros, and Braves led baseball with 59, 58, and 58 double plays, respectively. Sort again by on-base percentage and the Astros are on top (.345), the Red Sox tied for third (.344), and the Braves seventh (.331). It should be pointed out that that on-base percentage is composed mainly of singles and walks. Boston is third in baseball in singles with 325, only six behind Houston, and they’re eighth in walks with 190. So part of the reason the Red Sox lead baseball in grounding into double plays is because they are good at getting on base, which is a good thing. Part of that reason is also that when the Red Sox get runners on base, they tend to be runners on first base, which is the traditional set-up for grounding into a double play. Another part of the equation is that, as noted by Chris Teeter on Tuesday at this site, Boston is a very good contact team. Put another way, the Red Sox strike out the least of any team in baseball, 17.6 percent of the time (again, through Wednesday’s games). So we have a team that gets on base very well and puts lots of balls in play. You can see that is going to lead to double plays. They don’t lead baseball in ground ball rate or anything, but they are 10th, and when you combine that with the above, again, the recipe for GIDPs grows stronger. Two more aspects to this before we get to trying to solve things. First, the Red Sox hit a lot of balls on the ground. They don’t lead baseball in ground ball rate or anything, but they are 10th, and when you combine that with the above, again, the recipe for GIDPs grows stronger. Lastly, to date the Red Sox somewhat bizarrely have exhibited little home run power. Through Wednesday, Boston is second to last in home runs, just ahead of San Francisco. Home runs score lots of runs fast (as anyone who watched Tuesday night’s game knows), but they also do something else: clear the bases. Home runs are the anti-GIDP, and the Red Sox don’t do ‘em nearly enough. The end result is a team that, according to our stats, has both put themselves in position to hit into a double play a ton (tied for fifth in baseball) and has actually done it as a percentage of opportunities a ton as well (14.4 percent, third in baseball). Is this a big problem? A fatal flaw? The short answer is: no. The double plays themselves aren’t ideal, but the components that lead to teams hitting into lots of them make them palatable. Last season the team that led baseball in GIDP was Toronto, who went to the ALCS. The Red Sox finished seventh, tied with Cleveland. So, although nobody wants to hit into two outs at once, doing it a lot didn’t prevent three teams last season from being very good and getting into the playoffs, and, in two cases, going pretty far. But suppose the Red Sox wanted to reduce the number of times they hit into two outs. What could they do about it? That’s tough because they kinda are the team they are. They are a team that hits the ball on the ground a lot, they don’t strike out, and the result is they tend to give teams a good number of opportunities to turn two. However, one thing they could do is look to change up the batting order so that players with high on-base percentages don’t bat directly in front of players with high ground ball rates. For example, batting Bogaerts third could lead to more double plays as Bogaerts has been hitting 53.8 percent of his balls in play on the ground. Perhaps moving Bogaerts to the lead-off spot might help. I’ll be honest though: I’m grasping at straws a bit here. Bogaerts, despite his ridiculous ground ball rate, has only hit into three double plays, while Benintendi who has the second highest fly ball rate of any regular on the Red Sox has hit into the most on the team (nine). John Farrell could look to reorganize his lineup a bit, like in the example above, and that might help on the margins. Perhaps as the year goes on the team will hit for more power, thereby limiting the opportunities to hit into double plays. Mostly though this is what this team is: a high contact, high on-base team with, to date, below average power. That’s a team that is going to hit into a ton of double plays. It’s not going to hurt them in the long run as long as the underlying skillsets (on-base percentage, low K rate, etc.) hold, but in the moment? Wow, it can be frustrating. Photo by Neville E. Guard – USA TODAY SportsThe fate of jobs in relation to robotics is confusing Will a robot take your job? Will a higher minimum wage cause job destruction? Or is it all media hype? What’s the truth? MSNBC asked Bill Gates whether increasing the federal minimum wage is a good idea. He responded: “If you raise the minimum wage, you’re encouraging labor substitution, and you’re going to go buy machines and automate things — or cause jobs to appear outside of that jurisdiction. And so within certain limits it does cause job destruction.” Will the current political dialogue over raising the federal minimum wage increase the fear people express about robots taking over their jobs? Two infographics attempt to answer that question but instead just add fodder to the grist of the discussion. In a not-to-be-taken-too-seriously infographic entitled Techno Takeover “Can your job be done by a robot?”, by MindFlash.com they show the following: 3.55 million retail clerks were singled out as likely candidates to be replaced by checkout machines similar to ATMs 3.2 million commercial drivers – long-haul, short-run, limos, taxies are all likely to be most effected by automated driving systems 2.3 million customer service representatives – better than off-shore call centers? Some portion of the 1.5 million members of the armed forces 269,900 pharmacists – “robots are unparalleled when it comes to precision” 263,800 paralegals sifting through and analyzing legal documents are another target for Watson-like artificial intelligence 78,780 medical transcriptionists are being replaced by speech recognition software It’s true that employers now have easier, cheaper access to software, automation and cheap expert talent. Brynjolfsson and McAfee, both MIT professors and authors of The Second Machine Age, suggest that: “We are beginning to automate a lot more cognitive tasks, a lot more of the control systems that determine what to use that power for. In many cases today artificially intelligent machines can make better decisions than humans.” So humans and software-driven machines may increasingly be substitutes, not complements. What’s making this possible are three huge technological advances that just reached their tipping points: exponential, digital and combinatorial.” [Combinatorial advances mean you can take Google Maps and combine them with a smartphone app like Waze, through which drivers automatically transmit traffic conditions on their routes by just carrying their phone in their car, and meld both into a GPS system that not only tells you what the best route is to your destination but what the best route now is because it also sees all the traffic everywhere. Instantly, you’re the smartest driver in town.] The other infographic, this time by Manolith.com, suggests 10 new jobs that might be in the near-term future – the most current 4 are shown below: Become an urban farmer Become an alternative reality architect providing virtual augmentation content Become a personality programmer offering alternative voices and personalities to Siri-like programs Become a remote robot pilot for planes, trains, trucks, delivery vehicles and taxis Thomas Friedman, in a NY Times Sunday Review article, suggested that over the past 10 years the world has gone from connected to hyperconnected and as a result, employers now have access to above-average software, automation and cheap talent from abroad. Brynjolfsson and McAfee call this the start of the Second Machine Age (described above). The first machine age was the Industrial Revolution and was all about devices and systems to augment human muscle while requiring human control of the activity. Robotic associations including the A3 (Association for Advancing Automation, a 750-member umbrella association for the RIA, AIA and MCA) and IFR (International Federation of Robotics) have commissioned studies and produced videos which show that deploying robotics does increase and/or preserve wages in the community. Nevertheless, as Bloomberg Businessweek said, “Factory jobs are gone. Get over it.” The truth seems to be that dull, dirty and dangerous jobs will be replaced by automation and robots thereby making products with less spoilage, fewer accidents, higher quality at lower cost – thus they will be more competitive and increase sales with the consequence of increasing workers of a different type: marketing, sales, expediting, warehousing, etc.INDIA pale ale (IPA) once had a good claim to be the first global beer, before lager took a grip on the world’s tipplers. Now IPA, an amber, hop-laden brew, high in alcohol, is regaining its global footprint. Arguments rage about the origins and history of IPA. Britain’s territories on the Indian subcontinent were generally too hot for brewing. So a couple of hundred years ago, to keep army officers and officials of the East India Company away from the fearsome local firewater, beer was exported from Britain to take its place. Whether a beer already existed that had the characteristics of IPA or whether it was developed for the purpose is a matter of heated debate among beer historians. What is clear is that hops, which act as a preservative as well as a flavouring, combined with a hefty dose of alcohol for added robustness, ensured that the beer survived the long sea journey to India. Indeed, the months jiggling in a barrel onboard seemed only to improve the flavour. The style caught on at home, as the brew seeped onto the domestic market. IPA’s popularity waned as the brewing industry changed. After the second world war, big brewers in Britain and America bought smaller competitors and flooded the market with bland, mass-market beers as old styles were abandoned in favour of a pint that would not offend anyone. But in the 1980s brewing began to change again. The craft-beer revolution, which started in the US, was a reaction to the domination of the market by these dull and flavourless brews. Small beermakers, encouraged by tax breaks and an urge to drink a beer with some character, began to produce small batches of more adventurous ales. The taste for these beers caught on. The result is that the US is now home to more than 2,500 breweries, compared with about 50 in the 1970s. Beer drinking is in overall decline as wealthy boozers switch to wine and spirits, but craft beer is growing fast, as consumers turn against the mass market to savour more expensive and exclusive brews. Get our daily newsletter Upgrade your inbox and get our Daily Dispatch and Editor's Picks. The beer that craft brewers like making the most is IPA. Artisan beermakers in the US adopted old recipes from Britain for their IPAs but gradually began to adapt the brews to their own tastes. The heavy use of hops allows them to show off their skills in blending different flavours. Some parts of the US, like Britain, have an excellent climate for growing top-quality hops. The bold flavours and high alcohol content create a beer that has a distinct style and bold taste, yet can come in many shades. The passion for hops in US craft beers has taken on the characteristics of an arms race, as brewers try to outdo each other in hoppiness. (Many bottles now list their score in international bitterness units, or IBU, as a badge of pride.) If no brewer in the US can pass up the opportunity to make an IPA, the same is true elsewhere. As the craft-beer revolution has spread beyond America, so has the taste for IPA. Britain is undergoing a brewing revival alongside a foodie revolution, based on local produce and artisanal methods. Much the same is happening in other rich countries around the world, where breweries are springing up to produce craft beers. Indeed, IPA has come full circle. Many British craft brewers are using new IPA recipes imported from the US for their brews, but again adapting them for local palates. IPA may not yet have displaced lager as the global tipple, but it is at least battling for bar space with mainstream beers. Who could feel bitter about that? Dig deeper: Rejoice! Scientists have discovered that barbecued meat is healthier if you add beer (April 2014) How a band of microbrewers is transforming the beer business (April 2014) Why alcohol-free bars are taking off in London (February 2014) Update: This blog post has been amended to remove the news peg.Last time Sen. Dianne Feinstein proposed a similar bump stock ban In the wake of this weekend’s deadly mass shooting in Las Vegas, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) proposed a ban on the “bump stock,” a device that makes semiautomatic weapons function like automatic ones, which are generally banned in the United States. Police found 12 bump stocks in the Mandalay Bay hotel room from which the gunman shot, killing 58 people and injuring hundreds more, making for one of the deadliest mass shootings in modern American history. The bump stock itself has proven to be new to many Republicans on Capitol Hill. On Tuesday two Republican Congress members, Reps. Tom Cole (OK) and Mark Meadows (NC), both told Vox they had never even heard of the device. But this isn’t the first time Feinstein has raised concern about bump stocks in Congress — she brought up a similar restriction in 2013 that proposed banning all semiautomatic weapons that could accept a “military feature” like a detachable stock. At the time, the bill faced fierce opposition even among Democratic senators, including Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV). The proposal was never brought to a stand-alone vote. Now, as awareness around mass shootings and gun violence rises again, Feinstein has brought up another ban on the bump stocks themselves. This time, there seems to be some interest even among Republican members who have been pushed to join yet another national conversation about gun laws. “I think it’s something we ought to look into,” Sen. John Thune (R-SD) told Politico. “I don’t know a lot about them and I’m somebody who, I’d like to think, is fairly familiar with a lot of firearms and you know, the use of those. And that incident out there is something that I think we need to take a look at.” Of course, as with Feinstein’s first proposals on bump stocks, this isn’t the first time Congress has looked into gun laws and ultimately changed nothing. Go deeper Vox’s German Lopez explains the “bump stock” in more detail, and how it became a loophole to acquire automatic weapons. Republicans don’t seem to have many ideas on how to address gun laws. Here’s what five House Republicans had to say about Congress acting in response to the Las Vegas shooting. The United States has had more than 1,500 mass shootings since Sandy Hook in 2012. These 17 maps and charts show how this is a uniquely American problem.Journalists have been fuming for years over the administration’s failure to live up to President Obama’s promises of transparent government. But it’s even worse than you thought. The focus, naturally, has been on the White House, where reporters press for scraps of information in the briefing room and news photographers are sometimes barred from events, supplanted by official photogs whose work amounts to propaganda. But it turns out the problem is even more insidious where the real day-to-day business of government gets done, in federal departments and agencies. In an unusual alliance, a number of journalism organizations have banded together to denounce what they call “politically driven suppression of news and information about federal agencies.” Those are strong words. Suppression of news sounds like something done in totalitarian regimes. But the Society of Professional Journalists, American Society of Newspaper Editors, the Poynter Institute and other media groups make that case in a letter to Obama. The issue itself is not new, as the groups acknowledge. I have battled for access to knowledgeable staffers in every administration during the decades I’ve been in Washington. That’s how you find out whether programs are working and ferret out statistics and reports on who’s getting the contracts and where the money is going—the basic building blocks of aggressive reporting. But political appointees have increasingly tried to restrict the flow of information. “Over the past two decades,” the groups write, “public agencies have increasingly prohibited staff from communicating with journalists unless they go through public affairs offices or through political appointees. This trend has been especially pronounced in the federal government. We consider these restrictions a form of censorship -- an attempt to control what the public is allowed to see and hear.” Calling it censorship is a definite ratcheting up of the rhetoric—and a barometer of journalistic frustration. White House spokesman Eric Schultz defended the administration’s record, telling me that it is “the first ever to release White House visitor records. For the first time in history, anyone visiting in our website can see the 4 million visitors to the White House. Over the past six years, federal agencies have gone to great efforts to make government more transparent and more accessible than ever, to provide people with information that they can use in their daily lives, and to solicit public participation in government decision-making and thus tap the expertise that resides outside of government.” Schultz said the administration has reduced the backlog of Freedom of Information Act requests by 45 percent, despite a surge in applications, and that Obama pushed through Congress a 2012 law to strengthen protections for whistleblowers. But the groups’ letter paints a very different picture. It says that “most federal agencies prohibit their employees from communicating with the press unless the bosses have public relations staffers sitting in on the conversations. Contact is often blocked completely. When public affairs officers speak, even about routine public matters, they often do so confidentially in spite of having the title ‘spokesperson.’ Reporters seeking interviews are expected to seek permission, often providing questions in advance. Delays can stretch for days, longer than most deadlines allow. Public affairs officers might send their own written responses of slick non-answers.” I’m less concerned about officials speaking on background than about getting people with answers to speak at all. Slick non-answers won’t cut it. And here’s the chilling part: the groups cite a survey finding that “40 percent of public affairs officers admitted they blocked certain reporters because they did not like what they wrote.” That, if true, is pure retaliation—a way of punishing journalists who don’t write favorable stories. This isn’t a popularity contest. The PR folks don’t have to like reporters, but they’re paid by the taxpayers to provide information. The groups cite a number of examples: The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services wouldn’t allow a New York Times reporter to talk to staff for a story on a massive change in medical coding for health care. A reporter with the online Investigative Post repeatedly unsuccessfully pressed the Environmental Protection Agency about its actions involving hazardous waste in Buffalo. A Reuters journalist could not get press office approval for an EPA scientist to discuss climate change before finally appealing to the agency’s chief of staff. The letter urges Obama to encourage agencies to cooperate with reporters and to name an ombudsman to enforce such efforts. Some people think journalists whine too much about access. But few stories are broken by talking to press officers. And the agencies have vast responsibilities when it comes to regulating banks, polluters, food safety, health care, immigration, transportation and on and on. When there’s a massive failure—a collapsed mine, a major oil spill, a massive General Motors recall—it often turns out that federal watchdogs were asleep at the switch. The administration has already chilled investigative reporting by conducting surveillance of the likes of AP reporters and Fox News’ James Rosen, although the Justice Department has promised reforms when it comes to leak investigations. But it’s in the trenches, away from the spotlight, that journalists are most often blocked from doing their jobs. Click for more from Media Buzz.by Pamela Redmond Satran We all know about the once-male names like Madison and Addison, Harper and Alexis that have become popular girls’ names. Then there are the newer names crossing the gender divide toward the girls’ side. These may still be more widely-used for boys but have now moved into the Top 1000 for girls: Sawyer, Hunter, Ryan, Dallas, Royal, and Ellis are the most notable. More obscure than these, but way more newsworthy, are the boys’ names below the Top 1000 that are being used for sizeable numbers of girls. We don’t mean word names like Rebel and Timber that are not intrinsically gendered or nicknames such as Billie and Joey that have long been used for girls or established unisex names such as Rowan or Robin. We’re talking about deeply traditional boys’ names that are being used, in many cases, for literally hundreds of baby girls. In a few cases, there are powerful celebrity influences nudging these boys’ names girlward, such as Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds naming their first daughter James or Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher naming their little girl Wyatt. We’ve starred the names that are being used more often for girls thanks to a celebrity. Most fascinating are those gender-shifting names that have been traditionally used for boys since Biblical or Roman times…or at least since 1880 in the US. Some names in this group may be international choices that have not be widely-used in the US until recently for either gender, but that are conventional male choices in their native cultures. These classically-male names, with the number of girls who were given them in the US in 2015, include: August, 242 Spencer, 237* Ezra, 205 Tyler, 202 Carson, 177 Lincoln, 157* Austin, 151 Noah, 137 Jude, 135* Christian, 124 Hudson, 114 Evan, 97* Ira, 97 Mason, 91 Asher, 74 Anderson, 74 Sullivan, 70 Gianni, 69 Jules, 66 Asa, 65 Wyatt, 63* Aiden, 60 Hanan, 60 Kyle, 60 Lamar, 60 Levi, 58 Everett, 44 Wesley, 43 Jasper, 42 Maxwell, 40* James, 38* Michael, 36 Reed, 36 Soren, 34 Landon, 32 Atlas, 30 Judah, 30 Uriah, 28 Finn, 26 Brady, 35 Julian, 26 Sonny, 26 Barrett, 25 Killian, 25 Roman, 25 Blaise, 24 Davis, 24 Jackson, 24 Jonah, 24 Alexander, 22 Connor, 21 Declan, 21 Liam, 21 Oliver, 20 Sebastian, 20 The next group are names that have become widely used for boys only over recent decades. You might correctly argue that these newer names are less tied to any one gender, but until recently they have been used mostly for boys. This list includes surname-names, mainly because it’s too difficult at this point to know whether to call names such as Chandler and Grayson surnames or names. Chandler, 248 Campbell, 224 Baylor, 215 Ashton, 189 Bentley, 183 Palmer, 176 Grayson, 168 Raleigh, 154 Ryder, 133 Channing, 118 Cooper, 110 Lane, 97 Kyler, 94 Maddox, 90 Ramsey, 83 Jensen, 75 Miller, 71 Grey, 70 Paxton, 69 Tanner, 68 Dawson, 66 Auden, 62 Chase, 62 Chevy, 62 Jameson, 53 Ryker, 49 Beau, 44 Bowie, 41 Dempsey, 35 Windsor, 32 Rivers, 31 Tate, 31 Hayes, 26 If you go below 20, you get lots of boys’ names given to a handful of girls: There were reportedly 18 baby girls named David in 2015, along with nine named Henry and five named Maximus and Oscar. But to give you an idea of how rare that is, there were the same number of baby girls named Maleficent and Ziyi. Plus, as @namefan points out in the comments, at least some of the female Henrys are really males whose births were miscoded in the records. So what does this mean, in the larger sense? We don’t foresee Ezra and James becoming the Addison and Madison of the future, or even advocate that parents of girls rush over to the boys’ list to find fresh and edgy names for their daughters. But the growing numbers behind this phenomenon are evidence that gender is becoming as fluid a concept with names as it is in other areas of life, and that’s a development we wholeheartedly support. But it will take parents naming their sons Sarah and Serena for us to achieve true gender parity.The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is a historical novel by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows that was published in 2008.[1][2] The book is set in 1946 and is an epistolary novel, composed of letters written from one character to another. Plot [ edit ] In January 1946, 32-year-old Juliet Ashton embarks on a cross-country tour across England to promote her latest book. Written under her pen-name Izzy Bickerstaff, the book is a compilation of comedic columns she wrote about life during World War II. Despite the fact that she was initially contracted to write another Izzy Bickerstaff book, Juliet writes to her publisher that she wants
recommendation will help you get a first round interview even if you don’t have a pedigree. Once you start working, raises you get will quickly make the initial 10K boost pretty insignificant (especially given the opportunity cost and potential tuition expenses). So, to answer the question: BS >>> MS (if they’re from the same school, assuming you have to choose one or the other) [1] There are exceptions. If you don’t really love programming but want a coding gig for the stability/income, this could be a good option. Also, if you’re a foreign student looking to turn your MS into a work visa, this could be a good option as well (though you’ll want to distinguish yourself somehow from all the other foreign students trying to do the same thing). Note: This post was adapted from an answer I wrote on Quora.LOS ANGELES (KTLA) – An officer with the Los Angeles Police Department was charged Tuesday on suspicion of molesting two young girls he allegedly lured to his home, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. Officer Miguel Schiappapietra, 28, was arrested on Saturday at his home in the 28000 block of Branch Road in Castaic. Schiappapietra allegedly lured the two girls into his home, police said. He reportedly moved into the neighborhood just five weeks ago and is a father of young children himself. Schiappapietra is a six-year veteran of the force, and was stationed most recently at the LAPD’s Foothill Station. He was charged with two counts of lewd acts with a child, according to the D.A.’s office. Prosecutors said they would ask for bail to be set at $200,000. The investigation was ongoing. Anyone with information about the case was asked to call the Sheriff’s Department’s Special Victims Unit (877) 710-5273.Sikh Gurudwara provides relief for stranded tourists in Uttarakhand Kedarnath (Uttarakhand), Sun, 23 Jun 2013 ANI Kedarnath (Uttarakhand), June 23 (ANI): A Sikh Gurudwara 100 kilometers away from flood-stricken region of Kedarnath has become a temporary relief venue for about 8,000 stranded tourists. Harvinder Singh, head of the Gurdwara, Hemkund Sahib Management Trust disclosed that about 2,500 travelers came to the Gurudwara on June 15. The number increased to 7,000 or 8,000. Indian authorities have evacuated a total of 70,000 people from flood-ravaged areas in the northern state of Uttarakhand, while another 22,000 remain stranded. Also, the official death toll reached 680, officials said on Saturday. Uttarakhand is located at the foothills of the Himalayas near the Ganges River. A large number of pilgrims trek there for a pilgrimage every monsoon season when natural disasters are frequent, including landslides, mudslides and floods. The Sikh temple in Sri Nagar, less than 100 kilometers away from Kedarnath, is providing free food, medicine and rooms for the pilgrims. One of the pilgrims staying at the temple, Gulzar Singh, who was rescued from the flood-ravaged area by helicopter on Saturday said that the heavy rain lasted for three days and the travellers had no water "We could only drink rainwater. We used rainwater to cook and make tea. The floods, including our two Innovas ", he said, washed around 300 to 400 cars away. Rescue workers are racing against time as weather forecasts predict rain will return to Uttarakhand by Monday or Tuesday, which might hamper the work of rescuers. (ANI)Exercise is less exhausting when you're inspired by a musical soundtrack that mirrors the effort you are expending. Do you listen to music while working out? Good idea: It can be an effective way to shift your focus from the discomfort that arises from strenuous exercise. However, newly published research suggests it can play a much bigger role than mere distraction. Under certain conditions, music apparently helps your body use oxygen more efficiently, allowing you to get through a rigorous workout without feeling so exhausted. ADVERTISEMENT Thanks for watching! Visit Website This effect appears to be limited to circumstances where the music directly mirrors what you’re doing on the treadmill or training floor. But if these results are confirmed, entrepreneurs will no doubt be rushing products to the market that provide such feedback. If music can make "physically taxing group activities" less exhausting, it may have evolved as a useful tool to facilitate the completion of essential societal projects. The study, just posted online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was conducted by a research team led by Thomas Hans Fritz of the University of Ghent and the Max Planck Institute. It featured 63 participants (mean age 28) who took part in two sets of a strenuous physical workout using three fitness machines: a tower, a stomach trainer, and a stepper. Afterwards, some of them took part in a separate regimen of isometric exercise. ADVERTISEMENT Thanks for watching! Visit Website ADVERTISEMENT Thanks for watching! Visit Website All did their workout while listening to “rather simplistic electronic dance music” on portable devices. But for one set of exercises, they plugged into a musical feedback technology the researchers call “jymmin.” That’s a cross between “jammin’” and “gym.” OK, the name needs work, but the technology is pretty cool. The music it plays reflects the wearer’s exertion level at any given moment. For example, when they were using the tower, “no sound except some very deep bass frequencies” was audible when they were not exerting force. But as the weights were pulled, “the bass line and the beat would blend in their higher frequency spectrum,” the researchers report. Then, by triggering a synthesizer, “a simple melody on a software synthesizer could be created by moving the weights in the top range of displacement.” This immediate musical response to their physical exertion had a positive effect on the exercisers. Although those listening to a standard musical soundtrack and those on this high-tech musical feedback look expended roughly the same amount of total force, the “perceived sense of exertion was significantly lower” for the latter group. In other words, they did the same amount of work, but the effort didn’t feel as strenuous. The same result was found for the 22 participants who did the isometric exercises: They, too, reported their workout was less exhausting than when they performed the same regimen listening to a standard soundtrack. Even more strikingly, the exercisers’ oxygen consumption was lower when they were receiving the musical feedback. “It thus rather appears that participants were able to apply a comparable amount of force using less oxygen,” the researchers write. So why does this musical feedback allow us to work more efficiently? "We believe that the effects may be due to a greater proportion of emotional motor control due to musical ecstasy during the musical feedback condition," Fritz wrote in an e-mail message. He and his colleagues (who can be contacted at [email protected]) suspect another factor is “the calming effect of music, leading to reduced muscle tension and more efficient oxygenation.” In addition, they write, “the musical feedback may have provided the participants with ‘virtual goals.’” Perhaps the fact they could manipulate the soundtrack by pushing themselves just a bit harder “enabled them to regulate and monitor the extent and timing of their movements more effectively.” This is not only potentially good news for fitness buffs: It also provides intriguing evidence regarding the origins of music. If music can make “physically taxing group activities” less exhausting, the researchers speculate, it may have evolved as a useful tool to facilitate the completion of essential societal projects. In other words, singing "I’ve Been Workin’ on the Railroad" all the live-long day just might have made it easier to hammer in those last few spikes. And the satisfaction you feel when music signals your effort is paying off may inspire you to work that much harder./ K.C. Alfred / Union-Tribune Roxie Johnson had to learn a new way of eating after being diagnosed with celiac disease. She and her daughter, Karen, prepared a gluten-free lunch. Roxie Johnson had to learn a new way of eating after being diagnosed with celiac disease. She and her daughter, Karen, prepared a gluten-free lunch. (/ K.C. Alfred / Union-Tribune) When Roxie Johnson was diagnosed with celiac disease 10 years ago, she immediately went into mourning — for pizza. “I really miss pizza,” says the 57-year-old La Jolla resident, who no longer eats any gluten or foods containing wheat, barley or rye. “It was always so much fun to go out and have pizza with everyone.” However, putting an end to years of suffering with headaches, nausea, fatigue and gastrointestinal problems has been worth the tasty sacrifice, she admits. Doctors discovered her celiac disease accidentally while searching for the source of her severe anemia. An endoscopy showed that her intestines were damaged and her body was not absorbing iron and other nutrients she needed. Her daughter, Karen, who was 16 at the time and experienced extreme joint pain, also tested positive for celiac disease. So, together they embarked on a gluten-free journey to restore their health. “I feel better now than I have in years,” Johnson says. “It wasn’t easy and it didn’t happen overnight but now I have more energy, I’m stronger, and I have no headaches or nausea.” The Johnson household is mostly gluten-free, although Roxie’s husband and son, who do not have celiac disease, have a stash of cookies and crackers tucked away in a kitchen drawer. “One good thing about the gluten-free diet is that you end up eating a lot less processed foods,” says Johnson, who’s become an avid food label reader to make sure no gluten sneaks into her diet. “We are all eating more fresh fruits and vegetables and meats. Our celiac disease ended up making (the family) healthier.” To better understand celiac disease and what it means if you or a family member is diagnosed, here are answers to some commonly asked questions about the condition: What is celiac disease? Celiac disease, is an autoimmune disorder in which gluten, one of the proteins in wheat, barley and rye, damages the lining of the small intestine. The damaged intestinal villi do not effectively absorb important nutrients. What are the symptoms of celiac disease? Celiac disease can present itself in different ways: • Asymptomatic. A person may experience no symptoms and have no idea they have celiac disease until they are tested — usually because a family member has it. • Classic celiac disease gastrointestinal distress. Symptoms include diarrhea, bloating, cramping, gas, abdominal pain, vomiting. • Malabsorption problems including anemia and fatigue (iron isn’t absorbed), osteoporosis (calcium and vitamin D aren’t absorbed) and weight loss. • In children: Stunted growth, weight loss and aching joints are common. What causes celiac disease? The cause is unknown, but there’s a strong genetic link. If a close family member has celiac disease, you have a 10 percent to 15 percent chance of having it. Celiac disease can show up at any point in life. For reasons that aren’t clear, the disease sometimes emerges after some form of trauma such as an infection, a physical injury, severe stress or surgery. How is celiac disease diagnosed? The gold standard for celiac disease diagnosis is a two-step process. The first screening is a blood test for antibodies generated by the immune response that gluten provokes. If that test is positive, the next step is a biopsy of tissue from the small intestine to see if the villi have been damaged. What’s the cure for celiac disease? There is no cure. The only treatment is a lifelong gluten-free diet. What grains contain gluten and must be avoided by people with celiac disease? All wheat, rye and barley and their derivatives are forbidden on a gluten-free diet. Oats need to be eliminated, too, because it’s likely they have been contaminated with wheat in the fields or while being processed. What are some things that contain gluten that may surprise us? Licorice, flavored popcorn and chips, Rice Krispies, soy sauce, luncheon meat, some prescription and OTC medications, some lipsticks, some mouthwashes, postage stamps and communion wafers. What are some gluten-free foods celiac patients can safely eat? Many foods are naturally gluten-free including fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, chicken, beans, milk, cheese, yogurt, rice, potatoes, corn tortillas, nuts and seeds. Gluten-free grains include amaranth, arrowroot, buckwheat, corn, flax, flours made from nuts, beans and seeds, millet, potato starch, potato flour, quinoa, rice, rice bran, sorghum, soy and tapioca. Will someone with celiac disease heal after eating a gluten-free diet? It depends on the degree and duration of the disease. According to Dr. Martin Kagnoff, pediatrician and director of the Warren Celiac Center at UC San Diego, children’s intestines usually heal completely after some time on a gluten-free diet. Only about 50 percent of adults will heal completely after eliminating gluten, and it may take a few years. Even if the intestines are healed, a celiac patient must always avoid gluten. How many people have celiac disease in the United States? According to the Warren Celiac Center, it’s believed that one in 100 people in the United States has celiac disease. “Once we had the antibody test and people started screening, it was found that celiac disease is not a rare disease at all,” Kagnoff says. But only 15 percent of those with celiac disease have been diagnosed, he notes. According to the National Institutes of Health, it takes about 11 years for celiac disease to be properly diagnosed. Gluten has always been in foods, so why have we only heard about celiac disease in the last few years? “It’s been misdiagnosed. Doctors couldn’t find the cause for (patients’ symptoms), but that doesn’t mean celiac disease doesn’t exist,” says integrative medicine specialist Dr. David Leopold of the Scripps Center for Integrative Medicine. “People have been suffering in silence for a long time. As information gets out and people connect with other people and medical professionals, we can now recognize it easier than before.” According to Leopold, celiac disease is often misdiagnosed as irritable bowel syndrome or fibromyalgia, because it can sometimes cause fatigue and joint pain. If someone in your family tests positive for celiac disease, should other family members be tested? “If a member of a family is diagnosed with celiac disease, it’s prudent to have every first-degree relative checked,” Kagnoff says. Even if someone shows no symptoms, they still could have the disease, and it’s important to have it diagnosed because “continued ingesting of gluten may put you at risk for other autoimmune diseases and lymphoma,” he says. Is there any evidence that celiac disease or gluten are connected to autism in children?Whose ratings should you trust? IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic, or Fandango? A data scientist investigates Alex Olteanu Blocked Unblock Follow Following Apr 10, 2017 Should you watch a movie? Well, there are a lot of factors to consider, such as the director, the actors, and the movie’s budget. Most of us base our decision off of a review, a short trailer, or just by checking the movie’s rating. There are a few good reasons you would want to avoid reading reviews, or watching a trailer, although they bring much more information than a rating. First, you may want to completely avoid spoilers, no matter how small. I understand that! Second, it could be that you want an uninfluenced experience of watching that movie. This usually applies only to reviews, which are sprinkled with frames, like “this is a movie about the complexity of the universe” or “this movie is really not about love”. Once these frames get encoded in your short-term memory, it’s really hard to stop them from interfering with your own movie experience. Another good reason is that if you’re tired or hurried, you might not want to read a review, let alone watch a 2-minute trailer. So a numeric movie rating seems to be a good solution in quite a few situations, for quite a few people. This article aims to recommend a single website to quickly get an accurate movie rating, and offers a robust, data-driven argumentation for it. Criteria for “the best” Making such a recommendation is a lot like saying “this is the best place to look for a movie rating,” which is an evaluative statement, resting on some criteria used to determine what is better, what is worse or worst, and what is best, in this case. For my recommendation, I will use one single criterion: a normal distribution. The best place to look for a movie rating is to see whose ratings are distributed in a pattern which resembles the most, or is identical to, the pattern of a normal distribution, which is this: given a set of values lying in a certain interval, most of them are in the middle of it, and the few others at that interval’s extremes. Generally, this is how a normal (also called Gaussian) distribution looks like: A normal (or Gaussian) distribution of movie ratings means that there are a few low ratings, a lot of average ones, and a few high ones. An ideal normal distribution means the best in this context. What’s the rationale behind this criterion? Well, from my own experience consisting of several hundred movies, I can tell that I’ve seen: a few outstanding ones that I’ve watched several times a couple that were really appalling, and made me regret the time spent watching them and a whole bunch of average ones, for most of which I can’t even remember the plot anymore. I believe that most people — whether critics, cinephiles, or just regular moviegoers — have had a similar experience. If movie ratings do indeed express movie quality, then we should see the same pattern for both. Given that most of us assess the bulk of movies as being of an average quality, we should see the same pattern when we analyze movie ratings. A similar logic applies for bad and good movies. Every bar is thought here to correspond to a rating (it can also correspond to a rating interval). The taller the bar, the greater the number of movies with that rating. If you’re not yet persuaded that there should be such a correspondence between the patterns, think about the distribution of ratings for a single movie. As many people rate the movie, it’s not a leap of faith to assume that most often there will be many of them with similar preferences. They’ll generally agree that the movie is either bad, average, or good (I will quantify later these qualitative values). Also, there will be a few others who assess the movie with one of the other two qualitative values. If we visualized the distribution of all the ratings for an individual movie, we would most likely see that one single cluster forms in one of the areas corresponding to a low, an average, or a high rating. Provided most movies are considered average, the cluster around the average area has the greatest likelihood of occurring, and the other two clusters have a smaller (but still significant) likelihood. (Note that all these likelihoods can be quantified in principle, but this would require a lot of data, and would have the potential to turn this article into a book.) The least likely would be a uniform distribution in which there are no clusters, and people’s preferences are split almost equally across the three qualitative values. Given these likelihoods, the distribution of ratings for a large enough sample of movies should be one with a blunt cluster in the average area, bordered by bars of decreasing height (frequency), resembling, thus, a normal distribution. If you have found all this hard to understand, consider this illustration: Please notice the distinction between “likely” and “very likely”. IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, Fandango, or Metacritic? Now that we have a criterion to work with, let’s dive into the data. There are a lot of websites out there that come up with their own movie ratings. I have chosen only four, mainly based on their popularity, so that I could get ratings for movies with an acceptable number of votes. The happy winners are IMDB, Fandango, Rotten Tomatoes, and Metacritic. For the last two, I have focused only on their iconic rating types — namely the tomatometer, and the metascore — mainly because these are more visible to the user on each of the websites (meaning it’s quicker to find them). These are also shared on the other two websites (the metascore is shared on IMDB and the tomatometer on Fandango). Besides these iconic ratings, both websites also have a less-featured rating type where only users get to contribute. I have collected ratings for some of the most voted and reviewed movies in 2016 and 2017. The cleaned dataset has ratings for 214 movies, and can be downloaded from this Github repo. I haven’t collected ratings for movies released before 2016, simply because a slight change has occurred in Fandango’s rating system soon after Walt Hickey’s analysis, which I will refer to later in this article. I’m aware that working with a small sample is risky, but at least this is compensated by getting the most recent snapshot of the ratings’ distributions. Before plotting and interpreting the distributions, let me quantify the qualitative values I used earlier: on a 0 to 10 scale, a bad movie is somewhere between 0 and 3, an average one between 3 and 7, and a good one between 7 and 10. Please take note of the distinction between quality and quantity. To keep it discernible in what follows, I will refer to ratings (quantity) as being low, average, or high. As before, the movie quality is expressed as bad, average, or good. If you worry about the “average” term being the same, don’t, because I will take care to avoid any ambiguity. Now let’s take a look at the distributions: Each rating has its peculiarities. For IMDB and Fandango, each bar corresponds to a 0.5 range, and for the other two, the range of a bar has a value of 5. At a simple glance, it can be noticed that the metascore’s histogram (that’s what this kind of graph is called) most closely resembles a normal distribution. It has a thick cluster in the average area composed of bars of irregular heights, which makes the top neither blunt, neither sharp. However, they are more numerous and taller than the bars in each of the other two areas, which decrease in height towards extremes, more or less gradually. All these clearly indicate that most of the metascores have an average value, which is pretty much what we’re looking for. In the case of IMDB, the bulk of the distribution is in the average area as well, but there is an obvious skew towards the highest average values. The high ratings area looks similar to what would be expected to be seen for a normal distribution in that part of the histogram. However, the striking feature is that the area representing low movie ratings is completely empty, which raises a big question mark. Initially, I put the blame on the small sample, thinking that a larger one would do more justice to IMDB. Luckily, I was able to find a ready-made dataset on Kaggle containing IMDB ratings for 4,917 different movies. To my great surprise, the distribution looked like this: This similarity raises the confidence with regard to the representativity of the smaller sample. The shape of the distribution looks almost the same as that for the sample with 214 movies, except for the low ratings area, which is in this case feebly populated with 46 movies (out of 4917). The bulk of the values is still in the average area, which makes the IMDB rating worth considering further for a recommendation, although is clearly hard to rival the metascore, with that skew. Anyway, what’s really great about this outcome is that it can be used as a strong argument to support the thesis that the 214-movies sample is fairly representative for the whole population. In other words, there’s a greater confidence now that the results of this analysis would be the same — or at least similar — to the results reached if absolutely all the movie ratings from all the four websites were analyzed. With this increased confidence, let’s move on to examining the distribution of Fandango’s ratings, which doesn’t seem to have changed much since Hickey’s analysis. The skew is still visibly towards the higher part of the movie rating spectrum, where most of the ratings reside. The area for the lower half of the average ratings is completely empty, just like the one for low ratings. It can easily be concluded that the distribution is quite far from fitting my criterion. Consequently, I won’t consider it further for a possible recommendation. (I promise that the torment of scrolling up will end soon. It’s much easier to compare the distributions if they are placed one near the other, rather than having them scattered across the article.) Lastly, the tomatometer’s distribution is unexpectedly uniform, and would look even flatter under a different binning strategy (a binning strategy is defined by the total number of bars and their ranges; you can play with these two parameters when you’re generating a histogram). This distribution is not easy to interpret in context, because the tomatometer it’s not a classical rating, but rather represents the percentage of critics who gave a positive review to a movie. This makes it unfit for the bad-average-good qualitative framework, because it makes movies either good, either bad. Anyway, I guess it should still boil down to the same normal distribution, with most of the movies having a moderate difference between the number of positive reviews and the negative ones (rendering many ratings of 30% — 70% positive reviews), and a few movies having a significantly bigger difference, in one way or the other. Given the last consideration and the shape of the distribution, the tomatometer doesn’t meet my criterion. It could be that a larger sample would do it more justice, but even so, if I were to recommend it, I would do it with some reserves because of the vague positive or negative rating system. At this point of the analysis, I could say that by looking at the distributions, my recommendation is the metascore. However, the IMDB’s distribution seems to be worth considering as well, especially if you tweak a little the rating intervals for the three qualitative categories (intervals which I defined myself, more or less arbitrarily). From this perspective, recommending the metascore by mostly doing a visual examination is clearly not enough. So, I will try to delimit between these two by using a quantitative method. The idea is to use the Fandango variable as a negative reference, and then determine which variable, from the IMDB rating and the metascore, is the least correlated with it (I call these variables because they can take different values — for example, the metascore is a variable because it takes different values, depending on the movie). I will simply compute some correlation coefficients, and the variable with the smallest value will be my recommendation (I will explain then how these correlation coefficients work). But before that, let me briefly justify choosing the Fandango variable as a negative reference. Fandango’s users love movies too much One reason for this choice is that the distribution of Fandango’s movie ratings is the furthest from that of a normal one, having that obvious skew towards the higher part of the movie ratings spectrum. The other reason is the cloud of suspicion around Fandango left by Walt Hickey’s analysis. On October 2015, he was also puzzled by a similar distribution, and discovered that on Fandango’s website the numerical ratings were always rounded to the next highest half-star, not to the nearest one (for example, a 4.1 average rating for a movie would have been rounded to 4.5 stars, instead of 4.0). The Fandango team fixed the biased rating system, and told Hickey that the rating logic was rather a “software glitch” on their website, pointing towards an unbiased system on their mobile app. (More about this on Hickey’s article.) The adjustment did change some statistical parameters for the better, but not enough to convince me not to work with the Fandango variable as a negative reference. This is what the change looks like: I have normalized all the other rating types to match Fandango’s — I converted them to a 0–5 rating system and then rounded the converted values to the nearest 0.5. The acronym “FTE” stands for FiveThirtyEight, the online publication Hickey writes for. Now, let’s zoom in on Fandango: The blue bars represent the year 2017, and the red ones 2015. Between the metascore and the IMDB rating, which is the least correlated with the Fandango rating? The least correlated with the Fandango rating is the metascore. It has a Pearson’s r value of 0.38 with respect to Fandango, while the IMDB rating has a value of 0.63. Now let me explain all this. As two variables change, taking different values, they are correlated if there’s a pattern corresponding to both changes. Measuring correlation simply means measuring the extent to which there is such a pattern. One of the ways to perform this measure is to compute the Pearson’s r. If the value is +1.0, it means there’s a perfect positive correlation, and if it’s -1.0, it means there’s a perfect negative correlation. The extent to which the variables are correlated decrease as the Pearson’s r approaches 0, from both the negative and the positive side. Let’s better visualize this: Ratings can be plotted on a graph. Each of the small points that together make up the shapes above could describe the ratings of two variables (say, Fandango and IMDB) for a specific movie. Image credit: Denis Boigelot (source: Wikipedia).A professor recently posed the following question to my class: are librarians required to be activists? The question came out of a conversation about open access after watching this video. The film discusses the actions of Aaron Swartz, who brought on a lawsuit when he downloaded about 80% of MIT’s JStor database onto his laptop, presumably to make the articles freely available to the public (to read more about the controversy, check out this article from the Boston Globe). Swartz was not a librarian, but he was an advocate of open access and certainly an ally of libraries. There are librarians out there doing some pretty badass things. Molly Molloy, for example, runs a site called Frontera List, which tracks information related to the death rate in Juarez, Mexico. She single-handedly provides access to previously untracked, critical information about Mexican crime. Last year HLS profiled Alison Macrina, Director of the Library Freedom Project, about her work advocating for digital privacy rights. The actions of these librarians are inspiring. As students, it can be overwhelming to imagine taking on projects on such a grand scale, but I think it’s important to keep in mind that even the small, everyday things we do make us activists. Mirriam Webster’s definition for activism is: “a doctrine or practice that emphasizes direct vigorous action especially in support of or opposition to one side of a controversial issue” Activism is anything you do that supports a cause and encourages change. Some of us (myself included) are sometimes so blinded by coursework, reference desk shifts, committee meetings, lesson plans, or budgets that we do not have time to see the greater impact of our actions. I’ve got a secret for you: all of us are activists. You’re an activist if you help to provide resources to undocumented people. You’re an activist if you read “And Tango Makes Three” at storytime. You’re an activist if you encourage homeless people to use the library, rather than turn them away. Heck, you’re an activist if you direct patrons to MOOCs to take their education into their own hands. So what’s my point? Stay inspired! Being an activist doesn’t have to mean organizing a huge rally for some grand cause. The little things we do everyday make us activists.We are all in a unique position to influence members of our community in big ways, even as students. Keep questioning, keep engaging, and keep changing. Check out the Progressive Librarians Guild for further information and to get involved.Representative Mike Thompson, a Democrat from California, speaks during an interview in Washington, D.C., U.S. on Wednesday, March 13, 2013. Thompson predicted that Congress will pass legislation to expand background checks on gun purchases and called on âresponsible gun ownersâ to speak out in support. Photographer: Julia Schmalz/Bloomberg via Getty Images WASHINGTON -- The House of Representatives on Thursday approved a measure that would boost funding for the nation's background checks system, less than one week after another mass shooting shined the spotlight on congressional inaction on gun control. The amendment, which passed by a vote of 260 to 145, would provide an additional $19.5 million in funding for the National Instant Criminal Background Checks System (NICS). The funds would be appropriated toward grant money for states, in order to improve reporting to the national database, which is designed to keep guns out of the hands of individuals with felony convictions and certain mental health issues. The Justice Department has long sought increased funding for the FBI-run database, but the measure is just a minor step in the uphill battle to enact stricter gun laws. Congress still has not passed legislation to require universal background checks, amid stiff opposition from the National Rifle Association. The passage of the measure follows a killing spree in California last Friday, in which 22-year-old Elliot Rodger stabbed three college students to death and fatally shot three more before taking his own life. Rodger legally purchased three handguns prior to carrying out the attack, despite the fact that his parents had warned authorities that Rodger was unstable and potentially dangerous. Rodger was being treated by multiple mental health professionals leading up to the rampage. Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.), the chief co-sponsor of the amendment, unveiled it late Wednesday for consideration under a broader criminal justice appropriations bill. "Everyone agrees that we don't want criminals, domestic abusers, or the dangerously mentally ill getting guns. And the first step in stopping this is through background checks," Thompson said on the House floor Wednesday. "But the background check system is only as good as the data you put in it. And right now, all the information isn't getting in," he added. "When the information doesn't get into the system, we can't enforce the law, and dangerous people who otherwise wouldn't pass a background check can slip through the cracks and buy guns." Thompson chairs the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, established after the 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. The task force introduced a slew of bills aimed at reducing gun violence after Sandy Hook, but none of them were taken up by the GOP-controlled House, where Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said existing laws should be improved instead. The amendment that passed Thursday was aided by rare bipartisan support, with Reps. Pete King (R-N.Y.), Elizabeth Esty (D-Conn.), Joe Heck (R-Nev.) and Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) signing on as co-sponsors. It now heads to the Senate, where lawmakers failed one year ago to advance a compromise to expand background checks. Given the House-passed measure simply offers a modest boost to the existing program, it is unlikely that lawmakers in the upper chamber would reject it. The amendment received a major assist on Thursday, when the NRA, the nation's most powerful gun lobby, told HuffPost that it would adopt a "neutral" stance on it, neither supporting nor opposing increased funding for the background check system. The NRA's position almost certainly helped the bill win votes from rank-and-file Republicans, who would typically be disinclined to vote for a measure lauded by gun safety groups as a positive step. For the NRA, increased funding for background checks is a tricky issue. For years, the group's leaders have argued vehemently that no new gun control measures should be enacted while NICS remains underfunded. Their logic boils down to the idea that we can't know how well our current system works, or whether we need to expand it, until it's fully funded. In 2011, NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre told Fox News, "Look, NRA's all for the Instant Check. We were there before anyone else was even talking about it. We need to fund it, we to make the sure the states turn over their records." In the wake of the Sandy Hook shooting, LaPierre again cited the NICS funding situation as a reason for the NRA's opposition to expanding background checks to cover all gun sales, including those made by private dealers, commonly known as the "gun show loophole." Americans for Responsible Solutions, the anti-gun violence group co-founded by former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-Ariz.) and her husband, Mark Kelly, praised the amendment's passage. "This will save lives. Gabby and I applaud Members from both sides of the aisle who voted for public safety," Kelly said in a statement.College football is finally back. Kickoff Week in the Big 12 gives you three Power 5 conference matchups and the reigning Big 12 champs facing last season's Group of 5 darling. On to the picks: Kansas State at No. 8 Stanford Friday, Sept. 2, 9 p.m. ET NAME PICK SCORE Max Olson 31-27 Mitch Sherman 35-17 Jake Trotter 33-27 No. 3 Oklahoma vs. No. 15 Houston (at NRG Stadium) Saturday, Sept. 3, Noon ET (ABC/WatchESPN) NAME PICK SCORE Max Olson 42-38 Mitch Sherman 37-27 Jake Trotter 41-30 No. 10 Notre Dame at Texas Sunday, Sept. 4, 7:30 p.m. ET (ABC/WatchESPN) NAME PICK SCORE Max Olson 35-24 Mitch Sherman 24-21 Jake Trotter 28-24 More unanimous picks Baylor over Northwestern State West Virginia over Missouri Oklahoma State over Southeast Louisiana Kansas over Rhode Island Texas Tech over Stephen F. Austin Iowa State over Northern Iowa TCU over South Dakota StateNobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman (Imaginechina via AP Images) Breitbart duped by satirical news outlet The conservative website and Boston.com both ran stories from a competitor of the Onion on Paul Krug
.6 million hectares out of 400 million hectares was foreign owned. "This has also increased on the December 2010 survey estimate of 11.3 per cent or 44.9 million hectares out of 398 million hectares being foreign owned." But Treasurer Scott Morrison said "foreign investment is integral to Australia's economy." "It contributes to growth, productivity and creates jobs, but the community must have confidence that this investment is in the national interest," he said. "With more than $3 trillion worth of foreign investment in Australia today, we cannot afford to risk our economic future by engaging in protectionism." Maranoa MP wants productivity tests for foreign buyers But if the Federal Government had approved the sale of the 10 million hectare cattle empire S Kidman and Co. to a Chinese company, China would have placed second highest on the register. Key findings of farm register: Foreign ownership is 13.6pc or 52.1 million hectares of Australia's total agricultural land Of these foreign-owned hectares, 9.4 million was freehold, 43.4 million hectares held as leasehold Highest use of foreign-owned agricultural land by area was livestock production with 45.8 million hectares or 88pc of the foreign-owned total This is followed by cropping at 1.5 million hectares or 2.8 per cent of the total It is one reason there is a growing push within the National Party for tighter foreign ownership restrictions. The Government has already reduced the thresholds for scrutiny of foreign investment in Australian farms and agribusinesses by the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) significantly. The newly elected member for the south-west Queensland seat of Maranoa, David Littleproud, said all foreign buyers should be forced to undertake a "productivity test" to demonstrate their "carrying capacity" and to specify exactly what the land would be used for. "We would have the expertise on the (FIRB) to acknowledge whether that is reasonable or not and then it should be on the onus of those owners to continue to prove that to the FIRB year in year out, and there should be some dispossession powers given to the FIRB and to the Treasurer," Mr Littleproud said. "Because I am hearing at a local level that land has been locked up and [foreign buyers] have walked away, and in fact the environmental gains they are trying to get are for overseas. "The reality is they have got the land and they do not know what to do with it, and basically it is contributing nothing to this country." The farm register shows the greatest portion of foreign-owned agricultural land is in Queensland, followed by the Northern Territory, Western Australia and South Australia. Tasmania has the least amount of foreign-owned farmland.Leeds United 2016/17 Season Tickets are now on sale, with the club offering a unique commitment to its fans. We are more determined than ever to gain promotion from the Championship and are fully committed to doing everything we can to return this great club to the Premier League in 2016/17. With the full support of our fans, we believe we can achieve this goal next season. We are therefore willing to offer a truly unique, one-off incentive to fans who pledge their support early and commit to a 2016/17 Season Ticket before May 31, 2016. As a clear statement of our intent to gain promotion, in the event that the club does not reach at least the Play-Offs in the 2016/17 season, we will offer all Season Ticket holders who purchase their Season Ticket before the May 31 deadline a 25% refund on their Net Season Ticket price. In addition, should general admission Season Ticket sales surpass 15,000 by July 31, 2016, and the club does not reach at least the Play-Offs, the Season Ticket refund, for qualifying Season Ticket holders only (see below), will increase to an incredible 50% of the Net Season Ticket Price. WHO QUALIFIES FOR THIS OFFER? All general admission Adult, Concession and Junior Season Ticket Holders who purchase their 2016/17 Season ticket before the May 31, 2016, deadline are eligible. Fans who purchase their Season Ticket after May 31, 2016, will not qualify for the refund in the event that the club does not make at least the Play-Offs. This offer is not applicable to ‘United for 20 Years’ Season Ticket Holders. NET SEASON TICKET PRICE Net Season Ticket price is the Season Ticket price minus VAT (20%) and then minus the Football League Levy (3%). Example: Season Ticket Price - £445.00 Season Ticket Price Minus VAT (20%) - £370.83 Minus Football League Levy (3%) - £11.12 Net Season Ticket Price - £359.71 25% Refund Amount - £89.93 50% Refund Amount - £179.85 PRICES FROZEN FOR A THIRD CONSECUTIVE SEASON To further reward the loyalty of our existing Season Ticket holders and to encourage new Season Ticket purchases, in addition to this great incentive, prices are being frozen for the third consecutive year. NEW PRICING STRUCTURE FOR JUNIORS Next season the club is aiming to encourage as many junior fans as possible to watch live football and experience the unique matchday atmosphere inside Elland Road. Therefore, some major changes have been made to our Junior Season Ticket pricing structure as we seek to attract the next generation of Leeds United supporters. For the 2016/17 Season, we've extended our Under-11s Season Ticket category, which was previously only available in the Family Stand, so that it is now available across all stands. Prices for our Under-16 Season Ticket holders have also been reduced, with huge savings of up to 45% on last season's prices. As always, the cheapest way to watch live football throughout the year at Elland Road is by purchasing a Season Ticket. Significant savings of up to 34% were made by 2015/16 Season Ticket Holders, compared to match-by-match ticket buyers. KEY DATES Tuesday April 19 – 2016/17 Season Tickets will go on sale, online or in person at Elland Road, to existing Season Ticket Holders and new applicants. Tuesday May 31 - Deadline to purchase a 2016/17 Season Ticket at the frozen prices and to be eligible for our ‘Season Ticket Incentive’. This is also the deadline for existing Season Ticket holders to guarantee use of their current seat The traditional application forms will be sent to all existing Season Ticket Holders and any interested new applicants over the next two weeks, in time for our final home game of the season with Charlton Athletic on Saturday April 30. SPREAD THE COST OF YOUR SEASON TICKET WITH ZEBRA FINANCE Fans will now have the opportunity to spread the cost of their season ticket over a longer period through a six-month instalment plan provided by our partner Zebra Finance (admin fee applies). REPRESENTATIVE EXAMPLE BELOW: Cash price of ticket (including VAT): £445.00 Total amount of credit: £445.00 Total amount repayable: £458.80 Repayable by a first monthly payment of: £87.97 (Including the Admin Fee of £13.80) Followed by five monthly payments of: £74.17 Interest rate fixed pa: 0.0% Representative APR: 11.3% Example based upon an Adult Season Ticket costing £445.00 repayable over six months. Admin Fee is applied at a rate of 3.1% of the ticket price. SEASON CARDS New season cards will be issued for the 2016/17 season. Please ensure that your address details are correct at the time of applying for your 2016/17 Season Ticket. Season cards will be dispatched approximately two weeks before the first home League game. For further information, please call the Ticket Office on 0871 334 1992. The West Stand Ticket Office will be open throughout the Season Ticket application process for fans to purchase their Season Ticket in person at Elland Road. TERMS & CONDITIONS The Club is currently undertaking a feasibility study on relocating hospitality guests from the East Stand Upper to the East Stand Lower tier. As a result, a small number of general admission seats may be affected in the East Stand Lower and North East Corner Upper. Any current Season Ticket Holders who may be affected by these changes will be contacted within the next two weeks.Project Entropy is a blockchain experiment hosted on Ethereum that will test whether a DAO can direct a fleet of sailing hackspaces/makerspaces—both in the projects it will host and the actual places it will visit around the world. Project Entropy is an Ethereum-based, floating blockchain experiment, which promotes the ideals of peer-to-peer interactions, open source code, and sustainability. It does this by launching a fleet of crowd-owned, community-steered sailing hackspaces/makerspaces. It aims to become a nomadic, global community of like-minded individuals, sustainably sailing the World Ocean. Entropy’s co-founder, Joran Kikke, is a coder who supports green initiatives, has a passion for makerspaces, and a love of sailing. He was kind enough to speak with ETHNews regarding the project, its inception, and its intentions. Currently based out of Auckland, New Zealand, Entropy is still very much in the bootstrapping phase of launching. While Kikke still works a day job, he spends about a third of his time on the water. Kikke said: “I suppose we started coming up with the idea a little bit over a year ago, because [my partner and I], we’d kind of been in the makerspace scene quite a lot, and we really liked that part of things. But completely separately, we were very [interested in] sailing, and we were doing a lot of sailing and planning to organize a big global voyage. But the two parts of it seemed completely separate, and they seemed like it was impossible to join them up. But then along the way things started moving more and more with Ethereum, and it started becoming clearer what was possible with that. So that’s when we were like ‘Wow, okay we can actually [join] all these things together and not really compromise, and use the whole combination of a decentralized voting platform and a sort of micronation to kind of bring it all together, but allow people to have access to a makerspace when normally they wouldn’t ever be able to access one.’” A makerspace is a collaborative workspace that has tools an individual might not normally have, or even be able to acquire due to finances or practicality. It's a place where kids and adults alike can go to do arts and crafts. While a makerspace might have traditional art supplies, many also have a significant range of tools and equipment, from woodworking tools, to 3D printers, CNC machines, laser cutters, and even sewing machines. Makerspaces are all about creative expression, turning nothing into something, and finding new ways to explore and combine things. They're natural innovation hubs, and have been hosted in cities, schools, and local communities, by both profit and non-profit organizations. Hackspaces are like makerspaces, but are more focused on software development and other computer-based work. Project Entropy hopes to make a floating, traveling makerspace. However, it doesn’t aim to be a leisure cruise, only sailing to Grecian islands and tropical paradises. The team members behind the project want to be able to bring a makerspace to anywhere in the world, especially places with no makerspace equivalents. Seeing as how some “third world” countries don’t even have basic services, encouraging creative innovation through a makerspace could help out entire communities. Entropy hopes to serve the entire world. But hosting a floating makerspace is only a small piece of the puzzle. Kikke said: “The thing that I thought was very exciting about the project is that no one really knows what the goal is until people start joining and directing it. So it’s sort of up for the citizens to decide what the direction of the whole thing is—very literally even, as in the direction of where the fleet sails to is also decided by the people involved.” What Kikke is talking about is Entropy’s DAO (decentralized autonomous organization) structure for governance, which we’ll get into in a minute. What’s interesting is Entropy’s website lists a few onboard projects, but those are more like examples of the types of projects the fleet would eventually like to host. As Kikke explained: “What we were noticing is it’s quite a difficult concept to imagine, because I think people are used to having these things sort of dictated to them. So we thought, ‘Okay, well let’s take some of the other stuff that we’re working on that we would be working on if we had enough space aboard, so then people could kind of relate to it more.’” Project Entropy is currently a fleet of two ships, the Santa Paz and Festina Lente, which is impressive because the project hasn’t even officially launched yet. Santa Paz is 38 feet and has been circumnavigating for 15 years. She has a bathroom, shower, and kitchen. The Festina Lente (named for a famous phrase meaning “make haste slowly”) is a 24-ft training yacht, lacking the same amenities as the Santa Paz, but is still very much a seaworthy vessel/floating hackspace. Kikke tells ETHNews that the Entropy crewmembers are pretty good cooks, which sounds like a huge bonus when sailing hundreds of miles from the nearest coastline. Entropy DAO Entropy has chosen to have a DAO govern the project. The DAO would control everything for Entropy, from where the fleet goes and what projects the team members work on, to eventually owning the ships. How would a decentralized autonomous organization actually own a boat, let alone an entire fleet? Entropy appreciates the benefit of eventually turning the DAO into a legally recognized entity. Their current thinking is the DAO would most likely incorporate as a cooperative. If all goes according to plan, Entropy would like to eventually purchase a 60-ft catamaran, which would be owned by the Project Entropy DAO, with sail-space allotted for advertisements. A catamaran is great because it offers stability on the high seas, an open design for a shared workspace, and the redundancy of two hulls, each with its own motor. One thing that stands out about Project Entropy team members, aside from their passion for the project, is that they really do their due diligence. They don’t want to just present a list of projects they want to host, or nail down immutable goals of the project. They realize the need to stay modular, to be able to adapt to changing conditions as they arise. The high seas are unforgiving; Entropy’s philosophy will be integral to their success, and safety, while out on the open ocean. The Entropy team members seem to be dreaming big, while keeping their goals broad yet conservative. They will let the amount of interest in Entropy dictate the scale of the project. They don’t want to over-promise anything. Kikke realizes they have a bold vision, but feels, if done properly, their project could not only be a success, but also an inspiration to others who share similar ideals. They could help people, through Project Entropy, to start their own projects and even potentially acquire their own (project-specific) boats in the fleet. This is all speculation at the moment, just some of their high hopes for what they know the project could become, if it reaches critical mass. This is why DAO governance seems a good idea for Entropy, which could be an accelerator/incubator for other projects; a mobile, floating hackspace/makerspace; or just a real-life embodiment of what a DAO is. That’s part of what makes Entropy so interesting: it is a physical representation of crowd-led governance. Kikke spoke about how many Ethereum projects are intangible, not having a traditional bank account or board of directors, and how Entropy is unique, saying: “Entropy is different from that. Even though it’s decentralized, there’s a very physical part to it—there are assets in the real world.” It’s a new business model: don’t give the people what you think they want, have the people literally tell you what they want. Instead of a corporation of workers, shareholders, and executive decision-makers, anyone with a stake in a DAO has a say. A person can embody any, or all, of those standard corporate roles in a DAO. Guardians But who decides when and where is safe? Who assists the DAO in controlling the fleet? That’s where Project Entropy’s Guardians enter the picture. Entropy’s current Guardians are: Joran Kikke, Tudor Georg, Helena Teichrib, Lucas Tauil De Freitas, and Kian Mehrabi. Entropy Guardians are similar to the concept of oracles. They’re the boots on the ground, able to feed information to the blockchain. The Guardians crew the ships, lead the projects, and do whatever else the DAO directs them to (within reason). Guardians can be elected, and are therefore accountable to the crowd of citizens, but they’re also the safety gap. If they have to use an emergency measure to go against the governing DAO’s decision, because it would endanger the fleet, they’d need to provide an explanation to the DAO as to why they did it, or risk being voted out of their position as Guardian. So while the Guardians are Project Entropy’s vanguard, they still answer to the Entropy DAO. Pirates And Peril Project Entropy may not be actively circumnavigating yet, but the crew is certainly preparing for it. When thinking about a DAO sending a fleet of ships wherever it pleases across the world’s oceans, one problem immediately came to mind: pirates. While instances of piracy is generally declining (the golden age of piracy was 1650 to 1730), it is still a concern when sailing near certain parts of the world. The notorious Somali pirates hadn’t been active since 2012—until an oil tanker was hijacked off the coast of Somalia on March 14, 2017. It was held for ransom, along with eight Sri Lankan crewmembers who were onboard during the hijacking. Thankfully, after negotiations between local elders and officials and the pirates, the situation was resolved without any loss of life, and the oil tanker and crew were unconditionally released, with no ransom paid. The pirates were not arrested and were allowed to leave. It’s lucky this situation turned out how it did—previous pirate attacks haven’t ended so well. An obvious concern for Entropy was what if the DAO voted to send the fleet into dangerous waters? Kikke said: “The topic of piracy came up really early on, because Lucas, who’s the skipper of Santa Paz, he very quickly thought, ‘Wait, but if we let people vote on everywhere we go, they’re going to send us to crazy places, because they don’t know about pirates, and we’ll end up in Somalia.’” That’s obviously not an ideal situation. There’s a precedent of online voting being used to send people to weird places. How does Entropy plan to sail the World Ocean without running into marauding pirates, vengeful white whales, or hurricanes? “The idea of the fleet and its general pattern of movement should […] just sort of [have] a rhythm to it. Our rhythm will be a little bit more complicated because we have to follow the trade winds, so we have to head generally west, and there are parts of the world we have to avoid at certain times. So there’s sort of a pattern to it, which we need to, a little bit, [set] into stone. But within that broad global pattern, there’s a lot of possibility.” Entropy’s DAO will be able to vote where the fleet goes, but within reason. The world’s oceans may seem vast and unending, but Entropy has to bow to the laws of physics and the conflicts of men. That means following the winds and avoiding zones of international conflict. So the DAO can’t just constantly vote the fleet into the Bermuda Triangle—unless the weather is fair and there are no reports of pirates or conflicts in the area. Should the DAO send the fleet into dangerous waters, the Guardians can take evasive action. A somewhat worrisome aspect of the whole project is its inherent potential for peril, not only from the usual risks of sailing the high seas (squalls, the Kraken, etc.), but from the fact that some parts of the world aren’t exactly welcoming of cryptocurrencies, and may not appreciate a “hackspace” floating near their shores. On that point, Kikke said: “I think we shouldn’t be totally afraid. I mean, if we’re living already in a world where a group of people can’t get together and sail together, promoting an idea they think is great, that is already a dark dystopia.” It seems Project Entropy is, in part, about keeping freedoms by exercising them. It’s promoting the ideals of decentralized, peer-to-peer organizations, and new technologies, like cryptography and blockchain tech, while actively bringing them across the world. Going Green Going green is also at the heart of the project, and it’s something Kikke really believes in. The idea is to have a fleet of ships, able to travel the world’s seas, all under renewable energy. Harnessing wind-power via sailboats is obvious, but Entropy also wants their outboard motors to be all-electric, or at least biodiesel (fueled by waste vegetable oil). Covering the boats in solar panels would help to power onboard electronics as well. They even have a concept for using reclaimed laptop batteries for a recycled-battery marine propulsion project. As to what actually happens on the boats, Entropy is focusing on the basic functionality of hosting a sustainable hackspace/makerspace while on the open ocean. An obvious issue when doing computer work at sea is networking. When Internet connectivity is less than reliable, alternative ways to communicate and share information is crucial. Mesh Nets Entropy is testing out mesh nets (that’s mesh networks—not the kind of nets used for fishing), where everyone on the network acts as a node, as a way to communicate over water during bad weather, or when there’s no cell signal. The simplest way to get internet on the open sea is to have a cell phone act as a hotspot. Entropy uses this method, literally hoisting a cellphone up the ship’s mast to maximize signal strength. The project is working with Secure-Scuttlebutt, a “database of unforgeable append-only feeds, optimized for efficient replication for peer to peer protocols,” and Scuttlebot, a peer-to-peer log store. Scuttlebot allows each Entropy member to have their own identity and data log within the system, secured by cryptography. On a mesh network, using Scuttlebot means everyone involved with Entropy can be working separately at the same time. The network updates logs whenever an identity has a connection, even chaining connections to create a more complete picture of all the logs across the network. It’s similar to a distributed ledger, except a remote node (on the open seas for example) could send updates to the nearest node (a nearby ship), and then that second node could update the rest of the network (back near the coastline) with both its logs and the logs of the original remote node. This is a great system for collaborating in places where internet connectivity is intermittent or unreliable. Secure-scuttlebutt is open source and Project Entropy is actually helping with its development. Such a system is what would enable Entropy to do collaborative computer work like software development, and general project hosting, on the open sea. Speaking of development, Project Entropy offers “citizenship” to anyone who successfully contributes on the Entropy GitHub. For any accepted pull requests, regardless of the level of assistance, Entropy will gift citizenship. The Future The Entropy crowdsale is planned to occur within a few months, although specifics are still in development. Entropy plans to release some videos leading up to its crowdsale. The crypto-space has seen its share of half-baked projects with blank whitepapers; it’ll be nice to actually see an idea come to fruition. What does Kikke see in Entropy’s future? Is there a specific end-goal to the project? Kikke said that “the aim is to go global, to circumnavigate. In theory, forever, because I guess if things work as we’re planning, boats can come and join the fleet.” While Joran Kikke may have sparked the idea, if the crowdsale successfully funds the Entropy DAO, this project could become a self-sustaining, floating example of what a group of like-minded people can accomplish. More information about the project will be released as the crowdfund nears. Follow them on Twitter (@EntropyBoat), or visit their website to stay up to date until then.Happy birthday and merry Christmas, Apple II collectors! I’ve decided to make a gift of my design for an FPGA-based disk controller card, and release it under a Creative Commons – BY-SA license. This means anyone else is welcome to use it, modify it, build it, or sell it. And I hope they will! This mostly-finished design has languished for so long on my workbench, I finally decided it was better to let others take advantage of it than for it to gather dust forever. I know there’s economic value in what I’m giving away here today, but that value is only theoretical while I sit idle. It’s been almost a year since I last worked on the project, and almost two years since I began work on the design, and that’s too long. So here you go! The only restrictions are on the terms “Yellowstone”, “BMOW”, and “Big Mess o’ Wires”. They’re not covered by this license, and are reserved for my exclusive use. If you build something based on this design, don’t use any of those words. You’ll need to pick a new name like Turbo-Disk Mega Ultra Elite. You can download the design data here: FPGA disk controller Github repository Ground Rules Please don’t send me detailed questions and requests for help with this design, or expect me to be your engineering consultant. I’m releasing the design to the community because I don’t have time to pursue it myself. That means I can’t work on it for you, either. The design is released as-is, with no promise of technical support. I may be able to answer general questions, but the rest is up to you. What is This? Yellowstone is the code name for an Apple II disk controller card that’s based on an FPGA, rather than using discrete logic chips and ROM chips. By reprogramming the FPGA, the card can be made to emulate various other disk controller cards made by Apple in the 1980s and 1990s. The work so far has focused on emulating an Apple Liron disk controller card, but it would also be easy to emulate a Disk II controller card. It’s theoretically also possible to emulate a Disk 3.5 controller card, though this possibility has not been explored in detail. What’s Liron? The Liron disk controller was introduced by Apple in 1985. More formally known as the Apple II UniDisk 3.5 Controller, it’s designed to work with a new generation of “smart” disk drives more sophisticated than the venerable Disk II 5.25 inch floppy drive. The smart disk port on the Liron is appropriately named the Smartport, and it can communicate with block-based storage devices such as the Unidisk 3.5 (an early 800K drive) and Smartport-based Apple II hard drives. Why care about the Liron? The Apple IIc and Apple IIgs have integrated disk ports with built-in Smartport functionality, but for the earlier Apple II+ and IIe, the Liron is the only way to get a Smartport. For owners of the BMOW Floppy Emu disk emulator, having a Liron card makes it possible to use the Floppy Emu as an external hard drive for the II+ and IIe. Unfortunately finding a Liron is difficult, and although they occasionally turn up on eBay, they’re quite expensive. That makes cloning the Liron a desirable goal. How it Works The FPGA disk controller card is little more than an FPGA, a voltage regulator, and a set of level-shifting bus transceivers. The FPGA replaces all of the 7400-series discrete logic chips typically found on a disk controller card. Verilog (hardware description language) replacements for all of the 7400-series parts and other logic were written and programmed into the FPGA. This also includes a full Verilog implmentation of the Apple IWM chip. The FPGA also replaces the ROM chip containing the boot code for the card. The Apple II executes this code during power-up, and the code knows how to find and load sector 0 from the attached disk drive. The code was obtained from a ROM dump from a real Liron card. The prototype card also includes a footprint for an 8-pin SPI flash memory chip. It is not used by the current FPGA code, and the chip can be omitted. The idea was that a small number of disk images could be stored in SPI flash memory, so the card could function both as a disk controller and as a disk emulator, but this was never implemented. The card has a standard 10 x 2 pin disk connector on board. It can be connected directly to a BMOW Floppy Emu disk emulator, using a standard ribbon cable. But for a full Liron clone and connecton to a Unidisk 3.5, a DB-19 female connector is required. A design for a DB-19F adapter PCB is included here, and the adapter can be connected to the disk controller card with a short ribbon cable. The DB-19F is still available from surplus electronics suppliers in small quantities. Project Status See here for a complete history of work involving the FPGA disk controller. The FPGA disk controller card was designed by Steve Chamberlin at Big Mess o’ Wires during the summer of 2017, but the first prototype card wasn’t built and tested until January 2018. The version 1.0 card had errors with the wiring for the output enable signal on one of the bus transceiver chips, and it required a few hand-soldered path wires to fix. After further development, the prototype card was demonstrated to work as a Liron clone, in both an Apple IIe enhanced computer and an Apple IIgs. It worked for controlling a real Unidisk 3.5 drive, as well as a BMOW Floppy Emu disk emulator configured for Smartport emulation mode. Later testing discovered that the FPGA disk controller card worked reliably when it was the only card installed, but other cards were also present, it sometimes malfunctioned. The more other cards present, the worse the rate of errors became. This was diagnosed as a likely termination or contention problem on the Apple II data bus, and various fixes were tried unsuccessfully. After March 2018, I lost interest in researching the problem further, and no more work has occurred since then. The design provided here is version 1.1, and it fixes the output enable problem from version 1.0. Where to Start Open the FPGA disk controller design (Liron clone) in EAGLE. Export Gerber files and send them to your favorite PCB fabricator. If desired, do the same for the DB19F adapter design. Purchase the chips and other parts listed in the BOM. Assemble the card. I did it by hand, you can do it too. A syringe of solder paste and a hot plate or toaster oven works nicely. Get a Lattice JTAG programmer or appropriate clone. Some clones don’t handle 3.3V logic correctly. Maybe spend the extra money for a genuine Lattice programmer. Install the Lattice Diamond software. Apply 5V power to the card at jumper J4. Do not insert the card into your Apple II yet. Program the FPGA with the bitstream for the Liron clone design – liron_fpgatop.jed Insert the card in your Apple II. Remove any other cards that are present. Connect a Smartport-compatible disk drive, such as a BMOW Floppy Emu disk emulator that’s configured for Smartport emulation mode, or an Apple Unidisk 3.5 drive. Turn on the Apple II. It should boot from the attached drive. Next Steps The bus termination or bus contention problem must be solved, in order to get a robust card that works smoothly when other cards are also present. See the blog posts from February-March 2018 for more details about what was already tried. A solution will require a person who’s experienced at electronic design, and has appropriate test equipment such as an oscilloscope and logic analyzer. The current design uses a Lattice MachXO2 1200HC FPGA, and a Lattice JTAG programmer (or compatible) is required for programming it. The XO2-1200HC has more logic resources than are actually necessary for the Liron clone design. The cheaper XO2-640 or XO2-256 could be substituted instead. They are mostly or entirely pin-compatible with the XO2-1200HC. Programming the FPGA with a JTAG programmer is fine for development use, but end users are unlikely to have one. If reprogramming by the end user is desired (say to switch between Liron and Disk 3.5 emulation behaviors), a different method of FPGA programming will need to be developed.Hillary Clinton has come out against tipped wages. “It is time we end the so-called tipped minimum wage,” she said at a rally at the Javits Center on Wednesday. “We are the only industrialized country in the world that requires tipped workers to take their income in tips instead of wages.” She continued, to loud cheers, to explain how tipped workers have been paid as little as $2.30 an hour. “That’s shameful,” she said. The Democratic candidate for president is the latest to voice support for the movement to end tipping. In New York City, dozens of restaurants in the last six months have abolished tipping, opting instead to charge more for food and pay their employees higher wages. The movement was led by Danny Meyer's Union Square Hospitality Group. Clinton supports a minimum wage increase to $12 an hour. “No one who works full time should have to still be living and raising their children in poverty,” she said. -With Ivan PereiraLicense received: Edgeless becomes first legal blockchain casino! Tomas Draksas Blocked Unblock Follow Following Dec 22, 2017 The Edgeless team is extremely excited to announce a successfully received casino license. That’s a huge step for the entire gambling and blockchain community, because it’s the first time blockchain base casino is officially approved by legal authorities. This license gives tons of advantages for a casino operator such as: Access to the gambling market Credibility and authority within the industry Secure partnership with exchanges Access to banking services Access to payment providers Access to affiliate and media networks and many more.. In general, working hand in hand with legal authorities and being fully regulated is necessary for the growth of business, especially in areas such as crypto or gambling. License details: Issue date: 2017–12–22 Jurisdiction: Curacao License number: 8048/JAZ2017–076 What’s next for Edgeless legal matters? Curacao license is a good starting point which enables us to compete with traditional online casinos, however, we are not finished yet. The crypto and gambling field is evolving really fast including legalities. Our legal team will be working on acquiring more licenses in thenear future and strengthening Edgeless legal base. Edgeless 0.2 version launch Registration for Edgeless starts on January 8th. (since Edgeless become legally compliant, user registration will require KYC and verification to prevent kids from gambling. Similar process as cryptocurrency exchanges has) New Edgeless version launch is happening in January 18th. Key features of version 0.2: Increased betting limits New player registration and verification Enabled deposits and withdrawals of real EDG Shapeshift integration allowing players to deposit EDG using other cryptocurrencies Additional news: Edgeless is invited to discussion panel on future of gambling in ICE 2018, London! One of the largest international gaming events! https://www.icetotallygaming.com/ Stay Tuned! Websites: http://edgeless.io/ Subscribe Newslettes: https://edgeless.io/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/edgelessproject Telegram: https://t.me/edgelesstelegram Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/EdgelessCasino/ Discord: https://discord.gg/h8a8Zs3 Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Edgeless/Facebook Twitter Google+ LinkedIn Homestead in the Holler is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. One of the first things that I wanted to do when we moved to our homestead was to get a garden started. It was the beginning of August, but I had dreams of a fall garden. After attempting to dig a few small beds, I realized just how rocky and hard the soil was! There is a lot of clay content in our soil, and a LOT of rocks. I did plant a few odds and ends, which did grow and we got a few things out of the garden that fall. But I knew that we could make it much better. It was time to think about raised beds. More specifically, hugelkultur beds. What is a hugelkultur bed? Hugelkultur is a German word meaning mound or hill culture. It’s a raised garden bed filled with rotting wood and topped with soil. The rotting wood on the bottom slowly breaks down, feeding the soil and retaining water. The older the bed, the better it works. It works well right away as a raised bed. It will just keep getting better as the wood breaks down and feeds your plants. Hugelkultur beds can be mounded or flat. Paul Wheaton has a lot of good information about hugelkultur beds here. We have a lot of trees growing on our property. There are also a lot of fallen trees, in varying stages of decay. We decided to use what we had and made the sides of our hugelkultur beds out of tree trunks from dead standing or already fallen trees. I love it when we can source supplies from our own property! Most of the logs were quite large and required a tractor to get them into place. Locating rotten wood wasn’t a problem either. We found it everywhere! This was a great way to clean up an old homestead and put all that wood to good use! We scraped off the top soil to use for later and dug down a couple feet in the area that we placed the bed. The logs that were the edges of the bed were placed around the dug in area. That gave us a lot of space to pile up the rotting wood. The more wood you have in the bottom of
who or what that dragon was, what he represented or what relationship he had with Marduk (or Ishtar). Do we know what he was directly averse to; that is, what he considered sin against his commandments? Do we have any of those commandments? No. Do we know the proper ways of gaining contact- the music, the dances, the particular tools used? We know none of this. Can you speak to Marduk in his native Babylonian tongue? I would bet the majority would have to say no on that point as well. However, Babylonian is not a forgotten language, and you can learn it if you’re dedicated and can gain access to the right academic works. At least you can make use of it as a sacred language in your work with him – if not a conversational one. These examples don’t even cover the entire Template, but it sure does put things into perspective. When it comes to comparing Marduk to Santa- we see how little we really know about Marduk! What can change this is hard work and life-long dedication. Hours spent in the libraries scanning and re-scanning archeological and anthropological texts; both books on the shelves and articles from archeology journals. Do everything in your power to fill in each and every point in the Template before you even begin. Consider the ones you could not fulfill, and what might be done in their stead. And with that I’ll bring this excerpt to a close, and let you all get back to your Christmas traditions. Enjoy! AdvertisementsSharknado 2: The Second Oneis well and truly underway with stars Tara Reid and Ian Ziering now signing on for the sequel, set to be shown this April. Syfy wasted no time last July announcing plans for the sequel when the TV movie became the most talked about television event of the summer. Stars Ian Ziering and Tara Reid will return for Sharknado sequel. After a the original announcement of a sequel fans took to Twitter in their thousands to suggest potential titles, with producers eventually deciding on the not so creative Sharknado 2: The Second One. Sharknado told the story of April (Tara Reid) and Finn (Ian Ziering) who are the only people able to save New York after a freak weather system floods the city with shark infested water. The TV movie became an unlikely hit thanks in part to social media, though it dividing opinion with some calling it the 'worst movie ever'. Thomas Vitale, executive Vice-president of programming and original movies told The Hollywood Reporter "Sharknado was an extraordinary 'perfect storm' which captured the attention of movie fans across the globe. You couldn't go anywhere without hearing about Sharknado! By reassembling the creative team -- and dropping sharks onto New York's iconic sites -- we're unleashing yet another 'fin' wave of shark-mania,” The CEO of Asylum, the films distributer, Paul Bales added, ”We’re thrilled to be able to bring back the talent that made Sharknado a hit. Can lightning strike twice? I don't know, but it's a scientific fact that you're more likely to be killed by lightning than by a shark. This film will have lightning and sharks, so that's got to count for something.” Tara Reid at the Hard Rock Hotel November 2013 Production on the follow-up begins in New York on Feb. The original two-hour movie had over 1.4 million viewers watch its orignal airing with 2.1 million taking in the repeat showing.It was announced today that Seattle Sounders FC 2 and Sounders FC U 23’s will be having a doubleheader on May 28th. Both Matches will be played at Starfire. S2 will be the opening feature as they play host to Sacramento Republic FC in a match that will kick off at 2:00 pm. Following that game the Sounders FC U 23’s will be playing the TSS Rovers at 5:00 pm. This match should give the Sounders FC scouting department a good look at some of the up and coming talent from the area. Sounders FC Director of Player Personnel Kurt Schmid said via press relase, “The Pacific Northwest is full of young talent, and it is mutually beneficial for our club to continue to build its relationship with Sounders U23,” This could also turn out to be one of the best attended U23’s matches of the season. “Having the opportunity to train with and play alongside the professionals allows them access to what it takes at the next level.” Said Sounders U23 co-owner Cliff McElroy. TSS Rovers are based in Vancouver, BC. They replace Crossfire in the PDL Northwest.There is general agreement across the (sane, rational) political spectrum that renewable energy is the future. In 2009, Scientific American published a detailed vision of how a renewable planet could be achieved, and what such a world might look like. Now, in a major effort at the University of Delaware, a much more detailed and specific look at how a shift to renewables could replace, watt for watt, the current system in a large regional grid called the PJM Interconnection, representing 13 states and one fifth of the US grid. IEEE Spectrum: The 99.9 percent figure can be achieved with, for example, 17 GW of solar power, 68 GW of offshore wind, and 115 GW of onshore wind. The most cost-effective solutions featured huge excesses of generation capacity—up to three times the load requirements at times—in order to minimize costly power storage additions. The authors wrote that “at 2030 technology costs, 90 percent of load hours are met at electric costs below today’s.” The Delaware researchers evaluated 28 billion combinations of renewable energy and storage, modeled out over a theoretical four-year period using historical weather and electricity load requirement data. “At 2030 technology costs and with excess electricity displacing natural gas, we find that the electric system can be powered 90 to 99.9 percent of hours entirely on renewable electricity, at costs comparable to today’s,” the authors wrote. Senior author Willett Kempton has long pushed for vehicle-to-grid (V2G) systems in which plugged in electric vehicles can provide power back to the grid. A study by researchers at the University of Delaware modeled how well renewables could sustain a big chunk of the U.S. grid—72 gigawatts worth, where the entire country has a capacity just north of 1000 GW —and found as high as 99.9 percent reliability at reasonable costs. Intermittency may be a problem for an individual wind farm or solar power plant, but a diverse array of renewable energy systems—coupled with storage in the form of batteries or hydrogen tanks—apparently wouldn’t suffer such issues. University of Delaware: The study used estimates of technology costs in 2030 without government subsidies, comparing them to costs of fossil fuel generation in wide use today. The cost of fossil fuels includes both the fuel cost itself and the documented external costs such as human health effects caused by power plant air pollution. The projected capital costs for wind and solar in 2030 are about half of today’s wind and solar costs, whereas maintenance costs are projected to be approximately the same. During the hours when there was not enough renewable electricity to meet power needs, the model drew from storage and, on the rare hours with neither renewable electricity or stored power, then fossil fuel. When there was more renewable energy generated than needed, the model would first fill storage, use the remaining to replace natural gas for heating homes and businesses and only after those, let the excess go to waste. The study sheds light on what an electric system might look like with heavy reliance on renewable energy sources. Wind speeds and sun exposure vary with weather and seasons, requiring ways to improve reliability. In this study, reliability was achieved by: expanding the geographic area of renewable generation, using diverse sources, employing storage systems, and for the last few percent of the time, burning fossil fuels as a backup. A GW (“gigawatt”) is a measure of electricity generation capability. One GW is the capacity of 200 large wind turbines or of 250,000 rooftop solar systems. Renewable electricity generators must have higher GW capacity than traditional generators, since wind and solar do not generate at maximum all the time. “For example, using hydrogen for storage, we can run an electric system that today would meeting a need of 72 GW, 99.9 percent of the time, using 17 GW of solar, 68 GW of offshore wind, and 115 GW of inland wind,” said co-author Cory Budischak, instructor in the Energy Management Department at Delaware Technical Community College and former UD student. One of several new findings is that a very large electric system can be run almost entirely on renewable energy. Interview with study author Willet Kempton below: Midwestern Energy News: Midwest Energy News: Earlier studies showed that in theory there’s far more than enough wind and solar power to meet the world’s electricity demands. But many believe that wind and solar are too intermittent to be reliable as a source of baseload power, and our limited ability to store that energy until it’s needed will keep us continually reliant on fossil fuels for baseload power. You found that wasn’t the case. If renewables and storage were adopted as you describe in this study, what would the electrical grid look like in 2030? Kempton: You have a diversity of sources because you’re more likely to have power generated when you need it if you have onshore wind and offshore wind and some solar. A lot of the time you’re generating more power than you need. And when you are doing that you store it, but before long your storage fills up, so most of the time you’ve got excess power. Sometimes, when you don’t have enough power being generated by renewables, you discharge your storage and run on that, plus whatever renewables you’ve got. And a few times per year, you actually have to look to some other source. In our analysis we used fossil, using legacy plants that are already in existence, and just running them much less frequently. So, that’s what the system looks like: Lots of apparently excess renewables, a very small amount of storage, and some older fossil plants that are being kept around for these situations. Earlier computer modeling efforts by renewable energy analysts had tried to match wind, solar and hydro generation to electricity use to see if renewables could provide reliable electricity. Your model instead tested 28 billion combinations of renewables and storage and sought out those that were least expensive. Why did you seek to minimize cost rather than maximize reliability? We did set a reliability limit, so we said you have to enough power to run the system 30 percent of the time, enough for 90 percent of the time, enough for 99.9 percent of the time. For each of these, we ran for minimum cost. The reason we did that is that we really were trying to match two fluctuating things. People talk about renewable energy fluctuating, but load also fluctuates. So, unless you really understand whether the fluctuations are in sync or out of sync, it’s very hard to know how much renewable generation you need to make load. [It’s also hard to know] which types, because wind on land tends to peak in production more in the evening, though that varies with location. Wind offshore tends to be more constant, but tends to peak when you have storm patterns moving through. And solar, of course, peaks at noon. So, what’s the least-cost combination of those three and storage? We couldn’t know that in advance. We really had to try all combinations. Your model found that the most affordable renewable-dominated grid was one with more than twice the generation capacity than would seem to be needed. Does that mean the excess energy would be wasted? If we only had today’s uses of electricity, and didn’t change anything about how we use electricity, than yes it would be wasted. But what we saw when we did this model is that the excess primarily occurs in the cold months. That’s not necessarily something we expected. I mean, we knew there was more wind in the winter. We’re getting lots of excess electricity, especially September, October through May. And lo and behold, that’s when we’re using a lot of fuels for heating. So... we asked the question, suppose we displaced natural gas for heating with this excess electricity? And when you calculate the energy value of that excess electricity, it’s pretty close to the same as the amount of energy burned for natural gas. In this study, you sought to minimize all the costs of burning fossil fuels, and you included costs that ratepayers don’t pay for today, such as the damaging health and environmental effects of harvesting and burning coal and natural gas. Given the political power of utilities and fossil fuel companies, that seems like a big assumption. Why do you think it’s justified? We’re not saying this is going to happen. We’re not saying this is a prediction of the future. We’re just saying let’s just look at what the costs are. Because people say, Renewable energy is expensive, or electric cars are expensive. Let’s figure out what the cost actually is. Say I opened up a new business. I want to buy some things, manufacture a product and sell it, but I’m going to take some of the costs and I’m going to put it on somebody else’s ledger. So I’m not going to actually pay for the steel I’m using. I’m going to charge Dan for that. Well, I’m going to be able to offer my product at a lower price. That’s what the fossil fuel industry is doing right now. Especially with health costs, which is an immediate, current cost that actually just goes right over on the ledger of health. We’re not saying that’s going to change, just like I wouldn’t have said in 1960 people are going to stop smoking cigarettes. We’re just saying, what is the actual cost of this? So don’t tell me that cigarettes are cheap, or that electricity from coal is cheap–it is, by market price–but that’s not the total cost. We were trying to calculate total cost. At the same time, we did not subsidize the renewables. We didn’t say, hey, there’s a production tax credit now and that’s a cool policy and you can get the taxpayers to pay for part of your wind turbine. We took away all the subsidies. We just put the actual costs of renewables and the actual cost of fossil, and put them together. To achieve the sort of all-renewable grid that you write about, do we need new or improved generation or storage technologies? We did not assume any technological changes. We took the numbers that were projected for 2030–what the same technologies would cost then, with the kind of minor refinements you get when you manufacture a product over 20 years. And, we took the cost projected for storage. I don’t think that’s realistic. I think that we will have step changes in both storage and in renewable generation, and they’ll probably occur before 2020, much less by 2030. But we didn’t assume that. We just assumed current technologies with refinements, but not new discoveries. What policy changes would have to happen to make the grid you describe a reality? My first answer would be let’s just charge what stuff costs. So, a new technology gets subsidized for 10 or 15 years, but if you’ve got external costs, they ought to be included in the price. So, we can estimate, when you build a coal plant, you don’t know if Jones is going to die of cancer vs. Smith, but you know from epidemiological studies that it will cause approximately this many deaths and lost work days and so forth. So that should be part of the cost of generation. If you do that, then the market will just do this stuff by itself. In the policy area, the other way to do it is what we’re doing now, which is to subsidize renewables until they get to enough volume that they’re actually able to compete without subsidies. But that’s a policy answer. The other way to answer the question is, What would we do to get there? I think I would say we would need some analysis by the energy planners to ask not just what’s cheaper today–onshore wind or offshore wind or solar–but to ask what kind of systems do we want when we build this out to 30 percent or 50 percent of our energy production from renewables. Our study shows you don’t want to keep just picking the cheapest source. You want to pick sources that go together so that one that might be a bit more expensive, but produces power when your cheaper ones are not producing much power–you want to have that as part of the mix. That’s not the way we do planning now. You need another 100 MW? What’s the cheapest way to do it? That [describes] all state energy planning and all [utility] planning. Nobody’s doing this kind of analysis like we have done here.A pastor and his accomplice have been arrested for allegedly kidnapping and murdering a virgin in Sagamu area of Ogun State. The pastor, with a white garment church in Sagamu, Kehinde Onayiga, and 55 other suspects were paraded by the Ogun State Police Command at its headquarters, Eleweran, Abeokuta on Thursday. The suspects’ offences allegedly range from ritual killing to kidnapping, cultism, armed robbery and impersonation. The pastor alleged that his accomplice, Musiliu Jibril, reportedly lured the victim to Onayiga’s church where she was said to have been murdered. Jibril told newsmen that it was Onayiga who contracted him to source for a female virgin, who he wanted to use for ritual purpose, in preparing some fetish materials for some Internet fraudsters. He said, “I was able to lure the girl because she knew me and the mother, too, knew me. “It was the pastor (Onayiga) that contracted me to help him get a female virgin for ritual. He told me he wanted to prepare some charms for some Yahoo boys. “I delivered the girl to him in his church at Sagamu. He promised to pay me N20,000, but I am yet to get the money.” Onayiga, who was dressed in white garment, and holding two goat horns wrapped in red cloth, denied the allegation, saying, “It is a lie. he did not deliver any girl to me in my church.” Asked what he used the fetish-looking goat horns wrapped in red cloth for, he responded, “I used them to pray for those that are sick and are brought to my church for healing.” The teenage girl, Anuoluwapo, was said to have been missing since June 21, 2017 and her whereabouts remains unknown till date.Jeddah suicide bomber proves to be Indian instead of Pakistani RIYADH: An investigation conducted following the suicide attacks in Saudi Arabia said that the bomber who hit near the Us Consulate in Jeddah was an Indian national. Earlier, the Saudi interior ministry had declared the Jeddah suicide bomber a Pakistani identified as Gulzar Hussain who was staying in Saudi Arabia for the last 12 years. However, the latest Saudi interior ministry report said that the Jeddah suicide bomber was from the Indian state Maharashtra and his name was Fayyaz Kaghazi. --Online Reuters adds: Saudi Arabia said a suicide bomber who attacked Masjid-e-Nabavi in the city of Madina on Monday was a 26-year-old Saudi citizen with a history of drug abuse. Nineteen people, including 12 Pakistani nationals and seven Saudis, have been arrested in Saudi Arabia following the suicide attacks on Monday, including one near Islam’s second-holiest site in the city of Madina, the kingdom’s Interior Ministry said on Thursday. Naer Muslim Hamad crossed a parking lot next to the Holy Prophet’s mosque in Medina and detonated an explosive belt near a security headquarters, killing four soldiers, the state news agency SPA quoted an Interior Ministry spokesman as saying. “When security guards intercepted him he blew himself up,” said the spokesman. The statement also named three individuals who carried out bombings in the province of Qatif on Monday. All of the men were in their early 20s and one had previously taken part in anti-government rallies. Suicide bombers hit three Saudi cities on Monday in apparently coordinated attacks that targeted US diplomats in Jeddah and Shia Muslim worshipers in Qatif, jolting the kingdom as people prepared to break their fast on the penultimate day of the holy month of Ramazan. A Saudi Interior Ministry spokesman told Al-Ikhbariya TV that the Madina bomber had traveled outside the country several times, most recently early this year. He said nitroglycerin from the blasts in Qatif and Madina seemed to match those found at the Jeddah attack suggesting they may have been coordinated. The UN human rights chief described the bombing outside the Holy Prophet’s Mosque in Madina as "an attack on Islam itself". No group has claimed responsibility but Islamic State militants have carried out similar bombings in the US-allied kingdom in the past year, targeting minority Shia and Saudi security forces. Militant attacks on Madina are unprecedented. Islamic State has said the Saudi rulers are apostates and has declared its intention to topple them. Monday’s attacks highlighted how young Saudi men are being drawn to Islamic State, which has launched attacks on Shias in smaller Gulf Arab states and stepped up violence in the holy fasting month of Ramazan. King Salman, in a speech on Tuesday marking Eidul Fitr, said a major challenge facing Saudi Arabia was preserving hope for youth who faced the risk of radicalisation. Salman said his country would strike with an "iron hand" against people who preyed on youth vulnerable to religious extremism. Saudi security officials have said Islamic State supporters inside the kingdom mainly act independent of the group in Iraq and Syria, its main areas of operation.Barbados could remove the Queen as its head of state, almost 400 years after it was colonised by the British. The island was under the UK’s control from 1627 up until independence in 1966 and has remained a constitutional monarchy ever since. But the Prime Minister has laid down his plans for Barbados to become a republic with a ceremonial President in time for the 50th anniversary of independence next year. We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view. From 15p €0.18 $0.18 $0.27 a day, more exclusives, analysis and extras. Speaking on Sunday evening, Freundel Stuart told a branch meeting of his Democratic Labour Party (DLP) that the change would happen over the coming year. George Pilgrim, general secretary of the DLP, said a draft bill proposing the Queen’s removal will be voted on by Parliament but the government does not expect any opposition. “This will move the country through to the next major step in the process of nationhood,” he added. “(The Prime Minister) said he found it awkward in the year 2015 to have to stand up and pledge allegiance to Her Majesty the Queen.” Barbados will retain its links with the British crown though its membership of the Commonwealth, he said. The official British Monarchy website says the Queen is not involved in the day-to-day business of Barbados’s government but “continues to play important ceremonial and symbolic roles”. “The Queen's relationship to Barbados is unique,” it continues. “In all her duties, she speaks and acts as Queen of Barbados, and not as Queen of the United Kingdom.” While acting for the island, she is officially known as "Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, Queen of Barbados and of Her other Realms and territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth". Plans to make Barbados a republic have been floated several times in recent years. In 2005, the then Prime Minister Owen Arthur outlined his proposals for dropping the Queen in favour of a locally elected president but the process was not completed. In the same year, Barbados made the Caribbean Court of Justice its final court of appeal, rather than the London-based Privy Council, which has long served as the highest court of appeal for many former British colonies. Downing Street said it was not aware of the decision but a spokesperson for Prime Minister David Cameron said: “I expect the approach will be consistent with self-determination, decisions around this being a matter for the people involved.” The Queen is sovereign of 15 Commonwealth realms, including the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Jamaica, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said change in Barbados was a “matter for the government and people” to decide. In 2012, Jamaican Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller also pledged to replace the Queen as head of state. The monarch last visited Barbados 26 years ago in 1989 for the 350th anniversary of the Barbados parliament – one of the oldest in the world. Prince Harry took a three-day trip there in 2010, when he played in a polo match for his charity Sentebale, and Earl and Countess of Wessex were the last British royals to visit the nation last year. Additional reporting by PA We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view. At The Independent, no one tells us what to write. That’s why, in an era of political lies and Brexit bias, more readers are turning to an independent source. Subscribe from just 15p a day for extra exclusives, events and ebooks – all with no ads. Subscribe nowIn this, the final week of the Proms, I had the pleasure of seeing the great German violin virtuoso Julia Fischer. She not only played brilliantly, but unlike some of her peers, had commanding stage presence. So, in the interval I paid my £4, and bought an official programme to find out more about her. It was a mine of information. Useless information. It listed all the orchestras she had performed with “in recent seasons.” There they all were, from the Cleveland Orchestra to the Leipzig Gewandhaus and many others. But wait, there’s more. The next paragraph listed the orchestras she had played with “this season.” And in case you were wondering – I wasn’t – these included the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra to name but two. Enough already? ‘Fraid not. A further paragraph, a particularly lengthy one, gave another list. This time it was upcoming recitals around the world. And why stop there when there’s room on the page for one more list? This one was her “discography”, which, unsurprisingly for a star violinist, included a lot of violin concertos. Join Independent Minds For exclusive articles, events and an advertising-free read for just £5.99 €6.99 $9.99 a month Get the best of The Independent With an Independent Minds subscription for just £5.99 €6.99 $9.99 a month Get the best of The Independent Without the ads – for just £5.99 €6.99 $9.99 a month The lengthy programme list, sorry programme notes, did though tell me something about her. It informed me breathlessly that she “has performed at major international concert halls and festivals.” Pass the smelling salts. One of the world’s leading virtuosi has performed at major concert halls. How am I meant to cope with such a startling revelation and concentrate on the music? Will somebody tell me why I should have the slightest interest in the fact that Ms Fischer performed with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra earlier this year? Will the same somebody – perhaps the head of the Proms – tell me why these programmes can’t include a single fact that I and other audience members are interested in? Where did she grow up, where did she go to school? When did she take up the violin? And perish the thought we should be told anything at all about her personal life, whether she is a parent, how old she is? It’s the same every night, of course, with every soloist. I’ve written before how awful theatre programmes are in just listing productions that an actor has been in, without even saying which part he or she played. But classical music programmes surely take the biscuit in this regard. Who on earth wants these absurd lists? When I have raised this with concert officials in the past, they moan that artists’ agents like it. Who cares? Tell the agents that the concerts are for the public, not them. And it is classical music, more than any other art form, that strives to find a new, younger audience. But the measures taken to achieve this aim don’t seem to include helping these new audiences by giving them any proper information about the stars they have come to see. Existing audiences wouldn’t say no to some proper information for their money, either. Any journalist who provided an artist biography, which was simply a list of engagements, would have a very short career. How does the world’s greatest classical music festival get away with it? Throw in a cup of coffee with the admission ticket Visiting museums on a trip to Shanghai. I noted that the price of a ticket included a free cup of coffee in the museum cafeteria. It’s a tiny gesture, but for some reason it left me feeling good, and feeling that the institution realised that there was more to a visit than looking at the art works. Museums and galleries in the UK that charge for admission would add to visitor satisfaction if they followed suit. Come to that, theatres, concert halls and cinemas too could slip in that cup of coffee. Let’s hear it for Slough.. on both sides of the Atlantic A new TV comedy drama You, Me and the Apocalypse starring Rob Lowe has as its premise a meteor falling on Slough. As revealed in a feature in The Independent this week, the title was originally Apocalypse Slough. But it was felt that wouldn’t work in America. What! You have a title to die for and you replace it with a very ordinary one, because Americans might not get the joke. This sort of producer panic is so depressing. Americans aren’t stupid, they would have figured out the joke after a few minutes of the drama — or quite possibly before that. Why not argue that people who hadn’t seen the movie Apocalypse Now would not have got the joke? Television really knows how to underestimate its viewers, on both sides of the Atlantic [email protected] twitter.com/davidlister1 We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view. At The Independent, no one tells us what to write. That’s why, in an era of political lies and Brexit bias, more readers are turning to an independent source. Subscribe from just 15p a day for extra exclusives, events and ebooks – all with no ads. Subscribe nowAt the end of the 2014 CrossFit Invitational Games Director Dave Castro dropped a bombshell into what to expect for next year’s CrossFit season. For the first time since the Open began back in 2011, we will see a reduction in’qualifying regions’. While there will still be 17 qualifying realms during the 2015 CrossFit Games Open, Regional events will be consolidated into what is being called in-house ‘Super Regionals’. Castro used the example of NorCal and SoCal, which will both be combined into one California Region. Both qualifying realms will bring their top 20 male and female athletes to compete for five spots at the CrossFit Games. This will extend to other regions with Canada West and North West combining, Canada East and North East combining, Asia and Australia and Africa and Europe among others. Castro said that unlike the California example, in the case of Australia and Asia, the total number of regional competitors would be scaled a bit differently. While the numbers haven’t been made official, Castro mentioned that Australia would possibly bring 30 qualifiers and Asia would bring 10. You can check out the full announcement below. The idea of the reshuffle is to be able to have 40 incredibly strong athletes competing at the ‘regional’ level, compared to previous years where we saw larger numbers take part (48 in 2014, 60 in 2012). As part of the announcement, Castro also said there would be some small changes to the CrossFit Open, including, for the first time, a scaled division. There will also be the crowning of State and National champions after the completion of the Open, which is designed to isolate who has won each state and country. At this stage the finer details are still yet to be finalised, including locations of ‘Super Regional’ competitions and the dates of the CrossFit Games Open. More details about the changes to the 2015 CrossFit Regionals are expected to be announced later.Privileged accounts exist in all areas of business IT and if compromised they can provide an external attacker or dishonest insider access to sensitive data. Account management company Thycotic wants to help businesses protect themselves and so is giving away a no-cost version of its Secret Server package to guard against attacks that target privileged accounts. Secret Server Free will provide customers with a package valued at $5,000, at no-cost, to protect their privileged account credentials. By the end of the year, the company plans to protect more than 20,000 global organizations against cyber-attacks giving away a total of total $100 million worth of free privileged account security software. "At Thycotic, we are on a global mission to help IT teams worldwide protect their organizations from hackers and have already done so for more than 3,500 organizations", says James Legg, CEO of Thycotic. "With the introduction of Secret Server Free, we will continue towards accomplishing this undertaking by making it easier, and more affordable, for IT teams to prevent cyber-attacks leveraging our industry-leading PAM security software at no cost to them". Features of the free package include support for up to 100 users, protecting up to 1,000 privileged account passwords, integration with Active Directory, Remote Desktop tunneling with PuTTY, and password storage using military-grade encryption. You can find out more and sign up for a copy of Secret Server Free on the Thycotic website. Photo Credit: Mmaxer/ShutterstockThree short years ago, the first partial face transplantation was performed in France and recently the first of these procedures to be conducted in the United States was successfully accomplished. This was only the fourth operation of its type but experts estimate that perhaps as early as next year the first complete face transplant will be attempted. It is one thing to receive a donation of an organ such as a heart or liver, which is inside of one’s body and never seen, but quite another to look into the mirror everyday and see someone else’s face. While the underlying bone structure of the affected patient will largely determine the facial construct, the knowledge of the organ’s origins may be too much for some to bear psychologically. In addition, there may be some difficulty convincing the family members to allow the use of their loved one’s face for transplantation purposes. Herein lays the ethical dilemma of this groundbreaking procedure. Faces are considered to be individualistic; they express feelings and show personalities. However, this must be balanced by imaging the psychological consequences of the patient going through life with a disfigured face. Whether we care to admit it or not, humans are judged on their appearance, so being able to interact with society and continue normal daily activities and conduct their everyday life is essential. Some may even argue that the damaged face is not theirs either and transplantation offers them the chance at a normal life. In December 2007, the 18 month follow-up of the index transplantation patient in France was reported in the New England Journal of Medicine with good medical results. Psychological support was given at regularly scheduled intervals as part of her recovery protocol. Although no formal psychological testing was conducted, she reported being pleased with the aesthetics and felt comfortable interacting with other people. Reading about these advances also reminded me of a medical condition called prosopagnosia or “face blindness”. This is a neurological condition where affected persons do not recognize faces, sometimes including their own. It can be caused by brain damage to the occipital and temporal lobes and there is some evidence of a congenital form of the disease. Studies have shown that patients have great anxiety in social situations and may become reclusive as a result. What happens when the face is not actually your own? Organ transplantation is already a difficult procedure medically, requiring the patient to take lifelong immunosuppressive drugs. Combine this with the many unanswered ethical questions and facial transplantation becomes even more complicated. Therefore patient selection for this surgery must focus not only on organ compatibility but also on the emotional and mental capacity of the individual. References J.-M. Dubernard, B. Lengele, E. Morelon, S. Testelin, L. Badet, C. Moure, J.-L. Beziat, S. Dakpe, J. Kanitakis, C. D’Hauthuille, A. El Jaafari, P. Petruzzo, N. Lefrancois, F. Taha, A. Sirigu, G. Di Marco, E. Carmi, D. Bachmann, S. Cremades, P. Giraux, G. Burloux, O. Hequet, N. Parquet, C. Frances, M. Michallet, X. Martin, B. Devauchelle (2007). Outcomes 18 Months after the First Human Partial Face Transplantation New England Journal of Medicine, 357 (24), 2451-2460 DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa072828 L YARDLEY, L MCDERMOTT, S PISARSKI, B DUCHAINE, K NAKAYAMA (2008). Psychosocial consequences of developmental prosopagnosia: A problem of recognition Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 65 (5), 445-451 DOI: 10.1016/j.jpsychores.2008.03.013GREENBRIER COUNTY, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- West Virginia Governor Jim Justice and Donald Trump Jr. spent Tuesday hunting and fishing. According to a release, Justice and Trump went turkey hunting and trout fishing in Greenbrier and Monroe counties. The two also discussed issues facing both West Virginia and the United States. The release says the two didn't bag a turkey, but they were able to catch a few rainbow trout. “Don Jr. is a real hunter and a great fisherman. We share a real love of the outdoors and it was an honor to show him just a small part of the natural beauty of our state. We talked about the enormous potential of West Virginia and how we have opportunities to create jobs. The Trumps care deeply about our people and I look forward to working with the White House to get federal resources here to help our state in a number of different areas," Justice said.Air Canada (AC, Montréal Trudeau) has lodged an appeal to the World Bank to repatriate ticket revenue from Venezuela. The Canadian national carrier registered a case with the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes on January 13 to recover USD35 million in blocked funds. A tribunal is yet to be constituted. International airlines have found it increasingly difficult
medieval man’s world, that women cannot be trusted at their word.Masai Ujiri’s shrewd asset stockpiling has led to this moment. Last season, when the Raptors stood pat at the trade deadline, fans were angry. The fanbase wanted a win-now move – something along the lines of swapping a first for Arron Afflalo, Wilson Chandler, or maybe even Luol Deng – but no deal was made. There wasn’t even a tiny Austin Daye-for-Nando De Colo swap that went down in 2014. Ujiri stood pat, and I stood behind that decision. I argued that the war chest would be more effectively spent this season, where they had cap room (used on DeMarre Carroll, as I unintentionally predicted), and a fistful of prospects to deal. It made more sense to give them one more year to grow, and to make a move down the line. I still stand by that notion. Ujiri has done a masterful job of asset collection, and he’s built a really sturdy team along the way. Now it’s time for the master stroke. At this point in the season, we have a good grip of the Raptors’ strengths and weaknesses. They’re a disciplined team that likes to play a slow, halfcourt game, the offense largely runs through their three lead guards, and there’s just enough shooting around them and individual brilliance within them to make it work as a top-10 offense. Their defense is solid enough, and there’s enough go-to stoppers between Cory Joseph, Bismack Biyombo (situationally useful, globally suspect), and DeMarre Carroll to counter different looks. Credit Dwane Casey, too, for being much smarter about managing his defensive match-ups this season. That sounds like the profile of a great team, and their record (33-16) is no fluke. They’ve proven to be stingy home team (just swept a seven-game homestand) and a 15-10 record on the road is really solid. They’re fine – they’re great – as is. But they do have problems. First off, the frontcourt of Jonas Valanciunas and Luis Scola has been a season-long disaster. They’re two of the slowest players in the league, and their skillsets don’t mesh well. To Scola’s credit, his emergence as a capable standstill 3-point shooter has given them some options, but nobody guards him out there, and Valanciunas’s presence always leaves a defender waiting around the hoop, which isn’t idea because Lowry and DeRozan love to drive to the hoop. Defensively, they can’t keep up in transition and even the most benign stretch fours – Markieff Morris, Marvin Williams and the like – torch them. Did anyone see the Phoenix game? Or the Nuggets game? Or the Cavaliers game? Or the Pistons game? Or the Warriors game? (you get my drift) Every five-man unit that hosts both Valanciunas and Scola is a net minus this season. Every single one. Second, the Raptors have settled into a comfortable and predictable rotation which has largely yielded four distinct units. Those are: The starters (Lowry, DeRozan, Johnson, Scola, Valanciunas) The DeRozan and bench (Joseph, DeRozan, Ross, Patterson, Bismack) The Lowry and bench (Lowry, Joseph, Ross, Patterson, Bismack) The closers (Lowry, Joseph, DeRozan, Patterson, Valanciunas) Notice a trend? Every single lineup includes one (or both) DeRozan and Lowry. Casey has opted to stagger the minutes of his two all-stars so that save for garbage time, the Raptors never go without at least one of Lowry and DeRozan on the court. The cost to this approach, however, is two-fold. One, it leaves almost no latitude for DeRozan or Lowry to rest. If one of them is getting rest, the other one is out there pulling teeth. So unless the Raptors absolutely demolish the competition (and sometimes that’s not even enough, as seen with Lowry and DeRozan playing in a 17-point game with 3 minutes left against the Wizards last week), there’s no rest for either player. That’s why they’re 5th and 6th in the NBA for minutes played this season. Two, they’re not good enough to overcome the shortcomings of their teammates. The Valanciunas-Scola combination is a sinkhole and it’s why the Raptors always get themselves into a huge hole. It’s always on the DeMar bench crew to stem the tide until Lowry and bench can regain the lead. And with both of them apart, it’s hard to even build up a lead large enough to sufficiently put teams to bed. The problem is this: the regular season is a marathon, followed by a dead sprint in the playoffs. There’s no sense in having DeRozan and Lowry sprint for a huge lead over the course of 26 miles, only to be utterly lapped by fresher teams for the final dash. The Raptors have assets to address their weaknesses. They have prospects, they have surplus picks, and they even have two decent young players in Ross and Valanciunas signed to long-term extensions (albeit, trading them would spark the poison-pill thing that I have no idea how it works but it sounds fucking awful). The Raptors have what it takes to load up before the playoffs. It becomes a question of a) who’s available, and b) who they should get. (I’m not going to get into trade rumors and the sort. They’re already out there. Playing GM is really hard, and quite honestly, it’s frustrating as hell to discuss unreasonable proposals with unrealistic people. So there won’t be any tangible proposals in this column) I have no inside information, so I won’t speak to (a), but the answer to (b) is pretty simple. They need a capable frontcourt player, and past that, maybe a larger two/three type who can score enough to allow for Lowry and DeRozan to rest. For me, someone like Ryan Anderson or Markieff Morris would make a huge difference on this team. Al Horford would be a dream. Basically, any mobile four who can shoot and make plays would be huge because Lowry and DeRozan will face traps come time for the playoffs. Being able to shoot and exist without the ball is also important because they can’t bring in someone who would disrupt the Raptors’ existing schemes. Why the Raptors should trade for Ryan Anderson (or at least find a reliable 3rd option) #Raptors #RTZ pic.twitter.com/p9raZkvygC — William Lou (@william_lou) January 31, 2016 Past that, the Raptors should also look at a wing who can do a bit of scoring, or at the very least, a combo guard in the mould of Lou Williams (BUT NOT LOU HIMSELF, I’M THE ONLY WILL LOU ON THIS TEAM) – someone they can pair with Joseph and Ross. Nic Batum would be a dream. Maybe the Rockets move Trevor Ariza. I wouldn’t mind Arron Afflalo from the Knicks (weakening them in the process would be fun), and hey, maybe even an Alec Burks (if he comes back healthy). The biggest hurdle in all of this is the Raptors’ cap structure. They would need to match salaries within 25 percent for any deal. That means Scola and Johnson would need to be included in any mid-tier salary range ($5-10 million) and anything more would have Patterson in the mix (up to $14 million with all three). Trouble is, with the Raptors already being so weak at power forward, parting with a struggling Patterson might be really tough, especially since his defense is still incredibly vital to the second unit. But in terms of assets, the Raptors have enough liquid assets (picks, prospects) to rival anyone outside of Utah, Philly, and Boston. So after Boston and Utah make upgrades (they’re not as win-now as the Raptors, but they’re trying to make a jump too), it’s the Raptors who have best rebuilding package. Any talk of trade deadline decisions has to take into account the big picture. How have the Raptors gone about their team building strategy, and how does a win-now trade disrupt their plans. It’s fair to hold reservations over Ujiri trading future pieces for rentals. Who knows what Delon Wright turns into, or who will be available with those spent picks? It’s tough to give those up for someone like Anderson, who is a free agent this summer and is in line for a massive raise. Think about it in just pure financial terms: Wright and a pick would cost no more than $5 million for the next three years. Anderson could get a max deal (~$100 million) this summer. That being said, there’s also an opportunity cost to development. We’re already seeing the effects of how having Wright-Bebe-Bruno-Powell-Bennett is seriously cramping the Raptors’ playable depth. It makes any injury – even tiny ones like James Johnson spraining an ankle – thrust undue stress on DeRozan, Ross, Joseph, and Lowry because Powell isn’t ready. It’s basically impossible for the Raptors to keep their next four first-round picks because there’s simply not enough room on the roster. At the same time, it’s hard to imagine a) that any of them will be meaningful contributors next season, or b) gaining trade value while they’re sitting on the bench. Is developing these players worth punting some of Lowry and DeRozan’s prime? To not try in all earnest to win with this current core, frankly, is wasting the current core. DeRozan is a free agent this summer, Lowry will be next summer. They’re 26 and 29, respectively, and they’re at the top of their games. There’s also the added wrinkle of the Raptors’ soon-to-be bungled cap sheet. Once DeRozan re-ups for the max (it’s a certainty), the Raptors will be capped out. There will still be small exceptions for them to fill their current small exceptions (ie: Scola, Biyombo), but there’s not much room for much else. That’s why grabbing someone’s Bird Rights, even on a rental, is still valuable for the Raptors. So what if Nic Batum and Ryan Anderson might leave? Sheeeeiiiit, if they play a huge part in the Raptors going to the Eastern Conference Finals, why not retain them? Finally, I hate to even bring this up, but I think it’s a good idea to recalibrate our expectations for how far this team, led by two guards who failed carry their team out of the first round in each of the past two seasons, can really go. Barring the impossible from Ujiri in terms of a superstar acquisition, can the Raptors ever beat LeBron James and company in a playoff series? And honestly, even if they do, is there any team on Earth that can knock off the Warriors any time soon (seriously, they might get Kevin Freaking Durant)? The answer is no. But we are where we are. The Raptors have built a strong team around two really good players. And while they might never make the championship, that’s not enough of a disincentive, at least for me, to not try their best to win. Everyone said coming into the season that winning a round would be a huge success. Well, what about two? And if they somehow take a few bites out of the Cavaliers, then that’s enough of an achievement for me to rock my DeRozan jersey while having a one-man pity parade down Yonge St. It’s about as much as any team could hope for while the LeBron and Curry are still near their peaks. If you will, I just want to end with a trip down memory lane. Two and a half years ago, the Raptors were in complete shambles. Rudy Gay and DeMar DeRozan formed the devil version of the Splash Brothers with all their bricked long-twos, Lowry was out the door for Iman Shumpert and a pick, Ross was a disappointment, and Valanciunas was the lone future of this franchise. Things didn’t turn out that way. By sheer luck, we got to where we are now. DeRozan became an efficient scorer, Lowry became a fucking superstar, and we’re sitting in a position where we could even have a conversation about making a win-now move. It’s crazy how things work out, or how some things don’t work out (sorry, JV). But we’re here anyway. Let’s make the most of it. AdvertisementsThere's a pair of elevators to nowhere at one of the busiest subway stations in Montreal. Get off the train at Place Bonaventure and it's 36 stairs up to the next level. The elevators are there for riders who can't do that walk, but they go only from the train platform to the ticket-booth area, one level up. It's a long walk and many more stairs from there to the street. The station has been like this for eight years, a jarring reminder of how much of the system is off-limits to those unable to walk. Story continues below advertisement "There are good intentions, but we've got to go further than good intentions," said Laurent Morissette, who heads the disability rights group RAPLIQ and laments that "accessibility doesn't sell" when politicians are campaigning for office. According to the STM – the local transit agency whose headquarters is in a tower above Bonaventure – the rest of the elevator system is the responsibility of the regional transit agency, RTM. A spokeswoman for that agency said the work began this year after a long planning and negotiations process, and should be complete by the end of 2018. The limited accessibility of Montreal's transit – a situation that has started to improve a bit more quickly – is not unique to that system. European transit can be hit-or-miss on accessibility and even the much-vaunted rail networks in Japan can fall short, with trains sometimes coming to a stop with their floor well above or below the platform, or with a large gap between. In Canada, the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) is racing to meet a legal requirement to be fully accessible by the middle of the next decade. And the regional agency Translink in Vancouver says that, although their Skytrain network has elevators in every station, work remains to be done on their system. This matters to more than those who are disabled. As society ages across the Western world, the group of people who might be helped by accessibility-related improvements will only grow. And for those who are disabled, recent research out of Montreal lays bare how much they are being short-changed by transit agencies that don't accommodate them. Story continues below advertisement Story continues below advertisement A complicated job A subway project proposed by Montreal's new mayor – called the Pink Line – would be fully accessible if it gets built. And a short subway extension that opened in December in Toronto has also been built with all patrons in mind, a reflection of the changing mindset at transit agencies and the governments that oversee them. But when it comes to existing infrastructure, cities have to deal with the decisions of the past. Sometimes, these are positive: Melbourne rail operators concluded more than a century ago that stations with ramps were better than stairs for older people, a model that persists there. Other decisions have been more damaging. Both Toronto and Montreal built large parts of their subway systems at a time when disability rights were not recognized the same way as today, installing underground stations without planning for elevators that might be added later. Both dealt initially with the needs of disabled patrons by establishing parallel services using specialized surface vehicles. These services cost a great deal per ride and are now criticized by many who use them; they argue that using the regular system would be more convenient and reliable. "We have a life like everybody else," said Montrealer Linda Gauthier, who has filed a class-action lawsuit over transit accessibility in that city. "We go to school, we work. The Metro is a must for us." Story continues below advertisement Although not referencing transit specifically, Pope Francis recently struck a similar tone. In December, he tweeted: "Every person is unique and unrepeatable. Let us ensure the disabled are always welcomed by the communities in which they live." Over the years, transit agencies have come around to this view: Fleets are being upgraded with low-floor streetcars and buses. Rail operations, although more challenging to adapt, are being modified for those in wheelchairs. Vancouver, helped by having a newer rail system in which the majority of the stations are not underground, is the first city in Canada to have achieved full accessibility on its network. There are elevators in all SkyTrain stations and an extra-wide gate, for a wheelchair or stroller, at every entrance. In Toronto's older system, where the transit agency is mandated by law to be fully accessible by 2025, about 60 per cent of subway stations was expected to meet that standard by the end of this year. The agency drew up a priority list about a decade ago, working with a disability advisory committee and trying to sequence the stations based on demand, the needs of the population nearby and geographic equity. The construction is complicated work, especially in the heavily built-up downtown area. Story continues below advertisement "You're trying to figure out a way to thread a shaft between all of the different levels," said Gord MacLaren, senior project engineer at the TTC. Among the difficulties, he cited buried utilities equipment, restrictions on closing parts of the roads, even cases where the work needed to be done under the porch of a nearby homeowner. A particularly tricky job is under way now at one Toronto location, where crews building the elevator shaft had to suspend the shoring above the roof of the underground subway platform area, brace everything and then cut through the tunnel liner. "I wouldn't say it's one of the most [complicated], but it's up there," said Joe Rocha, senior construction inspector at the TTC. In Toronto, at least, the agency believes there is no subway station too difficult to convert. Montreal's STM is not so sure. André Porlier, the corporate manager of sustainable development and universal accessibility, said there is no obvious way to do the work in a number of stations. "The station [at Beaudry] is there, the exit is there," he said, gesturing with his hands spread. "It's not possible to take an elevator because you're going to be in someone's basement. Sometimes, we don't have the solution. So how much it's going to cost and what will be the solution for these, now, we don't know." Story continues below advertisement In Montreal, which does the same sort of prioritization as the TTC but has no legal deadline to become accessible, about one-quarter of the stations now meet the standard. Mr. Porlier said STM has used recent federal transit funding to accelerate the pace of station conversion and plans to be 80 per cent compliant by 2025. The speeding up comes after years in which accessibility was done slowly, with scraps of money left over from the maintenance budget, and coincides with the lawsuit filed by Ms. Gauthier. "If the lawsuit was not on the table, maybe [this work] would not be so quick on the horizon," suggested Mr. Morissette, with the disability rights group. "That's just conjecture, but I would bet $1,000." Value of accessibility At its core, accessibility is simply about fairness, even if the change doesn't help a large number of people. In Vancouver, TransLink is installing special devices in its stations that can read remotely a card carried by passengers who are capable of operating a wheelchair but can't tap to enter. Although this will be used by a very small group of patrons, the agency presents it as the right thing to do. Story continues below advertisement "It was very important to us … that we treat these customers with the dignity we treat all of our customers and they're able to access the system," said Sarah Ross, TransLink's director of system planning, who oversees the agency's Access Transit group. Other accessibility-related improvements implemented by transit agencies have a much broader constituency, one that goes well beyond people in wheelchairs. Some of these features are relied upon heavily by other passengers, a situation expected to accelerate as the number of Canadian seniors increases. "A good stat that I can give you is that 2 per cent of the people that use elevators are actually people using wheelchairs," said Matt Hagg, senior planner for system accessibility at the TTC. "The others are all people with, you know, canes, walkers, strollers, or don't have a disability and it just helps them in some way get to and from the subway. Even though technically we're doing this to help out people with disabilities, it really just helps everyone." But the core value of accessibility is that it can open up a city to its disabled residents. They can benefit from the spontaneity and convenience of the regular system instead of having to rely on a parallel transit service, an independence that can have dramatic impact. A study by researchers at McGill University found that limited accessibility in the country's two biggest transit systems greatly reduces the number of jobs people in wheelchairs could reach. People in Montreal who were disabled had access to less than half as many jobs as those who could use the system unencumbered. In Toronto the figure was 75 per cent. Given that a proposal for a new subway that promised such a major increase in access to jobs would have a strong business case, these results offer a stark perspective on the cost of not offering accessibility. And they put into perspective the price-tag of installing it. "You talk to me about the Pink Line, I would say take the money and invest it in accessibility," said Ahmed El-Geneidy, an associate professor in McGill's School of Urban Planning and one author of the study.Fighters in northern Syria on June 15, 2016 \| Delil Souleiman/AFP via Getty Images Forum Syrian refugees help nab suspected war criminals Survivors of crimes committed in Syrian war are talking to prosecutors in Europe, puncturing the pervasive climate of impunity. As Bashar al-Assad's forces ramped up their bombing campaign on rebel-held territory over the past year, his government may not have realized that they were cracking its shield against accountability for crimes committed in the Syrian conflict since 2011. Thousands of Syrian refugees have reached Europe and told stories of horrific crimes they've experienced and witnessed. Investigators and prosecutors in France, Germany and Sweden have begun looking at a number of individuals, who have also made their way to these countries after allegedly committing murder and mistreatment in Syria. The refugees are providing authorities in the host states with details of what happened and identities of those responsible. With the Syrian war now in its sixth year, horrific human suffering has been documented by activists and posted on the internet for the world to see: cell phone footage of civilians, writhing with pain from poison gas in Ghouta, people carrying emaciated bodies with torture marks out of buildings serving as detention centers, dust-covered faces of children being pulled from under the rubble of bombed-out pediatric hospitals in Aleppo. In recent decades, universal jurisdiction has become a safety net in the fragile “system” of international justice. Combatants on all sides, but particularly those fighting on the side of the Assad government, have shredded the laws of warfare. Each of their ghastly crimes has mocked the emerging international practice that those suspected of committing heinous acts of violence during a war will be sought out and tried fairly in a court of law. If suspects are apprehended in a European country, investigating and charging them would be a first, and important step toward accountability for war crimes committed in Syria. In France, the Paris prosecutor’s office has opened a preliminary investigation into an unnamed suspect on possible war crimes in association with a huge trove of photographs, known as “the Caesar photos,” showing dead Syrian detainees. They were smuggled out of the country by a former government prison photographer. In Germany, reports in the media say that the police daily receive between 25 and 30 reports of possible war crimes from arriving Syrian refugees. The authorities have opened 13 investigations based on refugees’ testimony. One suspect, identified by German authorities as Ibrahim Al F., was arrested on war crime charges. He is a suspected commander of a rebel militia in Aleppo and had allegedly supervised the torture of several prisoners — and personally tortured at least two of them. He's also alleged to have demanded ransom in exchange for their release. In Sweden, a suspect named Mohammad Abdullah has been charged with war crimes believed to have been committed over three years. Abdullah has admitted to working for Syrian government forces. The path to redress does have shortcomings: The suspects identified in Europe so far are low ranking fighters on all sides, who had not held positions of military command or significant authority. There is also a risk that European politicians could use alleged presence of war crime suspects among refugees to justify restricting access to their territory for people fleeing violence. More countries with the requisite law in place need to commit the resources necessary for effective investigations and prosecutions. At the same time, the search for impartial justice that respects an accused’s right to a fair trial has to start somewhere. In the cases mentioned in France, Germany and Sweden, the investigators and prosecutors are using their own domestic criminal law, based on the legal principle known as “universal jurisdiction.” The concept dates back to the 17th when piracy was deemed a crime of such universal opprobrium that any nation’s courts could prosecute a suspect brought before them. Universal jurisdiction doctrine burst into prominence with the arrest of the Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet in London in October 1998 and has been bolstered by the recent conviction of the former Chadian President Hissène Habré by a court in Senegal. Today, this authority makes it possible to try those accused of grave crimes committed abroad when they are found on the territory of another country. In recent decades, universal jurisdiction has become a safety net in the fragile “system” of international justice. In the 1990s, a number of Bosnians and Rwandans implicated in genocide and crimes against humanity in their respective countries joined the large-scale immigration those crimes had triggered. Courts in Europe and North America tried those found on their national territory, often as a result of tips provided by recently arrived refugees. Those universal jurisdiction prosecutions demonstrated that the number of safe havens for war criminals is shrinking. Russia and China’s May 2014 veto of a Security Council resolution mandating an International Criminal Court's investigation in Syria blocked one avenue to international accountability. But some U.N. member states remain determined to highlight the need for justice. They are convening a session on Tuesday in which ambassadors from France, Germany and Sweden will present information on the cases under way in their domestic courts. They hope to popularize their judicial activities to spur criminal prosecutions in other countries. The more that victims see that justice is being done, the greater the demand for trials. National prosecutions in the courts of third-party countries do more than just punish individuals. They signal to those responsible for serious offenses in Syria that they, too, could find themselves in the dock. They also convey to Syrian victims, who currently have nowhere to turn for redress that domestic courts in refugee-hosting states could offer them a crucial opportunity for justice. Nongovernmental organizations, Syrian and international, have made intensive efforts to document human rights crimes in the war. A huge amount of information and possible evidence has been gathered that will provide a powerful assistance to any effort at criminal prosecution. Far more effort will be needed, both internationally and ultimately through the reconstituted independent Syrian judiciary, but these cases in Europe are an important first step in puncturing the pervasive climate of impunity in Syria. However, the recent judicial developments in Europe are neither well-known nor well understood. To amplify the impact of these initial steps, additional effort is needed. First, the governments where these investigations and trials are occurring should take every opportunity to let the world know what their prosecutors are doing in their courtrooms on behalf of Syrian victims. Then, more countries with the requisite law in place need to commit the resources necessary for effective investigations and prosecutions. Those governments already engaged and national authorities in other interested countries should step up their cooperation and information-sharing on alleged crimes. This would include discussions with nongovernmental groups about standards to preserve evidence that could potentially feature in future trials. Finally, the U.N. Commission of Inquiry on Syria should meet with national authorities conducting investigations and brief them on the facts it has gathered. The more that victims see that justice is being done, the greater the demand for trials. The more judicial activity there is in response to this demand, the harder it will be to throw justice under the bus as part of any settlement talks. These national proceedings should be seen for what they are: a limited, but vital, start, and a step in asserting the rule of law in the face of horrific suffering. These trials, if properly conducted and publicized, could create conditions to push the door open to wider accountability for the conflict in Syria. Géraldine Mattioli-Zeltner is advocacy director of Human Rights Watch's International Justice Program. Richard Dicker is the director of the program.UC San Diego Libraries to Hold Dr. Seuss Birthday Party March 2 Members of campus community and the public are invited to annual birthday bash By Dolores Davies Dr. Seuss fans both on and off the UC San Diego campus will not want to miss the 107th birthday celebration in honor of the late Theodor Geisel —better known as Dr. Seuss. The festivities will begin at 11:50 a.m., March 2 at the foot of Library Walk in front of the Geisel Library building. The party, which will be marked by a giant inflatable Cat in the Hat, will include free punch and cake—some 2,000 pieces of cake will be served to mark the occasion. Audrey Geisel will be on hand to cut the first pieces of cake, joined by UC San Diego Chancellor Marye Anne Fox and The Audrey Geisel University Librarian Brian E.C. Schottlaender in handing out cake and greeting attendees. Musical entertainment will be provided by The Teeny Tiny Pit Orchestra, directed by Scott Paulson, which will be playing songs from The Cat in the Hat Songbook. Preceding the March 2 cake cutting, Chancellor Fox will read “The Cat in the Hat” to children at Bay Park Elementary School in Clairemont to celebrate both the Dr. Seuss birthday and the national Read Across America Day. This year’s festivities will also mark the 40th anniversary of the Geisel Library building, which was formally dedicated in March 1971. The Geisel Library building, which houses four libraries, was designed by world-renowned architect William Pereira, who was known for his futuristic, unconventional designs. UCSD’s flagship library building was named Geisel Library in 1995, for Audrey and Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss) for their generous support of the UCSD Libraries. The Libraries received Geisel’s collection of drawings, notebooks and other memorabilia following Theodor Geisel’s death, and four years later Audrey Geisel made a substantial donation to support the university’s libraries. In 2008, Audrey Geisel made a $1 million gift to UCSD Libraries to establish San Diego’s first university librarianship, held by Schottlaender. UC San Diego’s Mandeville Special Collections Library is the main repository in the nation for the original works of Dr. Seuss. The approximately 10,000 items in the Dr. Seuss collection, which includes original drawings, manuscript drafts, books, notebooks, photographs and memorabilia, document the full range of Theodor Seuss Geisel’s creative achievements, beginning in 1919 with his high school activities and ending with his death in 1991. Ranked among the nation’s top 20 public academic research libraries, the UC San Diego Libraries play an integral role in advancing and supporting the university’s research, teaching, and public service missions. As the intellectual heart of the UC San Diego campus, the nine university libraries provide access to more than 7 million digital and print volumes, journals, and multimedia materials to meet the knowledge and information needs of faculty, students, and members of the public. Each day, more than 7,300 patrons visit one of the UCSD libraries and more than 87,000 people access library resources through the UCSD Libraries main Web site. Media Contact: Dolores Davies, 858.534.0667 or [email protected] 10 Best Garden Centers and Nurseries in Massachusetts! By Kimberly Ripley Whether it’s flowers that are blooming or vegetables to be planted, Massachusetts’ gardeners need a great spot to get the tools required to upkeep a garden. And not just any spot will do! Whether you’re looking for fertilizer or a new flower pot, these 10 excellent garden centers in the state will get your property in tip-top shape. 1. Mahoney’s Garden Centers, Multiple locations With several Massachusetts locations, Mahoney’s Garden has everything you could possibly ever need to bring your yard and garden from drab to delightful. Check the website for individual store hours, and allow plenty of time to browse, as these garden shops are sizeable and impressive. 2. Russell’s Garden Center, Wayland, MA For all your planting needs—both indoor and outdoor—Russell’s Garden Center has the perfect plants, tools, decor and more. Learn about lawn care from one of their seasoned professionals. 3. Pemberton Farms & Garden Center, Cambridge, MA In addition to their market, which sells food, sundries, and wine, Pemberton Farms & Garden Center has a beautiful nursery and every gardening tool or supply imaginable. Stop by to get your garden in order, but be sure to check out the market, too. 4. Sixteen Acres Garden Center, Springfield, MA Featuring a landscape design service, a nursery yard and a flower shop, Sixteen Acres Garden Center can make your spring and summer dreams come true. Be sure to check their website for their list of events and Saturday morning seminars. 5. Wolf Hill Home & Garden Center, Ipswich and Gloucester, MA From annuals, perennials, trees and shrubs to mulch and loam, Wolf Hill Home & Garden Center will help you get your yard and garden ready for spring. Ask about their landscaping services and supplies, too. Wolf Hill offers a discount to active service members and veterans. 6. Weston Nurseries, Chelmsford and Hopkinton, MA Weston Nurseries offers everything you could need and more for you indoor and outdoor gardening needs. Check out their gardening service, landscaping service, and their in-store planting design help. 7. Ward’s Nursery & Garden Center, Great Barrington, MA Celebrating 60 years in business, Ward’s Nursery & Garden Center touts itself as your lawn and garden resource. Grow your gardens from seeds or plants available at their center. They contract with local landscapers who will do the work for you if you prefer. 8. Surfing Hydrangea Nursery, Nantucket, MA Even if you have to send someone to Nantucket Island to bring plants back for you, you’ll want to check out Surfing Hydrangea Nursery for your gardening needs. In addition to their wide range of plants, they specialize in hydrangeas. Visit with a list of questions to grow the biggest, brightest hydrangeas around. 9. Niche Urban Garden Supply, Boston, MA Who says city dwellers can’t enjoy gardening, too? Just because they don’t have a space to enjoy an outdoor garden, they can certainly still enjoy some indoor green and blooms. Niche Urban Garden Supply has everything you’ll need and more to grow healthy, hardy plants inside. Check out their exceptional array of plant pots, too.EXCLUSIVE: Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, creator and co-executive producer of MTV’s new series Sweet/Vicious which will premiere in November, has just been set to adapt the funny and irreverent book Hold My Gold: A White Girl’s Guide to the Hip-Hop World. The book, authored by Albertina Rizzo and Amanda McCall, will be turned into a film about a modern-day Pygmalion set in the hip-hop music industry and follows a hotshot A&R who falls from grace and makes a bet with the head of his label that he can make anyone into a star. The book itself is basically a Dummies Guide to the Hip-Hop scene. Gold Circle is set to produce and finance the film once the script is finalized. Robinson, who brought the project into the company, will also executive produce. She is repped by CAA, Gotham Group and attorney Ryan Goodell.The Seattle Seahawks selected Mark Glowinski in the fourth round of the 2015 NFL Draft. A guard out of West Virginia University, Glowinski started for the Seahawks in just one game last season, filling in for J.R. Sweezy against the Arizona Cardinals in Week 17. In this video breakdown, I discuss how Glowinki needs to improve to become a starter for the Seattle in the future, which many expect to happen right now on the left side sandwiched in between potentially two other new starters at left tackle and center. My Three Takeaways Glowinski needs to improve hand usage to create leverage at the point of attack in run blocking. He is intelligent and has good awareness in pass blocking. His intensity and willingness to finish blocks stood out on tape. This off-season Sweezy signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on a 5 year, $32.5 million contract. If Glowinski can show continued improvement, he has the natural ability to be a starter for the Seahawks next season. After all, he should have a much bigger advantage than Sweezy did when he became a starting guard in his senior season, having been a seventh rounder who had been playing defense at NC State.NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Across Manhattan, bike share docking stations are spreading, and so is the backlash. Even people excited about the program say they’re upset over the implementation. Call it “installation frustration.” The bike share docking station moved into position on East 11th Street eliminates a loading zone used by the company Bella Tile. “I don’t know how we’re going to be able to operate really now effectively. It’s sad, dramatic negative impact,” business owner Carlo Giurdanella said. The bike share program is on the eve of its launch – 330 docking stations will open in Brooklyn and Manhattan and will be filled with, potentially, 6,000 share bikes. “We like the idea of the bike thing. It’s a great idea and I’m sure I’ll use it, too,” local business owner Glen Gaylinn said. Gaylinn is one of many worried about the impact on parking and traffic. The station in front of his shop has already been hit by a garbage truck making a tight turn. The installation of a docking station came as a total surprise. “I’m here 19 years, block association president, I knew nothing about it,” Gaylinn said. Delivery truck driver Pedro Tavares said as more stations are installed, making deliveries in the Village gets more and more difficult. “Mayor Bloomberg
thought that she, rather than Felix, would be the more musical. But it was not considered proper, by either Abraham or Felix, for a woman to pursue a career in music, so she remained an active but non-professional musician. Abraham was initially disinclined to allow Felix to follow a musical career until it became clear that he was seriously dedicated. Mendelssohn grew up in an intellectual environment. Frequent visitors to the salon organised by his parents at their home in Berlin included artists, musicians and scientists, among them Wilhelm and Alexander von Humboldt, and the mathematician Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet (whom Mendelssohn's sister Rebecka would later marry). The musician Sarah Rothenburg has written of the household that "Europe came to their living room". Surname [ edit ] Abraham Mendelssohn renounced the Jewish religion prior to Felix's birth; he and his wife decided not to have Felix circumcised, in contravention of the Jewish tradition. Felix and his siblings were first brought up without religious education, and were baptised by a Reformed Church minister in 1816, at which time Felix was given the additional names Jakob Ludwig. Abraham and his wife Lea were baptised in 1822, and formally adopted the surname Mendelssohn Bartholdy (which they had used since 1812) for themselves and for their children. The name Bartholdy was added at the suggestion of Lea's brother, Jakob Salomon Bartholdy, who had inherited a property of this name in Luisenstadt and adopted it as his own surname. In an 1829 letter to Felix, Abraham explained that adopting the Bartholdy name was meant to demonstrate a decisive break with the traditions of his father Moses: "There can no more be a Christian Mendelssohn than there can be a Jewish Confucius". (Letter to Felix of 8 July 1829). On embarking on his musical career, Felix did not entirely drop the name Mendelssohn as Abraham had requested, but in deference to his father signed his letters and had his visiting cards printed using the form 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. In 1829, his sister Fanny wrote to him of "Bartholdy [...] this name that we all dislike". Career [ edit ] Musical education [ edit ] Mendelssohn began taking piano lessons from his mother when he was six, and at seven was tutored by Marie Bigot in Paris. Later in Berlin, all four Mendelssohn children studied piano with Ludwig Berger, who was himself a former student of Muzio Clementi. From at least May 1819 Mendelssohn (initially with his sister Fanny) studied counterpoint and composition with Carl Friedrich Zelter in Berlin. This was an important influence on his future career. Zelter had almost certainly been recommended as a teacher by his aunt Sarah Levy, who had been a pupil of W. F. Bach and a patron of C. P. E. Bach. Sarah Levy displayed some talent as a keyboard player, and often played with Zelter's orchestra at the Berliner Singakademie; she and the Mendelssohn family were among its leading patrons. Sarah had formed an important collection of Bach family manuscripts which she bequeathed to the Singakademie; Zelter, whose tastes in music were conservative, was also an admirer of the Bach tradition. This undoubtedly played a significant part in forming Felix Mendelssohn's musical tastes, as his works reflect this study of Baroque and early classical music. His fugues and chorales especially reflect a tonal clarity and use of counterpoint reminiscent of Johann Sebastian Bach, whose music influenced him deeply. Early maturity [ edit ] Mendelssohn probably made his first public concert appearance at the age of nine, when he participated in a chamber music concert accompanying a horn duo. He was a prolific composer from an early age. As an adolescent, his works were often performed at home with a private orchestra for the associates of his wealthy parents amongst the intellectual elite of Berlin. Between the ages of 12 and 14, Mendelssohn wrote 12 string symphonies for such concerts, and a number of chamber works. His first work, a piano quartet, was published when he was 13. It was probably Abraham Mendelssohn who procured the publication of this quartet by the house of Schlesinger. In 1824 the 15-year-old wrote his first symphony for full orchestra (in C minor, Op. 11). At age 16 Mendelssohn wrote his String Octet in E-flat major, a work which has been regarded as "mark[ing] the beginning of his maturity as a composer."[30] This Octet and his Overture to Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, which he wrote a year later in 1826, are the best-known of his early works. (Later, in 1843, he also wrote incidental music for the play, including the famous "Wedding March".) The Overture is perhaps the earliest example of a concert overture – that is, a piece not written deliberately to accompany a staged performance but to evoke a literary theme in performance on a concert platform; this was a genre which became a popular form in musical Romanticism.[31] In 1824 Mendelssohn studied under the composer and piano virtuoso Ignaz Moscheles, who confessed in his diaries that he had little to teach him. Moscheles and Mendelssohn became close colleagues and lifelong friends. The year 1827 saw the premiere – and sole performance in his lifetime – of Mendelssohn's opera Die Hochzeit des Camacho. The failure of this production left him disinclined to venture into the genre again. Besides music, Mendelssohn's education included art, literature, languages, and philosophy. He had a particular interest in classical literature and translated Terence's Andria for his tutor Heyse in 1825; Heyse was impressed and had it published in 1826 as a work of "his pupil, F****" [i.e. "Felix" (asterisks as provided in original text)].[n 5] This translation also qualified Mendelssohn to study at the Humboldt University of Berlin, where from 1826 to 1829 he attended lectures on aesthetics by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, on history by Eduard Gans, and on geography by Carl Ritter. Meeting Goethe and conducting Bach [ edit ] In 1821 Zelter introduced Mendelssohn to his friend and correspondent Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (then in his seventies), who was greatly impressed by the child, leading to perhaps the earliest confirmed comparison with Mozart in the following conversation between Goethe and Zelter: "Musical prodigies... are probably no longer so rare; but what this little man can do in extemporizing and playing at sight borders the miraculous, and I could not have believed it possible at so early an age." "And yet you heard Mozart in his seventh year at Frankfurt?" said Zelter. "Yes", answered Goethe, "... but what your pupil already accomplishes, bears the same relation to the Mozart of that time that the cultivated talk of a grown-up person bears to the prattle of a child." Mendelssohn was invited to meet Goethe on several later occasions, and set a number of Goethe's poems to music. His other compositions inspired by Goethe include the overture Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage (Op. 27, 1828), and the cantata Die erste Walpurgisnacht (The First Walpurgis Night, Op. 60, 1832). In 1829, with the backing of Zelter and the assistance of the actor Eduard Devrient, Mendelssohn arranged and conducted a performance in Berlin of Bach's St Matthew Passion. Four years previously his grandmother, Bella Salomon, had given him a copy of the manuscript of this (by then all-but-forgotten) masterpiece.[41] The orchestra and choir for the performance were provided by the Berlin Singakademie. The success of this performance, one of the very few since Bach's death and the first ever outside of Leipzig,[n 6] was the central event in the revival of Bach's music in Germany and, eventually, throughout Europe. It earned Mendelssohn widespread acclaim at the age of 20. It also led to one of the few explicit references which Mendelssohn made to his origins: "To think that it took an actor and a Jew's son to revive the greatest Christian music for the world!" Over the next few years Mendelssohn travelled widely. His first visit to England was in 1829; other places visited during the 1830s included Vienna, Florence, Milan, Rome and Naples, in all of which he met with local and visiting musicians and artists. These years proved to be the germination for some of his most famous works, including the Hebrides Overture and the Scottish and Italian symphonies.[46] Düsseldorf [ edit ] On Zelter's death in 1832, Mendelssohn had hopes of succeeding him as conductor of the Singakademie; but at a vote in January 1833 he was defeated for the post by Carl Friedrich Rungenhagen. This may have been because of Mendelssohn's youth, and fear of possible innovations; it was also suspected by some to be attributable to his Jewish ancestry. Following this rebuff, Mendelssohn divided most of his professional time over the next few years between Britain and Düsseldorf, where he was appointed musical director (his first paid post as a musician) in 1833. In the spring of that year Mendelssohn directed the Lower Rhenish Music Festival in Düsseldorf, beginning with a performance of George Frideric Handel's oratorio Israel in Egypt prepared from the original score, which he had found in London. This precipitated a Handel revival in Germany, similar to the reawakened interest in J. S. Bach following his performance of the St. Matthew Passion. Mendelssohn worked with the dramatist Karl Immermann to improve local theatre standards, and made his first appearance as an opera conductor in Immermann's production of Mozart's Don Giovanni at the end of 1833, where he took umbrage at the audience's protests about the cost of tickets. His frustration at his everyday duties in Düsseldorf, and the city's provincialism, led him to resign his position at the end of 1834. He had offers from both Munich and Leipzig for important musical posts, namely, direction of the Munich Opera, the editorship of the prestigious Leipzig music journal the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, and direction of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra; he accepted the latter in 1835.[50] Leipzig and Berlin [ edit ] In Leipzig, Mendelssohn concentrated on developing the town's musical life by working with the orchestra, the opera house, the Thomanerchor (of which Bach had been a director), and the city's other choral and musical institutions. Mendelssohn's concerts included, in addition to many of his own works, three series of "historical concerts" featuring music of the eighteenth century, and a number of works by his contemporaries. He was deluged by offers of music from rising and would-be composers; among these was Richard Wagner, who submitted his early Symphony, the score of which, to Wagner's disgust, Mendelssohn lost or mislaid. Mendelssohn also revived interest in the music of Franz Schubert. Robert Schumann discovered the manuscript of Schubert's Ninth Symphony and sent it to Mendelssohn, who promptly premiered it in Leipzig on 21 March 1839, more than a decade after Schubert's death.[54] A landmark event during Mendelssohn's Leipzig years was the premiere of his oratorio Paulus, (the English version of this is known as St. Paul), given at the Lower Rhenish Festival in Düsseldorf in 1836, shortly after the death of the composer's father, which affected him greatly; Felix wrote that he would "never cease to endeavour to gain his approval [...] although I can no longer enjoy it". St. Paul seemed to many of Mendelssohn's contemporaries to be his finest work, and sealed his European reputation. When Friedrich Wilhelm IV came to the Prussian throne in 1840 with ambitions to develop Berlin as a cultural centre (including the establishment of a music school, and reform of music for the church), the obvious choice to head these reforms was Mendelssohn. He was reluctant to undertake the task, especially in the light of his existing strong position in Leipzig. Mendelssohn nonetheless spent some time in Berlin, writing some church music, and, at the King's request, music for productions of Sophocles's Antigone (1841 – an overture and seven pieces) and Oedipus at Colonus (1845), A Midsummer Night's Dream (1843) and Racine's Athalie (1845).[n 7] But the funds for the school never materialised, and many of the court's promises to Mendelssohn regarding finances, title, and concert programming were broken. He was therefore not displeased to have the excuse to return to Leipzig. In 1843 Mendelssohn founded a major music school – the Leipzig Conservatory, now the Hochschule für Musik und Theater "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy".[n 8] where he persuaded Ignaz Moscheles and Robert Schumann to join him. Other prominent musicians, including the string players Ferdinand David and Joseph Joachim and the music theorist Moritz Hauptmann, also became staff members. After Mendelssohn's death in 1847, his musically conservative tradition was carried on when Moscheles succeeded him as head of the Conservatory. Mendelssohn in Britain [ edit ] Mendelssohn first visited Britain in 1829, where Moscheles, who had already settled in London, introduced him to influential musical circles. In the summer he visited Edinburgh, where he met among others the composer John Thomson, whom he later recommended for the post of Professor of Music at Edinburgh University. He made ten visits to Britain, lasting about 20 months; he won a strong following, which enabled him to make a good impression on British musical life. He composed and performed, and also edited for British publishers the first critical editions of oratorios of Handel and of the organ music of J. S. Bach. Scotland inspired two of his most famous works: the overture The Hebrides (also known as Fingal's Cave); and the Scottish Symphony (Symphony No. 3).[64] An English Heritage blue plaque commemorating Mendelssohn's residence in London was placed at 4 Hobart Place in Belgravia, London, in 2013.[65] His protégé, the British composer and pianist William Sterndale Bennett, worked closely with Mendelssohn during this period, both in London and Leipzig. He first heard Bennett perform in London in 1833 aged 17.[n 9] Bennett appeared with Mendelssohn in concerts in Leipzig throughout the 1836/1837 season. On Mendelssohn's eighth British visit in the summer of 1844, he conducted five of the Philharmonic concerts in London, and wrote: "[N]ever before was anything like this season – we never went to bed before half-past one, every hour of every day was filled with engagements three weeks beforehand, and I got through more music in two months than in all the rest of the year." (Letter to Rebecka Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Soden, 22 July 1844). On subsequent visits Mendelssohn met Queen Victoria and her husband Prince Albert, himself a composer, who both greatly admired his music. Mendelssohn's oratorio Elijah was commissioned by the Birmingham Triennial Music Festival and premiered on 26 August 1846, at the Town Hall, Birmingham. It was composed to a German text translated into English by William Bartholomew, who authored and translated many of Mendelssohn's works during his time in England. On his last visit to Britain in 1847, Mendelssohn was the soloist in Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 and conducted his own Scottish Symphony with the Philharmonic Orchestra before the Queen and Prince Albert. Death [ edit ] Mendelssohn suffered from poor health in the final years of his life, probably aggravated by nervous problems and overwork. A final tour of England left him exhausted and ill, and the death of his sister, Fanny, on 14 May 1847, caused him further distress. Less than six months later, on 4 November, aged 38, Mendelssohn died in Leipzig after a series of strokes. His grandfather Moses, Fanny, and both his parents had all died from similar apoplexies.[n 10] Felix's funeral was held at the Paulinerkirche, Leipzig, and he was buried at the Dreifaltigkeitsfriedhof I in Berlin-Kreuzberg. The pallbearers included Moscheles, Schumann and Niels Gade. Mendelssohn had once described death, in a letter to a stranger, as a place "where it is to be hoped there is still music, but no more sorrow or partings." Personal life [ edit ] Personality [ edit ] View of Lucerne – watercolour by Mendelssohn, 1847 While Mendelssohn was often presented as equable, happy, and placid in temperament, particularly in the detailed family memoirs published by his nephew Sebastian Hensel after the composer's death, this was misleading. The music historian R. Larry Todd notes "the remarkable process of idealization" of Mendelssohn's character "that crystallized in the memoirs of the composer's circle", including Hensel's. The nickname "discontented Polish count" was given to Mendelssohn on account of his aloofness, and he referred to the epithet in his letters. He was frequently given to fits of temper which occasionally led to collapse. Devrient mentions that on one occasion in the 1830s, when his wishes had been crossed, "his excitement was increased so fearfully... that when the family was assembled... he began to talk incoherently in English. The stern voice of his father at last checked the wild torrent of words; they took him to bed, and a profound sleep of twelve hours restored him to his normal state". Such fits may be related to his early death. Mendelssohn was an enthusiastic visual artist who worked in pencil and watercolour, a skill which he enjoyed throughout his life.[85] His correspondences indicate that he could write with considerable wit in German and English – these letters are sometimes accompanied by humorous sketches and cartoons. Religion [ edit ] On 21 March 1816, at the age of seven years, Mendelssohn was baptised with his brother and sisters in a home ceremony by Johann Jakob Stegemann, minister of the Evangelical congregation of Berlin's Jerusalem Church and New Church. Although Mendelssohn was a conforming Christian as a member of the Reformed Church,[n 11] he was both conscious and proud of his Jewish ancestry and notably of his connection with his grandfather, Moses Mendelssohn. He was the prime mover in proposing to the publisher Heinrich Brockhaus a complete edition of Moses's works, which continued with the support of his uncle, Joseph Mendelssohn. Felix was notably reluctant, either in his letters or conversation, to comment on his innermost beliefs; his friend Devrient wrote that "[his] deep convictions were never uttered in intercourse with the world; only in rare and intimate moments did they ever appear, and then only in the slightest and most humorous allusions". Thus for example in a letter to his sister Rebecka, Mendelssohn rebukes her complaint about an unpleasant relative: "What do you mean by saying you are not hostile to Jews? I hope this was a joke [...] It is really sweet of you that you do not despise your family, isn't it?" Some modern scholars have devoted considerable energy to demonstrate either that Mendelssohn was deeply sympathetic to his ancestors' Jewish beliefs, or that he was hostile to this and sincere in his Christian beliefs.[n 12] Mendelssohn and his contemporaries [ edit ] Throughout his life Mendelssohn was wary of the more radical musical developments undertaken by some of his contemporaries. He was generally on friendly, if sometimes somewhat cool, terms with Hector Berlioz, Franz Liszt, and Giacomo Meyerbeer, but in his letters expresses his frank disapproval of their works, for example writing of Liszt that his compositions were "inferior to his playing, and […] only calculated for virtuosos"; of Berlioz's overture Les francs-juges "[T]he orchestration is such a frightful muddle [...] that one ought to wash one's hands after handling one of his scores"; and of Meyerbeer's opera Robert le diable "I consider it ignoble", calling its villain Bertram "a poor devil". When his friend the composer Ferdinand Hiller suggested in conversation to Mendelssohn that he looked rather like Meyerbeer – they were actually distant cousins, both descendants of Rabbi Moses Isserles – Mendelssohn was so upset that he immediately went to get a haircut to differentiate himself. In particular, Mendelssohn seems to have regarded Paris and its music with the greatest of suspicion and an almost puritanical distaste. Attempts made during his visit there to interest him in Saint-Simonianism ended in embarrassing scenes. It is significant that the only musician with whom Mendelssohn remained a close personal friend, Ignaz Moscheles, was of an older generation and equally conservative in outlook. Moscheles preserved this conservative attitude at the Leipzig Conservatory until his own death in 1870. Marriage and children [ edit ] Mendelssohn married Cécile Charlotte Sophie Jeanrenaud (10 October 1817 – 25 September 1853), the daughter of a French Reformed Church clergyman, on 28 March 1837. The couple had five children: Carl, Marie, Paul, Lili and Felix August. The second youngest child, Felix August, contracted measles in 1844 and was left with impaired health; he died in 1851. The eldest, Carl Mendelssohn Bartholdy (7 February 1838 – 23 February 1897), became a historian, and Professor of History at Heidelberg and Freiburg universities; he died in a psychiatric institution in Freiburg aged 59. Paul Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1841–1880) was a noted chemist and pioneered the manufacture of aniline dye. Marie married Victor Benecke and lived in London. Lili married Adolph Wach, later Professor of Law at Leipzig University. The family papers inherited by Marie's and Lili's children form the basis of the extensive collection of Mendelssohn manuscripts, including the so-called "Green Books" of his correspondence, now in the Bodleian Library at Oxford University.[101] Cécile Mendelssohn Bartholdy died less than six years after her husband, on 25 September 1853. Jenny Lind [ edit ] Mendelssohn became close to the Swedish soprano Jenny Lind, whom he met in October 1844. Papers confirming their relationship had not been made public.[103][n 13] In 2013, George Biddlecombe confirmed in the Journal of the Royal Musical Association that "The Committee of the Mendelssohn Scholarship Foundation possesses material indicating that Mendelssohn wrote passionate love letters to Jenny Lind entreating her to join him in an adulterous relationship and threatening suicide as a means of exerting pressure upon her, and that these letters were destroyed on being discovered after her death." Mendelssohn met and worked with Lind many times, and started an opera, Lorelei, for her, based on the legend of the Lorelei Rhine maidens; the opera was unfinished at his death. He is said to have tailored the aria "Hear Ye Israel", in his oratorio Elijah, to Lind's voice, although she did not sing the part until after his death, at a concert in December 1848. In 1847, Mendelssohn attended a London performance of Meyerbeer's Robert le diable – an opera that musically he despised – in order to hear Lind's British debut, in the role of Alice. The music critic Henry Chorley, who was with him, wrote: "I see as I write the smile with which Mendelssohn, whose enjoyment of Mdlle. Lind's talent was unlimited, turned round and looked at me, as if a load of anxiety had been taken off his mind. His attachment to Mdlle. Lind's genius as a singer was unbounded, as was his desire for her success." Upon Mendelssohn's death, Lind wrote: "[He was] the only person who brought fulfillment to my spirit, and almost as soon as I found him I lost him again." In 1849, she established the Mendelssohn Scholarship Foundation, which makes an award to a young resident British composer every two years in Mendelssohn's memory. The first winner of the scholarship, in 1856, was Arthur Sullivan, then aged 14. In 1869, Lind erected a plaque in Mendelssohn's memory at his birthplace in Hamburg.[103] Music [ edit ] Composer [ edit ] Style [ edit ] Mendelssohn plays to Goethe, 1830, by, by Moritz Oppenheim, 1864 Something of Mendelssohn's intense attachment to his personal vision of music is conveyed in his comments to a correspondent who suggested converting some of the Songs Without Words into lieder by adding texts: "What [the] music I love expresses to me, are not thoughts that are too indefinite for me to put into words, but on the contrary, too definite."[110] Schumann wrote of Mendelssohn that he was "the Mozart of the nineteenth century, the most brilliant musician, the one who most clearly sees through the contradictions of the age and for the first time reconciles them." This appreciation brings to the fore two features that characterized Mendelssohn's compositions and his compositional process. First, that his inspiration for musical style was rooted in his technical mastery and his interpretation of the style of previous masters, although he certainly recognized and developed the strains of early Romanticism in the music of Beethoven and Weber.[114] The historian James Garratt writes that from his early career, "the view emerged that Mendelssohn's engagement with early music was a defining aspect of his creativity." This approach was recognized by Mendelssohn himself, who wrote that, in his meetings with Goethe, he gave the poet "historical exhibitions" at the keyboard; "every morning, for about an hour, I have to play a variety of works by great composers in chronological order, and must explain to him how they contributed to the advance of music." Secondly, it highlights that Mendelssohn was more concerned to reinvigorate the musical legacy which he inherited, rather than to replace it with new forms and styles, or with the use of more exotic orchestration. In these ways he differed significantly from many of his contemporaries in the early Romantic period, such as Wagner, Berlioz and Franz Liszt. Whilst Mendelssohn admired Liszt's virtuosity at the keyboard, he found his music jejune. Berlioz said of Mendelssohn that he had "perhaps studied the music of the dead too closely."[114] The musicologist Greg Vitercik considers that, while "Mendelssohn's music only rarely aspires to provoke", the stylistic innovations evident from his earliest works solve some of the contradictions between classical forms and the sentiments of Romanticism. The expressiveness of Romantic music presented a problem in adherence to sonata form; the final (recapitulation) section of a movement could seem, in the context of Romantic style, a bland element without passion or soul. Furthermore, it could be seen as a pedantic delay before reaching the emotional climax of a movement, which in the classical tradition had tended to be at the transition from the development section of the movement to the recapitulation; whereas Berlioz and other "modernists" sought to have the emotional climax at the end of a movement, if necessary by adding an extended coda to follow the recapitulation proper. Mendelssohn's solution to this problem was less sensational than Berlioz's approach, but was rooted in changing the structural balance of the formal components of the movement. Thus typically in a Mendelssohnian movement, the development-recapitulation transition might not be strongly marked, and the recapitulation section would be harmonically or melodically varied so as not to be a direct copy of the opening, exposition, section; this allowed a logical movement towards a final climax. Vitercik summarizes the effect as "to assimilate the dynamic trajectory of 'external form' to the 'logical' unfolding of the story of the theme". Richard Taruskin writes that, although Mendelssohn produced works of extraordinary mastery at a very early age, he never outgrew his precocious youthful style. [...] He remained stylistically conservative [...] feeling no need to attract attention with a display of "revolutionary" novelty. Throughout his short career he remained comfortably faithful to the musical status quo – that is, the "classical" forms, as they were already thought of by his time. His version of romanticism, already evident in his earliest works, consisted in musical "pictorialism" of a fairly conventional, objective nature (though exquisitely wrought). Early works [ edit ] The young Mendelssohn was greatly influenced in his childhood by the music of both J. S. Bach and C. P. E. Bach, and of Beethoven, Joseph Haydn and Mozart; traces of these composers can be seen in the 12 early string symphonies. These were written from 1821 to 1823, when he was between the ages of 12 and 14, principally for performance in the Mendelssohn household, and not published or publicly performed until long after his death. His first published works were his three piano quartets (1822–1825; Op. 1 in C minor, Op. 2 in F minor and Op. 3 in B minor); but his capacities are especially revealed in a group of works of his early maturity: the String Octet (1825), the Overture A Midsummer Night's Dream (1826), which in its finished form also owes much to the influence of Adolf Bernhard Marx, at the time a close friend of Mendelssohn, and the two early string quartets: Op. 12 (1829) and Op. 13 (1827), which both show a remarkable grasp of the techniques and ideas of Beethoven's last quartets that Mendelssohn had been closely studying. These four works show an intuitive command of form, harmony, counterpoint, colour, and compositional technique, which in the opinion of R. Larry Todd justifies claims frequently made that Mendelssohn's precocity exceeded even that of Mozart in its intellectual grasp. A 2009 survey by the BBC of 16 music critics opined that Mendelssohn was the greatest composing prodigy in the history of Western classical music.[126] Symphonies [ edit ] Mendelssohn's mature symphonies are numbered approximately in the order of publication, rather than the order in which they were composed. The order of composition is: 1, 5, 4, 2, 3.[127] The placement of No. 3 in this sequence is problematic because he worked on it for over a decade, starting the sketches soon after he began work on No. 5 but completing it after both Nos. 5 and 4. The Symphony No. 1 in C minor for full orchestra was written in 1824, when Mendelssohn was aged 15. This work is experimental, showing the influences of Beethoven and Carl Maria von Weber. Mendelssohn conducted the symphony on his first visit to London in 1829, with the orchestra of the Philharmonic Society. For the third movement he substituted an orchestration of the Scherzo from his Octet. In this form the piece was a success, and laid the foundations of his British reputation. During 1829 and 1830 Mendelssohn wrote his Symphony No. 5, known as the Reformation. It celebrated the 300th anniversary of the Reformation. Mendelssohn remained dissatisfied with the work and did not allow publication of the score. The Scottish Symphony (Symphony No. 3 in A minor) was written and revised intermittently between 1829 (when Mendelssohn noted down the opening theme during a visit to Holyrood Palace) and 1842, when it was given its premiere in Leipzig, the last of his symphonies to be premiered in public. This piece evokes Scotland's atmosphere in the ethos of Romanticism, but does not employ any identified Scottish folk melodies. Mendelssohn's travels in Italy inspired him to compose the Symphony No. 4 in A major, known as the Italian Symphony. He conducted the premiere in 1833, but did not allow the score to be published during his lifetime, as he continually sought to rewrite it. He wrote the symphony-cantata Lobgesang (Hymn of Praise) in B-flat major, posthumously named Symphony No. 2, to mark the celebrations in Leipzig of the supposed 400th anniversary of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg; the first performance took place on 25 June 1840. Other orchestral music [ edit ] Trumpet part, including main theme, of the Wedding March from Mendelssohn's Op. 61 Mendelssohn wrote the concert overture The Hebrides (Fingal's Cave) in 1830, inspired by visits to Scotland around the end of the 1820s. He visited Fingal's Cave, on the Hebridean isle of Staffa, as part of his Grand Tour of Europe, and was so impressed that he scribbled the opening theme of the overture on the spot, including it in a letter he wrote home the same evening. He wrote other concert overtures, notably Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage (Meeresstille und glückliche Fahrt, 1828), inspired by a pair of poems by Goethe and The Fair Melusine (Die schöne Melusine) (1830). A contemporary writer considered these works as "perhaps the most beautiful overtures that, so far, we Germans possess". Mendelssohn also wrote in 1839 an overture to Ruy Blas, commissioned for a charity performance of Victor Hugo's drama (which the composer hated). His incidental music to A Midsummer Night's Dream (Op. 61), including the well-known Wedding March, was written in 1843, seventeen years after the Overture. Concertos [ edit ] Violin Concerto Op. 64, main theme of second movement The Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64 (1844), was written for Ferdinand David. David, who had worked closely with Mendelssohn during the piece's preparation, gave the premiere of the concerto on his Guarneri violin. Joseph Joachim called it one of the four great violin concertos along with those of Beethoven, Brahms, and Bruch. Mendelssohn also wrote a lesser-known, early concerto for violin and strings in D minor (1822); four piano concertos ("no. 0" in A minor, 1822; 1 in G minor, 1831; 2 in D minor, 1837; and 3 in E minor, a posthumously published fragment from 1844); two concertos for two pianos and orchestra (E major, which he wrote at 15, and A-flat major, at 17); and another double concerto, for violin and piano (1823). In addition, there are several single-movement works for soloist and orchestra. Those for piano are the Rondo Brillante of 1834, the Capriccio Brillante of 1832, and the Serenade and Allegro Giocoso of 1838.[127] He also wrote two concertinos (Konzertstücke), Op. 113 and 114, originally for clarinet, basset horn and piano; Op. 113 was orchestrated by the composer. Chamber music [ edit ] Mendelssohn's mature output contains numerous chamber works, many of which display an emotional intensity lacking in some of his larger works. In particular, his String Quartet No. 6, the last of his string quartets and his last major work – written following the death of his sister Fanny – is, in the opinion of the historian Peter Mercer-Taylor, exceptionally powerful and eloquent. Other mature works include two string quintets; sonatas for the clarinet, cello, viola and violin; and two piano trios.[127] For the Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Mendelssohn uncharacteristically took the advice of his fellow composer, Ferdinand Hiller, and rewrote the piano part in a more Romantic, "Schumannesque" style, considerably heightening its effect. Piano music [ edit ] Musical World, 24 July 1845 Advertisement for the Organ Sonatas in the, 24 July 1845 The musicologist Glenn Stanley observes that "[u]nlike Brahms, unlike his contemporaries Schumann, Chopin and Liszt, and unlike [his] revered past masters....Mendelssohn did not regard the piano as a preferred medium for his most significant artistic statements". Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words (Lieder ohne Worte), eight cycles each containing six lyric pieces (two published posthumously), remain his most famous solo piano compositions. They became standard parlour recital items even during the composer's lifetime, and their overwhelming popularity, according to Todd, has itself caused many critics to underrate their musical value. As example, Charles Rosen equivocally commented, despite noting "how much beautiful music they contain", that "[i]t is not true that they are insipid, but they might as well be." During the 19th century, composers who were inspired to produce similar pieces of their own included Charles-Valentin Alkan (his five
Changnon of the NCDC, “Chicago was prepared. The city put 850 snow removal trucks on the streets (240 is the normal number for heavy snow).” The 1999 storm was slightly larger than the one in 1979, at least in terms of snowfall, but it doesn’t carry the weight of a mayor’s political career. It did, however, set some records. Lake Shore Drive was shut down altogether for the first time in history, and Interstate 65 in Northwest Indiana was also closed. Chicago Public Schools extended winter break by two days. By Jan. 9, one week after the storm, only about half of Chicago students were back in class. Our most recent massive snowstorm — the 20.2-inch blizzard of 2011, responsible for the city’s third highest snowfall on record — shares some things with its 1999 predecessor. Chicago Public Schools were again closed, for the first time since 1999, and cars were once again stranded on Lake Shore Drive. Climate change In terms of cold and snow, generally speaking, the trend is toward milder winters. How much milder Chicago’s winters will become, and how quickly that will happen, is difficult to pinpoint. “This pattern we have been seeing — especially since the late 70s — is just this pattern of fewer days below zero, less snowfall and just overall some warmer conditions when you look at the average temperatures,” said State Climatologist Jim Angel. “And that kind of makes this one seem even more dramatic, I think, because we’re not used to this kind of weather.” Climate change is making the baseline Chicago winter more mild but, perversely, it might also make extreme bouts of cold more common. While the overall trend is toward warmer temperatures, some scientists think the off-kilter "polar vortex" that caused early 2014's frigid temperatures could drift down from the Arctic more often due to climatic variations. If that proves true, future winters could paradoxically be milder, but more prone to bouts of extreme cold thanks to an unruly "Arctic Oscillation." (It’s been millions of years since we’ve had as much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere as we do now, so we may see some strange or seemingly paradoxical climate and weather effects — some people even prefer the term "global weirding" to describe the unexpected results of climate change.) As we continue to pump greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, scientists expect the average global temperature to increase. Last year was warmer and wetter than average for the contiguous U.S., NOAA said in January — a finding consistent with climate change. A silver lining? Ultimately agony is a matter of perspective when it come to winter weather. Tim Gibbons of TSI Snow said it’s important to remember the good times. The 54-year-old has been around for some mighty winters, but has only fond memories of the blustery late 1970s. “We would skate on frozen parks outside pretty much from Christmas to Valentine’s Day, nonstop. They didn’t plow the side streets at all back then,” Gibbons said. “We would skitch — or hang on the bumper of moving cars — for entertainment, to get places. It was really quite an interesting means of transportation.” Now that he’s older, he admits business can be stressful during extreme winters. But he said that’s not the whole story. His advice? People should help each other shovel out their cars (he’s no fan of dibs), and remember that even the coldest winter’s only temporary. “I think it’s time we all take a deep breath, count our blessings, soldier on in the true ‘I will’ spirit of Chicago,” Gibbons said. “Hearty people live in Chicago. We get through our winters and we celebrate our summers as a result.” Chris Bentley is a reporter for Curious City. Follow him on Twitter at @Cementley.Greens denied permission to use Gruen ad Updated The Greens have been refused permission by the ABC to use a fake advert aired on The Gruen Nation on Wednesday night. The ad was prepared by Sydney agency Republic of Everyone for a segment called 'The Pitch'. It featured the tag line: "If you think, vote The Greens." Greens spokeswoman Ebony Bennett confirmed The Greens contacted the ABC and Republic of Everyone over the possibility of using the ad, but the ABC would not allow the clip to be used during the election. The ABC says it cannot be seen to pick sides in the campaign. An ABC spokesman was quoted as saying the advert was created solely for use on The Gruen Nation. The Gruen Nation also provided reasons for the rejection on social networking site Twitter. "@empatt Yep. All pitches in Gruen Nation and Transfer sign over copyright. Otherwise too risky for a organisation like the ABC to do it," it said on its Twitter account. Greens leader Senator Bob Brown had earlier told reporters he thought the ad was great. "The Greens have normally had a struggle to stay in election campaigns because of the big spending of the old parties," he said. "We'll give them a run for their money this time, but the Gruen Nation ad was spot on." Senator Brown was then asked if the Greens would approach the ad agency and ask if they could use it. "A little birdie tells me that might have already happened," he said. Topics: greens, arts-and-entertainment, television, government-and-politics, elections, federal-elections, political-parties, advertising, information-and-communication, australia First postedclick to enlarge Image via YouTube Todd Beckman, shown in a clip from an advertisement, is charged with kidnapping. A St. Louis tanning mogul and four others carried out a brutal kidnapping, torturing their victim for three days with a Taser, repeated beatings and death threats, according to federal prosecutors.Todd Beckman, the founder of BAM Brands, and his co-defendants were indicted on Wednesday on federal kidnapping and weapons charges.Allegations in court papers describe a cold-blooded operation that only ended when the victim's mother flew to Missouri from Florida to pay a $27,000 ransom.Beckman helped set it all in motion, authorities say.The 52-year-old Fenton resident had been the face of his business, appearing tanned and styled in commercials for the brand's suite of fitness and lifestyle companies — TanCo, MassageLuXe, Xist Fitness and LifeXist. But authorities allege he also played a lead role in an almost unimaginable marathon of nightmarish violence.Prosecutors claim he began plotting last month with 24-year-old Blake Laubinger of Pacific to "get" the victim, whom they accused of stealing from Laubinger, authorities say.On November 21, Laubinger and his 26-year-old brother, Caleb Laubinger, sneaked into the victim's home in Maplewood and waited, authorities say.When the man arrived home, the brothers ambushed him, binding his hands with zip ties, according to the complaint."Defendants threatened to kill (the victim) if he screamed," prosecutors wrote.They allegedly drove him to Blake Laubinger's home, dragged him down to the basement and further bound him with handcuffs and duct tape. The brothers were soon joined by Beckman and 55-year-old Kerry Roades, prosecutors say."Defendant Kerry Roades suggested they shoot (the victim), chop him up, and shrink wrap him," prosecutors wrote. "Defendant Todd Beckman responded that they should just shoot (the victim)."During the following days, the suspects are accused of pistol-whipping the man and shocking him with a Taser. Beckman bought shrink wrap and a heat gun on November 22 at Lowe's and threatened to wrap up the victim and shoot him, authorities say.Later that day, a fifth man, 24-year-old Zachary Smith, joined them and helped haul the man in a rented Dodge Ram to Beckman's land in the 900 block of Gregory Lane in Fenton, according to prosecutors. The property is in a wooded area just west of Bud Weil Memorial Park.Authorities say the men dragged the victim into a shipping container, where they held him hostage. Beckman allegedly put a gun to the man's head and threatened to kill him.The kidnappers wanted money, and they began calling the victim's parents in Florida, demanding the ransom as they held him at gunpoint, authorities say.The victim's mother arrived on November 23 to make the payment. Before Beckman and the others would let him go, they forced the man to sign a document and threatened to kill him if he told anyone what they'd done, prosecutors say.They allegedly then drove him in a St. Louis Tan Co. van to the Gravois Bluffs shopping center and released him.The men were arrested on Thursday, about three weeks after the alleged kidnapping, and have been in custody ever since.The daily operations of BAM Brands, which extend across eleven states, have been under the control of its chief operating officer since April, according to a news release from the company.Beckman remains an investor, but his "personal legal issues" won't affect the daily operations, the statement says.Today is the annual National Day of Appreciation for Abortion Providers. March 10th marks the anniversary of the day in 1993 when Dr. David Gunn was murdered by an anti-choice extremist. Since then, seven more providers have been killed and the day has become a time to honor all those people who take huge personal risks to make our reproductive rights a reality. In an age when being an abortion provider is harder than ever, due to always increasing anti-choice regulations, ongoing harassment and intimidation campaigns, and the stigma around the procedure–in the medical community and in the culture at large–thanking them is the least we can do. So send an appreciation postcard through the 1 in 3 Campaign. And head over to ThinkProgress to hear from eight abortion providers about the challenges they face and what motivates their work. As one of them explains, “We’re just trying to take care of our patients.” Maya Dusenbery is feeling very grateful to the doctor who performed her abortion.http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LampshadeHanging Dante, The Divine Comedy "If, reader, you are slow now to believe what I shall tell, that is no cause for wonder, for I who saw it hardly can accept it." Advertisement: Lampshade Hanging (or, more informally, "Lampshading") is the writers' trick of dealing with any element of the story that threatens the audience's Willing Suspension of Disbelief, whether a very implausible plot development, or a particularly blatant use of a trope, by calling attention to it and simply moving on. The reason for this counter-intuitive strategy is two-fold. First, it assures the audience that the author is aware of the implausible plot development that just happened, and that they aren't trying to slip something past the audience. Second, it assures the audience that the world of the story is like Real Life: what's implausible for you or me is just as implausible for these characters, and just as likely to provoke an incredulous response. The creators are using the tactic of self-deprecatingly pointing out their own flaws themselves, thus depriving critics and opponents of their ammunition. The Turkey City Lexicon refers to this flavor of Lampshade Hanging as a "Signal from Freud", and reminds the author that if your characters are complaining about how stupid the latest plot development is, maybe your subconscious is trying to tell you something. Advertisement: On the other hand, Lampshade Hanging done well can make for an entertaining piece of Medium Awareness or momentary lack of Genre Blindness. It can also be used to take care of Fridge Logic, without having to actually do anything. For this reason, it can either be seen as making a bad movie even worse or as adding clever writing and humour. This practice is also known as "hanging a clock on it", "hanging a lantern on it", or "spotlighting it". In the film industry it's sometimes called "hanging a red flag" on something, after the screenwriting adage, "To hang a red flag on something takes the curse off of it," meaning that to lampshade something decreases the negative effects it might otherwise have. Teodolinda Barolini referred to this as "the Geryon Principle" in reference to how Dante narrates how unbelievable his "true" story is the more fantastical it gets. We went with our title because it's the one used in the Mutant Enemy bullpen. Advertisement: Can also be combined with a Hand Wave, sometimes invoking an unreveal, to make explaining a plot inconsistency unnecessary. When breaking internal consistency is deliberate this trope can be used to show that, yes, it is deliberate instead of a plot hole. Can also be combined with an active attempt to avoid the trope, in which case the Lampshade Hanging turns into a Defied Trope. Commonly seen in the self-aware shows that make up the Deconstructor Fleet; rarely used in the presence of a Drop-In Character. If large numbers of lampshades are hung, then the writers believe lampshades are Better Than a Bare Bulb, this trope's Logical Extreme. Hypocrisy Nod and Inspiration Nod are specific types of this. Meta Guy is the fellow who does this all the time. Sometimes takes the form of This Is the Part Where.... Compare Discussed Trope, Post-Modernism and Playing with a Trope. No Fourth Wall happens when characters not only discuss tropes, but the writers as well. Not to be confused with Lampshade Wearing. Once again, Lampshade Hanging is when attention is drawn to something that is so strange it threatens to break the Willing Suspension of Disbelief. Leaning on the Fourth Wall is for things which make sense in the story but also have a second meaning outside of the story. Try not to get these confused. Examples Advertising The Charmin Bears are infamous for their obsession with toilet paper. However, on occasion they will acknowledge how strange their behavior can be. Card GamesPamela Geller is back! For the lucky ones who don’t know who she is, here’s a quick primer on Pam before I tell you about her current crusade of hate. (And before I make my plea for your help!) Geller is like a Sizzler’s all-you-can-eat buffet—but instead of food, she’s serving up a non-stop buffet of bigotry. Whatever type of hate you want, she’s got it! Got a hankering for some anti-Semitic comments? Look no further than Geller calling The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart a “Judenrat” who “would have been first on line to turn over his fellow Jews in Poland and Germany” to the Nazis to be put to death. (Geller’s stupid and ahistorical comment—a “Judenrat” was a local Jewish council, not a Jewish rat—came in response to a Daily Show segment mocking her right-wing friend, a Florida Republican named Joe Kaufman, who is challenging Debbie Wasserman Schultz.) Yearning for some irrational hatred of Barack Obama? Perfect, because Geller has said that Obama was “involved with a crack whore in his youth...Find the ho, give her a show!” She also claims Obama is a Muslim who “wants jihad to win" so he can appease his “Islamic overlords.” In the mood for a big plate of anti-Muslim bigotry? This of course is Geller’s house specialty. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has labeled Geller the “anti-Muslim movement’s most visible and flamboyant figurehead.” The SPLC even notes that Geller “has mingled comfortably with European racists and fascists” and “spoken favorably of South African racists” in her efforts to demonize Muslims. And The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) notes on its website that Geller has engaged in “consistently vilifying the Islamic faith under the guise of fighting radical Islam.” Some do like Geller. There’s Anders Breivik. He’s the Norwegian terrorist who praised her work numerous times in his manifesto before he went on a deadly rampage killing 77 people in his effort to stop Norway from being overrun by immigrants, especially Muslims. And in the United States, Fox News has her on frequently as a guest, which I’m sure comes as a shock to absolutely no one. Now you know Pam. (I’m truly sorry.) So what’s Geller up to now? As you’ve probably heard, she started running advertisements this week on 100 New York City buses and in subway stops that the New York Daily News has described as being part of a “shocking anti-Islam ad campaign.” New York City’s Mayor Bill de Blasio dubbed Geller’s ads “outrageous, inflammatory, and wrong.” Geller responded that de Blasio “stands with jihadists.” But here’s the thing that may surprise you: I defend Geller’s right to spew hate. I despise it with every fiber of my being, but freedom of speech is vital to our nation. And I say that even though Geller penned an article denouncing a comedy documentary I co-directed with my friend Negin Farsad titled The Muslims Are Coming! It uses humor to counter anti-Muslim bigotry. Why was Geller upset with the film? She claimed it was part of a “cultural jihad.” Apparently, we are waging a comedy jihad. Still, I understand why many want New York City’s MTA, the agency responsible for ads on buses and subways, to reject Geller’s hate-filled advertisements. But the MTA has little leeway after a 1998 federal appeals court found that advertising spaces on the subways and buses are considered a “designated public forum,” thus limiting any content restrictions. Our courts, however, have recognized limits to free speech, and to that end the MTA has imposed certain regulations. For example, the MTA prohibits ads that “incite or provoke violence.” This is a valid concern with these ads since there has been a recent uptick in anti-Muslim hate crimes in NYC. But w hat’s alarming about the MTA’s regulations is that they require factual accuracy only when an advertiser is peddling a commercial product, but not when peddling hate. This means the KKK could design ads that include fabricated “facts” about blacks and other minority groups and the MTA would post it even though they are outright lies. That’s dangerous. And that’s exactly what Geller has done. Her ads contain several inaccurate assertions of fact (not opinion) that should be corrected. For example, one ad features a photo of a meeting between Adolph Hitler and Amin al-Husseini, with a caption claiming al-Husseini is “the leader of the Muslim world.” Now, al-Husseini was indeed a Nazi collaborator, but he was not “the leader” of the Muslim world. Even a five-second Google search will tell you that there’s no one leader of the Muslim world. In fact, al-Husseini was the Mufti (Islamic scholar) of Jerusalem, appointed by the British government in 1921 at the time the British controlled Palestine—a powerful position to be sure, but not one that made him the leader of all Muslims. And crucially, by the time of the Hitler photograph, he was no longer Mufti, having been removed from that post by the British four years before. Putting the MTA aside, what can be done to counter Geller’s ads? Glad you asked. Join Negin Farsad and me (the “comedy jihadists”) in our effort to create subway ads that present Muslim Americans in a way that’s positive, accurate—and funny. If all goes well, after this ad campaign, people will really love Muslims. But here’s the big challenge. The minimum amount for an MTA ad buy is $11,000. (Geller’s ad campaign is reportedly $100,000.) So we need help raising money because being a comedy jihadi really doesn’t pay that well. We will use literally every penny donated for the ads. We are still in the brainstorming phase for the posters. One might feature famous Americans who most people don’t know are Muslim. No, I’m not talking Obama—but more like Dr. Oz and Shaquille O’Neal. Or we’ll play on the idea that “The Muslims Are Coming!”: you know, to your radiology department. What I can tell you with certainty is that the ads will be funny and provocative, but in no way will they demonize any minority group like Geller’s ads do. If you want to donate, here’s the link to our “Fighting bigotry with hilarious posters” campaign. As Martin Luther King Jr. stated, “Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” We hope comedy can as well.HYDERABAD: In what could be D-Day for Andhra Pradesh, the Congress has finally called for the meeting of its highest policy making body, the Congress working committee (CWC) on Tuesday evening. In a morning of swift developments on Monday, the Congress also decided to advance the meeting of the UPA coordination committee from Wednesday to Tuesday. The UPA coordination committee meeting is to be held at 4pm on Tuesday followed by the CWC meeting at 5.30pm in Delhi. Both chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy and PCC president Botsa Satyanarayana have been summoned to be present in the national capital, indicating that crucial decisions determining the future of the state are likely to be taken and announced. AICC general secretary in charge of Andhra Pradesh Digvijaya Singh confirmed to the media in Delhi that the CWC meeting has been called for on Tuesday evening. The billion dollar question now is what is going to be announced. Congress leaders from the state who are in touch with the party high command are of the view that the ruling party will create Rayala-Telangana, which would comprise the 10 districts of Telangana and the two Rayalaseema districts of Kurnool and Anantapur. However, the possibility of only Telangana, comprising of its 10 districts is also not being ruled out.The more important question is what will happen to Hyderabad. While the Congress is hinting at the possibility of making the state capital Union territory and joint capital for both the states for a period ranging from 5 years to 10, the TRS has made it clear that nothing less than Telangana with Hyderabad as its sole capital will be acceptable to them.In the meantime, security has been beefed up in both Hyderabad and the rest of the state. Truckloads of personnel of the Rapid Action Force (RAF) were seen deployed at strategic positions in Hyderabad and a similar deployment is on the anvil in the other major cities of the state in Telangana and Seemandhra.It sure is nice to be wanted, isn’t it? [ FOLLOW: All of PST’s PL coverage ] Christian Pulisic is a wanted (young) man with the soccer world at his feet. After starring for the U.S. national team in a pair of World Cup qualifiers during the most recent international break, Pulisic made his UEFA Champions League debut for his club team, Borussia Dortmund, on Thursday, and provided the assist on the fifth goal of a 6-0 blowout over Legia Warsaw, the reigning Polish champions. Pulisic, who’ll turn 18 on Sunday, broke into the Dortmund first team during the second half of last season, which resulted in the hot pursuit of a pair of Premier League clubs — Liverpool and Stoke City — this summer. Despite a wealth of other young attacking talent, much of which was signed this summer, Dortmund rejected all suitors. [ MORE: Tuesday’s CL roundup \| Wednesday ] Those bids, coupled with his standout showings for the USMNT and BVB, have the Hershey, Penn., native reportedly set to be offered a new, improved contract to keep him in Germany for the foreseeable future. Not exactly the worst coming-of-legal-age birthday present. B/R exclusive from @DeanJonesBR—Liverpool will return for Christian Pulisic in 2017, but #BVB have big plans for him pic.twitter.com/fR4f0Ne76d — Bleacher Report UK (@br_uk) September 15, 2016 While playing as much first-team soccer as possible is important, Pulisic seems to be at the perfect club for a young attacker to develop, whether he’s an everyday starter or not. Of course, Klopp wouldn’t be the worst manager in the world to play for, though the we want results, and we want them now now now nature of the PL would likely lead to a full-time substitute’s role with older, more experienced players preferred to the teenager. At Dortmund, a club lauded for its development of young players, he’ll get just enough game time and still be forced to show every time out that he’s cut out for the Bundesliga and CL levels. Follow @AndyEdMLSTime Out acquires events discovery and booking platform YPlan for as little as £1.6M YPlan, the events discover and booking platform, has been acquired by publicly listed media company Time Out Group for an initial price of £1.6 million — significantly less than the approximately £31 million that the London startup had raised. The acquisition is an all-stock deal too. Investors in YPlan included well-known VCs Octopus Investments, Wellington Partners and General Catalyst, all of whom will likely have made a loss on what looks like a firesale of sorts. Founded back in 2012, YPlan offers a mix of event tickets on its app and website to let you discover and book things to do in the city, and in that sense, despite the low price tag, it feels like a good for fit for Time Out. The latter says that combined with its “high-quality curated content” the acquisition will help its monthly global audience of 137 million to discover, book and share what the world’s cities have to offer, “faster, easier and better than ever before”. It’s also talking up YPlan’s tech and says the purchase is in line with Time Out’s post-IPO intention to invest in technology and product in order to grow the e-commerce side of its business and to expand its team of engineers. (Noteworthy, the media company has also been investing in startups, including backing restaurant and bar tech platform Flypay’s Series A.) “The technology will further enable the Company to manage transactions between consumers and businesses in-house, improving the user experience. The Acquisition also brings a talented product development and technology team, with the specific know-how to drive bookings and optimise the conversion rate of Time Out’s audience,” says Time Out Group in a statement. So why did YPlan sell for so little? Time Out notes that the beleaguered startup generated a pre-tax loss of £6.2m in the last financial year filed. But, perhaps in reference to major layoffs and a pivot in strategy at the end of 2014 and at the time of YPlan’s last fund raise, says that subsequent reductions in its cost base have “materially reduced losses in the current year”. “Consequently, the transaction is expected to be mildly dilutive to Time Out’s earnings in the current financial year and broadly neutral in 2017,” adds the company. Full public details of the transactionHow to get started in computer science: A course roundup On occasion, I have created content for and taught computing subjects to students, ranging from absolute newcomers to computers and coding to professionals wanting to top up their skills. When I first started, options for learning to code were limited, restricted to university and college courses that often assumed some prior knowledge and required commitment, time, and money. In recent years, there has been a proliferation of other options. But as someone involved in tech education, I retained a healthy skepticism about how useful many classes, MOOCs (massive open online courses), and bootcamps might really be. And I’m not the only one skeptical of bootcamps and MOOCs (for more, there is an interesting Quora thread). Nonetheless, the spread of these options suggested I should look into them, and I decided to do some research and write a round-up on computer science (CS) and learn-to-code courses. My first thought was to stick to those that are available at no charge, but it became clear, after interviewing previous students for recommendations and anecdotes, that free doesn’t always mean the best value, so I’ve included some paid options. As you do your own research, keep in mind that this is a market in flux. Many of the newer players in the education market are struggling financially, and one of the first, Dev Bootcamp, has announced that it's closing. Those that remain are often startups, their business models unproven. My research included reading recommendations online, checking out various independent rankings, and talking to people who had participated in the programs. What follows is not exhaustive, but it's a way to begin your own investigation of the available options. A Developer's Guide to the OWASP Top 10 GET REPORT The most popular courses Most providers list their most popular courses based on student enrollments and ratings. Popular doesn’t equal best, but when a course receives many reviews, reading them can help you make a decision. These sites list popular courses: While there are hundreds of potential sources for CS education, Coursera, edX, and Udacity dominate the recommendations. This doesn’t necessarily mean the others are bad; they simply have fewer enrolled students or don’t reveal their ratings, and the big three have worked extensively to build partnerships with teachers, partners, and students. [ Conference: ADM Summit 2019: Optimize Your Deployment Pipeline ] What constitutes a good course Deciding on the right course for you is hard, and factors beyond a course’s merits are likely to play a role, such as location, availability, cost, and your time commitment. Fortunately, aside from anecdotal reports or recommendations, there are independent and aggregated sources of ratings and rankings you can analyze. Not all schools take part in the surveys, but you can ask those schools how they compare to these metrics. The fantastic Teach Yourself Computer Science site sets out an ideal CS course structure, with recommended videos, books, and resources. Quora is a good resource to find opinions on what the content of specific courses should be. Here are threads for machine learning, yet another for machine learning (directly related to a later course recommendation), algorithms and data structures, and big data. Experience matters I found that many of the people I interviewed were experienced coders looking to update or supplement their skills, citing courses such as Coursera’s Data Science specialization that partner with established universities and business partners to teach real-world skills that can result in certification (for a fee). That experience seemed to help them in class, and it probably is a greater asset than a line about the course on a résumé. Students with related subject knowledge were better able to understand obscure concepts raised in class. I learned that taking a course didn’t always result in a job, despite the promises of some providers. Participants told me that despite taking courses that gave them relevant education, they often had to spend time as a junior staffer after making a horizontal career shift. For beginners, the Udacity Introduction to Programming nanodegree was highly recommended. Several people said it didn’t spoon-feed students—they were expected to apply knowledge gained in the course to pass, not copy and paste code. Udacity makes no promise of a job placement with its nanodegree courses, and one student told me that it didn’t help him find one and that employers told him they were looking for someone with more experience. Two experienced developers, mostly interested in learning something new, recommended Coursera’s algorithms and data structures course, offered in association with Princeton University. One of the two enjoyed the experience so much that he is now participating in the edX Introduction to Computer Science, offered in association with Harvard, and recommends the course for beginner and experienced coders alike. For anyone interested in expanding into machine learning, Coursera’s Machine Learning has long been a favorite, ranking highly in ratings of all courses, not just CS courses. Bootcamps Bootcamps and intensive courses (online and offline) are options for those who feel that the self-guided model may not work for them, who don't have a lot of time available, or who require a higher level of support. Bootcamps aren't free, and though the value of their instruction has been questioned in the past, it seems that at least those bootcamps that have found their financial footing are beginning to be more selective, focusing on students they think will succeed instead of as many as possible. Several people told me they had been rejected by bootcamps because they lacked sufficient relevant experience. In this Quora thread, employees of two bootcamp companies (FlatIron and Bloc) explain the intake processes used by those bootcamps, confirming that at least some bootcamps have realized that if you are more selective about whom you enroll, then your students will be more successful. Community I saw recommendations for a handful of community-run coding classes. For example, Rails Girls has widespread endorsement. Of course, as is implicit in its name, it focuses on a particular language and student body. A participant in the Berlin chapter found it so welcoming and confidence-boosting that she immediately signed up for the Harvard-affiliated edX Introduction to Computer Science course (and found it to be as worthwhile as my previous interviewee). Participants in community-run classes especially liked the community aspect: There are people to talk to when you are stuck want to discuss problems. You can find community meet-ups in many cities. Some examples are Open Tech School, Learn to Code, and PyLadies. Keep learning Many factors will go into your decision to pursue CS courses. Researching the options is essential. But it’s never been a better time to start learning to code or expand your existing coding knowledge. Choose wisely, continue to strive, and most of all, enjoy what you learn. [ Webinar: Journey to Enterprise-Scale DevOps: Engineer Quality and Security Into Everything? ]PHPUnit is an open source unit testing software framework for software written in the PHP programming language. Created by Sebastian Bergmann, PHPUnit is one of the xUnit family of frameworks that originated with Kent Beck’s SUnit. This article will explore PHPUnit specifically as a way to introduce the basics of automated unit testing. You’ll need a basic grasp of the PHP programming language to proceed! Author: Kendrick Curtis, Stainless Software, http://www.stainless-software.com/ Introduction Unit testing is the process of testing discrete code objects – such as functions, classes or methods – by using either bespoke testing code or by utilizing a pre-existing testing framework such as JUnit, PHPUnit or Cantata++. Unit testing frameworks provide a host of common, useful functionality for writing automated unit tests such as assertions to check whether a certain value was as expected and often include reports of line and decision coverage to tell you how much of your codebase you have. Installation PHPUnit is available as a PEAR package, a Composer bundle or as a PHAR file. However you install it, you must also install the PHP Code Coverage dependency first. In PEAR, you need to add the phpunit.de channel and then install the two packages from the command line: (Note that at the time of writing, the default PEAR installation with XAMPP is broken: you’ll need to get the PEAR PHAR and install that from the command line before attempting the above). Testing A Simple Class Consider an extremely simple PHP class with a single method: class TruthTeller { public function() tellTruth { return true; } } Sure, tellTruth always returns true now, but how can we check that with a unit test to ensure that it always returns this result in the future? With PHPUnit, every set of tests is a class extended from the PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase class, which provides common useful functionality such as assertions. Here’s a basic test for the tellTruth method above: require_once 'PHPUnit/Autoload.php'; require_once 'TruthTeller.class.php'; class TruthTester extends PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase { function testTruthTeller() { $tt = new TruthTeller(); $this->assertTrue($tt->tellTruth()); } } Note that you need to include both the PHPUnit autoloader and also the “object under test”, in this case, the TruthTeller class file. All we are doing with the rest of the code is asserting that if the tellTruth method is called, it will return true. These assertions are the core of PHPUnit – they are what will determine whether a test passes or fails. If you were to fire up a command prompt, switch to the directory with your tests in and run phpunit TruthTester (the parameter is the file name of your tests file, minus the.php extension), PHPUnit will run all of the tests it can find in the file specified (a test being any method that begins with the word “test”). And if you go back to the TruthTeller class and change it to return FALSE, you’d see something more like this: This is the core of unit testing – writing assertions that pass or fail. When assertions that previously passed start to fail in later test runs, you know that a code change has been made that’s negatively affecting your existing code. More Complex Tests In reality, of course, you’ll be dealing with considerably more complex situations than the one above. A common test would be to check whether a method returned an array of data of a particular structure. class ArrayTeller { public function outputArray() { return array(1,2,3); } } A simple test for this method might look like this: class ArrayTester extends PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase { function testArrayTeller() { $at = new ArrayTeller(); $result = $at->outputArray(1); $this->assertInternalType("array", $result); $this->assertCount(3, $result); $this->assertEquals(1, $result[0]); $this->assertEquals(3, $result[2]); } } As you can see, there are a variety of things that can be checked with a unit test with a single line of code in PHPUnit: we can check that ArrayTeller returns an array rather than any other data type, we can check the length of the array and we can check the individual values in the array. Depending on your needs, there should be an assertion to match, and if you need something more complex – for example, you want to ensure that a return value falls in a range of two integers – so long as you can express it as the outcome of an if statement you can test with assertTrue. Check out the PHPUnit documentation for a list of all the available assertions. Testing Code Paths Unit testing is partly about writing tests that cover the expected behaviour of the method under test, preferably by reference to a specification document, but if you are writing tests to cover existing code then it’s useful to consider unit tests as a form of white-box testing. If you know that a method is a simple switch like this: class Switcher { public function aOrB($switch, $a, $b) { if ($switch == TRUE) { return $a; } else { return $b; } } } … then you know that
within the first 16 minutes of the second half in the return leg, only to fall just short. But they would avenge their loss in 2012. After a 0-0 first leg, this time in Seattle, a game marked by some of the best goalkeeping the MLS playoffs will ever see – from Nick Rimando and Michael Gspurning alike – the scene shifted to Rio Tinto Stadium. Again, the two sides looked destined to remain scoreless, until Mario Martínez conjured a magical late strike to send Seattle through and the home crowd disappointed. 3. And they are almost inseparable That oh-so-memorable playoff series in 2011? That was the only occasion since the very first meeting between RSL and Seattle that either team has won by more than a goal. Seattle's 2-0 win over RSL on March 28, 2009, the Sounders' third-ever game in MLS history, is the only time a regular-season game between the two teams has been decided by two goals or more. Part of what makes a rivalry is the fierce competition between the lines, including three straight 0-0 draws in 2012. Only RSL's 2-1 win earlier this year broke the dead-even 3-3-6 record between the two teams (regular season and playoffs), giving the Claret-and-Cobalt a slight advantage in the series heading into Saturday's game. And given the way both teams have been playing recently – RSL are 3-1-1 in their last five games in MLS play and Seattle are 4-1-0 – it should be another close, hard-fought meeting.As we’re thick into this hell known as summer hiatus there’s a certain point a fandom comes to when it’s had enough of the quiet and wants all the spoilers. The Arrow fandom has reached that point. Well, I know I have. But one of the great things about the show’s stars – particularly its lead Stephen Amell – is that there are a plethora of convention appearances that keep the talk going and keeps the fandom always guessing and speculating during the break. While we know never to really expect any real spoilers, it’s the focus and speculation that keeps us going. This past weekend a ton of stars from Arrow and fellow shows The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow appeared at Heroes and Villains Fan Fest in New York. With Comic-Con on the horizon, fans were begging for anything these actors could tease us with. And we got it. But sometimes people have a way of twisting people’s words — in this case Stephen Amell’s — and running off in the direction they want or believe. In this case it had to do with the fan-favorite pairing of Oliver and Felicity, which has long since served as the focal vocal element of the show. The significance of [Oliver and Felicity’s] relationship has never been defined by romance. But that romance has become an important and vital part. But let’s get one thing straight: Stephen Amell didn’t squash any hopes of Oliver and Felicity getting back together or being endgame. He did the opposite actually. Make no mistake, the producers, the actors, the studio all know what the biggest talking point about Arrow is: Oliver and Felicity. So there is no way that the show would waste that potential. Yes, Arrow is about Oliver’s journey toward becoming the Green Arrow, but the aspect of the show that has received the most buzz — be it positive or negative — has been Olicity. So it’s obviously a selling point. Basically at HVFF, Amell did exactly what he should be doing: he kept the fandom and the media talking about Olicity during a hiatus that is typically quiet. He was able to tease the fan-favorite pairing without ever revealing any spoilers about where their relationship was headed this season. And it generated a ton of buzz. Props to Amell for that. Something that Amell mentioned during a panel at HVFF was that Oliver and Felicity could have a fulfilling relationship and not be together. But it’s the truth. We’ve seen that in the first three seasons. Of course he was trolling the fandom, but at the same time he brought for an interesting topic of discussion: friendship. When we think of friendship particularly in romance there’s this perception that friends can’t be lovers. But there’s a difference between being stuck in the friend zone and building a relationship upon friendship. Olicity fall into the latter. When it comes to Oliver and Felicity their relationship was built upon that solid foundation of friendship. Friendship is key in a relationship. If you don’t like being around the person you love then it’s safe to assume that relationship won’t last. But the thing that has always worked with Oliver and Felicity is that they weren’t thrown together romantically from the beginning. They grew into that romance throughout the course of two seasons of development as partners, friends, and then lovers. But it’s that friendship that is the reason behind the strength of their relationship. When we think of friendship particularly in romance there’s this perception that friends can’t be lovers. But there’s a difference between being stuck in the friend zone and building a relationship upon friendship. Olicity fall into the latter. We’ve seen Oliver and Felicity go from acquaintances to friends and saw how much they leaned on each other even then. Long before they both admitted and accepted that their feelings for each other ran deeper than friendship. The significance of their relationship has never been defined by romance. But that romance has become an important and vital part. With production on season five getting away, one of the hot topics is the status and future of Oliver and Felicity’s relationship. While the two aren’t together at the start of the season, according to Amell, that doesn’t mean anything about where they are headed. Just look at how they started last season and where they ended up. Nothing is confirmed about Olicity’s future this season or in the long run. Everything right now is pure speculation. But one thing that has and will never change is the depth and strength of Oliver and Felicity’s relationship. They have always proven themselves to be stronger together than apart, whether that’s as friends, partners, or lovers. Amell wasn’t lying when he said that Oliver and Felicity could have a fulfilling relationship and not be involved romantically. That’s just the Captain having a little fun with the fandom. But at the same time it goes to show you how much Amell understands the dynamic between Oliver and Felicity. Their relationship has resonated as much as it has and has held up even against hardships because of that solid foundation. Because of that friendship. So when Oliver and Felicity eventually get married (because even Arrow can’t hide the clear direction they’re headed) they can say with absolute validity that they are marrying their best friend. And that will be believable because of that foundation.InsideClimate News reporters Elizabeth McGowan, Lisa Song and David Hasemyer are the winners of this year's Pulitzer Prize for national reporting. The trio took top honors in the category for their work on "The Dilbit Disaster: Inside the Biggest Oil Spill You've Never Heard Of," a project that began with a seven-month investigation into the million-gallon spill of Canadian tar sands oil into the Kalamazoo River in 2010. It broadened into an examination of national pipeline safety issues, and how unprepared the nation is for the impending flood of imports of a more corrosive and more dangerous form of oil. The Pulitzer committee commended the reporters for their "rigorous reports on flawed regulation of the nation's oil pipelines, focusing on potential ecological dangers posed by diluted bitumen (or "dilbit"), a controversial form of oil." The recent ExxonMobil pipeline spill in Arkansas, which also involved heavy Canadian crude oil, underscores the continuing relevance of this ongoing body of work, as the White House struggles with reaching a decision on the controversial Keystone XL pipeline. "It is enormously gratifying to have our work recognized with such a high honor, and I'm very proud of our entire team," said David Sassoon, founder and publisher of InsideClimate News. "It's a watershed moment for our non-profit news organization, a good day for environmental journalism, and a hopeful signal for the future of our profession." InsideClimate News' executive editor Susan White, who conceived and edited the project, said it succeeded because of the combined talents of the three reporters. "Elizabeth, Lisa and Dave believed deeply in these stories and were determined to do everything they could to make them clear and accessible to our readers," White said. "Elizabeth's ability to persuade people to talk, Lisa's science background and Dave's doggedness made it all work." "The need to tell this story trumped all else," said Stacy Feldman, co-founder and managing editor. "So we figured out how to successfully balance the daily demands of an online news organization with a deep dive and commitment of resources to this long-term project." Elizabeth McGowan The Pulitzer-winning entry included a three-part narrative by McGowan and Song, who described the unfolding of the Michigan oil spill from the point of view of those directly involved—residents; state, local and EPA officials at the scene; scientists; and spokesmen with Enbridge Inc., the company responsible for the spill. As the three-year anniversary of the spill approaches, oil is still being removed from the Kalamazoo River. Lisa Song Song followed up with articles that revealed critical gaps in federal pipeline safety regulations, while Hasemyer focused on how Enbridge's rebuilding of the ruptured pipeline is affecting the lives of people along the route. David Hasemyer InsideClimate News is five-year-old non-profit, non-partisan news organization that covers clean energy, carbon energy, nuclear energy and environmental science. Its mission is to produce objective stories that give the public and decision-makers the information they need to navigate the heat and emotion of the climate and energy debates. It has grown from a founding staff of two to a mature virtual newsroom of seven full-time professional journalists and a growing network of contributors. It is raising funds to come to full scale in the next two to three years. The core funders of InsideClimate News are the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Marisla Foundation and the Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment.While in the Botanical Gardens of Cairns, Queensland, Australia, I saw something red contrast against the green from the corner of my eye. I could see a web glistening, and pulled out my zoom lens and zoomed in ALL the way to grab this shot... of this... bloody spider? I have NO idea what is going on in this photo. I tried to make it as clear as possible. It was the best I could get =/ EDIT: Thanks to /r/spiders, I've learned it's a Spiny Orb Weaver of genus Gasteracantha Fornicata. I goggled the pictures of them and WOW. I wish I could have gotten a better photo of this guy! THEY LOOK CRAZY!! I've made it available to download so you can zoom it in more, or whatever =x. Thanks <3On June 7, a group of young people gathered in a Delhi mall with banners and embraced random strangers. These people weren't simply spreading the love, they were celebrating ‘Hug an Atheist Day’, that saw atheists emerge to make a statement about their beliefs or the lack of them. Lalit Chawla, 22, administrator at Nirmukta, a community of atheists, organised the casual hug-fest in Delhi. In Bangalore, members converged at a hall while Chennai fellows headed to Marina beach to celebrate. “People were curious and open but atheism becomes a problem when you start challenging the traditional belief system,” says Chawla, a software developer who joined the group while in college. “Atheism has not reached a position in India where it threatens organised religion, so it's still early. But when that happens, people will hit back like in countries abroad,” he says. Nirmukta's Delhi chapter meets once a month at local hangouts in Khan Market or Connaught Place. “We rarely talk about atheism. It's just good to have like-minded people who don't annoy you by telling you bad happenings are all part of god's infinite plan or simply make you feel like a freak. It's a safe space where you don't need to pretend,” he says. The meetings are open to all but are announced on a closed Facebook group. You become a member by simply liking the page. The youngest member in Delhi is 16-years-old. Along with advanced courses for veterans, Narendra Nayak, founder of Nirmukta and president of the Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations, also organises workshops for those new to atheism. While there isn’t a formal structure in Nirmukta, there is an administrative team to monitor forums and an editorial one for the blog. Part of his campaign includes miracle busting. "I try to speak to the man on the street who isn't interested in the big bang theory but is more likely to fall prey to bogus godmen and their tricks," he says. Geetha TJ, one of the 35 active members of the Chennai chapter of Nirmukta, says most people are not open about their atheism, because'society' will look at them with disapproval. This is perhaps why many atheists function solely online and do not attend meetings. But while the atheist following is mostly underground, they aren't a minority says political scientist and director of the Atheist Centre in Andhra Pradesh, Dr Gora Vijayam. Explaining his philosophy, Vijayam, 77, says “God is human imagination.” “Religion is an instrument of oppression,” he adds. “Whatever you lack on earth, religion promises to give it to you in heaven. Not only that, religion justifies it with karma so subordination goes unopposed.”HOW TO PRACTISE IRRELIGIONBut while atheists have escaped the strict commandments of religious ideology, atheist communities are not without strong beliefs of their own. In fact, different groups are often not in agreement with each other. For example, Nirmukta’s Geetha believes that “Atheism is a common-sense conclusion which most of us have arrived at individually — that is not the end. The philosophy to live by is free thought.” But she is quick to add, “That doesn't mean anything goes. Swearing and gender slurs will get you banned. We welcome the LGBT community and are pro-reservation and affirmative action.” But Atheist Centre’s Vijayam disagrees. Since science and popular belief binds the centre’s beliefs, he believes that homosexuality can be perceived as “unhealthy”. The Atheist Centre’s website helps newly-turned atheists with a set of guidelines about choosing secular names and conducting weddings, funerals without religious rituals. The Facebook page — Indian Atheist has 20,313 likes already. But Geetha says one must not overthink atheism. While she made a conscious decision to raise her daughter without any religious instruction, she gives in when her child wants to celebrate popular festivals. “It's a cultural celebration and she likes to decorate a tree and burst crackers. I was brought up by an agnostic father so I won't tell her what to believe.” Vijayam is convinced the atheism movement is gaining traction. “The number of atheists in the world is equal to the number of Hindus. They may use different terms across the world like sceptics, rationalists, free thinkers but the agenda is the same,” he says.This wonderful bit of creative writing began circulating on the Internet in April 1998: Example: [Collected on the Internet, 1998] HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — NASA engineers and mathematicians in this high-tech city are stunned and infuriated after the Alabama state legistature narrowly passed a law yesterday redefining pi, a mathematical constant used in the aerospace industry. The bill to change the value of pi to exactly three was introduced without fanfare by Leonard Lee Lawson (R, Crossville), and rapidly gained support after a letter-writing campaign by members of the Solomon Society, a traditional values group. Governor Guy Hunt says he will sign it into law on Wednesday. The law took the state’s engineering community by surprise. “It would have been nice if they had consulted with someone who actually uses pi,” said Marshall Bergman, a manager at the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization. According to Bergman, pi is a Greek letter that signifies the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. It is often used by engineers to calculate missile trajectories. Prof. Kim Johanson, a mathematician from University of Alabama, said that pi is a universal constant, and cannot arbitrarily be changed by lawmakers. Johanson explained that pi is an irrational number, which means that it has an infinite number of digits after the decimal point and can never be known exactly. Nevertheless, she said, pi is precisly defined by mathematics to be “3.14159, plus as many more digits as you have time to calculate”. “I think that it is the mathematicians that are being irrational, and it is time for them to admit it,” said Lawson. “The Bible very clearly says in I Kings 7:23 that the alter font of Solomon’s Temple was ten cubits across and thirty cubits in diameter, and that it was round in compass.” Lawson called into question the usefulness of any number that cannot be calculated exactly, and suggested that never knowing the exact answer could harm students’ self-esteem. “We need to return to some absolutes in our society,” he said, “the Bible does not say that the font was thirty-something cubits. Plain reading says thirty cubits. Period.” Science supports Lawson, explains Russell Humbleys, a propulsion technician at the Marshall Spaceflight Center who testified in support of the bill before the legislature in Mongtomery on Monday. “Pi is merely an artifact of Euclidean geometry.” Humbleys is working on a theory which he says will prove that pi is determined by the geometry of three-dimensional space, which is assumed by physicists to be “isotropic”, or the same in all directions. “There are other geometries, and pi is different in every one of them,” says Humbleys. Scientists have arbitrarily assumed that space is Euclidean, he says. He points out that a circle drawn on a spherical surface has a different value for the ratio of circumfence to diameter. “Anyone with a compass, flexible ruler, and globe can see for themselves,” suggests Humbleys, “its not exactly rocket science.” Roger Learned, a Solomon Society member who was in Montgomery to support the bill, agrees. He said that pi is nothing more than an assumption by the mathematicians and engineers who were there to argue against the bill. “These nabobs waltzed into the capital with an arrogance that was breathtaking,” Learned said. “Their prefatorial deficit resulted in a polemical stance at absolute contraposition to the legislature’s puissance.” Some education experts believe that the legislation will affect the way math is taught to Alabama’s children. One member of the state school board, Lily Ponja, is anxious to get the new value of pi into the state’s math textbooks, but thinks that the old value should be retained as an alternative. She said, “As far as I am concerned, the value of pi is only a theory, and we should be open to all interpretations.” She looks forward to students having the freedom to decide for themselves what value pi should have. Robert S. Dietz, a professor at Arizona State University who has followed the controversy, wrote that this is not the first time a state legislature has attempted to redifine the value of pi. A legislator in the state of Indiana unsuccessfully attempted to have that state set the value of pi to three. According to Dietz, the lawmaker was exasperated by the calculations of a mathematician who carried pi to four hundred decimal places and still could not achieve a rational number. Many experts are warning that this is just the beginning of a national battle over pi between traditional values supporters and the technical elite. Solomon Society member Lawson agrees. “We just want to return pi to its traditional value,” he said, “which, according to the Bible, is three.”Editor’s note: Because building your audience continues to be the cornerstone of content marketing, we’ve updated this post. Next to Buy Now, what is the most profitable click your business can target? Subscribe. As CMI’s Joe Pulizzi explains : While larger enterprises are fighting silo battles, politics, and tearing each other apart focusing on (sometimes) meaningless metrics, small players with patience and passion are building audiences and winning. Once you build an audience (of email subscribers), anything is possible. The truth is that building an engaged and sizable email list is hands-down the most long-term, profit-generating investment you can make. In fact, a McKinsey study reveals that email is a whopping 40 times more powerful at acquiring new customers than Facebook and Twitter combined. On top of that, the average email-based order’s dollar value is 17% higher than social media channels. That’s the good news. The bad news is … getting your visitors to sign up is a struggle – one that many online marketers never overcome. That’s why I’m going to share 11 proven strategies you can start today to build your email list like crazy. Eleven strategies might sound like a lot to implement, but Buffer’s success in doubling its email sign-ups in 30 days required at least eight strategies. Image source: Buffer Because these strategies work best together, this post is lengthy. Don’t be intimidated. There are tons of actionable content and real-world examples all along the way. Here’s what’s covered: RECOMMENDED FOR YOU: Improve Your Email Content With a 7-Minute Workout Routine 1. Carrot content Most of this checklist focuses on the details: What types of forms, where to use them, and how to optimize each one. But all the forms in the world won’t do you a bit of good if your content isn’t compelling. That’s where “carrot content” comes in. Carrot content – also known as lead magnets or bribe-to-subscribe offers – provide immediate value to your subscriber. This free content could be how-to guides, reports, webinars, white papers, e-courses, or even discounts and coupons. The goal of your opt-in content is to improve your subscriber’s life by solving a problem. In other words, focus on the payoff for your subscriber. Of course, testing the click-worthiness of your content is the only way to find out if your carrot is enticing. That’s why using Google Analytics’ goals to set up easy-to-understand funnels is a necessity. Another fantastic tool that goes one step beyond Google Analytic’s on-site data is Cyfe, an all-in-one analytics dashboard that measures everything from marketing efforts to web analytics to offsite sales and more. When it comes to building your email list, Cyfe can help in two ways: It identifies the highest converting traffic sources for each piece of content. It also tracks conversions over time to learn about their continued engagement and if they buy. Image source: Cyfe RECOMMENDED FOR YOU: 11 Ways to Convert Blog Readers Into Customers 2. Landing pages No post about building an email list would be complete without exploring the fundamental importance of landing pages. To keep this short, here are some landing-page best practices from the pros: Make your call to action big and post above the fold. Use A/B testing. Try videos, which have shown to notably improve conversion. Keep it clear, simple, and focused. Use only one CTA. Craft compelling copy to tell a story instead of stating facts or just selling. Lastly, be sure to optimize your landing pages for mobile viewing. This example from GetResponse illustrates mobile optimization perfectly. Image source: GetResponse 3. ‘Happy’ buttons Now that we’ve looked at the big picture, let’s get into the details, starting with your button. What makes a seductive, click-worthy button? One thing: Happiness. Get rid of any and all “Submit” or “Sign up” buttons. Instead, you should: Use first-person language – at the very least try “Sign me up” or “Send me updates.” Use active language: “Give me access” or “Start discovering today.” Give concrete previews of what the subscriber will receive. Detail the ultimate payoff such as, “Make me a better marketer.” Tell the people exactly what signing up will really give them. Hint: It’s not a weekly email. All this means creating button copy that shows the value of your offer. My favorite formula for button copy comes from Joanna Wiebe. She calls it the “I-want” strategy: “Write button/CTA copy that completes this phrase: I want to ________________. The underlined part becomes the button copy.” Compare these two buttons: Image source: Copyblogger Notice how the second button completes the “I-want-to” phrase with “end my scheduling hassles.” It identifies a problem and offers a specific, desire-based solution. 4. Two-step opt-ins Single opt-ins are easy to find. Here’s one directly from the Content Marketing Institute: The two-step or double opt-in, however, is a decisively craftier creature. Just like the name implies, a double opt-in requires a user to take two actions to subscribe. For example, instead of asking for the email address first, a double opt-in starts with a single click. Take Smart Insights’ email marketing strategy template sign-up, for instance. Here’s what its sidebar CTA looks like: Image source: Smart Insights Once someone clicks, she is directed to the second step: Image source: Smart Insights If you’d like to see a few live examples, Clay Collins of LeadPages recently did three experiments with two-step opt-ins that increased his sign-up rate by almost 60%. Remember that there can be hazards associated with going from a single opt-in method to using double opt-ins. Most notably, adding steps can discourage some people from completing the CTA. However, the key benefit of double opt-ins is that they create far more qualified and engaged subscribers. As GetResponse estimates, as many as 90% of single opt-in subscribers provide false names and emails. Moreover, the average click-through rate for emails sent to double opt-in subscribers is twice that of their single opt-in counterparts. 5. Entry pop-ups The entry pop-up is exactly what it sounds like: A pop-up form is activated when a visitor first enters your site. Often these forms block the view of the majority of the screen, forcing engagement. Just remember, visitors will do one of the following: Comply and supply information Close the pop-up and ignore the CTA Get annoyed and leave The first lesson here is about timeliness. App Sumo demonstrates the “sweet spot” for email gathering based on time on page: Image source: App Sumo To increase your chances of capturing an email using a pop-up, aim to wait five seconds before the pop-up is shown. The second lesson, best said by Mauro D’Andrea of Blog Growth, is about page views. It’s obvious: If a person reads more pages on your blog, she is more likely to subscribe. Don’t be afraid to show the same pop-up to the same visitor when she sticks around. 6. Exit pop-ups The exit pop-up is the exact opposite of the entry pop-up. These opt-ins automatically generate when your visitor’s mouse moves toward the “back” or “close” buttons. Exit pop-ups are last-ditch efforts to engage a potential subscriber and prevent a good lead lost. The Internet is teeming with Billy Mays memes that personify the exit pop-up: This example from ConversionXL is perfect. My interest in conversion optimization was targeted as soon as I moved the mouse to leave. Even better, ConversionXL also employed the “painful” button copy if I declined: “No, I prefer to suck at optimization.” Image source: ConversionXL Pop-ups – both entry and exit – can be awkward and sometimes annoying. But they work. CrazyEgg compiled data from four sites and found staggering results: Nikki McGonigal’s pop-up drove 1,375% more sign-ups than her sidebar alternative. Darren Rowse’s light-box earned 400 new subscribers a day. Ask-Leo.com increased its email conversions by 1,000%. Mama’s Lebanese Kitchen saw sign-ups 10 times greater than the pre-pop-up, opt-in rate. When creating exit pop-ups, be honest and conversational in your copy. Level with your visitor and admit that the exit pop-up is exactly that … an exit pop-up. Here are some good categorical examples: Social triggers: “Going so soon? Here’s why 1,500 visitors stick around each day.” Specific added value: “Before you leave, grab the [free carrot offer].” Damage control: “Didn’t find what you need? Let us help …” Negative option: “Yes, I want help” or “No, I’ll take my chances” That last example brings us to our next sign-up strategy: Your “painful” button. 7. ‘Painful’ buttons Now that we’ve covered pop-ups, let’s take a look at what I like to call “painful” button copy. This concept can be implemented for both entry and exit pop-ups. The key is to create an opt-out button (basically a close-the-pop-up button) that hurts. Why would you purposefully create painful buttons? Joanna Weibe explains, “When a visitor is presented with an opt-in form, it’s so often the case that said opt-in form has just one button, and that button is there to be clicked if you choose to opt in. If you choose not to opt in, you do not have to click a button to state your preference; you simply X out, click out, or otherwise ignore the opt-in button. “Most of our opt-ins are active and opt-outs are passive.” A painful button eliminates the passivity of opting out by giving the viewer a clear choice. Here’s a fabulous example from her Copy Hackers site: Image source: Copy Hackers QuickSprout takes a similar approach: Image source: QuickSprout Lastly, Wishpond shows the potential for witty angles in catchy-but-painful button copy: Image source: Wishpond 8. End-of-post forms Unlike pop-up forms, end-of-post forms uniquely cater to your actual readers. Why? Because by the time visitors have consumed your content in its entirety, they’re invested. Moreover, they should be looking for more. That’s why, in addition to suggesting social shares, using an end-of-post opt-in to gather email information strikes while the lead is hot. Here’s a general one that can be used at the end of almost any post. On my own site, I love using end-of-post opt-ins especially for series. For example, a few months ago I put together a string of posts based on Eugene Schwartz’s Breakthrough Advertising. At the end of the first post, I included a summary of the upcoming The 3 Unbreakable Laws of Breakthrough Copywriting and this simple opt-in: Image source: iconiContent In addition to opt-ins at the end of posts, you’ll often see “for further reading” options. While not explicitly about building your list, this is another great way to keep your leads hot. Think of these as your safety CTA. Creating your own links to similar or popular content is great, but an even better solution is using data to automate your end-of-post next step. 9. In-line forms In-line opt-ins are the simplest of all opt-in forms. They’re the impulse buy of opt-ins. Because of this, in-line opt-in forms work best within blog articles or other long-form content of at least 1,000 words as part of the natural flow of the text itself. They integrate within the page so once you’ve provided value on the page, the in-line opt-in functions as a means to “act now.” Think of in-line forms like a conversational aside, “Oh, by the way, if you like what you’re reading now … then you’ll love the other stuff we do. And to get our ‘other stuff,’ just sign up here.” The benefit of in-line opt-ins is that they provide your users with a chance to respond to your content on the spot. As long as you’re providing value, they’ll act. 10. Sidebar forms Sidebar forms are ubiquitous. Often, this form is built into web templates themselves so they’re incredibly easy to implement. Just be sure that your sidebar form collects data and doesn’t distract from more useful forms. There are basically two kinds of sidebar forms: Anchored sidebar forms are static – they stay in place: Image source: Social Media Examiner Sticky sidebar forms, also called scrolling sidebar forms, appear once a visitor passes a certain point on your page: Image source: Marketing Tech Blog Don’t overlook the obvious. Don’t underestimate the converting power of contact pages and in-depth contact forms. Here are a few tips to keep in mind: Fewer fields means greater conversion power. On average, asking visitors to complete three fields results in a 25% conversion rate, compared to six or more fields, which see a 15% conversion rate. Mobile design is paramount. With 81% of smartphone users accessing the Internet, if you haven’t tailored your contact form to fit smaller screens, you’re missing out. Ask good questions. Instead of simply leaving the “message” field blank, spur the response by crafting engaging questions that relate directly to the kind of product or service you offer. However, if less is more when it comes to getting sign-ups, how are you supposed to gather information on your subscribers to help with segmentation, especially if you’re in the B2B space? One solution is to partner with a lead-generation database. Unomy, for example, enables you to not only research your prospect’s parent companies using the individual email address provided, it also allows you to research related companies and their competitors: Image source: Unomy Putting it all together It’s like Joe Pulizzi says, “Once you build an audience (of email subscribers), anything is possible.” Follow the 11 sign-up strategies in this guide. Test them out for yourself. And start building today. Looking for more ways to maximize the impact of your email content? Get practical insights, advice, and answers in our 2018 Guide to Essential Content Marketing Tactics. Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute Please note: All tools included in our blog posts are suggested by authors, not the CMI editorial team. No one post can provide all relevant tools in the space. Feel free to include additional tools in the comments (from your company or ones that you have used).DUBAI (Reuters) - A United Arab Emirates (UAE) court convicted 11 men including UAE, Syrian and Comoros nationals of helping to form an al Qaeda affiliate and sending fighters to join Syrian rebel groups, newspapers reported on Wednesday. Four Emiratis among the 11 were sentenced to life imprisonment in absentia by the state security division of the Federal Supreme Court on Tuesday, the National newspaper reported. The other seven, including Syrian and Comoros nationals, were handed sentences of between one and 15 years. The 11 were accused of membership of al Qaeda’s Nusrah Front Syrian wing and another militant Syrian opposition group, Ahrar al-Sham, and of collecting funds for these groups, the newspapers reported. A further four accused were acquitted on some counts, the newspapers said, without elaborating. The newspapers reported prosecutors as saying the accused had traveled to Syria to make contact with armed groups, and had collected money, devices and equipment for use in attacks on civilians in Syria. All 11 who appeared in court had denied the charges, newspapers have said. One Comoran and the four Emiratis tried in absentia were also charged with trying to build a bomb and polluting the environment through detonating dangerous and banned materials. UAE newspapers have reported without elaborating that the explosive device allegedly assembled by the five accused had leaked toxic chemical fumes that affected nearby residents.Meteor shower in PH 5 SHARES Share Tweet By: Ellalyn V. Ruiz The Leonids meteor shower, one of the most active meteor showers of the year, will be visible in most parts of the country in the late hours of Nov. 17 until dawn of Nov. 18. According to the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration, the meteor shower can be seen over a period of about two days centered on the early morning hours of Nov. 18. It noted that the Leonids meteor shower will radiate from constellation Leo and can be observed in the eastern horizon. But unlike the previous years where it produced hundreds of meteors, astronomers and experts do not predict many meteors this year. A zenithal hourly rate of about 10 meteors might occur in the late hours of Nov. 17 until dawn of the following day. The Leonids meteor shower is created by bits of debris left behind by the repeat passages through the inner solar system of Comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle. Likewise, this month, PAGASA said Saturn will be a good target for astrophotography using a DSLR camera mounted on a modest sized telescope under clear sky condition since it will be visible in the west horizon as soon as night falls. On Nov. 20, Saturn will move from the background stars of the constellation Ophiuchus, the serpent bearer, to the background stars of the constellation Sagittarius, the archer. PAGASA said Uranus and Neptune will also be visible throughout the night during this month. Related commentsFor the "vile and evil" crime of fatally drugging and burning her daughter following a custody dispute, a Calgary judge sentenced Laura Coward, 50, to life in prison with no chance of parole for 18 years. Court of Queen's Bench Justice Scott Brooker said Coward's sentence must reflect "society's disgust and outrage." "Amber was completely vulnerable to and trusting of her mother," said Brooker. "It was the ultimate betrayal and breach of trust for Ms. Coward to kill her daughter." Amber's father, Duane Lucius, held back tears as he spoke outside the courtroom after his ex-wife was sentenced. "No sentence will do justice for what has happened to Amber," said Lucius. "As a father, I have had to bury my child and nothing will bring her back. I can only hope that other children are not being used as bargaining chips in a divorce or used to hurt the other parent." Amber's father said she 'was always helping me on the farm and loved playing outside.' (Lucius family photo) Coward was originally charged with first-degree murder but pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in February. Prosecutors Mac Vomberg and Jillian Pawlow had proposed a 20-year parole ineligibility, while defence lawyer Jim Lutz asked the judge to consider allowing Coward to apply for release after 10 to 12 years. "There's no way you could ever put into numbers how significant the offence is," said Lutz after the sentence was handed down. "Everybody's pretty broken up about
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North Korea adamantly insisted it was not behind the attack, and despite their paranoid and isolated posture, little beyond insanity could serve as a motive. Despite evidence adding up otherwise, to no one’s surprise a joint “international” investigation by the US, UK, South Korea, Australia, Canada, and Sweden would later conclude that a North Korean submarine was the culprit, leaving even most South Koreans skeptical. During this period of time, America’s position in Asia Pacific was already waning. Endless war in Central Asia and the Middle East, along with a deepening economic crisis in the West allowed other actors to begin eyeing the seemingly inevitable void soon to be left. Japan under then Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, began reasserting itself over unpopular US military installations scattered throughout the nation. China was continuing to expand its economic and diplomatic influence in the region, luring in even America’s traditional allies like Australia and Thailand. The sinking of the ROKS Cheonan then “serendipitously” served as a reminder as to why America claims their troops and influence are needed in the region for “peace and security.” The Korean Won tumbled as the US Dollar was temporarily bolstered and Japanese PM Hatoyama not only conceded to US demands regarding US installations, but would also resign over the matter. Literally citing the mysterious, still unsolved sinking of the Cheonan, Washington insisted its need to reassert itself in Asia to counter North Korea, if not for any other reason. North Korea, either out of shadowy complicity or because of its paranoid predictable nature, became America’s greatest ally in many ways. November 2010, a similar scenario played out after an artillery exchange between North and South Korea which claimed several lives. America was again bolstered in its highly tenuous position not only in Asia as a whole, but on the Korean Peninsula itself, having been rebuffed on the US-Korean FTA and facing the possibility of US banking interests meeting with Tobin taxes in Korean markets. South Korean leadership now admits they were conducting joint US-Korean live fire exercises close to highly contested waters in the Yellow Sea before the exchange took place. North Korea maintains this incident was intentionally provoked, as was the sinking of the Cheonan, as contrived incidents of opportunity for the waning American empire to reassert itself. And like the sinking of the Cheonan, America once again renewed the rhetorical lease on its presence in Asia Pacific. America’s “Asia Pivot” Fast forward to today, 2013, and the openly declared US policy entitled, the “pivot toward Asia.” Built upon the ultimate goal of encircling and containing China, it hinges on special interests cobbling Southeast Asia into a regional European Union-style bloc to then be used economically, politically, and militarily against China. In fact, in recent island disputes, this ASEAN bloc is already being tested out as a collective proxy to maintain US hegemony in Asia Pacific. While the “pivot” appears to be “new” US foreign policy, it is deeply rooted in long-conspired hegemonic ambitions. As far back as 1997, America corporate-financier think-tanks had been documenting their intentions to pursue just such a containment policy with the expressed goal of maintaining American dominance across Asia Pacific. Neo-Con policy maker Robert Kagan penned a fairly insightful 1997 piece in the Weekly Standard titled, “What China Knows That We Don’t: The Case for a New Strategy of Containment,” where he discusses the prospects of an effective containment strategy coupled with the baited hook of luring China into its place among the “international order.” In Kagan’s1997 piece, he literally states (emphasis added): The present world order serves the needs of the United States and its allies, which constructed it. And it is poorly suited to the needs of a Chinese dictatorship trying to maintain power at home and increase its clout abroad. Chinese leaders chafe at the constraints on them and worry that they must change the rules of the international system before the international system changes them. Here, Kagan openly admits that the “world order,” or the “international order,” is simply American-run global hegemony, dictated by US interests. These interests, it should be kept in mind, are not those of the American people, but of the immense corporate-financier interests of the Anglo-American establishment. Kagan continues (emphasis added): In truth, the debate over whether we should or should not contain China is a bit silly. We are already containing China — not always consciously and not entirely successfully, but enough to annoy Chinese leaders and be an obstacle to their ambitions. When the Chinese used military maneuvers and ballistic-missile tests last March to intimidate Taiwanese voters, the United States responded by sending the Seventh Fleet. By this show of force, the U.S. demonstrated to Taiwan, Japan, and the rest of our Asian allies that our role as their defender in the region had not diminished as much as they might have feared. Thus, in response to a single Chinese exercise of muscle, the links of containment became visible and were tightened. The new China hands insist that the United States needs to explain to the Chinese that its goal is merely, as [Robert] Zoellick writes, to avoid “the domination of East Asia by any power or group of powers hostile to the United States.” Our treaties with Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Thailand, and Australia, and our naval and military forces in the region, aim only at regional stability, not aggressive encirclement. But the Chinese understand U.S. interests perfectly well, perhaps better than we do. While they welcome the U.S. presence as a check on Japan, the nation they fear most, they can see clearly that America’s military and diplomatic efforts in the region severely limit their own ability to become the region’s hegemon. According to Thomas J. Christensen, who spent several months interviewing Chinese military and civilian government analysts, Chinese leaders worry that they will “play Gulliver to Southeast Asia’s Lilliputians, with the United States supplying the rope and stakes.” Indeed, the United States blocks Chinese ambitions merely by supporting what we like to call “international norms” of behavior. Christensen points out that Chinese strategic thinkers consider “complaints about China’s violations of international norms” to be part of “an integrated Western strategy, led by Washington, to prevent China from becoming a great power. What Kagan is talking about is maintaining American preeminence across all of Asia and producing a strategy of tension to divide and limit the power of any single player vis-a-vis Wall Street and London’s hegemony. Kagan would continue (emphasis added): Download Your First Issue Free! Do You Want to Learn How to Become Financially Independent, Make a Living Without a Traditional Job & Finally Live Free? Download Your Free Copy of Counter Markets The changes in the external and internal behavior of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s resulted at least in part from an American strategy that might be called “integration through containment and pressure for change.” Such a strategy needs to be applied to China today. As long as China maintains its present form of government, it cannot be peacefully integrated into the international order. For China’s current leaders, it is too risky to play by our rules — yet our unwillingness to force them to play by our rules is too risky for the health of the international order. The United States cannot and should not be willing to upset the international order in the mistaken belief that accommodation is the best way to avoid a confrontation with China. We should hold the line instead and work for political change in Beijing. That means strengthening our military capabilities in the region, improving our security ties with friends and allies, and making clear that we will respond, with force if necessary, when China uses military intimidation or aggression to achieve its regional ambitions. It also means not trading with the Chinese military or doing business with firms the military owns or operates. And it means imposing stiff sanctions when we catch China engaging in nuclear proliferation. A successful containment strategy will require increasing, not decreasing, our overall defense capabilities. Eyre Crowe warned in 1907 that “the more we talk of the necessity of economising on our armaments, the more firmly will the Germans believe that we are tiring of the struggle, and that they will win by going on.” Today, the perception of our military decline is already shaping Chinese calculations. In 1992, an internal Chinese government document said that America’s “strength is in relative decline and that there are limits to what it can do.” This perception needs to be dispelled as quickly as possible. Clearly, however, this “perception” of US military decline has only been heightened as the Wall Street-London financier model of “economic growth” has been revealed as an untenable global Ponzi scheme versus the Chinese model of industrial production and infrastructure expansion. The military might required to contain China is also politically and economically unjustifiable, and increasingly so. Image: From the Strategic Studies Institute’s 2006 “String of Pearls” report detailing a strategy of containment for China, the evolution of Kagan’s 1997 paper, and the strategic foundation for much of the engineered violence now unraveling along the “string of pearls” from Pakistan to Myanmar, Thailand and Malaysia, to the islands of the South China Sea. It appears possible that US policy makers committed to a losing strategy based on inaccurate interpretations and projections regarding the collapse of the Soviet Union and its comparison to the Chinese. US policy makers have led the populations of Western civilization down a dead-end in pursuit of global hegemony instead of one of domestic economic and technological progress, and now depend on a steady diet of contrived crises the West can then play a role in “stabilizing.” Perpetuating and Harnessing North Korean Paranoia & Belligerence A reverse in the West’s decline is unlikely especially when the prescription is more of the same uninspired, antiquated policies that created the decline in the first place. Cultivating animosity between Southeast Asia and China, as well as depending on the predictable belligerence of North Korea are two of the remaining tricks Wall Street and London have left to justify their continued presence in Asia – both of which serve only to destabilize the region and jeopardize the collective peace and prosperity of people all across Asia. Survival Solar Battery Charger - Free Today! North Korea’s belligerence in particular, is directly proportional to the US’ meddling on the Korean Peninsula. It should be noted that the US State Department, starting in 2008, had been training North Korean “activists” alongside those who would take part in the US-engineered “Arab Spring.” In Foreign Policy’s 2011 article “Revolution U,” where the story of US-funded and trained “activism” is told, North Korean activists are mentioned several times as recipients of the same US State Department training used by proxies to help overthrow the governments of Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt – all three it should be mentioned are now brutal sectarian dictatorships bent in service to the IMF and Western interests, that make their excised predecessors look progressive in comparison. To what extent these “activists” have sowed unrest inside North Korea upon their return is unknown – but it represents one of the many covert means the US can prod the North with to provoke what would appear to be otherwise “unprovoked” aggression. Like ship sails to the wind, American foreign policy makers are outstretched and ready to harness North Korea’s belligerence, and in the case of the Cheonan’s sinking or the training of “activists” to return home and sow unrest, apparently blow on the sails themselves when the winds are calm. A reclusive hereditary communist dictatorship sounds scary, but those with no qualms utilizing such a dictatorship at the risk of regional or world war, are even scarier. Worth repeating, was Donald Rumsfeld’s position on the board of directors of ABB out of Zurich, when the engineering firm sold North Korea the nuclear technology they later used as the basis of their nuclear arms program. Rumsfeld would then later, as Secretary of Defense in the ever revolving door between big business and corporate-fascist government, leverage the enhanced menace of North Korea against America’s supposed ally in the south. This reality highlights that the stability America represents in Asia Pacific is not one of rule of law and healthy foreign diplomacy, but rather one of holding stability over the head of the region with the constant threat of unhinging peace through carefully arranged events, be it staging Maoist color revolutions in Bangkok, funding the Khmer Rouge, in 2010 training land grabbing troops in Cambodia, or repeatedly provoking an unstable military dictatorship on the Korean Peninsula. The Key to Peace in Asia – Remove America’s Presence If China, Japan, or South Korea can offer a substantial alternative focused on cooperation without the need to mercilessly strip national sovereignty and force integration politically and economically as the West’s ASEAN and AEC are poised to do, then the manipulative invasive nature of the Anglo-American banking elite and their already collapsing global order, no matter how much peace America manages or threatens to unhinge, will be all but expelled from the region. The key to peace in Korea, and across greater Asia, is removing entirely and permanently the hegemonic influence of Wall Street and London. National governments can achieve this by cultivating a more independent, self-sufficient, inward-looking socioeconomic strategy that uses foreign trade more as a supplement for a strong, domestic economy. Individually, people across Asia need to recognize the special interests lurking behind the roll-out of ASEAN and the subsequent ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) – and how it represents in no way the interests of the people of Southeast Asia – and how it will lead to a protracted and destructive confrontation with China over many years to come. The alleged opportunities ASEAN and AEC has promised, like those the European Union promised and promptly broke for millions of Europeans, can easily be replaced by more sustainable, local development – much of which is already present and expanding across Asia. The illusion of “Pax Americana” is one insidiously maintained by the Wall Street-London elite who both create the “problems” and then convenient “solutions” in an increasingly transparent regional racket akin to gangsters extorting protection money from local neighborhood shops. Asia outnumbers and overpowers the crumbling Wall Street-London international order many times over – now is the time they remove this manipulative regressive influence from their midst once and for all. Tony Cartalucci’s articles have appeared on many alternative media websites, including his own at Land Destroyer Report, Alternative Thai News Network and LocalOrg. Read other contributed articles by Tony Cartalucci here. var linkwithin_site_id = 557381; linkwithin_text=’Related Articles:’Noelle Acheson is a 10-year veteran of company analysis, corporate finance and fund management, and a member of CoinDesk’s product team. The following article originally appeared in CoinDesk Weekly, a custom newsletter delivered every Sunday to our subscribers. While high-profile consortiums such as Hyperledger and R3 are bulldozing along to big fanfare, a relatively small effort is quietly working on a project whose repercussions could soon be felt around the world. Last year, a group of 10 asset managers and fund service providers based in Luxembourg created Fundchain, a sector consortium aimed at exploring the potential impact of blockchain technology on the fund management industry. Although launched with little noise, its potential is huge. Luxembourg currently has the second largest investment fund sector in the world behind the US, and a 65% market share in cross-border fund distribution. What’s more, asset management is set to reap the benefits of certain economic trends (a growing middle class in emerging markets needing outlets for their savings) and demographic shifts (an ageing population leading to growth in pension funds). Regulatory boost Amidst this backdrop, an upcoming piece of legislation is set to buffet the industry with a sweeping change that will produce upheaval and possibly contraction. I’m talking about Mifid II. It’s hard to overstate the impact these regulations will have on asset management. Due to come into force in January 2018, Mifid II aims to increase transparency, enhancing investor protection and removing shady practices in pricing and allocation. Fund managers will be required to pay separately for research, financial advisers will no longer earn a commission and reporting requirements will multiply. And that’s just scratching the surface. An independent report estimates the cost of complying with Mifid II to be more than £2.5bn. This is likely to bring about a sector shift, with many smaller firms not being able to bear the cost, and larger enterprises offsetting the increase elsewhere. Even more worrying, a recent survey showed that most sector participants are not prepared for the changes. Where blockchain fits Although it will only affect funds domiciled in Europe (for now), the repercussions will be felt around the world. Luxembourg is the seventh largest foreign holder of US treasury securities, and over 20% of funds listed in the country are promoted by US companies. Further, the duchy is the largest European domicile for Islamic funds and the continent’s top renminbi (yuan) center. So, here we have a highly regulated sector that has to overhaul a manually-intensive, inefficient and sometimes opaque system of managing documents, reporting information and transferring value. At the same time, there is an urgent need to reduce operating costs across the board, to offset the loss of revenue and increased compliance expenses. The ideal solution? A sector-wide system that can leverage transparency, reliability and connectivity. Plus, a way to share pricing and identity data without the risk of interference or centralized control. The long game This is where what Fundchain is doing gets interesting. In December of last year, the consortium unveiled a proof-of-concept for a distributed ledger platform designed to smooth the operations of transfer agents, who act as intermediaries between investors and distributors on the one hand, and the fund managers and service providers on the other. This week, the consortium revealed in an interview with CoinDesk that it is working on four other blockchain use cases, and aims to bring one of them to production by early next year. While the full-scale substitution of current systems by a relatively new technology is unrealistic (and unwise, given the systemic importance of the transactions and the integrity), the need for an efficient and future-proof solution is obvious. It’s not just about complying with new rules. It’s about surviving. Asset management accounts for over 50% of Luxembourg’s economy. Should the sector crack, so would the region, and the repercussions would be felt around the globe. On the other hand, if Luxembourg’s fund managers, service providers and regulators manage to adapt and implement a new type of interaction, the sector could be poised to harness the financial trends that point to an even greater role for wealth management in the world economy. All this from a tiny country that is home to a small, modest consortium doing something potentially very big. Gong image via ShutterstockA dangerous myth about trade deficits By Scott Sumner In the long run trade must balance, in the sense that imports must ultimately be paid for with exports—plus interest. Thus if we buy a billion dollars in laptops from China, we might pay for those goods by exporting $1.5 billion in Boeing jets in the year 2030. But this true fact leads many economists to falsely assume that a country cannot run measured trade deficits forever. In previous posts I like to cite the case of Australia, which sells condos and vacations to Asians in payment for cars and TVs. The Australian government will report a trade deficit year after year, which never seems to go away. But that’s misleading. Overall trade in goods, services and assets may be balanced; it’s just that those condos are not counted as exports of “goods”. Tyler Cowen recently quoted Jason Furman and Olivier Blanchard: Net revenues from border adjustment taxes and subsidies will be positive so long as the United States runs a trade deficit. But if foreign debt is not to explode, trade deficits must eventually be offset by trade surpluses in the future. Net revenues that are positive today will eventually have to turn negative. Indeed, any positive net revenues today must be offset by an equal discounted value of negative net revenues in the future. This is flat out wrong, and it’s not even debatable. The official trade deficit does not measure the increase in net indebtedness; as a result the measured U.S. trade deficit can (and likely will) go on indefinitely. A common mistake made by famous economists is to confuse statistical measures such as “the trade deficit” or “CPI inflation” with the theoretical concept that economists use in their models. In terms of pure economic theory, the US sale of a LA house to a Chinese investor is just as much an “export” as the sale of a mobile home that is actually shipped overseas. But one is counted as an export and one is not. You might think that this is mere semantics—who cares how these terms are defined? But this confusion leads to important errors in policy evaluation, such as the incorrect assumption that the proposed border tax/subsidy would be neutral towards trade. That might be true if all imports were taxed and all exports were subsidized. But that’s not what’s being proposed. When a British tourist visits Disney World in Orlando, the spending is a US service export. But that service export will not be subsidized. When a Chinese buyer purchases a home in California the “export” of the home will not be subsidized. The real strength of the US economy is in the export of services and assets, which are largely ignored under this system. It is one of the most profound consequences of China’s growing wealth: Chinese investment in U.S. real estate has exploded, particularly in California and New York. Chinese nationals are now the biggest foreign buyers of American homes, purchasing at least $93 billion worth of home in the past five years, including $28.6 billion in 2015 alone. Commercial property purchases have surged as well, to $8.5 billion last year, a 15-fold increase from 2010. And, at nearly $208 billion, China is the biggest foreign holder of U.S.-government-backed residential mortgage bonds. This error leads some economists to confuse a theoretically neutral border tax that applies to all imports and exports, with the one actually being proposed, which would tax imports far more than it subsidized exports, and hence would end up being at least somewhat protectionist. This does not mean that the tax reform proposal that the GOP is putting together is necessarily a bad idea—the proposal does have a number of good features, such as expensing investment and equal treatment of debt and equity. But we need to be aware of what is being proposed. As far as I can tell the plan is at least slightly protectionist.Every Saturday, Scott Budnick and his wife, Maureen, peel 75 pounds of potatoes. At 5 o'clock the next morning, Mr. Budnick packs up the potatoes, 500 eggs, 250 sausages, and a host of other items contributed by his friends and neighbors. He drives it all to the Mathewson Street United Methodist Church in Providence, R.I., in time to welcome the first wave of volunteers – some homeless, some not – to the kitchen. The Sunday Morning Friendship Breakfast is free and open to anyone who's hungry. A sluggish economy keeps the crowds coming: The number of homeless Rhode Islanders climbed 10 percent in 2012. Since the friendship breakfast began 14 months ago, weekly turnout has grown from a few dozen people to more than 200. The breakfast offers heaping plates of scrambled eggs, fresh fruit, pancakes, waffles, French toast, sausage, and home fries – plus pastries, oatmeal, juice, and coffee. It costs about a dollar a plate to produce. "People tell us that this is a meal they look forward to all week long," Budnick says. The breakfast is not just a free meal: Half the volunteers are homeless themselves. "Early on we realized that people want to be useful," Budnick says. "Thirty or 40 people from the street help out every week, whether it's cooking home fries or pushing a broom." Budnick pairs up the volunteers, purposely mixing them up: "A lot of times, the person from the street knows our process better than the outside volunteer," he says. "It puts them in the leadership role." Many volunteers point to Budnick as their inspiration for getting involved. He has strong roots in the community as a local contractor and Little League coach. The Turners, a fellow Little League family, contribute 200 servings of homemade French toast to the breakfast each week. Budnick's neighbors, the Ashley-Friedmans, make several hundred pancakes and waffles. The Budnicks, Turners, and Ashley-Friedmans each have three children. "Families with kids, they feel like they don't have any time," Budnick says. But "there's always time." For the first six months, Budnick and his wife pulled all-nighters to prepare the breakfast themselves. "I didn't reach out to anyone for a long time because I didn't want people to feel obligated," he says. But since Budnick started speaking up, local schools, restaurants, and families have donated hundreds of dollars' worth of food, money, and staples like dish soap and paper towels. Ocean State Job Lot, a regional chain retailer, recently donated 250 sets of silverware. "Our breakfast is their one meal a week that is not served on foam, paper, or plastic," he says. "There's a dignity in that." By 7:30 a.m., hungry diners of all ages fill the chairs at 14 long tables. The dining room is painted a cheery yellow, the word "peace" repeated in blue along the walls. Plates of pastries and fresh fruit dot each table. The Rev. Jack Fitzelle-Jones, a United Church of Christ minister and founder of the friendship breakfast, circulates among the tables, sitting down, shaking hands, taking prayer requests. Budnick first met Mr. Fitzelle-Jones at a church youth group more than 20 years ago. "He was this wonderful 12-year-old kid," Fitzelle-Jones recalls. "We just stayed in touch all these years." Budnick adds, "Jack's always been a real hero of mine because he's dedicated so much of his life to homelessness and economic struggles." Growing up in Rhode Island, Budnick was involved in community service from junior high school onward, taking a cue from his parents, who regularly volunteered on behalf of the group South County Against Racism. After high school, Budnick served with City Year, a civic service group for young people, in Providence. In 2012 Fitzelle-Jones e-mailed Budnick to say he was interested in starting a worship meal for the needy. "It's church but in a very unique kind of way," Fitzelle-Jones says. "It's open to anybody of any religion, or no religion. People can take what they like and leave the rest." Budnick is matter-of-fact about why he came on board: "We can all give back in some way. If I'm down, I hope somebody else would be there for me." He adds, "Jack's a visionary guy. I'm a nuts-and-bolts kind of a guy. We really complement one another." In the kitchen, Markita Urwin has her hands full of coffeepots. "I was homeless for a year," she recalls. "This place gave me a leg up. Now I'm engaged to be married. We're gonna use this place for our wedding." Budnick is a blur in the kitchen, helping with every part of the meal and coordinating the volunteers, the youngest of whom is 13. He stops to make time for anyone who asks for it, putting a hand on the person's shoulder to show he's listening. Usually the exchange ends in a hearty laugh. "In the kitchen, I'm the butt of a million jokes," he says, smiling. Russell Silva, the breakfast's head cook, first came as a guest last year. "This is my way of giving back," Mr. Silva says. He makes home fries, scrambled eggs, "whatever needs to be sliced and diced. I stay on the stove because of my leg," an injury that cost him his $18.75-an-hour job several years ago. Known on the street as "the walking-stick man," at the breakfast he's known for something else. "I get a lot of compliments on my home fries," he says with a grin. Budnick thumps Silva on the back. "The guy's a dynamo. Russell knows how to put this meal together better than anyone," he says. At 8 a.m., Fitzelle-Jones leads a brief worship session. He prays for the list of names he's gathered from the room – a family member in surgery, a war veteran in prison. Some diners talk through the prayer; others shush them. At 8:15, the full breakfast is served. Runners serve food on trays to seated diners, one table at a time. "Everybody here gets something good," says Prince Dedo, the son of Liberian and Jamaican immigrants and a regular attendee and volunteer. The first time he came he answered Fitzelle-Jones's call for helpers among the crowd. "I said, I can do dishes. Every week, I do the dishes. I do this from the heart," Mr. Dedo says, bringing a hand to his chest. By 8:30, some diners are busing empty plates to the kitchen window. New guests are constantly arriving. One woman asks, "Where does the line start?" One of the regulars tells her with a flourish of his hand, "There is no line. Just find a seat!" "We want people to relax, as if they're paying customers," Budnick says. By 9, the dining room is emptying. Volunteers sweep up and spray down tables. Christina Tate, a church member, is elbow deep in soapy dishwater. Dunking a plate, she explains, "I find it enjoyable. I find it an honor. I get all kinds of blessings from this." Does she look forward to this breakfast? "Oh girl," she laughs. "I wake up thinking about suds." Budnick and Fitzelle-Jones hope to build the friendship breakfast into support groups for homeless people in need of housing. "Maybe veterans would want to be a part of support teams for other veterans," Fitzelle-Jones says. "Same with the gay community," to help gay teens who are turned out of their homes. The meal ends when the kitchen runs out of food. According to Budnick, every week a volunteer who came in hungry will decide to give his plate to someone else. "It blew me away when it first started," he says. "You're feeding people's sense of self-worth, their sense of being productive and valued." "It's much more than a meal site," adds volunteer Brook Ashley. "It's a place for this community to see nonjudgmental people who respect and value their contributions. Scott's done a phenomenal job, making it run in a way that's very empowering to the attendees: It's their breakfast that they're putting on." • Contact Scott Budnick at [email protected] or visit www.facebook.com/friendshipbreakfast. Donations may be sent to the Mathewson Street Church, 134 Mathewson St., Providence, RI 02903, with the memo indicating "Sunday Morning Friendship Breakfast." Helping the poor and homeless UniversalGiving (www.universalgiving.org) helps people give to and volunteer for top-performing charitable organizations worldwide. Projects are vetted by Universal Giving; 100 percent of each donation goes directly to the listed cause. Here are three groups selected by UniversalGiving that help the homeless and others in poverty: • Let Kids Be Kids Inc. advocates for people in need. Project: Provide homeless shelters with supplies such as food, blankets, and gloves. Get the Monitor Stories you care about delivered to your inbox. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy • The GVN Foundation supports the charitable and educational work of local community organizations in countries throughout the world. Project: Provide a child with food for a month. • Sports Gift promotes community service among youths, providing aid to disadvantaged children throughout the world. Project: Volunteer to knit scarves for the homeless and others in need.DON’T PANIC IT’S ORGANIC! Welcome back for Episode #15! We’re talking with Townes Mozer Owner/Founder of Lenny Boy Brewing Co, about Kombucha a super healthy fermented beverage made from sugar, tea, water, and a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast “SCOBY”. During the fermentation process the bacteria and yeast convert the sugar into B vitamins, probiotics and organic acids. In addition, gluconic, lactic and folic acids are a byproduct of the fermentation. This ancient elixir is an all-natural, organic detoxifying drink; most who drink it say it gives them an extra boost of energy. After fermenting, the tea is full of probiotics that work with your body to boost the immune system, stimulate your metabolism, and rejuvenate your mind. Townes was first introduced to fermentation during college. At the time, he was realizing the quick, easy, and inexpensive meals of college were affecting his health. Townes was inspired to change his daily habits and launched a search for natural remedies to correct what he had diminished one greasy meal at a time. With the first few sips of Kombucha, he felt the amazing effect on both his mind and his body. He knew he found the answer. Townes began brewing kombucha, beer, and mead at home for family and friends. After graduating college, his interest in a healthy lifestyle led him to organic farming and he immersed himself within a fully operating organic farm outside of Hot Springs, NC. Being in a remote location for the growing season allowed time for reflection and also for the creation of Lenny Boy Brewing Co. The journey through the growing season afforded him the opportunity to learn hands-on how healthy food is grown, and also granted him access to amazing people/farms who were helping to push the slow food movement throughout the South. These people guided Townes and encouraged him to pursue his interest, passion, and love for brewing. He was also guided to the Appalachia School of Holistic Herbalism. There he became more in tune with the properties of herbs and now applies this holistic knowledge to Lenny Boy. He has now combined years of brewing experience with perfect blends of organic herbs, fruits, and grains tied together with pure water to provide you with Lenny Boy. Cheers! What’s Going On? Joe: NoDa rally poured a Simcoe Single hop pale ale with RB malt and N1 yeast from South yeast labs…big shout out to David Thornton. Brewed a Dusseldorf Alt and Second to One Vienna Lager, starter for a Munich Dunkel Fantasty Draft Packing up for San Diego Daan: Noda Rally, Poured the Mosaic Single Hop and Fantasy Draft Amber IPA (Tett Nugget). Had fantasy draft this past Sunday. No brewing in the past 2 weeks. Planning 2 beers for this weekend if possible. Oktoberfest/Marzen and a Muller McBride Grandpa’s Breakfast. Tobacco Smoked Imperial Oatmeal Porter aged in Scotch Barrel. Hoping to keg the Czech Pils and Smoked Rye Lager this weekend and transfer 1⁄2 of Daan and Dommer or Domm and Daaner to a bourbon barrel for a few weeks. Booked flight to Austin TX and Dallas TX for July 4th weekend. Michael: AHA Rally @ NoDA, Served a traditional Berliner Weiße “Bear-leeh-nuh Vice-uh” mit Schuss Kegged Wicked Flanders Red Lager & New Years 2014 Kriek Shawn: AHA Rally @ NoDa poured a Imperial Brett Gose with Sumac Brewed Farmhouse Sour Saison, 5 gal fermenting in Barrel, 2nd runnings Saison w/ Wyeast French Saison & Hop Drop Topper Imperial IPA Beer/Brewery industry news/updates: Founders, the nation’s 17th largest craft brewery increased distribution footprint now distributing to North & South Dakota Rahr Corporation has detailed plans to construct four new facilities in its hometown of Shakopee, Minn. as part of a massive $68 million expansion. The company said it intends to build a new malt house, a pilot brewery, a maintenance warehouse, and a distribution center in its hometown. North Carolina Contract Brewing Bill Finds New Life: House Bill 909, was initially introduced as a short bill to allow for
that count. We don't know if the president's "surge" in Iraq is actually working. Or if the recent skirmish between U.S. warships and Iranian speedboats is a real incident or a Pentagon PR stunt. And what are the real implications of China's $1.4 trillion trade surplus that increases by $1 billion every day? Or what important decision was made by your City Council or school board last night? Before you shake your head and say that TV doesn't matter in the age of the Internet, consider this: According to a report recently released by the Pew Research Center, local TV stations remain the No. 1 source of presidential election news. Cable TV news is second; network TV news is third. TV continues to completely dominate as the opinion leader in American politics. But at some point you need to stop throwing your remote at the TV. Going outside and yelling that you're "fed up and you're not going to take it anymore" isn't working, folks. It's time to understand what's really wrong with the media and what's really needed to fix it. One word: profits. You can dress up a cash cow and make it look like a news operation, but at the end of the day, they're milking the information lifeline that nurtures our democracy. TV newsrooms are not run by journalists. They are run by businesspeople that operate with a simple formula. Cut out expensive-to-produce investigative journalism, documentaries or long interviews. Get a couple of talking heads to yell at each other and create good "theater." Pretend that a blue dog Democrat and a far-right Republican represent the range of debate and "fairness." And of course, keep moving to the latest breaking news -- celebrity or criminal (or preferably both) -- leaving out any important context or deep inquiry. After all, why spend time and money reporting on the issues when you can boost the bottom line by making the candidates pay top dollar for access to voters? TV stations sold more than $50 million in campaign and "issue" ads in Iowa last year, according to TNS Media Intelligence. In 2004, Iowa spending was around $9 million. The same report said that U.S. spending on campaign and issue ads for all current races -- presidential and others -- reached $715 million by the end of 2007. That's serious money. It's nauseating when you think about it. Elections -- the centerpiece of democracy -- have become so steeped in money from special interests and the wealthy that the constitutional notion of one person, one vote has become a historic footnote. The only solace is that we may have finally reached a moment of clarity. We finally see why there is still a giant tax loophole that allows private equity executives to game the system out of an estimated $12 billion per year. We see why Congress can't pass reasonable automobile fuel efficiency standards, while the icecaps melt and natural disasters escalate. We see why the middle class continue their slide into poverty, as the disparity between rich and poor grows to levels not seen since before the Depression. And why there are 47 million Americans without health insurance. These facts are not merely the result of an abominable administration. I wish it were that simple. It is a lethal brew of profoundly broken electoral and media systems that must be fundamentally reformed -- and fast. For media, that means rolling back ownership consolidation, so that TV and radio stations and newspapers are owned by people who represent the broad diversity of America and live in the communities they serve. It means strengthening non-commercial media outlets like PBS, NPR, low power radio and community television channels. It means investing in universal, affordable Internet access and breaking the corporate bottleneck on distribution, so that any Web site can have the reach of a TV or radio network.At the high school I used to work at, when I first began teaching there, I was amazed to learn that one period each day was considered an “optional” period for students. They could take another class if they wanted, but it was really free time when they could clear their minds, get academic help from teachers who were available that period, catch up with their friends, or study in the library. For many students, it was a nice break from an otherwise stressful day. And it was a really neat thing to see teachers (who were assigned to monitor the students) chatting with kids about what was going on in and out of school. What a novel way to build up a great community and establish rapport between students and teachers. (Our district eventually eliminated that period for understandable reasons, but it was still disappointing.) That’s what I believe officials at Pine Creek High School near Colorado Springs had in mind with their “seminar” period. According to the student handbook, Seminar is an opportunity to develop a sense of community; to build lines of communication; to provide community and school services; and to have focused academic time. In addition, students will often have time to access the resources available to them at Pine Creek. These include peer tutors, teachers, counselors, administrators and the library. Club meetings may be scheduled during this time. (That last line is weird. If Seminar is intended as instructional time, it shouldn’t be used to have club meetings — which are traditionally allowed to take place before and after school.) For years now, senior Chase Windebank has used his free time to meet with other Christians. They meet in the unused choir room, sing religious songs, pray, and discuss their faith. But in a lawsuit filed by the Christian group Alliance Defending Freedom, we find out that those meetings came to a halt in September: Assistant Principal [James] Lucas told Chase that his religious speech during the open time of Seminar period would have to stop because of “separation of church and state.” He told Chase that because of the religious content of students’ speech, they would have to meet before school or after the school day ended. ADF is suing the district because, in short, they say the school can’t prohibit this religious speech when they’re allowing all other sorts of speech. And I have to say: They have a point. Even though the district says Seminar is “instructional time,” and that’s why Windebank’s group can’t meet, it’s pretty clear that students are allowed to talk about damn near anything they want to during their free time. So why not religion? It makes no sense. “Far from being unconstitutional, religious speech is expressly protected by the First Amendment, and public schools have no business stopping students from praying together during their free time,” added ADF legal counsel Matt Sharp. It’s as if school officials were walking up to students in the cafeteria during lunch and saying, “You can talk about whatever you want… but don’t you dare bring up religion.” Certainly, no atheist group would stand for that sort of treatment. In a letter from the school district to ADF, a lawyer rationalized their decision by saying that no groups were allowed to meet during Seminar (and so there’s no religious discrimination at play here): … Seminar at Pine Creek is not homeroom time. It is class time and it is considered instructional time. No non-curricular clubs are permitted to meet during that time period at Pine Creek High School. Therefore, Mr. Windebank may resume his prayer meetings at Pine Creek High School, but he must do so during non-instructional time, that is before 7:45 a.m. when classes begin, and after 2:45 p.m., when classes end for the day. Once again, the student handbook says clubs can meet during that time. But even if Windebank’s group isn’t a club, other students are allowed to gather, relax, and talk (even if the district doesn’t want them to), and that’s why the content of their conversations is virtually irrelevant. That’s essentially what ADF said in its response: During the free time, students are permitted to engage in a virtually unlimited variety of activities, including gathering with other students inside or outside; reading; sending text messages to their friends; playing games on their phone; visiting the bathrooms; getting a snack; visiting teachers; and conducting official meetings of school clubs. If they can do all that, they ought to be able to pray with their friends. So I’m really not buying the “separation of church and state” argument made by Assistant Principal Lucas. It’s misapplied here. Because there’s so much confusion, the smartest thing for the district to do may just be eliminating the seminar period next year and making students take a class during that time. I would much rather they keep it going and just remove the arbitrary restriction against religion, but they need to change something. What they’re doing right now is way over the top. If Windebank and his friends are allowed to get together and talk during Seminar time, there’s no reason God can’t be the subject of their discussions. (Image via Wikipedia. Thanks to Greg for the link)It seems like the quickest way to make a billion dollars at the moment is to create a successful internet platform. Companies like Facebook, eBay, Airbnb, Twitter and Paypal are platforms that have gone from obscurity to internet giants in a matter of years. So what are these platforms and how are they making so much money? A lot of starry-eyed tech entrepreneurs wax lyrical with theories that equate the technology revolution to a revolution in business and economics. But the typical way an internet platform makes profit is by acting as a two sided market, which is a type of business that existed long before the internet. Two sided markets are naturally able to thrive at huge scales and platforms have been taking advantage of this, attaining unbelievable valuations. It is useful to view internet platforms through the lens of a two sided market because it explains the incentive structure of the platform and how the companies orient themselves in terms of product decisions. This blog post first describes network effects, an economic concept that helps you understand two sided markets. It then goes on to describe the structure of a two sided market and who to incentivise within it. The post ends by showing how many internet companies have structured themselves around a two sided market principle. There is no maths in this post and the concepts discussed require no background knowledge. Network effects There are some products and services that become more valuable if more people are using them. For example think of e-mail. If there were only two people in the world who had e-mail, they would only be able to talk to each other and the service would not be very valuable. When a third person gets e-mail, the service becomes more valuable to the original two users as now they can contact someone else. When a fourth person gets e-mail, the other users find it more valuable as they can contact more people on it. Every time a new person gets e-mail, everyone already using e-mail benefits a bit more because they can talk to more people. This phenomenon is called a network effect and it occurs in a large amount of internet services. When everyone uses the same product and they are all benefiting from doing so, it’s good news for whoever makes the product. Take Facebook as another example. I know a lot of people who want to delete their Facebook account but don’t because it is so easy to contact everyone they know on it. This is a network effect. So many people have Facebook that it is effectively a directory of people, making it a valuable service. Every time a new member joins Facebook everyone benefits a bit more. This value only exists because of the amount of people that use it and doesn’t have much to do with Facebook itself (you could try and contact people on Myspace, a service very similar to Facebook, but no-one uses it so it isn’t very valuable). When there are multiple companies offering a product that has network effects, you can quite easily show that everyone benefits the most if they all use the same product. For instance if there were hundreds of social networks with only a few thousand people on each one, the users wouldn’t benefit as much as they would if they all used Facebook. This is because of the network effect. This ‘all or nothing’ aspect of network effects can lead to some interesting market dynamics. When two products that rely on network effects are competing against each other, there will usually be a ‘tipping point’ where everyone suddenly starts banding together to buy one product, leaving the other product useless. A great example of this is the Bluray vs HD DVD saga. Bluray and HD DVD are products that provide better quality video than DVDs and both rely on network effects. Bluray becomes more valuable if more people have Bluray, as you can then share movies and you can be sure that the newest releases will be in your format. The same goes for HD DVD. If everyone bands together around a common video format everyone benefits. The graph below shows the pivotal week in the competition of Bluray vs HD DVD. In a week Bluray went from having a 51% market share to a 92% market share. This was the week that Warner Brothers announced it would support Bluray devices only, and not HD DVD. You can see that this was the ‘tipping point’: everyone decided to use Bluray and leave HD DVD to wither away. So we’ve seen how network effects are a quality of many internet products and that they can be vital in determining the success of a business. However network effects don’t only occur in certain types of product, there are also businesses that use network effects in their structure. Namely two sided markets. Two Sided Markets A two sided market is a business that brings two groups of people together. The structure is shown below: The most basic example of a two sided market is, quite literally, a marketplace. One group would be farmers or food sellers, the other group would be people who want to buy food. The marketplace is where the two groups meet. The business’ value is providing a space in which these two groups can interact and it makes money by charging farmers to have a stall in that space. This structure is how most internet platforms make their money. They bring two groups of people together and charge one (or both) groups to do so. Lets take an example of an internet marketplace: eBay Just like a marketplace in real life, eBay provides a space where people who want to sell something and people who want to buy something can interact (through an auction). The way that eBay makes money is by charging the sellers whenever they list something, just like how farmers pay for a stall. The network effects in two sided markets are slightly different to what I described above. In the examples above there is one group, the consumers of the product, who benefit when more people join their group i.e. when more people use the product. E-mail users benefit when more people use e-mail, Facebook users benefit when more people use Facebook. Like the diagram below: What is different in two sided markets is that Group A benefits when there are more people in Group B and vice versa. Members of Group A don’t really care how many people are in their group, they care about the other one. This is shown below: The way to get your head around this is by imagining that sellers on eBay only sold one product, say sofas. If there was 1 person selling a sofa and 10 people looking to buy a sofa, the seller will be happy because the buyers will probably aggressively bid and the seller will get a good price for it. Furthermore, if an extra person wants to buy a sofa, the seller is happier because he will contribute in bidding to a high price. Conversely if there was 1 person wanting to buy a sofa and 10 people selling, the buyer will be happy because the he can look for the cheapest sofa rather than having to compete with other buyers. If an extra person wants to sell a sofa the buyer is more happy because he might provide a better deal. The buyers benefit if there are more sellers, the sellers benefit if there are more buyers. This is the network effect in a two sided market [NOTE: each group does benefit if there are more people in it, but in an indirect way that I won’t describe]. We’ve seen how in a two sided market each group cares about how many people are in the other group. So how does a company like eBay use this information to their advantage? They use it to structure the incentives for each group, as the two relationships are usually not equal. This unequal balance of relationships is best highlighted by the classic way an internet platform makes money, the quarter pounder with cheese: connecting advertisers and consumers. The Advertising Model The way that Google, Facebook, Twitter, News websites, Hulu and more make the main bulk of their money is by connecting advertisers to consumers: All these services are two sided markets because they provide a space where consumers and advertisers can interact. However the relationship here is clearly skewed towards advertisers. If there are lots of consumers looking at the adverts then the advertisers are happy. When more consumers are in the market the advertisers get much happier, they therefore strongly benefit from the relationship. The consumers don’t get as good a deal. If there are more adverts available to be shown to you, there is an argument that the consumer would benefit from more targeted advertising, however it’s not that beneficial: on the whole people don’t like adverts. Because the advertisers benefit from the relationship so much more than the consumers, it makes sense for the platform to incentivise the consumers with its products. Advertisers gain value from the relationship, whereas consumers don’t. Therefore consumers need get value from somewhere. This is where services like Google search, Facebook’s social network and Twitter’s feed come in. These are useful products that are there to incentivise the consumer to come to the market and interact with advertisers. In fact consumers often have to pay no cost to use the service, as they need to be incentivised a lot. Advertisers are where these platforms get their money, because they find the relationship so useful that they are willing to pay good money for it. This can be summed up in a rule that is general for any two sided market: In a two sided market, incentivise the group that benefits least from the relationship Buyer/Seller Model We’ve already seen how eBay works as a two sided market: This is the same model as a number of other different services, where a space is provided from people to buy and sell items. For instance Amazon selling third party books, the Google Play store/Apple App store, Zoopla and car insurance websites use this model. In almost all of these cases the person selling the product is charged to be in the market, whereas the buyer doesn’t pay anything (directly). This is because it is assumed that the person selling the product benefits a lot when there are a lot of buyers, whereas buyers don’t benefit as much when there are a lot of sellers. Therefore the people selling good pay the cost. Note in the relationship in this model is more equal than the advertising model. Buyers may not benefit as much as sellers in the relationship, however when there are more people selling a good that is still a big benefit for the buyers. Because of the more equal relationship, the incentives don’t have to be as big. I know that there are lots of people selling the same copy of a book on Amazon, so it will probably be cheap, and that’s a good enough reason for me to go to the market. In advertising I need a cool free product to be incentivised, in a buyer/seller market I don’t need a free product, I just need to know that I will be able to buy something at a good price. Airbnb Airbnb is an internet platform where people rent out their homes to visitors who stay for a few days. It is like the buyer/seller model in that someone is selling time in a house to someone who wants to buy it, however the relationship in this scenario is slightly different. Airbnb charge both guest and host fees, i.e. they charge both groups for doing business in the market. This isn’t uncommon, though it is less likely in internet platforms. What is interesting is that the guest has to pay higher fees, i.e. the buyer pays the main cost rather than the seller. This implies that Airbnb think that guests have a lot to gain when there are many hosts, whereas hosts don’t gain as much with many different guests, and this makes sense. When going on Airbnb it is great when there are lots of different places to choose from in a city, each place has a different character and the customer gains value each time a new place is added. The hosts however don’t have as much of a benefit. If there are lots of different guests you might meet some nice people, but most you can gain from a guest is that they leave the place clean. Most guests are pretty much the same so the hosts don’t get much value when there are a lot of them. Therefore because the buyers get more from the relationship, they have to a higher fee in order to incentivise the sellers more. This blog post has explained network effects and two sided markets, showing how many internet platforms are based on this model. I hope you enjoyed reading it! AdvertisementsThe story of the influential actions of three Plaid Cymru members at Penyberth on the Llŷn Peninsula in 1936. Items in this story A fire in Llŷn On 8 September 1936, three men entered the property of the RAF’s training school at Penyberth on the LlŷnPeninsula. Saunders Lewis, D. J. Williams and Lewis Valentine, three of the main figures of Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru (The National Party of Wales), were intent on damaging the property of the bombing school. They set fire to the buildings before presenting themselves at Pwllheli police station to accept responsibility. This action would become one of the most significant in the history of the Welsh language. Opposition to the presence of the bombing school in Pen Llŷn was widespread in Walesat the time. Many objected on pacifist and environmental grounds but for Lewis, Williams and Valentine, the school represented the oppression of the English over the Welsh and the imposition of English warmongering and violence on the peaceful Welsh countryside. The government had intended to build similar establishments in Northumberland and Dorset but had yielded to the protests of naturalists and historians. But Baldwin, the Prime Minister, refused to listen to a deputation representing over half a million of the people of Wales. Confession The building of the ‘bombing school’ began exactly four hundred years after the passage of the Act of Union. All three were notable members of the party; Valentine had been Plaid Cymru’s first President. But they were frustrated at Plaid Cymru’s failure to act since the RAF announced their intentions in August 1935 and therefore decided to take matters into their own hands. Having confessed their crime at Pwllheli police station, Lewis, Williams and Valentine were put on trial at Caernarfon on 13 October 1936. The jury were unable to reach a decision and the trial was transferred to the Old Bailey in London, where the three men were sentenced to nine months in prison. Strong feelings The ‘Fire in Llŷn’ aroused strong feelings. By the time of the second trial in London, Saunders Lewis had been dismissed by his employers at UniversityCollege, Swansea. This, the decision to move the case to London, and the judge’s scornful treatment of the case at the Old Bailey angered many in Wales. Following their release from prison on 27 August 1937, Lewis, Williams and Valentine were greeted at Caernarfon pavilion by a crowd of around 12,000. Such displays of support were seen across Wales, demonstrating the impact the event had on contemporaries, particularly the Welsh-speaking community. Though many hoped that Penyberth would cause the strengthening of the nationalist movement in Wales, there was no significant increase in membership or support and the outbreak of war in 1939 meant that such concerns were effectively put to one side. Lasting significance Today, Penyberth ranks alongside Tryweryn in its significance in the fight for the Welsh language. The stance of Lewis, Valentine and Williams was an inspiration to Welsh language campaigners for decades and their continued efforts to advance Walesand the Welsh made them three of Wales’ most notable political activists. Saunders Lewis went on to broadcast the famous ‘Tynged yr Iaith’ speech in 1962, giving rise to the formation of the Welsh Language Society which campaigns for the rights of the Welsh language to this day.Several of the animals were shot dead on the farm, after police failed to contain them with tranquilliser guns[Reuters] Dozens of exotic animals, including tigers, lions and bears were let loose on Ohio farmland by their owner before he committed suicide, sparking a shoot-to-kill hunt in which 48 of the wild beasts, including 18 endangered Bengal tigers, have been killed. Schools were shut and panicked residents were told to stay inside on Wednesday as the animals roamed inside and outside the 73-acre farm near Zanesville in eastern Ohio. Authorities killed 48 of the 56 animals, some at close range, including the tigers, six black bears, two grizzlies and 17 lions, said Muskingum County Sheriff Matt Lutz. A monkey, possibly carrying the Herpes B virus, and a gray wolf remained at large, he told an afternoon news conference. One of the escaped big cats reached an interstate highway and was hit by a car. Authorities posted electronic warning signs, "Caution Exotic Animals" for motorists. "We are not talking about your normal everyday house cat or dog. These are 300-pound Bengal tigers that we had to put down," Lutz said. "I gave the order-that if animals looked like they were on their way out, they were put down." The dead animals have been buried on the farm, he said. Survivors were taken to the Columbus Zoo, including three leopards, a grizzly and two macaque monkeys. Record of violations Owner Terry Thompson, who had been charged with animal cruelty 11 times since 2004, was found dead from an apparently self-inflicted wound when authorities went to the farm on Tuesday after reports of animals running free, Lutz said. They found gates and animal pens open, but no suicide note. "There were animals running loose outside the fenced area," he said. Some, including primates, were captured at the farm. Lutz said animals kept at the farm included many types of big cats such as cheetahs, mountain lions and leopards, in addition to lions and tigers. Authorities said they had received nearly 35 calls about the menagerie over the years, ranging from animals running loose to animals not being treated properly, Lutz said. "We've handled numerous complaints here, we've done numerous inspections here," he said. "So this has been a huge problem for us for a number of years." There were complaints that Thompson left horses undernourished, then fed them to lions when they died, said Larry Hostetler, executive director of the Muskingum County Animal Shelter. However, he met the bare minimum requirements for keeping the animals, he said. Thompson was released last month from federal prison on a firearms conviction. Jack Hanna, director emeritus of the Columbus Zoo, told the news conference Lutz and his deputies had taken the appropriate action. "These are dangerous animals," Hanna said. "If you had 18 Bengal tigers running around these neighborhoods, you wouldn't have wanted to see what would have happened."Hurricane Irma is so powerful that it has temporarily sucked the ocean away from beaches in Florida and the Bahamas in recent days. Twitter user @Piznack, one of multiple people to share videos of the strange scene, tweeted on Saturday: “Y’all my family in the Bahamas said Irma sucked up all the water. There’s literally no water. The beach and ocean are gone.” He sent out a follow-up video that showed how the water had retreated at a beach in Long Island, Bahamas. Y'all my family in the Bahamas said Irma sucked up all the water. There's literally no water. The beach and ocean are gone😳 — piz (@Piznack) September 9, 2017 On Sunday, the National Weather Service confirmed the phenomenon was also occurring in Naples, Florida. A public information coordinator for Clearwater, Florida, shared videos of the “negative surge” in Tampa Bay. 12:00 PM: Negative surge ~3.5 FT at #Naples to become 10-15 FT above ground as #Irma moves in. Life-threatening rapid water rise imminent! pic.twitter.com/pbh76VXlqn — NWS Miami (@NWSMiami) September 10, 2017 Creepy site - water in Tampa Bay is already being sucked out. This is view from downtown St. Pete waterfront. #HurricaneIrma pic.twitter.com/4hqRDSrDsh — Jason Beisel (@JasonBeisel) September 10, 2017 Angela Fritz, deputy weather editor of The Washington Post, confirmed this phenomenon is real and may occur during extremely powerful hurricanes such as Irma. The storm is so powerful that it can essentially change the shape of the ocean for a time, Fritz wrote. “Basically, Hurricane Irma is so strong and its pressure is so low, it’s sucking water from its surroundings into the core of the storm,” Fritz wrote. “In the center of the storm, where there is extreme low pressure, water is drawn upward. Low pressure is basically a sucking mechanism — it sucks the air into it, and when it’s really low, it can change the shape of the surface of the ocean. As the storm draws water toward the center, it gets pulled away from the surroundings.” Wayne Neely, a forecaster with the Bahamas’ Department of Meteorology, warned residents of Long Island and Exuma, where water had also reportedly receded from the beaches, to be careful as the ocean surged back to high levels. “Care must be taken in this case because the water often returns with even greater fury,” Neely said in a Facebook post explaining the phenomenon. People who had seen the water recede in the Bahamas on Friday said the water returned the next day. Irma ripped through the Caribbean Sea and parts of the Atlantic Ocean earlier this week and made landfall in Florida on Sunday morning. So far, the storm has killed at least 22 people and displaced thousands more. Below are more images of the ocean disappearing, in some cases beyond the horizon, at beaches in Florida and the Bahamas. Look at Tampa Bay... this AM there were whitecaps. @JaniceDean told me the winds from #irma are pushing the water out @foxandfriends pic.twitter.com/5agY7hG1zC — Jillian Mele (@jillianmele) September 10, 2017 Bahamas 🇧🇸 These incredible photos were taken by @deejayeasya The sea went out. The sea came in. #Irma #HurricaneIrma pic.twitter.com/xXBywyo01a — Elpie (@elpie) September 9, 2017 so the winds in Long Island Bahamas were powerful enough to blow the water so far back that the eye can't see. It looks as if there's no sea pic.twitter.com/yemwLYUsI7 — KB (@keonavanessa) September 9, 2017 Water receded in Salt Pond Long Island Bahamas yesterday evening. #SendItTo7 #HurricaneIrma pic.twitter.com/ljuTVCams2 — Victoria Wells (@Vick_Savalitta) September 9, 2017By Nick Bernabe It didn’t take long after the National Guard was activated in North Dakota for militarized law enforcement to descend upon the site of the Dakota Access Pipeline. Today, mass arrests began as riot gear-clad police attempted to break up Native American opposition to the construction of the pipeline, which has been halted at one location but continues elsewhere. According to independent news outlet Unicorn Riot, at least 20 protesters, or “water protectors,” have been arrested at gunpoint along with medics and two journalists. Police issued a one-time warning to “water protectors” that any trespassers would be arrested. The warning came after several people locked themselves to construction equipment in acts of civil disobedience on Tuesday. Unicorn Riot, which has been broadcasting live video of the tense standoff in North Dakota, says Facebook has been censoring their link from livestream.com. Commenters on their Facebook page were also complaining they could not share the video. Screenshots posted by page followers show Facebook blocked the link. [UPDATE: A Unicorn Riot collective member confirmed to Anti-Media via email that Facebook was blocking the video link with its “automated censorship system.” https://livestream.com/unicornriot/events/6340986) was being blocked from Facebook. Posts and comments with the URL both immediately triggered popup security alerts. We tried putting the same URL through Bitly shortening and that official Unicorn Riot page post was deleted by Facebook within a few minutes. Finally we went with sharing our “Live Channel” URL on our own website which had the embed included on it. We also verified that the “Facebook Debugger” warned that our live video URL violated “community standards”. Both Facebook and law enforcement acted to block our media distribution today, but we will not let them stop our mission to amplify the voices of people who might otherwise go unheard, and broadcast the stories that might otherwise go untold. Also, as one member of the collective, I should point out it is obviously concerning when a large media conglomerate blocks URLs to competing video platforms.”]Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton is said to have once thrown a Bible at the back of a Secret Service agent's head in rage. This alleged incident, among many others, are revealed in an upcoming book titled "Crisis of Character," written by former Secret Service uniformed officer Gary J. Byrne. Byrne was detailed at the White House for eight years in the '90s, three years of which he was posted outside the Oval Office. "The First Lady had a different sort of liveliness," Byrne says in an excerpt of the book, as quoted on Breitbart. "She once threw a Bible at an agent on her detail, hitting him in the back of the head. He bluntly let her know it wasn't acceptable. He told me that story himself." Clinton told The New York Times in June 2014 that she "was raised reading the Bible, memorizing passages from it, and being guided by it." It has a huge influence on her thinking, she said, and is a "source of wisdom, comfort and encouragement." According to the Breitbart report, Byrne's book details how, the more "at home she felt in the White House," the pattern of rage Clinton exhibited became more regular and "it got worse" over time. She is said to have "vented on everyone" and treated her security detail as "furniture." "Most of us knew to brace for her inevitable eruptions," Byrne wrote. "They didn't happen every day, but behind closed doors we learned about them fast. In public, she was everyone's best friend. Privately, she was her normal self." The book also contains stories experienced by Uniformed Officers, one of which said that the then-first lady told him to "go to hell" and the other one was told to "go f* yourself." The author said that being assigned to be in Clinton's detail "was a form of punishment handed down by passive-aggressive middle management." Moreover, it narrates how, in a tantrum, Mrs. Clinton allegedly yelled at her husband, then-president Bill Clinton, saying that they "need to get rid of these ah***" -- referring to Secret Service's Uniformed Division -- who she claimed to have been conspiring against them. Byrne wrote that "careers were made or broken" depending "on the whim" of her "wrath." "Hillary's antics made my job interesting," Byrne said. "She'd explode in my face without reservation or decorum..." Breitbart says that Clinton's team has been trying find ways to undermine Byrne and his upcoming book, but because many of those allied with the Clintons have praised him during his time with the military and law enforcement, it would be difficult for them to discredit him. "Crisis of Character: A White House Secret Service Officer Discloses His Firsthand Experience with Hillary, Bill, and How They Operate" will hit the shelves on June 28.Our next installment in the climate change series comes from Katherine J. Johnson, who is currently a PhD candidate in the department of anthropology at the University of Maryland. –R.A. College students have acquired a lot of useful information, but a limited ability to utilize that knowledge–and sometimes a surprising lack of perspective on real world problems. Many of the students I have taught in Anthropology and Climate Change courses seem to have little factual and context-specific understanding of climate change, despite growing up in an era of public contestation around this issue. Anthropology has a lot of strengths stemming from core theoretical tenants such as holism, reflexivity, and concern for marginalized populations. We can easily leverage these strengths to aid students in better understanding of climate change issues within relevant contexts, and to build on their weak knowledge of accepted science. Lisa Bennett makes several important points in her Grist article: “10 things you want to know about human nature if you’re fighting climate change.” A key point (and I think all of them are relevant) is #2: “We can be blasé about the most important issues in the world because the global perspective is way beyond ordinary human scale”. She argues that we need “human-sized” stories to teach lessons around climate change. This is something at which anthropologists excel. Many ostensibly well-educated students have no sense of the scope of human history on Earth, our interrelationship with our environment through time, and the dramatic effect we have had on our planet. There are a lot of ways that climate change intersects with real life and our understanding of our human past and present. Making sure that we are developing these lessons into cogent and easily understandable stories (ahem, case studies) will provide students with information they can latch onto and remember. Anthropology is only one tool among many that allows for substantive exploration of key human issues. Perspectives from the sciences, social sciences, as well as policy and practitioner arenas, can inform students about the diversity of information and possibilities for engagement that exist. But anthropology has made significant strides recently to be more relevant. See the Global Task Force on Climate Change’s report, “Changing the Atmosphere” for an excellent review and starting point for case study references. Our insights on evolution, human migration, differences in cultural beliefs, local knowledge, human rights, human-environment interaction, human health, societal collapse, risk and disaster and questions of resilience and adaptation (among others) are all relevant to the topic of climate change. Any of these is useful fodder for informing students and requiring that they responsibly engage with issues of climate change and its implications, rather than learning facts for exams. This is a day-one course reading response from a student that helps to exemplify some of the complexities of teaching climate change in anthropology: One of the specialization areas of my major is materials for energy, a topic that is closely related to reduction of carbon emissions and preventing climate change which I hope to learn more about through this class. The reading helped my understanding of the feedback effects that contribute to climate change. I was
to Norway as a refugee, was sentenced to five years in prison for making death threats against Norwegian officials and three Kurdish men he claimed had insulted Islam. But Norway's most serious attacks happened last year at the hands of a right-wing, anti-Muslim extremist, Anders Behring Breivik, who admitted to killing 77 people in a bombing-and-shooting massacre on July 22.According to its annual report, the London-based International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) was responsible for more than one million abortions during 2016. IPPF's annual accounting for 2016 noted that its affiliates killed 612,966 pre-born babies via surgical abortion and 481,713 through chemical abortion — for a total of 1,094,679 killings. This is the first time the organization has conceded to over one million abortions in a one-year time period. Additionally, IPPF performed over 3.6 million abortion-related activities such as pre- and post-abortion counseling and consultation, and the treatment of incomplete abortions. Founded in 1952 through the influence and funding of Margaret Sanger and her International Committee on Planned Parenthood, the IPPF today maintains 142 member associations across the globe and is active in more than 170 countries, both performing and lobbying for abortion and “sexual and reproductive rights.” In its own investigation of the abortion giant, the pro-life Population Research Institute (PRI) noted that IPPF “pours millions of dollars into its Member Associations and other like-minded organizations which operate on the country level to provide abortion and/or contraceptive services and to lobby for ever more lenient abortion laws. In 2016, IPPF awarded $68 million in grants to its Member Associations and other organizations, according to IPPF’s Financial Statements 2016.” In its latest report IPPF claims to have contributed to over 950 legislative or policy changes concerning abortion and contraception worldwide since 2005. According to PRI, those changes “have covered a wide range of issues including weakening or eliminating laws in defense of life, imposing explicit 'comprehensive sex education' curriculum in schools, attacking parental notification and minimum-age consent laws, and ensuring public funding for abortifacient methods of contraception.” For example, in 2016, IPPF's Guyana affiliate lobbied that nation's courts “to reinterpret the South American country’s abortion law to allow mid-level health care providers — i.e. nurses, midwives, pharmacists, and rural non-physician clinicians — to provide chemical abortions up to eight weeks gestation,” reported PRI. “Prior to the court ruling, only medical practitioners such as physicians or health providers under the direct supervision of a licensed medical practitioner were permitted to perform abortion.” But following the court ruling, “the number of chemical abortions provided by GRPA more than doubled and the number of abortion-related services increased by 68 percent overall.” Additionally, noted PRI, the IPPF continues to raise up and train an army of young pro-abortion activists whose mission is to “change public opinion on abortion by attempting to alter communities that value life and change them into communities where inhumane abortion procedures such as chemical abortion, vacuum aspiration, and dismemberment abortion are considered culturally acceptable.” In one instance, IPPF's 2016 annual report “highlights the pro-abortion advocacy it effected through its Member Association in Pakistan, the Rahnuma-Family Planning Association of Pakistan,” reported PRI. “Rahnuma trained youth activists to influence the debate on abortion on the local level by'refram[ing] abortion as both a public health and human rights issue.' According to IPPF, Rahnuma’s advocacy has reduced 'the level of stigma' associated with the termination of the lives of unborn children.” On the positive side, one of Donald Trump's first official actions as president was to re-implement the Mexico City Policy, first initiated by the Reagan administration (before being rescinded by Bill Clinton, re-instituted by President George W. Bush, and rescinded again by Barack Obama), that bans U.S. funds from paying for abortions overseas. “Following up on that executive order,” reported The New American earlier this year, “on May 15 the Trump administration announced a major expansion of the Mexico City Policy, increasing the ban from roughly $600 million in family planning money to encompass all U.S. international health care, which amounts to nearly $9 billion.” PRI noted that under the renewed Mexico City Policy, “IPPF and other foreign pro-abortion organizations that refuse to stop performing or funding abortion are largely ineligible to receive funding from the U.S. Government via global health assistance.”Louis van Gaal (right) has had to field questions over his Manchester United future Manchester United are happy with Louis van Gaal as their manager, according to Sky sources. Reports in Thursday's national newspapers claimed Jose Mourinho is set to land a three-year deal to replace Van Gaal as Manchester United boss at a salary of £15m-a-year. It has also been claimed Mourinho is keen to bring in Atletico Madrid sporting director Andrea Berta. Van Gaal's future has been the subject of intense speculation in recent weeks, with United now six points adrift of a Champions League place having failed to qualify from the Champions League group before Christmas. Louis van Gaal reacted to a reporter's question regarding his position as Man Utd manager after the 1-1 draw at Chelsea on Sunday Louis van Gaal reacted to a reporter's question regarding his position as Man Utd manager after the 1-1 draw at Chelsea on Sunday That speculation has caused the Dutchman to clash with the press, most recently following the 1-1 draw with Chelsea, which saw Diego Costa grab a point for the Blues with a last-gasp equaliser. But although United executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward is looking at various options for United's future, any talk of a deal with Mourinho is premature. It is understood there have been no decisions and no deals yet and United are relaxed about their managerial situation - especially on the back of another set of strong financial figures.Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images Chinese Q2 GDP has just been released, and it’s beaten expectations. According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the economy grew by 6.7% year-on-year in the June quarter, topping expectations for an expansion of 6.6%. After seasonal adjustments, the economy expanded by 1.8% during the quarter, again beating expectations for growth of 1.6%. The increase in the March quarter, previously reported at 1.1%, was revised up to 1.2%. Growth in China’s tertiary industries – predominantly services – increased by 7.5% to 18,429 billion yuan in the first half of the year, outpacing growth in secondary (13,425 billion yuan) and primary industries (2,209.7 billion yuan) of 6.1% and 3.1% respectively. Combined, the value of GDP in the first half of the year stood at 34,063.7 billion yuan, up 6.7% from the same period in 2015 at comparable prices. “The national economy has achieved moderate and steady development,” said the NBS. It also stipulated that the government would push through with supply side reforms and look to develop new growth engines. It also stated that consumption accounted for 73.4% of GDP growth during the half, suggesting — on face value at least — that the economy’s transition towards growth powered by consumption and services continues to strengthen. “The value added of the tertiary industry accounted for 54.1 percent of GDP, 1.8 percentage points higher than the same period last year, 14.7 percentage points higher than that of the secondary industry,” said the NBS. On the industrial sector, it noted that “the efforts of cutting overcapacity, reducing inventory, deleveraging, lowering costs and strengthening weak links have achieved notable results”, adding that “in the first half year, the output of coal and crude steel decreased by 9.7 percent and 1.1 percent year-on-year.” Keeping with theme seen in recent years, the NBS also acknowledged that “domestic and external conditions are still complicated and severe and the downward economic pressure remains”. Like the GDP figure, most of the monthly data reports also impressed, with the exception of fixed asset investment. Compared to a year earlier, industrial output grew by 6.2%, higher than the 6.0% level of May and forecasts for a deceleration to 5.9%. It was the fastest growth seen since March. Retail sales also beat, rising 10.6% compared to forecasts for growth of 10.0%. It marked the fastest year-on-year growth seen since December 2015. The one outlier came from fixed asset investment which grew 9.0% between January to June compared to the same period a year earlier. Markets had been looking for growth of 9.4%, following a 9.6% increase reported in May. After an initial burst of activity in the early parts of 2016, annual growth in fixed asset investment now stands at a fresh multi-decade low. As was the case when the previous GDP report was released, the People’s Bank of China also released monetary aggregates for June, with those too beating across the board. New bank lending rose by 1.38 trillion yuan, a figure well ahead of forecasts for an increase of 1.04 trillion yuan. From a year earlier the level of outstanding bank loans rose by 14.3%, topping expectations for an increase of 14.0%. In May new loans totaled 985.5 billion yuan, leaving the year-on-year increase at 14.4%, fractionally above the level seen in June. Total social financing – the broadest measure of liquidity that captures lending from non-traditional sources – also accelerated, rising from 659.9 billion yuan in May to 1.63 trillion yuan. M2, or broad money that includes cash in circulation and bank deposits, increased by 11.8% from June 2015, the same pace seen in the year to May but ahead of forecasts for an expansion of 11.5%. Financial markets have responded positively to the news, an unsurprising outcome given it’s as close to a “Goldilocks” scenario as one can get. Growth, driven by consumption and services, remains firm, with infrastructure investment and industrial activity playing an increasingly diminished role in the economy. Of course, such a rosy outcome will likely be met with a degree of scepticism from many in financial markets, as will the rapid increase in credit growth. Still, for the moment, it’s risk on in Asia, aside from markets in China. Good news is bad news, it seems. We’ll see if that lasts. The AUD/USD is currently up 0.39% at.7658, leaving it trading at the highest level seen in ten week’s. The Japanese yen is also weaker, down 0.78% against the US dollar. All major stock markets, aside from those in China, are higher, while bond markets are trading softer. Interestingly, commodities are weaker, perhaps undermined by the lower chance of additional stimulus being delivered to the Chinese economy. Business Insider Emails & Alerts Site highlights each day to your inbox. Email Address Join Follow Business Insider Australia on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.Louisiana Saw a bald eagle perched in tree on the side of Highway 136 just north of Fairbanks, La. on Feb. 3, 2019 8:15AM. Danny Clay My son and husband and I were headed to my grandma's on means lake in Harrisonburg Louisiana. The back water was up, we couldn't get there. We saw a beautiful eagle on side of a field in dry land. It stayed a while then flew to tree tops. We got pics. The best thing ever. Weston, Gail and Caleb Bass. We now live in ball Louisiana L Robideaux wrote the following: I see bald eagles almost daily circling and soaring above our neighborhood. I have seen up to six at a time. Much larger than hawks we see circling above. Must be around Tupawek Bayou or Ouachita River near our home. Sara Wilson wrote the following: I saw one circling almost at eye level as I was driving on hwy 90 around Baldwin, LA. I've never seen one in real life before and he flew so close I could see him perfectly. Bright white head, orange beak. It was so majestic. I cried Katie Schaefer wrote the following: I spotted a bald eagle flying over Lake Rosemound in St. Francisville, LA on Monday February 1, 2016 at 4:00 pm. It circled a few times and landed in a tall dead tree, rested a few minutes, and flew away again. Jeff Williams wrote the following: I saw a. Bald Eagle soaring over the Mandeville City Hall 1/21/16. This is between the East Causeway Approach and 190. Mandeville, Louisiana. Suzanne Cannon wrote the following: Very large male bald eagle flew 50 feet from house today Jan.13 2016.address is 9492 kimball road Livonia Louisiana.i have been feeding birds from feeders in backyard for years and have seen Hawks,but this eagle was larger than any I have ever seen in zoos.appeared very healthy.will try to photograph.have been hearing distinctive calls for last week befor sighting. Katherine Tait wrote the following: Spotted a bald eagle flying low across Highway 90 in Morgan City, Louisiana on 12/28/2015 at around 5:15pm. Jimr OliveR wrote the following: Saw one bald eagle on lake Powell in slidell, la Ken Gremillion wrote the following: I have often seen a single Bald Eagle while traveling I-49 just south of Alexandria, Louisiana near the crossing of LA167 at Clearwater. I've never seen more than one there. Alexandria Credeur wrote the following: I was parked on the Creole Nature Trail observing alligators off Highway 27 just north Little Chenier and I spotted a bald eagle perched in a cypress tree. As an egret flew by, it startled the eagle and it took off south towards Cameron, LA. St. Rose Louisiana Spotted a bald eagle perched in a tree of I10/ 310 interstate near my house. Belinda Battistella Just saw a bald eagle sitting on top of a utility pole about 5 miles south of the Coushatta Casino, Kinner, LA on US 165. Garry and Judy Newton Just spotted a bald eagle flying around river road in St. Rose, Louisiana. B Battistella 1/7/15 Saw a bald eagle flying northward overhead this afternoon. Location is Woodridge subdivision, off Hwy 22 between Madisonville and Mandeville. This part of the neighborhood borders on swampy pine scrub and marsh towards the south, then Lake Pontchartrain. Eagle was probably flying from this swampy region near the lake? Jonathan Rotondo-McCord Mandeville, LA 70471 On 12/24/2014, I spotted a bald eagle perched in a sycamore tree about half a mile north of the Lauberge Casino on the River Road heading south from Baton Rouge. It was on the river side of the levee. Richard Chauvin, Jr. I saw a bald eagle In New Orleans around noon 12/9/2014 flying high on thermals. I was at the intersection of Broadway and Earhart waiting for the traffic light to change when I spotted him. I pulled over to a safe parking spot and watched for about ten minutes as the eagle flew around in circles above me. J. Kopfler Two bald eagles circling over elementary school near west metairie ave and release st in metairie Louisiana. About 60 3rd graders were able to see them. G Zemog I have seeing 2 adult bald eagles flying over Alexandria and Pineville, Louisiana where there are lake and Red River since first sighted on September 24, 2014. Last year December, I saw young, juvenile and adults bald eagles flying over same area as this year. Wanda Miller We are shooting a TV show in lower St Bernard, La on Bayou Road and have seen one large bald eagle for the past two days, hovering above our set. Preston Trahan February 14 & 15, 2014 I spotted a bald eagle yesterday, February 7, 2014, first on the ground close to the water...Longlake in South Shreveport. It was very cold with snow and sleet earlier. The eagle was startled and flew back toward our house then West. There were many heron, snowy egrets and cormorants feeding at the time. About 15 minutes later, the eagle flew back over heading east. Mary Ellen Jayroe 2/6/2014 eagle was sighted in new Iberia Louisiana flying down the bayou teche over the lewis street bridge. This is about 1 mile from last sighting a week ago on 1/28/2014. K Guillory 01/28/14, late afternoon, New Iberia, Louisiana, extremely cold and sleeting-bald eagle sighted directly behind Iberia Medical Center gliding above Bayou Teche. B. Boyer I spotted a bald eagle at dusk this evening in a swamp island near the Tchfuncte River on Del Oaks Dr.(Del Oaks Subdivision), Madisonville, LA. I live across the street from this location. John Kennedy I spotted one sitting in a tree as I was merging south onto Hwy 71 from I 49 near Alexandria, LA. Tanya Lueder Driving south of I49, on to highway 71 just south of Alexandria I noticed a bald eagle about 50 feet above the highway, as I looked back in my mirror to note where it was heading, I noticed another much larger bald eagle soar across the trees behind it! An Awesome sight indeed, as I have never seen one around here in 23 years. I am located in Rapides Parish, Alexandria, Louisiana M Pearice On Saturday, December 28, 2013, I spotted a bald eagle about 50 feet south of Highway 190, a quarter of a mile East of Kinder. The eagle was in a small puddle and did not seem to mind the passing traffic. After taking several pictures, I decided to get my mother and show her. She lives in Kinder also. By the time we reached the area again the eagle was gone. But I spotted it in a nearby tree about 75 feet from the highway. It was perched midway in a large oak that stood alone in the field. The eagle was quite large. Carolyn Manuel Driving on Highway 90 near the Amelia Bridge on Dec 21 we saw an eagle soaring above. Courtney Lebouef Bald Eagle sited Wed. Dec. 18, 2013 in Houma Louisiana just off Coteau Road in the tree at: 29.617481, -90.684371. Mark Robson I am an amateur birder that loves birds of prey. My family and I visited the New Orleans, Louisiana area during late November and spotted two bald eagles both of which were about half an hour away from the city. The first was a largish adult that we spotted over I-310 South driving towards Laura Plantation at around 8:45 am. The second one was an immature Bald Eagle that we saw flying over us at close proximity at Barataria National Preserve. This was around 10:00 am. The sightings were on November 29th and 30th, respectively. Having never seen any species of eagle, seeing two bald eagles in two days was amazing. Gautam IyerA taggant can mean a radio frequency microchip used in automated identification and data capture (see RFID). In such cases, electronic devices use radio waves to track and identify items, such as pharmaceutical products, by assigning individual serial numbers to the containers holding each product. This technology may prevent the diversion or counterfeiting of drugs by allowing wholesalers and pharmacists to determine the identity and dosage of individual products. A taggant is also a chemical or physical marker added to materials to allow various forms of testing. Physical taggants can take many different forms but are typically microscopic in size, included at low levels, and simple to detect. They can be utilized to differentiate authentic product from counterfeits, provide identifying information for traceability purposes (e.g. lot number, company name), determine mixing homogeneity[1] and cross-contamination,[2] and to detect dilution of proprietary products. Taggants are known to be widely used in the animal feed industry, plastics, inks, sheet and flexible explosives, and pharmaceuticals. A software taggant is a cryptographic signature added to software that enables positive origin identification and integrity of programs. Software taggants use standard PKI techniques (see public key infrastructure) and were introduced by the Industry Connections Security Group of IEEE in an attempt to control proliferation of malware obfuscation via executable compression. History of taggants [ edit ] The word 'taggant' originates from the trademarked name "Microtaggant Identification Particles". Microtaggants were originally developed by 3M for the post detonation of explosives. In 1985, Microtrace, LLC acquired the technology and began to utilize Microtaggants for anti-counterfeiting and brand protection. Since 1985, the word 'taggant' has become widely utilized and refers to multiple variations. Explosive taggants [ edit ] There are two types of taggant which have been considered for use with explosives. One is to help detect the presence of a bomb in, for example, airport screening of luggage; and the other to assist the police in identifying the explosive after the detonation of such a bomb. Detection taggants [ edit ] These are volatile chemicals which will slowly evaporate from the explosive and can be detected in the atmosphere by either detection dogs or specialised machines. They are intended to enhance the detectability of the explosive by instruments or animals thus revealing the presence of a bomb containing the explosive to be detected. Although various technologies exist to detect untagged explosives, detection taggants help to increase their reliability. The inclusion of detection taggants in explosives is mandatory in some countries. Following the bombing of PanAm 103 over Scotland, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) was instrumental in effecting a worldwide requirement for placing a detection taggant in plastic bonded explosives. There is a choice between four possible detection taggant chemicals which must be added to plastic explosives under the 1991 International Civil Aviation Organization's Convention on the Marking of Plastic Explosives for the Purpose of Detection. In the United States the marker is always 2,3-dimethyl-2,3-dinitrobutane, usually called DMDNB or DMNB. Dogs are very sensitive to it and can detect as little as 0.5 parts per billion in the air, as can specialised ion mobility spectrometers. Other taggants in use are ethylene glycol dinitrate, known as EGDN and used to mark Semtex, ortho-mononitrotoluene (o-MNT), and para-mononitrotoluene (p-MNT). Identification (or post detonation) taggants [ edit ] These have been considered for introduction in industrial explosives so that the manufacturer and batch number can be determined if they are used illegally. The taggant must survive the detonation of the product and not be contaminated by the environment afterwards. Several different technologies have been considered, but the most common are microscopic polymer/metallic particles. Taggant evidence was crucial in the 1980 conviction of James L. McFillin in Maryland for the 1979 truck bombing murder of Nathan A. Allen, Sr.[3] A contention claimed for opposing mandated taggants is that most terrorist attacks use homemade explosives (HME) which would allegedly not be tagged. Examples given included, for instance, the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the Oklahoma City and the Omagh bombings. Contamination of the site is also cited as a problem, since different taggants might be present at a crime scene from, for example, explosives used to obtain the building materials. Switzerland passed a law in 1980 requiring taggants in explosives manufactured there, and that the code must be changed every six months. So far it is the only country which requires identification taggants. Imported explosives must be tagged only if competing products are also manufactured in Switzerland. In the United States, The NRA opposed the mandated use of taggants in firearm propellants after tests revealed a dangerous increase in burn rates. A chemical incompatibility with the propellent powders caused such an increase in pressures it was determined many firearms would burst using a taggent-laced powder that had been stored for as little as several months.[4] Taggants for brand protection [ edit ] When used as a chemical marker, taggants can be used for authentication of products and documents. Taggants are sometimes used by brand owners and governments to authenticate commonly counterfeited items. Taggants are integrated into the material of the item itself or into the packaging. Once integrated, the taggants can only be verified with specially engineered readers. Common taggant anticounterfeiting features [ edit ] Taggants are uniquely encoded materials or chemistries that act as virtual "fingerprints" Taggants can be invisible to the naked eye or visible (covert or overt) Taggants can be detectable with specially-engineered equipment or detected with low cost detectors for field testing Taggant technology should be extremely difficult to reverse engineer Once integrated into an item, taggants should mark the item permanently and should not be removable Common taggant anticounterfeiting applications [ edit ] Tax Stamp authentication Banknote authentication Cigarette anticounterfeiting Alcohol anticounterfeiting Pharmaceutical anticounterfeiting Fast-moving consumer goods anticounterfeiting Building materials Consumer productsPREMIER Barry O'Farrell personally intervened to head off an inquiry into the Orica chemical leak by begging the minor parties to block it. His office staff are also under pressure to explain why they failed to tell the Premier of the environmental disaster immediately after they received an alert. Damning documents have been released in parliament after a call for papers by the Greens. Those documents reveal a paper trail of who in government knew of the spill from Orica's Kooragang Island plant near Newcastle. The spill occurred on Monday, August 8, but hundreds of Stockton residents were not told until the Thursday night of the danger of being exposed to hexavalent chromium, which can cause cancer. Mr O'Farrell has been caught out lobbying the Christian Democrats and Shooters parties to block the opposition's parliamentary inquiry into the leak. Orica was willing to speak out Emails show he personally contacted them on Monday, August 17, asking them for their support in blocking the inquiry. Five days later, when he hadn't received a reply from the Christian Democrat's Fred Nile, he sent an email to his chief of staff, Peter McConnell, saying: "We need to ensure we don't have two inquiries going at the same time. Neither Christian Democrats MLCs responded to my email - it would be worth getting Dunc (Roads Minister Duncan Gay) or Mike (Police Minister Michael Gallacher) to follow up so we avoid the same problem." An independent inquiry is being held by former premier and cabinet department's director-general Brendan O'Reilly who is due to report back at the end of this month. No cancer risk from Orica leak Originally published as Kill Orica inquiry, independents asked"I heard Hillary Clinton say I was not against the war in Iraq," Donald Trump told Matt Lauer last fall during a Commander-in-Chief Forum. "I was totally against the war in Iraq. You can look at Esquire magazine from 2004. You can look at before that." The reason Clinton said that Trump was not against the war in Iraq is because he was not against the war in Iraq. The United States invaded Iraq in 2003, and the congressional debate over authorizing the use of military force in Iraq was in 2002. And during that period, Trump supported the invasion of Iraq. BuzzFeed's Andrew Kaczynski and Nathan McDermott were the first to unearth a Howard Stern Show transcript that proved it. Here was Trump in 2002: Stern: Are you for invading Iraq? Trump: Yeah, I guess so. I wish the first time it was done correctly. Since their initial report that Trump was lying about this, several different fact-checkers looked into it and all concluded that Trump was lying. Trump’s habit of lying about this has been widely discussed in the press. NBC News’s senior political editor caught Trump lying as it happened, and, as Trump himself noted, Clinton flagged the fact that Trump was going to lie about this for Lauer. Trump repeats that he was against the Iraq war from the outset. That is not true. — Mark Murray (@mmurraypolitics) September 8, 2016 Lauer, unfortunately, just let Trump get away with it. How can someone like @MLauer not set the record straight on Trump's bogus claim of being against the war in Iraq? — Glenn Kessler (@GlennKesslerWP) September 8, 2016 Later, near the very end of the interview, Trump said that Clinton "made a terrible mistake on Libya." In fact, Trump himself supported the military action in Libya that he now characterizes as a mistake. He made a video about it and posted it on his website. You can watch it right here. It’s not a great idea, in general, for journalists to let politicians get away with bald-faced, on-camera lies. But it’s particularly important not to let them do it when, as is the case with Trump on these two issues, the lies are so predictable. Trump says these things about Libya and Iraq all the time. It’s not incidental, it’s the core of his message. He says it over and over again. And it’s not true. People need to know that. And Lauer totally blew it.Linked Out Although North America and Europe have finally emerged from the darkness of the global financial crisis, and although the stratospheric growth rates of Brazil, China, and India have come down to Earth, the economies of the West still lag behind those in the rest of the world. That’s particularly the case when it comes to jobs. The unemployment rate in the United States, for example, remains stubbornly around 7 percent. In Chile, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Mexico, and South Korea, however, the official unemployment rate is way lower. Faster growth is key to high employment just as recessions produce dole queues. So here’s a novel solution to America’s problem: Move the people to where the jobs are. Exporting the unemployed may sound radical, even cruel, but the quest for jobs has been a driving force behind global migration — and population growth in the New World — for centuries. More than 55 million Europeans, many desperate and poor, migrated to the Americas between 1846 and 1940, for example — often with a "good riddance" from their home governments. And in the past few years, those movements have started up again. When crippling unemployment throttled Spain, some 30,000 Spaniards upped and moved to Argentina between June 2009 and November 2010. The Portuguese, meanwhile, beset by debt and slow growth at home, are heading to Brazil and oil-rich Angola. Between 2008 and 2011 alone, more than 1 percent of the Portuguese population moved to just that one African country. (In terms of relative population, that would be the same as 3 million Americans packing up and shipping off to their country’s ex-colony, the Philippines, in search of a better life.) But Americans haven’t been searching for a better life somewhere else on nearly the same scale. According to the State Department, only about 6.3 million U.S. citizens live abroad, or around 2 percent of the domestic population. In relative terms, that’s pathetic. About 5.5 million British people live permanently abroad, almost five times the U.S. level in per capita terms. Maybe they’re trying to escape the lousy weather, but it isn’t like Brits have natural advantages over Americans as travelers. British people are almost as bad at speaking other languages as Americans are, and in terms of haughty isolationism and disdain for foreigners, surely Brits are worse. (I’m allowed say this — I’m British.) So why shouldn’t America send out some huddled masses for once? Of course Americans want a young, employed workforce to help support their aging society as it pays for rising Medicare and Social Security bills, but it would be far better for everyone if they were employed abroad rather than sitting idly at home. And many of the country’s unemployed are demographically well placed for a change of scene precisely because they’re disproportionately young and footloose. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that, as of October 2013, the unemployment rate among those ages 16 to 19 was 22 percent; among those 20 to 24, it was 12.5 percent. And the rate among men never married in all age ranges is around 12 percent. Nothing’s tying them down. Go East, young men! (I’m allowed to say this — I’m married.) Some might wonder, though: Would other countries really want America’s wastrel youth, with their lack of language skills and poor education? It is true that Gallup polls suggest only 14 percent of U.S. citizens claim they can speak Spanish well enough to hold a conversation. Look at any other language and the numbers become truly dire. Around 4 percent can parler in French, and a little less than 3 percent sprechen Deutsch. And though teaching Mandarin to toddlers is now de rigueur in suburban nursery schools from Scarsdale to Santa Monica, fewer than one in 100 Americans can converse in China’s lingua franca. The good news is that English has official or special status in countries that are home to 2 billion people, and one in four of the world’s people speak English to some level of competence. And though it’s true that jobs are hardest to come by for the least educated Americans, it’s still not a pretty picture for recent grads. The unemployment rate for those ages 20 to 29 who had graduated from college in 2011 was 12.6 percent as of October 2011. But even young Americans who haven’t made it to university have received a quality of education considerably higher than that of most people in emerging economies. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development runs internationally comparable tests of student achievement at the high school level. The U.S. average score on the reading tests was 500. That’s behind South Korea (539), but it compares favorably with Brazil (412) and Panama (371). It’s even better than Portugal (489). So buck up, C students: You might still be an attractive addition to Brazilian firms looking for some English-speaking talent. And trust me, Rio de Janeiro isn’t a hardship post. Why should we be encouraging the young and unemployed to look worldwide for better opportunities? Because the benefits of U.S. emigration extend way beyond ready jobs and a more interesting life for those in search of adventures abroad. Research by economists Gabriel Felbermayr and Benjamin Jung suggest that as little as a 1 percent increase in migration between two countries raises bilateral trade. There’s also evidence from development economists Maurice Kugler and Hillel Rapoport that migrating to another country brings greater foreign investment back home. Their research suggests that if you double the number of Americans living in another country, you’ll see foreign direct investment from that country to the United States increase by about a fifth. Simply put, there’s a profound benefit to the economy in sending your kids overseas, not to mention the benefit of getting them out of the house for a while. (I’m allowed to say this — I have children.) As Congress debates immigration reform, it’s worth remembering that the United States benefits from both sides of the migration equation. Immigrants coming to the United States do wonders for the local economy: They’re associated with higher wages and employment for Americans, according to research by economists Gianmarco Ottaviano, Giovanni Peri, and Greg Wright. And they’re responsible for a huge amount of innovation and entrepreneurship in places like Silicon Valley: Research by Duke University’s Vivek Wadhwa suggests that more than half of new start-ups out there are founded by immigrants. Perhaps Washington could boost this employment exchange by offering a few more places for immigrants from countries that open the doors to U.S. emigrants. So let’s help show young Americans the door by allowing the Peace Corps to offer short-term voluntary assignments and by expanding programs like the Fulbright that support academic study overseas. And let’s keep them abroad by abandoning the system that makes them pay taxes to the United States on top of the taxes they pay to their host countries. And why not encourage the portability of benefits from Medicare to Social Security? Or, thinking bigger, why not use the U.S.-EU trade talks to set up a transatlantic visa-free zone? The free movement of labor has done wonders for Europe. It’s time Americans get on board. A more globalized U.S. workforce would be good for the unemployed, good for the country — and good for the world.CHRIS ARCHER HAD spent July making grown men look like Little Leaguers, but now, against the Giants on the first Friday in August, the Rays' rookie phenom looks like, well, any other rookie. The trouble begins in the seventh, when Archer allows a cheapie infield single to Hunter Pence that travels all of 70 feet. Four pitches later, Brandon Belt lashes an RBI triple to deep center. On the very next pitch, Brandon Crawford crushes a two-run homer to right. Just like that, it's 4-1 Giants. It's the kind of blitzkrieg that typically results in a mound visit, especially with a rookie toeing the rubber. Heck, most pitching coaches would've trotted out there earlier. But Jim Hickey is not your typical pitching coach. Following the triple, he stays put in the dugout. After the home run, he doesn't move. Only when Archer gives up an infield single to Joaquin Arias, the fourth straight two-out hit, does Hickey make his way to the mound. The visit lasts 11 seconds, ends with a pat on the butt and is followed soon after by Archer's strikeout of Marco Scutaro to end the inning. By now, the secret to Tampa Bay's small-market success is no secret at all: The Rays can pitch. Despite a payroll that annually ranks among the league's lowest, the team's.568 winning percentage since the beginning of 2008 is second only to the Yankees'.581
to physically and verbally intervene when he spotted a case of animal abuse. A prolific writer, Bergh penned countless letters to those he felt were involved in mishandling animals as well as individuals supporting the ASPCA. The organization published annual reports beginning in 1867, wherein details were provided regarding the progress being made as well as the criminals who were convicted. He was the recipient of death threats, physical attacks, and public ridicule. Newspaper articles sometimes referred to him as “The Great Meddler”. Bergh had an ongoing conflict with P.T. Barnum, whom he accused of exploiting animals, pointing out the cruel method by which reptiles were fed live rodents in a public spectacle. To the many who joined the plight of ASPCA, he was thought of as “An Angel in Top Hat”. Among his supporters were a number of well-known literary figures, including Louisa May Alcott (alluding to him in her short story, Rosa’s Tale), Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who presented Bergh’s eulogy in 1888. Ironically, Barnum was one of the pall bearers at Bergh’s funeral. The founding of the ASPCA crossed party lines and class boundaries. As Bergh stated, “This is a matter purely of conscience, it has no perplexing side issues. It is a moral question in all its aspects”. Almost a century and a half later, the society continues to rescue animals in need, pass humane laws and share resources with other shelters across the world. Just around the corner is April — Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Month — so let’s tip our hat to Henry Bergh.ESPN has hit Stephen A. Smith where it hurts most -- his airtime. The network announced on Tuesday that it was pulling the First Take talker for a week from his ESPN2 morning show and ESPN Radio. He will return to ESPN next Wednesday. Smith is likely to take a break from social media as part of the move. Asked by Sports Illustrated if it was a paid or unpaid de-facto suspension, an ESPN spokesperson declined comment. On Monday, in a taped statement read at the top of the show he co-debates with Skip Bayless, Smith offered an on-air apology for comments made on last Friday’s show. On that episode, in the midst of discussing the NFL’s adjudication of Ray Rice, Smith suggested that women should examine their role in provoking domestic violence incidents. Those comments angered many colleagues, including Sports Nation host Michelle Beadle, who responded to Smith’s words by sending a series of tweets decrying his take on domestic violence. Wrote Beadle: “So I was just forced to watch this morning's First Take. A) I'll never feel clean again B) I'm now aware that I can provoke my own beating"... "Violence isn't the victim's issue. It's the abuser's. To insinuate otherwise is irresponsible and disgusting.” On Tuesday ESPN president John Skipper sent an in-house memo to ESPN's employees on Smith's comments:Tony Blair will warn the west it needs to take sides in the Middle East and move the battle against Islamist extremism to the top of the political agenda. In a speech to Bloomberg in London on Wednesday, the former Labour prime minister will say: "The important point for western opinion is that this is a struggle with two sides. So when we look at the Middle East and beyond it to Pakistan or Iran and elsewhere, it isn't just a vast unfathomable mess with no end in sight and no one worthy of our support. It is in fact a struggle in which our own strategic interests are intimately involved; where there are indeed people we should support and who, ironically, are probably in the majority if only that majority were mobilised, organised and helped. "But what is absolutely necessary is that we first liberate ourselves from our own attitude. We have to take sides. We have to stop treating each country on the basis of whatever seems to make for the easiest life for us at any one time. We have to have an approach to the region that is coherent and sees it as a whole. And above all, we have to commit. We have to engage". He will accept engagement comes at a cost, admitting there is no commitment that doesn't mean taking a risk. His aides said the keynote speech was not a call for revolution across the region, but to recognise that the west cannot stand aside from struggles such as the one in Syria. Blair caused controversy when he sided with the Egyptian military's overthrow of the democratically elected government of the Muslim Brotherhood, and his intervention in Iraq in 2003 has been cited as one reason why the west has refused to intervene more in the three-year Syrian war. Blair will warn: "The threat of this radical Islam is not abating. It is growing. It is spreading across the world. It is destabilising communities and even nations. It is undermining the possibility of peaceful co-existence in an era of globalisation. And in the face of this threat we seem curiously reluctant to acknowledge it and powerless to counter it effectively". In a clear reference to Saudi Arabia, he will say: "It is absurd to spend billions of dollars on security arrangements and on defence to protect ourselves against the consequences of an ideology that is being advocated in the formal and informal school systems and in civic institutions of the very countries with whom we have intimate security and defence relationships." He claims some of these countries want to break out of this ideology, but need the west to make it a core part of the international dialogue in order to force the necessary change within their own societies. Blair will be unrepentant about his apparent rejection of democracy in Egypt, saying the "Muslim Brotherhood government was not simply a bad government. It was systematically taking over the traditions and institutions of the country." He will claim the revolt of 30 June 2013 led by the army was "not an ordinary protest. It was the absolutely necessary rescue of a nation. We should support the new government and help." He will add that this does not mean strong criticism of the death sentence on 500 Egyptians, but does require showing "some sensitivity to the fact that over 400 police officers have suffered violent deaths and several hundred soldiers been killed". Across the Middle East, he will say, there is one essential struggle between pluralistic societies and open economies, where the attitudes and patterns of globalisation are embraced; and those who want to impose an ideology born out of a belief that there is one proper religion and one proper view of it, and that this view should exclusively determine the nature of society and the political economy. Comments on this article will be switched on in the morningEvery share makes Black Voice louder! Share To Share To “In the interest of justice, I asked the court to dismiss the disorderly conduct charge,” Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson said in a statement. As mentioned in our earlier post, 4 NYPD cops brutally arrested a mailman while on-duty. The 27-year-old, Glen Grays, was charged with disorderly conduct on March 17 and a video was recorded by bystanders who feared for his life. The Brooklyn District Attorney on Thursday declared their intention to drop charges against him. “In the interest of justice, I asked the court to dismiss the disorderly conduct charge,” Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson said in a statement. This is good news for the black community and to the family of Grays. His attorney, Kenneth E. Ramseur, expressed that the court’s decision was a “big relief” to his client. “They came up with the proper administration of justice,” he said. Now, Ramseur said Grays will consider what other methods of “legal redress” are available, but would not say for sure if his client will pursue civil action against the department over the arrest. Meanwhile, the NYPD lieutenant who oversaw the arrest “has been stripped of his gun and badge and four officers present at the time were removed from their posts as the department investigates,” the report says. Share this article and help to fight against police brutality in our communities.Workers in New York City’s food manufacturing industry work long weeks for low wages. Unions have steadily disappeared over the years in NYC food processing plants where its 14 000 workers make about 6 dollars less than the industry as a whole, according to a survey by Brandworkers – a community organizing group for workers in the food processing industry. Maria Corona worked at Flaum’s Appetizing, a kosher pickle and hummus factory in Brooklyn. Maria says she worked long days without breaks for only $3.75/hour. When she realized she was entitled to better wages, she and her coworkers got organized. Their protests, however, fell on deaf ears. Enter Ari Hart, a Rabbi who founded the Tav HaYosher – an organization dedicated to fighting worker exploitation. Together, Maria Corona and Rabbi Ari Hart campaigned for better treatment and to get paid the minimum wage. Photo by Mario Tama via Getty ImagesBahar BAKIR / GAZETE HABERTÜRK Dışişleri Bakanı Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, Münih Konferansı’nın dönüş uçağında HABERTÜRK’e özel açıklamalarda bulundu. DAEŞ ile mücadele kapsamında Suudi Arabistan uçaklarının İncirlik’e konuşlanacağını açıklayan Bakan Çavuşoğlu, liderlere, “DAEŞ’le mücadelede kapsamlı bir strateji olursa, Türkiye ve Suudi Arabistan; hepimiz kara operasyonuna girebiliriz dedik” değerlendirmesinde bulundu. İşte Çavuşoğlu’nun açıklamaları: KEŞİF YAPILDI : Suudi Arabistan Türkiye’ye uçak gönderiyor. Üslerde keşif çalışması da yaptılar. Uçaklar İncirlik’e gelecek. Sayısı henüz belli değil. “Gerekirse asker de gönderebiliriz” dedi. Bu, Suudi Arabistan’ın Suriye’deki terörle mücadele konusundaki kararlılığının bir göstergesidir. Buradaki terör örgütlerinin arkasına sığınacağımıza, 65 ülke havadan, karadan DAEŞ terör örgütünü temizlememiz lazım. Böyle olursa Rusya’nın yaptığı gibi “DAEŞ mi Esad mı?” gibi “Daha iyi şeytanı seçin” deme durumuna gelinmez. PLAN YOK, TEMENNİ: Suudi askerlerin Türkiye üzerinden geçmesi bir temenni, planlanmış bir şey değil. Suudi Arabistan’la Suriye’de aynı düşünüyoruz. Askeri ve savunma sanayii alanında çok işbirliğimiz var. Teröre karşı İslam koalisyonuna destek verdik. Bunun içinde istihbarat olacak, asker olacak, diğer unsurlar olacak. Eğer uygulanabilirse bunun faydalı olabileceğini düşünüyoruz. DAEŞ ile mücadele konusunda Türkiye ve Suudi Arabistan başından beri kara operasyonundan yana. Tüm koalisyon toplantılarında biz, “DAEŞ ile mücadele edeceksek kapsamlı, sonuç odaklı strateji olması lazım” diyoruz. Kara operasyonu da olması lazım. “Böyle bir strateji olursa Türkiye ve Suudi Arabistan biz, hepimiz kara operasyonuna girebiliriz” dedik. GÜNÜN ÖNEMLİ MANŞETLERİAdults and cell phone distractions Adults are just as likely as teens to have texted while driving and are substantially more likely to have talked on the phone while driving. In addition, 49% of adults say they have been passengers in a car when the driver was sending or reading text messages on their cell phone. Overall, 44% of adults say they have been passengers of drivers who used the cell phone in a way that put themselves or others in danger. Beyond driving, some cell-toting pedestrians get so distracted while talking or texting that they have physically bumped into another person or an object. These are some of the key findings from a new survey by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project: Nearly half (47%) of all texting adults say they have sent or read a text message while driving. That compares to one in three (34%) texting teens ages 16-17 who said they had “texted while driving” in a September 2009 survey. That compares to one in three (34%) texting teens ages 16-17 who said they had “texted while driving” in a September 2009 survey. Looking at the general population, this means that 27% of all American adults say they have sent or read text messages while driving. That compares to 26% of all American teens ages 16-17 who reported texting at the wheel in 2009. Three in four (75%) cell-owning adults say they have talked on a cell phone while driving. Half (52%) of cell-owning teens ages 16-17 reported talking on a cell phone while driving in the 2009 survey. Half (52%) of cell-owning teens ages 16-17 reported talking on a cell phone while driving in the 2009 survey. Among all adults, that translates into 61% who have talked on a cell phone while driving. That compares to 43% of all American teens ages 16-17 who said they had talked on their phones while driving in the 2009 survey. Half (49%) of all adults say they have been in a car when the driver was sending or reading text messages on their cell phone. The same number (48%) of all teens ages 12-17 said they had been in a car “when the driver was texting.” The same number (48%) of all teens ages 12-17 said they had been in a car “when the driver was texting.” 44% of all adults say they have been in a car when the driver used the cell phone in a way that put themselves or others in danger. About the same number of teens (40%) said they had been in a car when the driver used a cell phone in a dangerous way. About the same number of teens (40%) said they had been in a car when the driver used a cell phone in a dangerous way. Beyond driving, one in six (17%) cell-owning adults say they have physically bumped into another person or an object because they were distracted by talking or texting on their phone. That amounts to 14% of all American adults who have been so engrossed in talking, texting or otherwise using their cell phones that they bumped into something or someone. These new findings for those ages 18 and older come from a nationwide phone survey of 2,252 American adults (744 of the interviews were conducted on cell phones) conducted between April 29 and May 30. In that survey, 1,917 were cell owners and 1,189 used text messaging. The margin of error in the full sample is two percentage points and in the cell subpopulation is three percentage points. The findings for teens are based on previously released data from a separate nationwide telephone survey conducted by Princeton Survey Research International between June 26 and September 24, 2009, among a sample of 800 teens ages 12-17 and a parent or guardian. For a full discussion of the results from this survey, please see the “Teens and Distracted Driving” report. Introduction and background Cell phones appeal to Americans for many reasons, starting with the benefits of constant connection to family and friends. In the era of smart phones, instant and ubiquitous access to information, news, and games on handheld devices also draws users into deeper engagement with their mobile devices. Cell phones have become so popular that the number of adults who own mobile phones has often outpaced the percentage of adults who are online. A new Pew Internet survey finds that 82% of American adults (those age 18 and older) now own cell phones, up from 65% when we took our first reading in late 2004. Some 58% of adults now send or receive text messages with their cell phones. By comparison, a September 2009 Pew Internet survey found that 75% of all American teens ages 12-17 own a cell phone, and 66% text. Many of these cell owners take advantage of the technology by performing all kinds of tasks in all kinds of places, including in the car and while they are walking. At times, their cell use is distracting and dangerous because it takes place when their attention is best focused elsewhere. Studies at Virginia Tech and elsewhere show that drivers using phones are four times as likely to cause a crash as other drivers. According to research from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in 2008 alone, there were 5,870 fatalities and an estimated 515,000 people were injured in police-reported crashes in which at least one form of driver distraction was reported. As a result, seven states and the District of Columbia now ban all handheld cell use while driving, 28 states ban all cell use by novice drivers, 18 states ban all cell use for bus drivers, and 28 states ban texting while driving. The Distracted Driving Prevention Act, introduced last fall by Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), would provide incentive grants to states that ban texting and handheld cell phone use for all drivers and would require a complete ban on cell phone use by drivers under the age of 18. This report covers related findings from a recent Pew Internet survey.Winnipeg Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck found a new trainer to work with in the off-season to continue his development. Hellebuyck's work with the trainer, who also trains Minnesota Wild goaltender Devan Dubnyk, is paying off for Winnipeg. Hellebuyck made 28 saves, and Nikolaj Ehlers and Kyle Connor scored for the Jets in a 2-1 win over Minnesota on Tuesday. "Not that I ever didn't work hard, but I really figured out my game and was able to replicate it," Hellebuyck said. "Now I know exactly what I'm doing every night." Ehlers scored his team-leading seventh goal of the season and Connor added his second for Winnipeg, which is 6-1-1 since an 0-2 start to the season. Nik Ehlers' seventh goal of the season pushed Winnipeg to a 2-1 win on Tuesday. 1:30 Rookie Luke Kunin scored his second goal of the season and goaltender Alex Stalock stopped 17 shots for the Wild, who had won two in a row and three of their previous four games. Minnesota was 0 for 5 on the power play. "I think on the power play, it may sound difficult, and it may not go in, but you need five guys thinking as one," Wild coach Bruce Boudreau said. "And I think right now, we've got five guys thinking as five guys. And so nobody can read what you're supposed to be doing. And we do have, there's a plan in place, and we've got to get the guys to just do the plan." Undefeated in regulation Hellebuyck continued his strong run in net for the Jets, who had made the move to acquire Steve Mason as the starting netminder in the off-season. While Mason has a 4.84 goals-against average and.872 save percentage in his four games, Hellebuyck's numbers rank among the league's best. He entered the game sixth in the NHL in save percentage (.937). Hellebuyck (6-0-1) is the only goaltender in the NHL who has made at least five starts and is undefeated in regulation. "I think the big games bring out the best in him and he's playing with a lot of confidence right now," Jets forward Blake Wheeler said. "We're trying to do a good job in front of him, letting him see pucks, and he's making some big saves so that keeps you in games." Hellebuyck stopped 11 shots in the third as Winnipeg was outshot 12-2 in the final period. Connor opened the scoring 7:10 into the first. Mark Scheifele tipped defenceman Tyler Myers' shot from the point and the puck fell right to Connor. The line of Connor, Scheifele and Blake Wheeler have accounted for five goals in the past two games. Dumb-a turnover Ehlers took advantage of a mistake by Minnesota defenceman Matt Dumba in the third. Dumba tried a drop pass in the defensive zone to Mikael Granlund, but Ehlers was between them and quickly collected the loose puck, skated past Granlund and scored for a 2-0 lead. "I was kind of looking to see what he was going to do," Ehlers said. "I saw he looked back at Granlund and I was hoping he was going to drop that puck." Dumba was benched by Boudreau after the turnover. "I know that was my fault tonight. I've just got to man up and own it and try to move on," Dumba said. "It's frustrating, and you know you let your teammates down like that on a play that I can routinely make. It's like an interception, like a pick-6, like the guy runs it back to the house."Hillary Clinton's national lead over Donald Trump has disappeared, thanks to a huge advantage Trump has with independent voters who may have shifted after several weeks of bad news for Clinton, according to a new national poll. In a CNN/ORC poll released Tuesday morning, the Republican presidential nominee leads Clinton by 2 points among likely voters — 45-43. That's a virtual tie in a poll with a 3.5 percentage point margin of error, and it erases Clinton's 8-point lead that she had in the same poll in early August. The shift took place after it was found that thousands of additional Clinton emails were discovered from when she was secretary of state, emails she tried to destroy. Additionally, the FBI released notes of its conversations with Clinton that showed she wasn't aware of when emails were marked confidential. Ninety-two percent of Democrats back Clinton and 90 percent of Republicans back Trump. But Trump has a big lead among independents: 49 percent say they back Trump, and just 29 percent back Clinton. Trump also leads among men, 54-32. But women support Clinton 53-38, and Clinton also leads 54-29 among people younger than 45. Trump leads the pack among those older than 45, 54-39. Similar to other national polls, white voters pick Trump (55-34), while Clinton has roughly 4 times the support among non-whites than Trump (71-18). The telephone-based poll of 1,001 adults was conducted Sept. 1-4 with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points. The samples include 886 registered voters and 786 likely voters.March 24, 2014 Hitting Russia’s Economy: What Obama and EU Must Do Wednesday in Brussels The EU should announce its intention to severely reduce oil and gas imports from Russia, perhaps by 20 percent over the next year. The European Commission has been asked to provide a road map for reducing this reliance, and the EU has taken some important steps in recent years. A strong announcement will punish the Russian energy economy in the markets today. The US should simultaneously announce its determination to begin energy exports to Central Europe. It should issue the needed permits for export terminals, and find a way to send a symbolic LNG tanker in short order. The US and EU should ban government insurance and loan guarantees for new investments in Russia. Such guarantees are not unusual when commercial insurance is too costly or not available. But companies should understand now just how risky investment in Russia can be — it is no longer business as usual. The US and EU should announce that any companies that expropriate Ukrainian government or commercial assets in Crimea will face sanctions in terms of access to western finance and travel restrictions for their executives and board members. A Russian bank that takes over bank branches in Crimea without a legal transaction should not go unpunished. The US and EU should begin plans for banning Russian state companies from Western capital markets. This will be a challenge, but it is not dissimilar to the treatment meted out to those firms controlled by the Iranian Republican Guard. Russian state companies are deeply entangled in these markets so this will not be easy. An initial step may be the refusal of new financing. Invite Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk to attend a visible part of the summit. Yatseniuk recently met with President Obama as well as the EU leadership, but nothing signifies solidarity like a group handshake in front of the cameras. Announce a more comprehensive package of assistance to Ukraine, especially short-term, unconditional funding that can help through the difficult initial stage of reforms, and that will boost market confidence in the Ukrainian future. Pledge concrete support should Russia turn off Ukrainian energy supplies, even if the reason stated is non-payment by Ukraine of its bill (a charge that is misleading). Announce the dispatch of a mission to assess the Ukrainian need for technical assistance in government operations. Initial reports about the new government’s capacities are alarming: inexperienced ministers are managing corrupt systems run by officials who must learn a new way of operating. The EU particularly has considerable experience with retraining officials, both in accession countries and, most recently, in the Greek finance and economic ministries. Such retraining will likely be even more valuable for Ukraine than economic assistance — which will simply be wasted without such retraining. President Obama and his European Union colleagues will gather Wednesday in the most important meeting so far for Western governments as they decide how to respond to Russia’s egregious, illegal seizure of Crimea from Ukraine. US and European sanctions so far have targeted individuals among Moscow’s elite, rather than the broader Russian economy. At the US-EU summit, leaders should realize that, tragically, even such measures are unlikely to undo Russia’s annexation of Crimea. New steps must be aimed at deterring further Russian aggression -- notably in eastern Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia – and, in the long haul, at changing Russian behavior.At the summit, the transatlantic partners should take the following steps:A key part of the summit must be to provide reassurance to the new Ukrainian government. Both the US and EU have done so individually, but the most powerful statement would be for them to stand together and make clear their commitment to Ukraine’s future. At the summit, they should:Steps such as these are essential follow-through to the steps that the United States and the European Union already have taken, including the US asset freezes and visa restrictions on 31 individuals and Bank Rossiya, and its pledge of $1 billion in loan guarantees for Ukraine. The EU has imposed sanctions on 33 individuals, both Ukrainians and Russians. While the EU has been criticized for not targeting individuals close to Putin, even the prospect of EU visa restrictions and asset freezes would alarm many in the Russian elite with property in London or children at European schools or universities. The EU has also halted negotiations with Russia on a trade agreement and on visa facilitation that would have allowed Russians greater access to Europe.For Ukraine, the EU has announced €11 billion in assistance over the next years and pledged to lift a number of barriers that keep Ukrainian goods out of European markets. The latter move is estimated to be worth €500 million in reduced tariffs annually. It also reaffirmed its intention to allow visa-free travel to the EU for Ukrainians once certain technical conditions are met. The EU and Ukraine last week signed the political chapters of the Association Agreement — the accord that former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych refused to sign in November, sparking the demonstrations in Kyiv that would push him from power. Although the full agreement, including its extensive trade and investment provisions, is likely to be signed only after Ukraine’s presidential elections in May, the completion of the political chapter is an important symbol of the EU’s commitment to partnership with Ukraine.Moving from the sanctions on individuals to broader measures has proven very difficult – especially for Europe, which has the real linkages that bring both leverage over Russia and pain in exercising it. Europe’s trade with Russia totaled €267 billion in 2012, while the US total was only €18.9 billion. Yet, even if it were not still struggling with serious unemployment, Europe would find it difficult to implement broad sanctions without offering extensive government support to affected firms and workers. And recent proposals in the Russian Duma that firms from sanctioning countries may face expropriation of their assets in Russia is probably sending shudders through the boardrooms of many large western companies, whether engaged in energy joint ventures or manufacture of consumer goods.Under normal circumstances, the US-EU summit should have focused on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership currently under negotiation. But this week, even TTIP must be considered in this new strategic landscape. The US-EU summit offers a key opportunity to deepen transatlantic cooperation in building a strong Ukraine for the future.U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services welcomes Fabio as new U.S. Citizen in Downtown Los Angeles. "I can't believe" he hasn't made up his mind yet. Italian-born model Fabio Lanzoni — known as just Fabio — who just became a U.S. citizen told the Daily News on Thursday he’s ready to vote, but hasn't decided on a presidential candidate yet. However, he said that Donald Trump vs. Hillary Clinton would be the best reality. "It's going to get really, really brutal," he said. As for his pick, the newly minted U.S. citizen said "it's too early, we don’t know the nominations yet.” U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services welcomes Fabio as new U.S. Citizen in Downtown Los Angeles. "I have to see him (Trump) against Hillary," he added. "I want to see the two candidates and that's why you have debates." Generally, people all over the world are upset about politics, not just in America, Fabio explained. "This world is always fed up with politicians… It doesn't matter where you go. I’ve been all over the world," he said. “People don’t trust anyone.” He went on to say that no country is perfect and it's not the country, it's the people. "Perfection doesn't exist," he said. "People make mistakes." They also make the best of what they can. Fabio said he’s the perfect example of the American dream. He came to this country at 19 with no money and made it. The model, who popularly graced the cover of countless romance novels — didn't go back to Europe for about 18 years after he arrived in New York as a teen. "I totally felt at home. There's no country like America," Fabio, 57, said. He added that no other country uses "God bless our country" — and there's a reason for it. "I really believe this country has been blessed," he explained. Although the long-haired Italian lived in the country for more than 30 years, he waited on his paperwork because he was always told of the complications. However, he did it online himself and found it to be very simple. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Fabio and Rob Schneider at the Los Angeles Convention Center for Fabio's citizenship ceremony. He added that he always advises his friends to come into the country legally. "Laws are to be respected," Fabio told the News. "Nobody is above the law, not even Americans, so if you're a foreigner, you have to go through the law." Now, with a brand new “I Can't Believe It's Not Butter " commercial in place, the man with arguably the greatest head of hair on earth is eager to find his soulmate, settle down and start a family. “Life is more than jumping from one project to another," he said. “I hope to find the one.”OKLAHOMA CITY -- Rumor has it that longtime Flaming Lips drummer and Kansas native Kliph Scurlock was fired by Wayne Coyne for insulting his pal Christina Fallin in the wake of the Native American headdress controversy. In addition to a source close to Red Dirt Report, Brooklyn Vegan reports the following: "The Flaming Lips, who recently pulled an elaborate April Fool's prank and have a Sgt. Pepper's cover album coming out with Tame Impala, Miley and others, have now lost a member. Drummer Kliph Scurlock, who joined the band as a live member in 2002 and went on to record with them on studio albums Embryonic and The Terror, has left the band, a representative told Pitchfork. As The Future Heart pointed out, rumors started flying about his departure after he was not with the band at their BUKU Fest performance. In light of Coyne's alleged approval of Christina Fallin and Pink Pony's controversial performance at the Norman Music Festival this weekend, one wonders if Coyne is in the midst of a serious midlife crisis as he seems to desperately glom onto local OKC elites like goofball Mayor Mick Cornett, Coyne's alleged "pot-smoking" pal. And while not independently confirmed, a reader of Brooklyn Vegan allegedly had some inside dope on the Scurlock situation: "When Kliph called her out on social media for being a shithead to the Oklahoma Native community who complained about her headdress publicity stunt, she tattled on him to Wayne. Wayne actually told Kliph he was fired for insulting Fallin publicly. On a kinda-related note, word from Wayne's inner circle is that he was so geeked about getting an invite to Governor Teabagger's mansion for a party with a bunch of 20-something Republican hipster wannabes (friends of the Gov's daughter) that he was practically begging his band mates to go with, an invite that everyone else in the band felt was pretty lame and to which everyone else declined. Not Wayne tho. He and Fallin are pretty tight...he recently posted an even more offensive picture of his dog wearing an authentic looking Native headdress in response to the Oklahoma Native community's backlash against Fallin for her headdress stunt. No one in the band dares speak out on this one bc they have families to support and Wayne has bogarted all the Flaming Lips earnings and keeps them all on a pretty short financial leash." Red Dirt Report will continue to monitor this story. UPDATE: (7:34 a.m. April 29, 2014) Red Dirt Report's Louis Fowler just offered us some new information on the reported firing of Kliph Scurlock as drummer of The Flaming Lips: "(Red Dirt Report) has obtained physical CONFIRMATION from multiple sources who, at this time, cannot be named for various reasons that will eventually come to light, that Kliph Scurlock was indeed fired from the Flaming Lips for speaking out against Christina Fallin's headdress photo. We at Red Dirt Report applaud Scurlock for his bravery in standing with the Native peoples of Oklahoma, no matter the cost."“Want to feel my bump?” Last week, Shane Smith guided a reporter’s hand over his round belly to a soft bulge under his shirt: a hernia. The 42-year old founder of the growing Vice media group said he ruptured his gut while fighting a guy in Mexico. He was on the job at the time of his ill-fated man hoist, shooting a video of the sort that has taken him to Yemen and North Korea. His next mission: hosting a news show on HBO, which the pay cable channel announced today. With executive producers including Bill Maher, the weekly news magazine will draw reports from the staffers Vice has in 34 countries. Titled (what else?) “Vice,” the show will cover such topics as “Taliban child suicide bombers; North Korean slave labor camps; New York’s underground voodoo heroin clinics; Somalian pirates; and Satanic dentists in the Pacific Northwest,” HBO said in a press release.Gunfire has been heard in the Turkish capital, and there are reports of unusual military activity, with a military chopper opening fire near the national intelligence headquarters. Turkish military released a statement by email to international reporters saying that they have seized control of the government. The Turkish military has taken to television to say that the "power of the country has been seized in its entirety" and that the Turkey's leadership have been detained by the troops which conflicts with official statements by the government saying that President Erdogan is in a safe location. Mondher Tounsi (@MondherTounsi) July 15, 2016 AFP reported a bomb blast at a police training facility in Ankara and conflict raging throughout the country. The Chief of Staff of Turkey's military, Hulusi Akar, has been taken hostage by the military coup plotters according to Turkish government officials. In their statement, the Turkish military said that they undertook the military coup against Erdogan's government in response to the President's undemocratic, illegal action saying that they will restore the democratic order, human rights, and the rule of law. Earlier on Friday, gunshots broke out in the Turkish capital of Ankara with witnesses saying that military jets and helicopters could be seen flying overhead. There has also been military helicopters and F-16 fighter jets spotted overhead in Turkey's largest city Istanbul according to Reuters. Rehman Siddiq (@RehmanSid) July 15, 2016 There are also multiple reports of a large military operation, with soldiers deployed in Hatay Province. Turkish Prime Minister Yildirim has stressed that nothing will harm Turkish democracy, while also adding that the military action is being taken without the proper chain of command. — 15MBcn_int (@15MBcn_int) July 15, 2016 — Zerdacal (@Zerdacal) July 15, 2016 All police and security forces personnel in Ankara have been told to report in, and reports indicate that military personnel are disarming regular police forces in Ankara and Istanbul. — Brittany Leddy (@Leddenheimer) July 15, 2016 Bridges over the Bosphorus in Istanbul have also reportedly been closed by Turkish military police. Tanks have also been reported in Istanbul.If the last post was about stupidity on a small scale, then this is about stupidity - sheer, howling, desperate stupidity - on a global scale. You may think it unadvisable to extrapolate the experience of one slightly dim woman pressing the wrong button on the lift onto the actions of millions of dim people all over the world, but essentially in all cases of stupidity what we are really talking about is irrationality. This is the way things should work: We, as a species, look at the world, look at the way things are, we theorise and test and through repeated experience and shared knowldege we come up with a certain set of rational conclusions. The grand traditions of science are, at their core, nothing more byzantine than common sense - fire is hot, so we shouldn’t attempt to sleep in it. Mountains are tall, so we generally should avoid jumping off them. And the earth is 4.6 billion years old not because we want it to be or someone tells you it is but because 4.6 billion years of measurable radioactive decay,
. For that vote to be based on an incorrect score of national voters would be ignoring the reality of the Democratic demographic. Superdelegates need to weigh their decision carefully, and we need to begin to see this race for what it is: a close and competitive race that is nowhere close to being over.The St. Paul police officer accused of punching a possibly suicidal 14-year-old girl testified Wednesday that he intended no harm when he used a “startle flinch response” technique to distract the girl after she spat in his face. Defense attorney Peter Wold asked officer Michael P. Soucheray II if his fist made contact with the girl’s face. “…I didn’t feel anything, and I may have brushed her cheek,” Soucheray testified on the last day of testimony in his trial. Soucheray, 39, is charged in Ramsey County District Court with one count of misdemeanor fifth-degree assault for allegedly punching the girl twice and grabbing her face while she was handcuffed in his squad. Assistant Minneapolis city attorney Christopher Bates is prosecuting the case to avoid conflicts of interest. Soucheray is claiming self-defense, and Wold has tried to show that the girl was out of control until Soucheray and his partner, officer Chris Rhoades, arrived at a shelter for sexually exploited girls to address the girls’ situation. De’Andra Walker, a youth counselor at the shelter, Brittany’s Place, said she called dispatch on Dec. 1 for an ambulance to take the girl to a hospital because she had been cutting herself with a metal object and refused to cooperate with a “safety plan” that would have allowed her to stay. Under questioning by Wold, Soucheray said that the “startle flinch response” is designed to fake someone out and stop them from continuing a behavior. Bates noted that in his police report, Soucheray wrote that he struck the girl — not that the girl had alleged he did so. “…sout of natural reaction, I struck [the girl] in the face with my left hand…,” Soucheray read from his police report. “Is that phrase [startle flinch response] anywhere in your report?” Bates asked. “No,” Soucheray said. Soucheray said he didn’t note that it was an allegation because department policy required documenting use-of-force whether or not someone is hurt. “Chalk it up to a bad report,” Soucheray said. Ramsey County spokesman John Siqveland provided information not presented at trial showing that the county Emergency Communications Center had been called twice that night to send an ambulance to the scene, and that police canceled them both. Walker first called 911 about 8:17 p.m. St. Paul police and an ambulance were dispatched, which Siqveland said is protocol in such cases. At 8:26 p.m., police called from the shelter and canceled the ambulance. (Walker testified that the girl was walking around the block.) At 8:46 p.m., Walker called 911 a second time. At 8:59 p.m., police at Brittany’s Place called dispatch for an ambulance. A minute later, police canceled it. Jury deliberations begin Thursday. Chao Xiong • 612-270-4708 Twitter: @ChaoStribI work in the US Healthcare industry… it is by choice, no need to apologize. The entire healthcare infrastructure of the US is currently undergoing a state by state consolidation due to market pressures and regulation. This has caused an acquisitions adventure for my employer and this is a list of my Technical and Project Management lessons learned. The process is fraught with complex technical issues that will span departments, companies, and political boundaries… proceed with caution. Build A Team. You will need a team and a phased approach to involvement. Your Networking resources will be deeply involved in the early phases and the late phases. Your client and app support teams will need to be engaged in the mid phase, and somewhat in the late phase. Your Active Directory/Security/Mail Admins will most likely be involved nearly the whole project. Be ready for these resources to be dedicated to your acquisition project. If they are working on this, it will be difficult for them to multi-role to any significant degree when they are engaged on this project. As a corollary, if your company is going to be engaging in a buying spree, consider creating a technical acquisitions team and putting it out on it’s own as a dedicated project team until the growth is slowed. Utilize professional resources and contractors if at all possible. Have your resources shadow them, and in time you may be able to rely less on the consultant dollars. Expect that consultants WILL be needed when building the budget for a new acquisition. It may seem expensive on paper, but a botched migration will cost far more than the contract resources would have. Establish Policies and Procedures. Establish security baselines. Decide, and get in writing, what the baseline for importing the source companies’ resources into your environment (Virus Scan/Patching level). Decide what your IP Scheme will look like. Analyze what the source environment looks like currently. Define what the new IP scheme will need to be. It is important to plan to make the new environment compliant with your existing infrastructure. Analyze VPNs here. Supporting those tunnels will become incredibly important once the migration begins. Decide how you will import source Domain’s objects into AD, and what the AD structures will look like. Make them compliant to what you already have If you intend to migrate the objects into your root domain; but I would strongly advise considering adopting sub-domains if you haven’t already. Often times if your business is on an acquisitions spree, you may one day find yourself selling a facility or company… sub-domains can help to make that far less messy and they simplify the syncing of email and GAL. Establish Cloud Based Access To Critical Business Resources. Private, Public… Whatever Works. If you have a Citrix Web interface, leverage it to extend critical services to the new environment right up front. Consider at this phase taking management of the source Application Delivery infrastructure. It will allow you to begin to get a handle on what is required on a wider scale to integrate the legacy systems. Exchange GAL Sync. Utilization of a tool like QCS will allow you to synchronize the GAL and have user’s objects stamped with their new domain email addresses. This product is usually implemented once a business need is determined for email to share the Domain-Name Convention of the new parent company. The number one business driver of this, in my experience, has been new business cards with the new SMTP address. Executives want it bad… real bad… like in some cases, several hundred thousand dollars bad. This piece can be done over the internet securely, and doesn’t have to wait for the two-way trust. Secure the Endpoints. Make sure your patching baseline Is compliant in the source environment. Make sure all clients and servers are running Anti-Virus of your choosing. Consider if you wish to implement intrusion detection devices at the network perimeters as an added layer. As stated previously, having an iron-clad agreement on what constitutes “secure” is important. Get buy-in and execute to that expectation. If you do not, this project will spiral into a “replace all the endpoints” scenario, and will get expensive in a hurry. Extend Your Network. The best way to do this is to consider a DMZ style network. The new network segment should be allowed to route to both the source network and to the target network, but no traffic should be allowed to cross this “non-DMZ” network into the other in the initial phase of the migration. Re-IP All The Things. Give the new team members on-site their first REAL local project. Have them re-IP all of the devices on their network to match your new IP scheme in the new network. This will avoid the more complicated step of re-IPing devices as they are processed in the migration. Configure The External Trust. When configuring the two-way trust for use, you will need to ensure that all DCs have routability to each other, and more specifically that authentication can be carried out properly. This is why the re-IP step above is essential in this process. The two-way trust is required before you begin the migration. Make sure to allow your AD experts to set their requirements here. A lot of hand-wringing can happen here, as to most AD is a very mission critical black box. There’s a reason that this one comes after “Secure the Endpoints”, I’ll let you do the math on that one. Begin Domain Migration. Be mindful that when migrating resources into a new domain that any systems that are AD integrated will migrate fine if you use a well configured migration tool such as ADMT, or Dell Migration Manager. If they have stand-alone security databases they will also move and maintain security pretty flawlessly. If there are LDAP integrated, or domain integrated DB (SQL) security you will need to jump through a few hoops to maintain functionality. This will vary widely between applications. Items Of Note: Your executives and politically important users will always want to go first. Don’t do it. Hold them off until at least mid-migration. Early adopters are more likely to experience untested and undiscovered problems. If they are a high value target in the environment, they may quickly try to shut the project down, or cause other headaches that could easily be avoided if they were migrated more toward the later stages of the project. Do not create permanent user accounts on the target domain for the new users ahead of migration. Allow that process to be handled by the migration tools. If a new user is created utilizing the standard methods for a new user, this complicates the migration. You should always expect there to be exceptions, but try to keep them to a minimum, or make sure the user has no mailbox on the account in the target domain. Merging accounts can be tricky, let the tools handle it natively as much as possible. If a facility or company is up for sale for a while, it is often likely that IT resources have been the last thing on the budgetary requirements list. Be prepared that much if not all of the equipment in use is old and not terribly compliant. When these entities are purchased, one should consider including cost of total infrastructure updating/replacement, and be pleasantly surprised if they do not incur said cost. I have a secret formula for determining if the endpoint count is correct. I won’t share that. I have to keep something to make a living with. AdvertisementsWith Bitcoin hovering around $100, and silver at $23.60, it lowest price in three years, now might be a good time for bitcoiners to possibly look into becoming silverbugs. There are lots of reasons to buy silver with Bitcoin, especially now. One of the primary reasons is sheer demand for silver. Currently, silver holdings are at an all-time high, and this recent dip will surely contribute some to that. With so much money sitting with few individuals in Bitcoin, there is no reason for them to not diversify some and add to the demand pressures on silver, which since May 2011 have been on the losing side of the price. First, let’s look at silver demand in recent, recent history. Appearing on November 9, 1998, “India Silver Hoarding Worries Users Group,” penned by Silver Users Association spokesman Walter Frankland, stated: “Is there a role for the Silver Users Association–in conjunction with groups in other countries–to take action that would focus on India and see if their market can be opened to freer trade? There’s no reason to wait around until volatility hits the market again, in my opinion.” In the United States and the “west”, doused in mainstream media mustard gas, less than 1% of the retail public buys silver. In other countries, taxes of 50% and more on silver sales has dampened demand. But it cannot forever. The derivatives bull market has created a bull market in physical silver that does not exist and a pop-panic out of paper like the world has never seen will ensue. The war on silver will spin epically out of control, and there is no telling where the price may land. That, alongside short-and-medium term speculation, is why investors’ holdings are near a record high set last April for silver, despite that hedge funds are the least bullish on silver in nearly four years. In the medium-term, speculators have reduced bets on higher silver prices by 72 percent since the end of February, according to U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data. Silver products held in exchange-traded funds, however, have increased three straight months and now totals $16.2 billion, according to Bloomberg. Since the first three months of 2012, silver has, for the lion’s share, been held under the $30 mark. Until March, silver appeared to be heading back towards $50 an ounce, its previous high, after climbing above $36. This was short-lived. Now, analysts, based on a survey by Bloomberg, expect the price of silver to average $33.02 an ounce in the fourth quarter. Despite any bias that a panel chosen by Bloomberg might encompass, silver remains on a long-term trajectory poised to continue its peak-every-two-years model. The long-term, to be sure, is only in terms of human lifespans, for already the silver price has sat well-off its recent high in April of 2011 for a year-and-four months. That would mean that, although silver might have a doldrum 2012, it would then begin to rise significantly in early 2013. The price of silver will average $33.02 an ounce in the fourth quarter, 18 percent higher than its current price, according to the median of 13 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Silver could then easily be poised for a 100-150% rise in price in early spring 2013, landing it at least around $66 per ounce. But, some hedge funds are predicting an economic slowdown which they surmise will curb demand for silver. On the opposite side of the rope in the tug-of-war for silver, many monied investors and main street investors are anticipating a price rise based on the implementation of global quantitative easing, spearheaded by the Federal Reserve. The price of silver tripled when the Federal Reserve purchased $2.3 trillion of debt through Quantitative Easing 1 and Quantitative Easing 2 from December 2008-June 2011. One can tease also from the chart below that in the late summer of 2007, as there was a stealth Q.E., silver responded predictably. Much of the Bloomberg article is focused on the “schizophrenic” model for silver, which is a seriously flawed axiom from which to look at the silver price. Silver’s history is one much longer than that of Industrial Society. Industry has created novel demand for silver. And so, therefore, is predisposed to act as upward price pressure in the long run. Even if there were a complete collapse of industry in the world, in the fog of a broken price mechanism, silver would retain desirability. It would be psychologically comforting to many to default onto the money of their forebearers. Silver will be one item of many that has cultural relevancy were there to be an industrial collapse. It would be one of few with history as money. “Since the beginning of the year it has reacted more like a base metal than a precious one,” said Frederique Dubrion, the Geneva-based president and chief investment officer of Blue Star Advisors SA, which manages metals and energy assets. “The main negatives are still in industry. We’re waiting for more quantitative easing, and that would be really positive.” The idea that quantitative easing is the only basis for a rise in the price of silver is preposterous. What about war? An open war with Iran would send gold up, and then also increase industrial and fear demand for silver. Gold could head up towards $1900 if there is a further breakup of plans for an European Stability Mechanism (ESB). That would mean a price rise for silver. Quantitative Easing alone is not the only reason to expect silver to increase in price. The silver price tumbled 29 percent from February-June 2012, but, as Bloomberg points out, the metals volatility is “masking what are already historically high prices.” Despite that silver is trading 44 percent below its recent high of $49.85 of April 2011, the two-decade average for the devil’s metal is $9.97. “Industrial demand may remain weak at least for another six months,” said Jochen Hitzfeld from UniCredit SpA in Munich. “This makes the gap that investors have to absorb even higher,” said Hitzfield, who forsees an average 2012 Q4 price of $28. Investors purchased 797 tons via silver-backed ETPs this year and are now holders of 18,093 tons, if one does not want to question the solvency of COMEX.That is more than eight months of global mine output. Investors sold a net 812 tons out of ETPs last year. Total silver assets are currently 2.9 percent below the record 18,639 tons reached in April 2011, and Barclays and Morgan Stanley predict that investors will buy 500 more tons in 2013. Hedge funds are adding to their depressed silver position, too. They doubled their net-long position to 9,323 futures and options in the two weeks leading into Aug. 7, according to the CFTC, although this is still 58 percent below the five-year average, a figure which clearly signals that more shorts have accrued as the global awakening in the wake of the 2008 banker-wealth confiscation, as well as the associated fear trade, has put the spotlight on silver and precious metals. Although silver is usually tagged as schizophrenic metal due to its dual monetary and industrial applications, it really might be the options traders who are schizo. For example, the most held contract offers the right to buy silver at $50 per ounce by November 2013, whilst the next two biggest enable holders to sell silver at $20 by November 2013 and November 2012. For a comparison, the five largest gold options are all for purchases at higher than today. Those silver positions suggest that there is a tug-of-war taking place over the silver price. The 100-day historical volatility for futures in silver is at 30.8 percent, which is a volatility more pronounced than gold, platinum, palladium and the main industrial metals traded on the London Metal Exchange. All these dynamics with the vast majority of the retail public not taking part in this popular investment – less than 1%. Currently, silver sits at its lowest level in years. Demand for silver will continue to increase. In India, where silver hoarding has been of concern to the silver abusers (big industry, mostly) for over a century (at least), gold and silver demand is expected to exceed 6000 tons annually by 2016-2017 from the current levels of 3000 tons. By 2025, according to the Mineral Exploration and Development Report for 12th Five Year Plan Period by the Ministry of Mines, that number could exceed 10,000 tons..................................................................................................................................................................................... The Pit rarely is more alive than when one of New Mexico’s Navajo Nation schools takes the stage, and the venerable building was at full throat Friday afternoon as one of the state’s most revered programs returned to the top of the summit. No. 2 seed Shiprock trailed Hope Christian by 15 points midway through the third quarter, but, propelled by pressure defense, timely 3-pointers and near-perfect free-throw shooting down the stretch, the Lady Chieftains rallied to upset the top-seeded Huskies 47-42 in the Class 4A girls state championship game. ADVERTISEMENTSkip A crowd of about 12,000 saw Shiprock (26-5) win its first blue trophy in 15 years and sixth overall. “I’m really overwhelmed with emotion,” Lady Chieftains coach Larenson Henderson said. Shiprock four times this decade had reached the finals, only to fall short, including last year to Hope. The Lady Chieftains all but willed themselves to this title, with 95 percent of a jam-packed Pit urging them on. “We all stuck together like a family, and that’s exactly what we are,” senior guard Melanie Secody said. As the Huskies (28-3) set out to win a third consecutive title, everything was on track for them, with Hope Christian leading 33-18 with 3½ minutes left in the third quarter following Alivia Lewis’ three-point play. Shiprock went on a 9-0 run to end the quarter, starting with Tayya Dale’s 3, and ending with a tough shot off the glass by Paige Dale, and shaved the deficit to 33-27 starting the fourth quarter. ADVERTISEMENTSkip “We didn’t give up,” said senior guard Tanisha Begay, who led Shiprock with 22 points, including 10-for-11 from the line. The Lady Chieftains eventually caught and passed Hope with 3:46 remaining, but the Huskies regrouped momentarily and led 40-38 with 2:10 to go. Paige Dale’s 3 with 1:09 left put Shiprock in front again, and this time it stayed there, largely because Secody was 6-for-6 from the line in the final 30 seconds, and because Shiprock also turned Hope over twice in the final seconds. “The pressure we put on Hope in the fourth quarter really rattled them,” Henderson said. This was Shiprock’s largest deficit overcome this season. “I didn’t think we were capable of pulling it out,” Henderson admitted. “For these girls to pull it off like that, overwhelms me.” Hope Christian had won 18 games in a row before Friday, including a mid-January win at home over Shiprock. ADVERTISEMENTSkip “I think it was pretty simple,” Hope coach Terry Heisey said after his final game with the Huskies after 25 years. “They made some big shots, we made some critical errors, and we did get a little bit fatigued.” Lewis finished with 16 points and 15 rebounds for Hope. Hanna Valencia added 10 points and seven rebounds. Shiprock was 9-of-10 from the line in the fourth quarter and made 10 more free throws than Hope did in the game. No. 2 SHIPROCK 47, No. 1 HOPE CHRISTIAN 42 ADVERTISEMENTSkip SHIPROCK (26-5): Kylie McKinley 0-1 0-0 0, Melanie Secody 1-5 6-6 8, Tiontai Woods 1-2 1-2 4, T’Yana Harry 1-2 0-0 2, Paige Dale 3-8 1-2 8, Tanisha Begay 5-12 10-11 22, Tierra Clichee 0-1 0-2 0, Tayya Dale 1-3 0-0 3. Totals 12-34 18-23 47. HOPE CHRISTIAN (28-3): Charity Murphy 3-8 0-0 6, Alivia Lewis 7-13 2-4 16, Candace Ellis 0-1 0-0 0, Christine Heisey 0-5 2-4 2, Destiny Holien 1-4 1-2 3, Brielle Milford 2-6 0-0 5, Hanna Valencia 3-12 3-5 10. Totals 16-49 8-15 42. Shiprock 8 4 15 20—47 Hope 7 16 10 9—42 3-point goals: S 5-16 (Begay 2-5, P.Dale 1-5, T.Dale 1-2, Woods 1-2, McKinley 0-1, Secody 0-1); HC 2-13 (Milford 1-2, Valencia 1-4, Murphy 0-5, Heisey 0-2). Field-goal percentages: S 22 first half, 50 second half, 35 game; HC 32 first half, 33 second half, 33 game. Rebounds: S 31 (Clichee 8); HC 36 (Lewis 15). Assists: S 7 (Woods, Clichee 2); HC 10 (Murphy 4). Total fouls: S 14; HC 17. Fouled out: HC, Murphy. Turnovers: S 9; HC 9.North America has finally run out of new addresses based on IPv4, the numbering system that got the Internet where it is today but which is running out of space for the coming era of networking. The American Registry for Internet Numbers, the nonprofit group that distributes Internet addresses for the region, said Thursday it has assigned the last addresses in its free pool. The announcement came after years of warnings from ARIN and others that IPv4 addresses were running out and that enterprises and carriers should adopt the next protocol, IPv6. IPv4 dates back to 1981 and only has room for 4.3 billion unique addresses. IPv6, introduced in 1999, should have enough addresses to serve Internet users for generations, according to ARIN. Anyone who still needs IPv4 addresses can request them from ARIN, but the organization won't have any to give away unless it gets more from the global Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) or returned addresses from users who don't need them anymore. ARIN already runs a waiting list for requests, which it set up earlier this year. Users can also buy IPv4 addresses on the so-called transfer market from others who don't need them and are looking to make some money. Addresses recently were going for around US$10-$12 each, according to people who follow the transfer market. More North American addresses may go on the market now that ARIN has exhausted its pool of fresh ones. That event triggered a change in the organization's rules for approving transfers: There is no longer any restriction on how often an address holder can request transfers to specified recipients. Internet Protocol addresses come from IANA and are distributed through ARIN and other regional Internet registries (RIRs) around the world. Other RIRs are also running low on IPv4 addresses. Migration from IPv4 to IPv6 can cause headaches for some types of organizations, and there is a chicken-and-egg problem as some content providers wait for consumers to start using the newer protocol. But big carriers and Internet players including Facebook and Google have helped to make IPv6 more common.Terror suspect Abu Qatada was released from Long Lartin prison today after winning the latest round in his battle against deportation. The terror suspect was granted bail by a senior immigration judge yesterday after ruling that the government had failed to prove he would face a fair trial in Jordan on charges of plotting bomb attacks. During a visit to Italy where he held a press conference with Italian Prime Minister, Mario Monti, David Cameron said he was "completely fed up" with the fact that radical Muslim cleric Abu Qatada won an appeal to stay in the UK. "He has no right to be there, we believe he is a threat to our country, we've moved heaven and earth to try and comply with every single dot and comma of every single convention to get him out of our country," he said. "It's extremely frustrating and I share the British people's frustration with the situation we find ourselves in. We will appeal the latest judgement and we will do everything we can to make sure we do have the power to expel and deport people from our country who have no right to be there and who mean us harm," he said.A NewsChannel 5 hidden-camera investigation raises new questions about how Metro's new director of schools spends your money. We spotted him using district employees as his personal chauffeurs - even on personal errands. That's despite his insistence that the school system's budget is tight. "We don't have a dollar to waste," Joseph told the Metro School Board recently. But we watched as Metro Schools employees chauffeured Dr. Shawn Joseph around town in the brand new $55,000 Tahoe provided by taxpayers. While the boss did his business, our hidden cameras spotted the well-paid employees waiting and playing on their phones for hours at a time. Still, when we tried to show Dr. Joseph what we saw, he walked out of the interview. As Joseph headed for the door, NewsChannel 5 Investigates asked: "Can you look at this and tell us what you think about whether this is a good use of taxpayer money?" But Metro Council member Steve Glover, a former Metro School Board member, had plenty to say. "This position has never had somebody chauffeur them around before -- never," Glover insisted. "We are not far enough in our educational process right now with everyone of our children in order to be wasting any money." NewsChannel 5 Investigates asked, "And this is a waste?" "In my opinion, yeah," Glover said. Joseph made no apologies for being the first director of schools to use district employees as chauffeurs. One of them is a school bus driver, making $28,000. The other, a senior mechanic, making $46,000. "I use the car like a mobile office," he explained. "I spend hours on the road, and those hours are much more efficient with me actually staying on top of what's happening with this system of 10,000 employees and 89,000 children." NewsChannel 5 Investigates asked, "Do they pick you up in the mornings?" "They have," Joseph admitted. "At your house?" we inquired. "They have," he said. While we never saw that, one day recently, we did spot Joseph being chauffeured a short three miles from the school board office to Trevecca University. While the new school boss was being honored at a luncheon, out in the parking lot, you paid for the Metro Schools employee to wait for an hour and a half. Then, when Joseph was done, you paid for him to be chauffeured another three and a half miles to a doctor's appointment. There, again, you paid for the driver to wait for another hour and a half. And when Joseph was finished, he hopped back into the Tahoe to be chauffeured less than a half mile away to the Oasis Center on Charlotte Avenue. And the waiting game began again, as you paid for the driver to play on his phone, getting out at one point to flick a piece of debris off the boss' seat, then playing on his phone some more. That lasted for another hour and fifteen minutes. NewsChannel 5 Investigates noted to Joseph, "That's a lot of waiting." "So they typically do work in between when they can," he responded. "Their schedules are pretty complex just like mine." But the driver's schedule didn't look that complex to us at all. Still, when we tried to show Joseph what we had seen, that's when he walked out. He returned a few minutes later, but he still did not want to see the video of his driver playing on his phone for hours while on taxpayer time. NewsChannel 5 Investigates asked, "When the public sees that, is the public going to think that's a good use of taxpayer money?" Joseph saw nothing wrong. "I think it's a good use of taxpayer money," he said, "to get me efficiently from place to place so I can get the work done and, in between, allowing me to conduct the business of the school district." A review of Joseph's schedule shows he does use drivers on days when he's got back-to-back appointments. But internal emails show other days, like the morning when he needed a driver at his home by 7 a.m. just to drive him to a breakfast on his way into work. In that case, a second Metro employee had to drive the driver out to Joseph's house in Bellevue so the driver could then get behind the wheel of the boss's SUV. Review the emails here. Our NewsChannel 5 investigation continues Tuesday at 10 when we ask why you're paying for Dr. Joseph's rent.Gap between top 1% and bottom 90% now worse than at any time since 1928. Ottawa (10 Sept. 2009) - Two-thirds of all American income gains from 2002 to 2007 flowed to the top 1% of U.S. households, giving that privileged minority a larger share of income at the end of the period than at any time since 1928. During the period, the average inflation-adjusted income of the top 1% of households soared by 62% compared to a gain of just 4% for the bottom 90% of households. The figures, published by the U.S. Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), are based on an analysis of newly-released Internal Revenue Service (IRS) data by economists Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez. The CBPP is a non-partisan research and policy institute working on federal and state fiscal policies and public programs that affect low- and moderate-income Americans. 10 times faster The last economic expansion began in November 2001 and ended in December 2007, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). This means that the Piketty-Saez research essentially covers the full period. Other information revealed by the data: 2007 marked the fifth straight year in which income gains at the top outpaced those of the rest of the population. The proportionate share of the nation’s total income going to the top 1% of households also rose sharply, from 16.9% in 2002 to 23.5% in 2007. This was a larger share than at any time since 1928. (In 2000, at the peak of the 1990s boom, the top 1% took home 21.5% of total national income.) Income gains have been even more shocking among those at the extreme top of the income scale. The incomes of the top 1/10th of 1% of U.S. households grew by 94% or by $3.5 million between 2002 and 2007. The overall share of the total national income flowing to the top 1/10th of 1% rose from 7.3% in 2002 to 12.3% in 2007. These are the most lopsided figures in Piketty-Saez data going back to 1913, surpassing even the previous peak in 1928. "The uneven distribution of economic gains in recent years continues a longer-term trend that began in the late 1970s," the CBPP reports. "In the three decades following World War II (1946-1976), robust economic gains were shared widely, with the incomes of the bottom 90% actually increasing more rapidly in percentage terms, on average, than the incomes of the top 1%," the center says. "But in the three decades since 1976, the incomes of the bottom 90% of households have risen only slightly, on average, while the incomes of the top 1% have soared." NUPGE The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) is one of Canada's largest labour organizations with over 340,000 members. Our mission is to improve the lives of working families and to build a stronger Canada by ensuring our common wealth is used for the common good. NUPGE'Blindspot' Updates: Jamie Alexander's New Breakout TV Series Gets Renewed by NBC Posted by Staff Reporter [email protected] ) on Nov 10, 2015 08:00 PM EST Close more big Not all New TV series have ran successful enough to get a repeat order. On the other hand, NBC's breakout new drama "Blindspot" is an exception. According to Deadline, renewal is in the cards of the breakout NBC series which stars Jaimie Alexander as the mysterious Jane Doe who was found in Times Square with no memory and mysterious tattoos on her body. Moreover, "Blindspot" is said to have been ranked as number one among new fall TV shows for adults 18-49. According to Deadline, "Blindspot" started with a good foundation breaking with an average of 3.7 rating among in adults 18-49 and 12.7 million viewers overall based on the most recent Nielsen averages dominating the rest of prime time TV shows. The shows early success has propelled it towards an unusual early renewal and therefore, "Blindspot" is now considered as the "Blindspot" is more in the NBC's greatest Monday primetime entry. The other NBC show "The Blacklist" is now faced with a challenging new schedule even if it is already on its third season. According to Variety, president of NBC Entertainment Jennifer Salke is very elated with the overwhelming success of the new show "Blindspot". Speaking of which, Salke said, "We are over the moon with the success of 'Blindspot,' and want to thank our producers and amazing cast for creating one of the most riveting shows on television. Jaimie and Sullivan have done an amazing job of ratcheting up the tension each week in trying to unravel the mystery of Jane's tattoos." She added, "We literally can't wait to see what the second season will bring." Starring alongside Alexander is Sullivan Stapleton who has appeared in various films including "300: Rise of an Empire" and "Gangster Squad". Other casts include Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Rob Brown, Audrey Esparza, Ukweli Roach and Ashley Johnson. Blindspot's next episode entitled "Authentic Flirt" airs Nov. 16 on NBC.While perusing the minutes of today’s w3c egov telecon I noticed mention of Tim Berners-Lee’s Bag of Chips talk at the gov2.0 expo last week in Washington, DC. I actually enjoyed the talk not so much for the bag-of-chips example (which is good), but for the examination of Linked Data as part of a continuum of web publishing activities associated with gold stars, like the ones you got in school. Here they are: ★ make your stuff available on the web (whatever format) ★★ make it available as structured data (e.g. excel instead of image scan of a table) ★★★ non-proprietary format (e.g. csv instead of excel) ★★★★ use URLs to identify things, so that people can point at your stuff ★★★★★ link your data to other people’s data to provide context I think it’s helpful to think of Linked Data in this context, and not to minimize (or trivialize) the effort and the importance of getting the first 3 stars. It was interesting that he didn’t mention
. (Published Monday, Oct. 19, 2015) Prosecutors told the jury LeBlond attacked Ziona, because he was embarrassed after she flirted with him in front of his male friends, WTOP reported. Police had been called to the scene shortly before the shooting death to break up a fight in which Ziona was hit with a stick. Later that night, police believe Ziona was lured to the alley, where she was shot. Defense attorney David Felsen said police gave “substantially different descriptions of the person or people with guns who were fleeing the scene,” WTOP reported. After three days of deliberation, the jury deadlocked 10-2 in favor of conviction. Judge Anne Albright declared a mistrial, WTOP reported. A spokesman for the state attorney’s office said prosecutors plan to retry the case this summer. Family members had sought hate crime charges against LeBlond. Transgender people face an increased rate of violence, and more transgender people were killed in 2015 -- 21 people -- than in any other year on record, according to the Human Rights Campaign, an advocacy organization.John Malkovich has joined the cast of Jonah Hex, the Warner Bros adaptation of the DC Comics property. Malkovich will star alongside of Josh Brolin. Being a “non-superhero”, Jonah did not have a “Rogues gallery” comparable to Superman or The Flash, though he had a few adversaries who returned from time to time. The first and most notable of these to date was Quentin Turnbull, known at first as simply the man with the eagle-topped cane. Turnbull was the father of Hex’s best friend, Jeb Turnbull. During the American Civil War, Jonah actually surrendered himself to the Union forces after the passage of the Emancipation Proclamation, but refused to betray where his fellow soldiers were camped. A Union soldier was able to determine the location of that camp by examining the dirt in the hooves of Jonah’s horse. The Union soldiers captured all of Jonah’s fellow soldiers and then later massacred most of them, framing Jonah as a turncoat. Turnbull’s son was one of those slaughtered and Turnbull vowed his vengeance upon Jonah. Turnbull hired an unnamed stage actor to impersonate Hex and help “destroy Hex”. This actor, naming himself “The Chameleon”, was eventually hideously scarred in a fire started by Hex, and vowed vengeance upon Hex. El Papagayo was a Mexican bandit running guns. Hex was hired by the United States Secret Service (actually a man hired by Turnbull to pose as an agent) to infiltrate El Papagayo’s band and bring him to justice. Hex was unsuccessful and he and Papagayo met several more times over the years. The film is being helmed by Jimmy Hayward (Horton Hears A Who) and is written by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor. The production starts in April.Joe DiMaggio’s foot was “parboiled” by a trainer, delaying his Major League debut in 1936. This footnote, no pun intended, occurred in St. Petersburg, Florida and was immortalized with a plaque along Baseball Boulevard. For some baseball fans, seeing a game in each of the 30 Major League ballparks is a dream. Others take it to the next level, creating checklists that contain minor league ballparks, spring training facilities, museums and historical markers. While professional baseball stadiums are relatively easy to find, baseball-themed museums and memorials are often tucked away in locations far from the beaten path. Frankly, the number of baseball museums and historical markers across the United States and Canada is staggering. One of the most ambitious baseball historical marker projects ever was installed in St. Petersburg in 1998. The Jim Healey and Jack Lake Baseball Boulevard was named for the two men who campaigned for a Major League team in St. Petersburg. Costing over $47,000, home plate-shaped plaques were installed in chronological order listing a significant event from each year of St. Petersburg baseball from 1914 through 1998. These highlights often had a humorous tenor, recalling not only the cooking of Joltin’ Joe’s foot but Babe Ruth having been chased off of Crescent Lake Park field by an alligator in 1925, a 1940 game played by men riding donkeys and the infamous Sidd Finch hoax in 1985. The trail culminated with a plaque celebrating the arrival of the Devil Rays as the city’s first year-round home team in 1998. Recently, this author took in a Tampa Bay Rays game at Tropicana Field and set out the next day to walk Baseball Boulevard. Armed with an article from the Tampa Bay Times detailing the route, the course was plotted – at nearly a mile and a half in length – the plaques were to be found at intervals starting at Al Lang Stadium, up 1st Street and traveling down Central Avenue before turning towards Tropicana Field at 13th Street. Arriving at the starting point, it was apparent that remodeling work was underway at Al Lang Stadium. Named for the former mayor who championed spring training in St. Petersburg, Al Lang Stadium was the spring training home for Major League teams from 1947 through 2008. It is now the home field for the Tampa Bay Rowdies, a professional soccer team with a loud green and yellow color scheme. The first of the commemorative plaques was easily found, highlighting the first spring training game ever held in St. Petersburg, a Chicago Cubs 3-2 victory over the St. Louis Browns at Coffee Pot Park in 1914. Also easy to spot was a marker honoring Al Lang, himself, and the trailhead legend, which reads: Florida’s love affair with baseball began in St. Petersburg in 1914 when the city’s former mayor, Al Lang, convinced Branch Rickey to move his St. Louis Browns to the Sunshine City for spring training. For the next 84 years, St. Petersburg collected grand springtime memories. Then, in 1998, the spectrum changed as the Tampa Bay Devil Rays began play and made St. Petersburg their year round home. We invite you to stroll along Baseball Boulevard and relive a colorful history that highlights the time spent in St. Petersburg by some of the sport’s greatest and most exiting players-stars such as Babe Ruth and Joe DiMaggio of the Yankees, Stan Musial and Bob Gibson of the Cardinals, Tom Seaver of the Mets and Cal Ripken of the Orioles. The Boulevard also honors the contributions of local heroes who worked tirelessly to bring Major League Baseball to St. Petersburg. It is named in honor of Jim Healey and Jack Lake, both of whom were instrumental in the construction of Tropicana Field and the city’s success in securing a Major League Baseball franchise for Florida’s West Coast. Walking north on 1st Street, however, no other plaques were found. Turning on Central to head west, the markers were nowhere to be seen. Having continued to 5th Street, it seemed rather unusual that no plaques or pedestals had yet to be encountered. People on the street were not much help. The first four folks had never even heard of Baseball Boulevard. The fifth person knew that “they moved ‘em” and that was about it. Accessing the newspaper article again by iPhone revealed, unseen at the bottom of the page, that it had originally been published in the St. Petersburg Times on September 16, 1998. A previously undiscovered article explained that Baseball Boulevard did not garner the attention the planners had hoped and by 2011 several of the concrete pedestals had fallen into disrepair. Faced with costs of repairing and replacing the pedestals, the city decided instead to relocate the plaques to Al Lang Stadium. Now having returned to Al Lang Stadium, it was clear that no other plaques were on display there. A walk around the entire exterior did not reveal any commemorative markers. Peering into the concourse did not yield any signs of relocation. This was now a full-blown mystery. A couple of tradesmen were bothered with questions about Baseball Boulevard and neither had any information about the plaques. Just about to leave, with more questions than answers, a carpenter appeared out of nowhere and pointed at the stadium’s façade. “They’re right there, don’t you see them?” in a clear attempt to poke fun at a tourist. “Huh?” “Come closer,” he said, “you can kinda see the outline of the plaques under that banner.” It was true, the home plates that had been lovingly relocated to Al Lang Stadium were now ingloriously covered by a Rowdies banner. It was perfectly clear that the Rowdies did not hold the plaques or the area’s baseball history in high regard. What a shame. A must-see destination for baseball history buffs is now just a shadow of its former self, cloaked in garish green and yellow. Hopefully we will live to see Baseball Boulevard resurrected.Each year, multiple generations of preppy alumni gather at Princeton to throw one of the country's biggest keggers. We chugged along and witnessed scenes so drunken and debauched, they will ruin at least one future presidential run School was out for the summer, and Princeton University was embarked on Reunions weekend 2009, a three-day bender amounting to a tribal rite. The institution and I were drunk. The last Thursday in May had just become Friday when a DJ put on Fatman Scoop's "Be Faithful," and a rumble of arm-waving club rap echoed through the New Jersey night. Single ladies—I can't hear y'all! Single ladies—make noise! The single ladies made noise indeed, a few by crashing through folding chairs en route to the dance floor. This carnival welcomes all alumni back every single year—I graduated in '96, and this was my thirteenth—but especially those celebrating "major reunions," the fifth, tenth, fifteenth… These classes host keg parties on the lawns below the Gothic dormitories, gargoyles leering down at 20,000 revelers. The class of 2004 had rented this particular party tent, but the class of 2009, five days shy of graduation, owned the night. Who fuckin' tonight? Who fuckin' tonight? Who fuckin' tonight? The single ladies slurped one another's faces, and my eyes popped at the mileage on my own odometer. It was the case in my time that a scant two minutes of no-frills grinding to a Prince song could provoke a full two days of scandalized gossip. The ladies of '09 had their hands on the floor and their asses in the air, bucking at crotches on the upbeat. My companion, a Dutch photographer, lit up with delight. When he started bounding around like a gun dog, I decided to name him Shooter. Who fuckin' tonight? Who fuckin' tonight? Who fuckin' tonight? An older guy—identifiable by the pattern of his orangeand-black blazer as an '84—wiggled his head to the groove, bald spot mirroring red light. A girl in a white miniskirt rocked out by back-kicking with a bandaged ankle while swinging on crutches. Behind the cage for the sound engineer's booth, a kid pissed in a cup, tucked himself in, popped his collar, and briefly humped the nearest girl. This was the warm-up night for an elite bacchanal, the perennial blowout kegger of the Ivy League. Long before becoming a world-class university, Princeton was an extraordinarily boisterous party school. The college was founded in 1746 by frowning Presbyterians who shortly thereafter issued a ban on "tavern haunting," initiating a tradition of crackdowns on drinking now in its third century of utter futility. Every time I go back to the campus, I smile fondly at hedges I once napped under, windows I vomited from, astronomy departments I hooked up in. Reunions weekend is probably the largest regular alumni gathering in the world. Historically, the level of alcohol consumption here exceeds that of every other event in America save the Indy 500. The school mascot is the tiger, and Reunions is defined by blackout drunkenness and blaze orange disorder. To be clear, not all of the events directly involve getting shitfaced. The schedules are dense with memorial services and prayer services and community-service projects. But really, the main point is getting shitfaced. Anthropologists refer to this kind of debauchery—bonding by way of getting smashed—as the pursuit of conscious excess. The multigenerational aspect heightens the sense of disappearing into a tradition and a collective identity. The most passionate Reunions fan I know—a '97 who hasn't missed a year since first sneaking in as a freshmen—opines that the profusion of ridiculous costumes we wear encourage the event to become "a platform for creative absurdity." The valedictorian of Princeton's great class of 1905 was Norman Thomas, a clergyman and civil rights activist who ran for the presidency six times on the Socialist ticket. He had a theory that Reunions was essentially a beer-tap time machine. "Some things in life justify themselves emotionally, without necessity for analytic reasoning," he once wrote. "On the whole, Princeton reunions fall in that category. In my moralizing moments, I may regret that reunions are too greatly inspired by the prayer: 'Make me a sophomore again just for tonight,' which…with the aid of a sometimes excessive consumption of the spirituous, rather than the spiritual, often seems to be granted." Throwing himself into Reunions weekend, an alumnus travels to a giddy dimension where his youth never really ended and never really will. Friday night, after dinner, below a dorm built to imitate a castle keep, the men of the class of 1959 turned their pink faces toward the dessert buffet and resolved to have a bit more cheesecake. Encountering little resistance from their wives and second wives and new lady friends, they pushed away from the tables, uniformly jaunty in their class jackets—creamy sport coats with a pattern featuring the class mascot, Tipsy Tiger, who wears a boater with an orangeand-black hatband and an uneasy expression, panicked that the final drop of beer is dribbling from his stein. Among the youngest people at the banquet tables were Alexandra '96 and Meredith '96. (Names have been changed to protect the women from themselves.) Each was representing her late father and receiving an earful of stories she'd never heard. Alex was ved that her dad's roommates were too decorous to spill the top-shelf beans. Meredith said it all felt surreal, and then her white-wine buzz picked up more momentum and she smacked my ass with a packaged orange rain poncho. A girl-group cover band of a certain age started up on the bandstand—three beehive hairdos, three tiger-print miniskirts, six black go-go boots. Meredith randomly seized a spry geezer for a partner and danced an erratic shag while grandkids hopped up and down and thirty somethings larked into the scene, and joyful ladies did the twist with their artificial hips. To get Meredith to join us on a loop through the other party headquarters, we kind of had to shimmy her out of the gate. Crossing the campus in the dark green air, dashing into courtyards sectioned off with six-foot-high wood fences, waddling in boat shoes and vamping in platform heels, people chased fellowship and delirium. A student worker zipped past the class of 1969's Beatles-themed headquarters in a golf cart trimmed in orange tinsel, polyester tiger tail trailing on the fender. Ten major reunions, the fifth through the fiftieth, were at the core; the fifty-fifth hunkered down in the football stadium; the sixtieth and the sixty-fifth and their elders—the Old Guard—held court far down campus at a distance protecting their fine supply of hard liquor from the thirst of the masses. The class of '84 had an especially memorable spread. Here, as at many colleges, the twenty-fifth reunion is a major deal—a fat, juicy target for the fundraising office—and '84's official weekend schedule included a lobster dinner on the university's dime. But first they had to play beer pong and jump to the Ramones. We lurched around to the most youthful corner of the bacchanal, where the nooks of the buildings, covered in ivy and draped in shadow, witnessed desperate kisses, steaming pisses, restorative vomiting bouts. The dorm entryways separating the fifth's headquarters from the tenth's were a border zone of staircase collisions and bathroom absurdity, with the boys taking leaks in the shower stalls and the girls gurgling at one another's reflections. An ambulance carted a casualty away, flash bars casting red light on chugging contests. The mob on the fifth's dance floor had gained force and numbers since the night before, and if it weren't for the metal crowd-control barriers at the front of the stage, it really would have charged the cover band when it went into "Sweet Home Alabama." The girl on crutches was back in the same spot, oscillating. Saturday after brunch, with the whole town mobilizing for a parade—the P-rade—Shooter darted off into the spectacle while Alex and I made a beer run with a posse of hard-core Reunions connoisseurs from the class of '97. Passing by the floats and marching bands, we winced as bagpipes competed with a Nirvana tribute, the class of '94 having chosen "Smells Like Fifteen Spirit" as its theme. The queue at the liquor store wriggled out the door like a conga line. We shotgunned beers and coochie-cooed at people's kids as the parade advanced down the center of campus, the procession a slow stroll through the school's living history. In the P-rade, the grand marshal led the university president, who led the class of '84, followed closely by the tigered-up, pimped-out golf carts of the Old Guard. Chauffeured by a student worker, the oldest returning alumnus—a 103-year-old survivor of the class of '25—carried a ceremonial silver-handled cane and wore carrot-colored pants with quiet bearing. As the cart inched down the route, the younger classes fell in behind, one by one in chronological order so that the procession folded in on itself and flowed gently downhill. We wore orange and black, the official plaid monstrosities and dapper stripes and jungle-print jokes—and also everything ever sold retail in peach, pumpkin, screaming persimmon… Classes saluted their elders with a cheer called the locomotive: Rah-rah-RAH, tiger-tiger-tiger, sis-sis-sisboom-BOOM-BOOM-AH! '25! '25! '25! Loyal dogs tolerated tiger costumes. Children tried teething on tallboy cans. The P-rade filed through the arch of a new building—an arch designed for the purpose of the P-rade filing through, as the announcer on the grandstand said. Sensible people went off to do sensible things, and the rest of us went to the Street. The row of mansions housing Princeton's eating clubs is just off campus on Prospect Avenue. These are the soul of undergraduate social life, with each of the ten clubs currently in business combining the functions of a mess hall, a study hall, a pool hall, and a faithful geyser of thin lager. Let's say it was four thirty when I strutted into my club, Ivy, and started relying on muscle memory to navigate the scene of many long-ago misdemeanors. I'd fallen in with the posse of '97s, who set the party off by breaking the lock on the stereo cabinet and putting on a dance mix. A clique of '04 girls shook their hips in front of a fireplace, saucy in their orange-and-black prisonstriped minidresses. I was looping around outside the building when Shooter intercepted me at six thirty. I hadn't seen him since the middle of the P-rade, when a dripping-wet girl was falling off his big, slick camera. Shouting over sousaphones, the two of them tried to tell me about a drinking game called dunko, but a proper explanation eluded his command of English, and she was proudly incoherent. "How do you win?" I asked. "You don't win!" she snapped, swinging a bottle of Malibu for emphasis. "You just do it." So when Shooter found me outside Ivy, he was with a bunch of kids, and everyone was jazzed for me to play dunko. The girls clapped like little witches, orange-and-black Mardi Gras beads clicking around their necks. The boys told me to take off my glasses and empty my pockets. I grabbed either side of a tub, the kind you would use to cool a keg, three-quarters full of water, not too much ice. Two kids turned me upside down and submerged my head, and it turned out that dunko is recreational water-boarding. "Fourteen! Fifteen! Sixteen!…"—the crowd counted off the seconds I was under. I kicked a leg to signal that I was ready to return to earth and chug a beer. The beer went down smooth. I tossed the cup aside with practiced insouciance, and the next thing I knew, a blurry young man, class of '08, was having a chat with me. A former president of the club, he'd developed some concerns about Shooter's conspicuous camera. Polite but dogged, he argued that it could spoil the experience of younger members for Ivy to receive unflattering press. A big fuss might force the club to be prudent and chill out for a while, to forgo serving beer on Tuesdays, say. I would have given his argument more weight had he bothered to remove the sunglasses he wore against the broad daylight on the front lawn. The climactic action began at 10 p.m., after a fireworks show that would humble a midsize city's Independence Day. We dragged forth as if wading through seawater, searching for a second wind. Sand and hay sopped up the spillage at the beer lines. "I haven't had any drugs all weekend," one '09 said. "I mean, I've done other people's drugs, but I haven't had any of my own." All of a sudden it was 1:45 a.m. at the fifth, on a dance floor thicker than a mosh pit. Powered by the nostalgia of dudes in their midtwenties, the crowd banged its collective head to a Dave Matthews cover. I was getting the hell out when an imp leapt from the shadows to spritz me with a garden hose, and I called her naughty, naughty, naughty, and she surrendered the weapon; I hosed her legs down and then met Shooter and Alex and two other female pals to go to the street. Cabs crept up the avenue. Zombies tried the sidewalks. Joining a thin crowd on the plantation-house portico of Colonial Club, we slouched against Ionic columns. Anne '96 appraised the boys at the beer-pong table. "I'm going cougar," she said to a friend. "Let's pretend we know those guys." They flitted over and flipped their hair. A smirking kid passed Anne a joint that she dragged on three times hard, as if hurrying a cigarette outside an airport terminal. She was composed well enough for a client meeting when she said, "I'm gonna faint." She counted it down: "Five, four, three, two—" A bracelet of orange beads dropped from her wrist in the fall. Her friends heaved her dead weight to the curb, and an orange-and-black taxi sped the women to bed. It was a chance to walk Shooter over to Terrace, an eating club around the corner, always arty and funky, with a smoking deck on the second floor and a murky basement taproom all the more thrilling in its firetrap quality for the club's having once caught fire. The club was too packed to get in the door, but we got in the door. General carnage. Sensible Shooter headed home. It was whatever time it was. Sunk in a worn sofa, I frowned at the fire extinguisher in the front parlor. Its cover, colored the safety orange of traffic cones, struck me as uniquely unhelpful in this particular context. Swiveling to check the exits, I sighted an intensely pretty girl in a little plum purple dress. She wasn't so much crossing the room as flowing around the building, and eventually she flowed down to the basement and glided up to perch on top of the bar. It was late enough at this point to get a half-decent look at the taproom, with Maurice Sendak's Wild Things making a rumpus on a mural opposite the tap. Little Plum lounged beneath a speaker, and the woofer buzzed her body while beers got served down by her ankles. She slid down supine, and a boy drummed her stomach. She sat up, turned, and crouched, and the boys behind the tap massaged her feet as she tossed her curls. It was 4 a.m. when Le Tigre's "Deceptacon," deliciously synthesized dance rock, rushed from the speakers, and she popped like a cork. One! Two! Three! Four! You got what you been askin' for.… Knees on the sloppy bar, hands on the low ceiling, ecstatic eyes sparking, she was a one-girl go-go riot. The boys behind the bar flung beer like confetti. She sank back and kicked like a chorine, incidental trickles of beer catching the disco light as they traced down her light brown legs. It was brightening outside. By the top of the taproom stairs, a kid in a polo shirt watched the girl he'd been talking to walk off by herself. His eyes staggered after her as far as the vestibule. He snapped to and asked me the time. It was 5:02. "It's time to get the party started, dude, know what I'm sayin'?"No scientist wants to be the first to try to replicate another’s promising study: much better to know what happened when others tried it. Long before replication or reproducibility became major talking points, scientists had strategies to get the word out. Gossip was one. Researchers would compare notes at conferences, and a patchy network would be warned about whether a study was worth building on. Or a vague comment might be buried in a related publication. Tell-tale sentences would start “In our hands”, “It is unclear why our results differed …” or “Interestingly, our results did not …”. What might seem obvious — a paper on attempts and outcomes — was almost never an option. Many journals refused to consider replication studies, and a lot of researchers had no desire to start a feud if their results did not match. So scientists not in the know might waste time exploring a blind alley or be wary about truly promising research. Things are improving. Nowadays, researchers who want to tell the scientific community about their replication studies have multiple ways to do so. They can chronicle their attempts on a blog, post on a preprint server or publish peer-reviewed work in those journals that do not require novelty. Just this year, the online platform F1000 launched the dedicated Preclinical Reproducibility and Robustness channel for refutations, confirmations or more nuanced replication studies. Other titles, including Scientific Data and the American Journal of Gastroenterology, have openly solicited replication attempts and negative results. In 2013, after controversial work on whether bioactive RNA molecules could cross from the digestive tract to the bloodstream, Nature Biotechnology declared itself “receptive to replication”, provided that such studies illuminate crucial research questions (Nature Biotechnol. 31, 943; 2013). The psychology community is a leader in this: Perspectives on Psychological Science has begun publishing a new type of article, and pioneering a new form of collaboration. It asks psychologists to nominate an influential study for replication and to draw up a plan. The original author is invited to offer suggestions on the protocol, multiple labs volunteer to collect data, and results — whatever they may be — are published as a registered replication report (RRR). So far, three have been published, each with a perspective by the original authors. Get it out there Yet it would be inefficient to pursue such projects for more than a sliver of publications. Most replication attempts are not organized collaborations, but individual laboratories testing the next stage of their research. If those results were shared, science would benefit. Why doesn’t this happen more often? Because the replication ecosystem, such as it is, lacks visibility, value and conventions. When a researcher happens on an exciting paper, there is no easy way to learn about replication attempts. Replication studies are not automatically or consistently linked to original papers on journal websites, PubPeer or PubMed. When a replication attempt is mentioned in passing in a broader study, there is no way to capture it. Journals cannot be expected to curate all replication attempts of papers they publish, although they should support technology that aggregates and disseminates that information. And they should be open to publishing in-depth replication attempts for original papers. For example, Scientific Reports encourages critique by offering to waive its article-processing charge for a peer-reviewed refutation of an article published in the journal. “Conventions around replication are in their infancy — even the vocabulary is inadequate.” Increased visibility would raise the value of a replication attempt, but also increase the risk of retaliation against replicators. There is little reward for taking that risk. A published replication currently does little to raise the esteem of the replicator with hiring committees or grant reviewers. This creates a chicken–egg problem — researchers don’t want to conduct and publish rigorous replication studies because they are not valued, and replication studies are not valued because few are published. Commendably, funders such as the Laura and John Arnold Foundation in the United States and the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research are explicitly supporting replication studies, and setting high expectations for publication. Scientists can help to ensure that such studies are valued by citing them and by discussing them on social media. Conventions around replication studies are in their infancy — even the vocabulary is inadequate. Editors who coordinate RRRs strive to avoid loaded labels such as ‘successful’ and ‘failed’ replications. The Reproducibility Initiative, a project to help labs coordinate independent replications of their own work, also shied away from similar pronouncements after its first study. A paper is a jumble of context, experiments, results, analysis and informed speculation. Outcomes can depend on apparently trivial differences in methods, such as how vigorously reagents are mixed, as one collaboration painstakingly discovered (W. C. Hines et al. Cell Rep. 6, 779–781; 2014). Neither are there conventions for interactions between replicators and the original authors. Some original authors have refused to share data or methodological details. In other cases, some replicators broadcast their attempts without first trying to resolve inconsistencies, a practice that leaves them more open to charges of incompetence. (Thankfully, both replicators and original authors are now backing away from name-calling.) As replication becomes more mainstream, we trust that the community will establish reasonable standards of conduct. To foster better behaviour, replication attempts must become more common. We urge researchers to open their file drawers. We urge authors to cooperate with reasonable requests for primary data, to assume good intent and to write papers — and keep records — assuming that others will want to replicate their work. We urge funders and publishers to support tools that help researchers to thread the literature together. We welcome, and will be glad to help disseminate, results that explore the validity of key publications, including our own.Every January, I do a digital tune-up, cleaning up my privacy settings, updating my software and generally trying to upgrade my security. This year, the task feels particularly urgent as we face a world with unprecedented threats to our digital safety. We are living in an era of widespread hacking and public shaming. Don’t like your political rivals? Beg Russia to hack them, and their emails mysteriously show up on Wikileaks. Don’t like your ex-spouse? Post a revenge porn video. Don’t like your video game opponents? Find their address online and send a SWAT team to their door. And, of course, the U.S. government has the capability to do even more. It can spy on much of the globe’s Internet traffic and has in the past kept tabs on nearly every American’s phone calls. Like it or not, we are all combatants in an information war, with our data under constant siege. So how can ordinary people defend themselves? The truth is you can’t defend everything. But you can mitigate threats by reducing how much data you leave exposed for an intruder to grab. Hackers call this minimizing your “attack surface.” The good news is that there are some easy steps you can take to reduce the threat. Here is what I am doing this year: Every year, I ditch old buggy software that I don’t use and update all the software that I do use to its most current version. Exploiting software with known holes is one of the ways that criminals install ransomware — which holds your data hostage until you pay for it to be released. (Read the FBI’s tips on avoiding and mitigating ransomware attacks.) This year, I’m working to lengthen my passwords to at least 10 characters for accounts that I don’t care about and to 30 characters for accounts I do care about (email and banking). After all, in 2017, automated software can guess an eight-digit password in less than a day. Most importantly, don’t re-use passwords. You don’t have to think of unique passwords yourself — password management software such as 1Password, LastPass will do it for you. EFF technologist Jacob Hoffman-Andrews makes a very good case for password management software being the best defense against a phishing attack. (Phishing is how the email of John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, got hacked). The good news is that it’s never been easier to send encrypted text messages and make encrypted phone calls on the phone apps Signal and WhatsApp. However, please note that WhatsApp has said it will share users’ address books with its parent company, Facebook, unless they opted out of the latest privacy update. Of course, people who receive your messages can still screenshot and share them without your permission. On Signal you can make it slightly harder for them by setting your messages to disappear after a certain amount of time. In WhatsApp, you can turn off cloud backups of your chats, but you can’t be sure if others have done the same. The websites that you browse are among the most revealing details about you. Until recently, it was hard to protect mobile web surfing, but this year there are a lot of good options for iPhones. You can use privacy protecting standalone web browsers such as Brave or Firefox Focus, or install an add-on such as Purify that will let you browse safely on Safari. In an excess of excitement, I’m currently using all three! Of course, blocking online tracking also means blocking ads. I hate to deny worthy websites their advertising dollars, but I also think it’s unfair for them to sell my data to hundreds of ad tracking companies. Brave is building a controversial system that pays publishers for users’ visits, but it remains to be seen if it will work. In the meantime, I try to subscribe or donate to news outlets whose work I admire. You wouldn’t leave your most sensitive documents in an unlocked filing cabinet, so why do you keep them in cloud services such as Google Drive and DropBox? Those companies have the keys to unlock your files. One option is to password protect your files before uploading them. But I prefer a cloud service that encrypts for me. In my usual overkill approach, I’m using Sync.com to synchronize files and SpiderOak for backup. Consider whether you really need to store all your old emails and documents. I recently deleted a ton of emails dating back to 2008. I had been hanging onto them thinking that I might want them in the future. But I realized that if I hadn’t looked at them until now, I probably wasn’t going to. And they were just sitting there waiting to be hacked. As Internet-enabled devices — ranging from smart hairbrushes to voice-activated speakers — invade the home, criminals are finding new ways to penetrate their defenses. Hackers have spied on women through the womens’ webcams and used networks of online cameras and other devices to bring down the Internet in Liberia. Like many people including the Pope and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, I have covered the cameras on my computers with stickers and magnetic screens to avoid peeping Toms. But until device makers heed the Federal Trade Commission’s security recommendations for internet-enabled devices, I won’t introduce new cameras and microphones into my home. Fears that President Donald Trump might build a Muslim registry prompted thousands of Silicon Valley tech workers to sign a pledge stating that they wouldn’t participate in building any databases that profile people by race, religion or national origin. But only three of the hundreds of data brokers that sell lists of people have affirmed that they would not participate in a registry. Two other data brokers told a reporter that the price for such a list would range from about $14,000 to $17,000. It’s not easy to remove personal data from the hundreds of data brokers that are out there. Many of them require you to submit a picture of your photo ID, or write a letter. But if you do it — as I did two years ago — it is worth it. Most of the time when a new data broker emerges, I find that my data is already removed because I opted out from the broker’s supplier. I compiled a list of data broker opt-outs that you can use as a starting point. The size of the problem and the difficulty of the solutions can be overwhelming. Just remember that whatever you do — even if it’s just upgrading one password or opting out of one data broker — will improve your situation. And if you are the subject of a hateful, vitriolic internet attack, read Anita Sarkeesian’s guide to surviving online harassment.Buy Photo Bob Knapp in 2003. (Photo: Register File photo)Buy Photo The timing between the puzzling death of former Des Moines developer Bob Knapp and the devastating fire at the Younkers building downtown is too coincidental not to investigate, according to a state agent investigating the origin of the fire that consumed the vehicle where Knapp's body was found Sunday. "You don't have to be a rocket scientist to say, 'Hmm, something is weird there,' " said Ron Humphrey with Iowa's State Fire Marshal Division. "I know other agencies are looking into his past (downtown) just to verify if he had any other connections." Knapp, who owned the historic Equitable Building at 604 Locust St., was released from federal prison March 25 after serving more than two years for improperly handling asbestos during a renovation project on the downtown building. He also owned Suites of 800 Locust, which his children took over until December, when it was
learner was wrong, or did not answer. When these roles were explained, the learner revealed that he had a heart condition.1 This experiment is famous because of where it ended; of the 40 subjects in the original version of the study, 26, or 65%, administered shock up to the final switch on the shock generator, well past the point at which the “learner” complained of heart pain and then stopped responding altogether. The lesson of the study seemed to be that people would violate their own moral codes and administer potentially deadly shock to an ill victim, merely on the say-so of an authority figure. But this experiment may be more important for where it begins. All participants—100%–began by giving only a “slight shock” of 15 volts in response to the learner’s first incorrect answer. With the experimenter’s assurances that the shock might be painful but was not dangerous, what could be the harm of giving 15 volts? The harm is that once people have given 15 volts of shock, they have no compelling reason to resist giving a tiny increase of another 15 volts. After all, they have implicitly conceded that 15 volts of shock is minor. And once they have given 30 volts of shock, why not 45? Each time participants administered shock—at first just a “slight” amount, then stronger shocks–that level of shock became the new “normal.” Consciously or unconsciously, teachers justified their behavior to themselves each time they pulled the switch, and each justification made pulling the next switch easier. It is much harder to see that giving shock is wrong and that one has the power to simply stop after one has already given shocks that increased from 15 to 300 or more volts. Thus did participants slide down the slippery slope toward administering potentially fatal shock (Modigliani & Rochat, 1995).2 Imagine what would have happened if Milgram had asked the teachers to begin by administering 450 volts of shock, marked XXX, beyond “danger: severe shock,” at the first wrong answer by the learner. To my knowledge, this variation of the Milgram studies has never been conducted. I suspect that “obedience,” in this scenario, would drop dramatically, perhaps even to 0. For understanding fraud, the useful lesson of the Milgram studies is the significance of that first tiny step down the slippery slope, however “slight” a violation it may be. Each minor transgression, whether dropping an inconvenient data point or failing to give credit where it is due, creates a threat to self-image—“Am I that sort of person?” To avoid the discomfort, people rationalize and justify until their behavior feels comfortable and right, making the next transgression seem not only easier, but perhaps even morally right. To be fair, we are all flawed, nonperfect human beings. Although the well-being of our science and our society, require that fraud be punished severely, merely focusing on the perpetrator may divert our attention from the fraud within us all. Although we don’t all fabricate data or run Ponzi schemes, if we look closely at our lives, surely all of us can find places where we took that first step, and perhaps several, down one slippery slope or another. Perhaps we transgressed in some minor way–snapped at our children, or borrowed a few words from someone without attribution. Perhaps we refused a request for some service or another because we wanted to focus on advancing our own careers. Because people are human, if we look for things we’ve done that violate, even just a tiny bit, our own moral values, surely we will find them. Surely there are ways we are not who our colleagues think we are—we are less brilliant, witty, selfless, or helpful than we lead them to think. We already know what it feels like to be a fraud, be cause in little, nearly imperceptible ways, our desire to be well-regarded leads us to conceal our mistakes, weaknesses, and foibles from others. Perhaps, while enforcing the standards of our profession, we can still have compassion for those who transgress, knowing that it is in our nature as human beings to try to get others to see us in a positive light. This analysis shifts the focus from “them” to “us,” and shifts the question away from, “How could they do it?” to “Why do we start in the first place?” and “How can we stop?” Why do we start? All of these transgressions, minor or major, may have started with a little fear of our egos. Milgram’s studies do not address the issue of why his participants administered the first 15 volts of shock. 100% of participants in his first study took this first step, so the data offer no clues as to why people might draw the line and not even take the first step. Through the lens of my own research, I suspect that something in this situation triggers egoistic concerns for participants; some fear or little anxiety was triggered. It wasn’t fear of losing their $4.50 payment for participating; Milgram assured subjects that the money was theirs to keep, no matter what. Instead, it was likely some fear of what noncompliance would mean about them (I wasted my time coming here; I’m not helpful; I’m the trouble-maker; I’m the one who screwed up science), or fear of being judged negatively by the experimenter. In some small, perhaps imperceptible way, noncompliance represented a threat to subjects’ self-image or public image. In the same way, the first small step down the slippery slope of fraud probably starts out of some sort of egoistic fear or anxiety—fear of losing someone else’s admiration and respect, fear of letting others down, fear of being seen as a loser, fear of being a failure, or fear of not getting the job, the grant, or the award one covets. How can we stop? The difficult question then becomes, how can we stop the slide? Again, Milgram’s study is instructive. A meta-analysis of data from eight of Milgram’s obedience experiments showed that defiance of the experimenter was most likely at 150 volts, when the learner first requested to be released from the study (Packer, 2008). Although not conclusive, this finding suggests that, for defiant participants, at some point concern for the well-being of the learner took priority over concerns for self-image or public image that prevented defiance of the experimenter. And this might be the most important lesson. Cultivating concern for the rights and well-being of others, making it a daily practice, committing to act on it—these things may help us stop our slide down that slippery slope. In the case of the 15 volt steps toward scientific misconduct, thinking about the consequences for our students, colleagues, loved ones, our institution, our discipline, or science itself might help us stop our own little slides, when they inevitably happen. In this regard, we should all feel gratitude toward, and admiration for, those people who took the risk to stop something unacceptable when they saw it. Surely, they experienced egoistic fears—Will they believe me? What will happen to me? Will my own reputation be tarnished? But they acted for the common good in spite of those fears, and I, for one, thank them. Footnote 1. For more information about the Milgram study see: http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/news/releases/50th-anniversary-of-stanley-milgrams-obedience-experiments.html) 2. I thank Marc-Andre Olivier for pointing out to me this powerful aspect of Milgram’s obedience paradigm. Reference Milgram, S. (1963). Behavioral study of obedience. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 67, 371-378. Modigliani, A., & Rochat, F. (1995). The role of interaction sequences and the timing of resistance in shaping obedience and defiance to authority. Journal of Social Issues, 51, 107-123. Packer, D. J. (2008). Identifying systematic disobedience in Milgram’s obedience experiments: A meta-analytic review. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 3, 301-304. AdvertisementsSouth Carolina General Assembly 120th Session, 2013-2014 Download This Bill in Microsoft Word format Indicates Matter Stricken Indicates New Matter H. 4923 STATUS INFORMATION General Bill Sponsors: Rep. Nanney Document Path: l:\council\bills\dka\3161cm14.docx Introduced in the House on March 12, 2014 Currently residing in the House Committee on Education and Public Works Summary: Bicycles HISTORY OF LEGISLATIVE ACTIONS Date Body Action Description with journal page number ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3/12/2014 House Introduced and read first time (House Journal-page 13) 3/12/2014 House Referred to Committee on Education and Public Works (House Journal-page 13) View the latest legislative information at the website VERSIONS OF THIS BILL 3/12/2014 (Text matches printed bills. Document has been reformatted to meet World Wide Web specifications.) A BILL TO AMEND THE CODE OF LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1976, BY ADDING SECTION 56-1-1715 SO AS TO REQUIRE THE OWNER OF A BICYCLE TO OBTAIN A PERMIT FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF MOTOR VEHICLES AND LIABILITY INSURANCE AS IS REQUIRED OF MOTOR VEHICLES BEFORE OPERATING A BICYCLE ALONG A HIGHWAY WHOSE MAXIMUM SPEED LIMIT IS AT LEAST THIRTY-FIVE MILES AN HOUR; AND BY ADDING SECTION 56-3-115 SO AS TO PROVIDE THAT NOTWITHSTANDING ANY OTHER PROVISION OF LAW, FOR THE PURPOSES OF REGISTRATION AND THE REQUIRED LIMITS OF LIABILITY INSURANCE, A MOPED IS A MOTOR VEHICLE. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina: SECTION 1. Article 9, Chapter 1, Title 56 of the 1976 Code is amended by adding: "Section 56-1-1715. (A) Notwithstanding another provision of law, the owner of a bicycle who is at least fifteen years old shall obtain a bicycle permit from the Department of Motor Vehicles upon payment of a fee of five dollars and maintain liability insurance on the bicycle as is required of an owner of a motor vehicle as provided in Chapter 77, Title 38, before operating the bicycle along a highway whose maximum speed limit is at least thirty-five miles an hour. (B) Before the department issues a bicycle permit, the applicant must pass successfully all parts of a bicycle safety written examination that is developed by the department. The examination shall include a test of the applicant's eyesight, as pertains to the operation of a bicycle, a test of his ability to read and understand highway signs regulating, warning, and directing traffic and his knowledge of the traffic laws of this State. This permit must be in the applicant's immediate possession when the bicycle is operated along a highway whose maximum speed limit is at least thirty-five miles an hour. A person who is less than fifteen years old may not operate a bicycle along a highway whose maximum speed limit is at least thirty-five miles an hour." SECTION 2. Article 3, Chapter 3, Title 56 of the 1976 Code is amended by adding: "Section 56-3-115. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, for the purposes of registration and the required limits of liability insurance, a moped is a motor vehicle." SECTION 3. This act takes effect upon approval by the Governor. ----XX---- This web page was last updated on March 18, 2014 at 10:13 AMPresident Donald Trump makes his way to board Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C, on Feb. 24. Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images President Donald Trump is getting ready to mark his 100 days in office as the least popular commander in chief of the modern era at this point in their presidency. But among his supporters, 96 percent of those who voted for Trump said they would do it all over again if the election were held today, and only 2 percent say they regret supporting him, according to the latest Washington Post/ABC News poll. In contrast, 85 percent of Americans who voted for Hillary Clinton said they’d vote for her if the election were held today. That’s not because Clinton voters would support Trump, but rather because they say they’d be more willing to back a third-party candidate or not vote at all. The poll makes clear what numerous surveys have already pointed out: Trump has not enjoyed the typical 100-day honeymoon period. Overall, only 42 percent of Americans approve of Trump’s performance as president, and 53 percent disapprove. The number is worse in the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll that puts Trump’s overall job-approval rating at 40 percent, 4 points lower than it was in February. That is in sharp contrast to the average 69 percent approval for past presidents at or near the 100-day mark. President Barack Obama, for example, had a 69-26 percent approval rating near his 100 days in office. More than half of Americans don’t think Trump has accomplished much in his first 100 days. Forty-five percent of Americans flat out say that Trump’s presidency is off to a poor start while 19 percent say it’s been “only a fair start.” That compares to the 35 percent who say the president’s first 100 days have been “good” or “great,” according to the NBC/WSJ poll. That doesn’t mean it’s all doom and gloom for the president. The Post/ABC poll also finds some surprisingly positive evaluations of the commander in chief’s performance on certain issues. More than half of Americans—53 percent—say Trump is a strong leader, including 25 percent of Democrats. Plus 73 percent of Americans approve of the way he has been pressuring companies to keep jobs in the country. A plurality—46 percent—also approve of the way he has been handling North Korea. The president also gets high marks for his recent military actions in Syria, which 62 percent of Americans say they support, according to the NBC/WSJ poll. Still, despite these few bright spots, the polls point to mostly bad news for the president, as 56 percent say he doesn’t have the judgment to serve effectively as president, and 58 percent doubt his honesty and trustworthiness. The public also seems to have noticed Trump’s penchant for changing his mind, with 55 percent saying he doesn’t follow a consistent set of principles. Democrats should be cautious about getting too gleeful about Trump’s numbers though, as 67 percent say the Democratic Party is out of touch with the concerns of most Americans, according to the Post/ABC survey. Both Trump and the Republican Party have better scores in that regard with 58 percent and 62 percent, respectively. *This post has been updated to include additional information from the Washington Post/ABC News poll.Firearms of Japan were introduced in the 13th century by the Chinese, but saw little use. Portuguese firearms were introduced in 1543,[1] and intense development followed, with strong local manufacture during the period of conflicts of the late 16th century. Teppo [ edit ] Due to its proximity with China, Japan had long been familiar with gunpowder weaponry. Firearms seem to have first appeared in Japan around 1270, as primitive metal tubes invented in China and called teppō (鉄砲 lit. "iron cannon") seem to have been introduced in Japan as well.[2] These weapons were very basic, as they had no trigger or sights, and could not bear comparison with the more advanced European weapons which were introduced in Japan more than 250 years later.[2] Tanegashima (matchlock) [ edit ] The first documented introduction of the matchlock which became known as the tanegashima was through the Portuguese in 1543.[1] The tanegashima seems to have been based on snap matchlocks that were produced in the armory of Malacca in Portuguese Malacca, which was captured by the Portuguese in 1511.[3] The name tanegashima came from the island where a Chinese junk with Portuguese adventurers on board was driven to anchor by a storm. The lord of the Japanese island Tanegashima Tokitaka (1528–1579) purchased two matchlock muskets from the Portuguese and put a swordsmith to work in copying the matchlock barrel and firing mechanism. Within a few years the use of the tanegashima in battle forever changed the way war was fought in Japan.[4] From 1560, firearms were used in large battles in Japan.[5] In his memoirs published in 1614, the Portuguese adventurer turned author Fernão Mendes Pinto placed himself in that first landing party, although this claim has been roundly discredited and in fact contradicts his claims to be simultaneously in Burma at the time. However, Pinto does appear to have visited Tanegashima soon thereafter.[6] History [ edit ] Sengoku Period [ edit ] Ashigaru (foot soldiers) using matchlocks (tanegashima) from behind shields (tate). (foot soldiers) using matchlocks () from behind shields (). Japan was at war during the Sengoku Period between 1467 and 1600, as feudal lords vied for supremacy.[7] Matchlock guns were used extensively and had a decisive role in warfare. In 1549, Oda Nobunaga ordered 500 matchlocks to be made for his armies. The benefits of firearms were still relatively questionable however compared to other weapons. At the time, guns were still rather primitive and cumbersome. According to one estimate in 16th century Japan, an archer could fire 15 arrows in the time a gunner would take to load, charge, and shoot a firearm.[8] Effective range also was only 80 to 100 meters, and at that distance, a bullet could easily bounce off armour. Furthermore, matchlocks were vulnerable to humid or rainy conditions as the powder would become damp.[8] However, firearms could be manned effectively by farmers or non-samurai low-ranking soldiers.[9] The Japanese soon worked on various techniques to improve the effectiveness of their guns. They developed serial firing technique to create a continuous rain of bullets on the enemy.[10] They also developed bigger calibers to increase lethal power.[10] Protective boxes in lacquerware were invented to be able to fire matchlocks in the rain,[11] as well as systems to accurately fire weapons at night by keeping fixed angles thanks to measured strings.[12] As a result, in the year 1567, Takeda Shingen announced that "Hereafter, the guns will be the most important arms. Therefore, decrease the number of spears per unit, and have your most capable men carry guns".[13] At the Battle of Nagashino in 1575, 3,000 arquebusiers helped win the battle, firing by volleys of 1,000 at a time, and concealed across a river and breastwork to effectively stop enemy infantry and cavalry charges while being protected.[14] In the year 1584 Ikeda Sen led a troop of 200 women armed with firearms at the Battle of Komaki and Nagakute and in 1600 at the Battle of Sekigahara, rare example of Teppō unit, or musketeer unit consisting only of women.[15] Japan became so enthusiastic about the new weapons that it possibly overtook every European country in absolute numbers produced.[9] Japan also used the guns in the Japanese invasion of Korea in 1592, in which about a quarter of the invasion force of 160,000 were gunners.[16] They were extremely successful at first and managed to capture Seoul just 18 days after their landing at Busan.[17] Edo Period [ edit ] The internal war in Japan was won by Tokugawa Ieyasu, who established the Tokugawa shogunate, a powerful entity that would maintain peace and prosperity in Japan for the following 250 years. From the mid-17th century, Japan decided to close itself to interaction with the West through its policy of Sakoku. Guns were used less frequently because the Edo Period did not have many large-scale conflicts in which a gun would be of use. Oftentimes the sword was simply the more practical weapon in the average small-scale Edo Period conflicts, nevertheless there were gunsmiths in Japan producing guns through the Edo Period. It should also be noted that isolation did not decrease the production of guns in Japan—on the contrary, there is evidence of around 200 gunsmiths in Japan by the end of the Edo Period. But the social life of firearms had changed: as the historian David L. Howell has argued, for many in Japanese society, the gun had become less a weapon than a farm implement for scaring off animals.[18] Late Edo Period [ edit ] Japanese percussion pistol, 19th century, possibly converted from a matchlock. A few Japanese started to study and experiment with recent Western firearms from the beginning of the 19th century especially as a means to repel the visits of foreign ships, such as the incursion by British frigate HMS Phaeton in 1808.[19] Through the process of rangaku (the studying of Western science through the Dutch), airguns were developed by Kunitomo Ikkansai c. 1820–1830. From 1828, experiments were made with flintlock mechanisms.[19] The Nagasaki samurai Takashima Shūhan (高島秋帆) started to import flintlock guns from the Netherlands known as "Gewehr" from the 1840s.[20] He made the first modern Western military demonstration for the Tokugawa shogunate, in Tokumarugahara (north of Edo) on 27 June 1841. With the arrival of Commodore Perry in 1854 and the inescapable opening of the country to trade, rapid efforts were made at reequipping Japan with modern fireams. Old matchlock weapons were recovered and converted to flintlock mechanisms.[21] Boshin War [ edit ] The mounting civil war in Japan and the opposition of various feudal lords against the Bakufu during the Late Tokugawa shogunate led to serious rearming until the 1867 Boshin War. At the same time, technological progress was extremely fast in the West, with the introduction of the rifle, breech-loading and even repeating firearms, so that Japanese armies were equipped with composite technologies, with weapons imported from countries as varied as France, Germany, the Netherlands, Britain and the United States, and coexisting with traditional Tanegashima guns.[22] During the Boshin War, most shogunate vassal troops used Gewehr smoothbore guns. These guns were rather ancient and had limited capabilities, with an effective lethal range of about 50 meters, and a firing rate of about two rounds per minute. Much more effective Minié rifles were also used by the armies directly under the command of the shōgun, the Bakufu troops. The Daimyō of Nagaoka, an ally of the shōgun, possessed two Gatling guns and several thousand modern rifles. The shogunate is known to have placed an order for 30,000 modern Dreyse needle guns in 1866.[citation needed] In 1867, orders were placed for 40,000 state-of-the-art French Chassepot rifles, a part of which reached Edo by year's end.[22] Antiquated Tanegashima matchlock guns are also known to have been used by the Bakufu however.[23] Imperial troops mainly used Minié rifles, which were much more accurate, lethal, and had a much longer range than the smoothbore Gewehr guns, although, being also muzzle-loading, they were similarly limited to two shots per minute. Improved breech-loading mechanisms, such as the Snider, developing a rate of about ten shots a minute, are known to have been used by troops of the Tosa Domain against the shogunate's Shōgitai, at the Battle of Ueno in July 1868. In the second half of the conflict, in the northeast theater, Tosa Province troops are known to have used American-made Spencer repeating rifles.[23] American-made handguns were also popular, such as the 1863 Smith & Wesson Army No 2, which was imported to Japan by the Scottish trader Thomas Blake Glover and used by the Satsuma forces.[23] Modern period [ edit ] The Arisaka rifle family. List goes top to bottom: 1. Arisaka Type 30 2. Arisaka Type 38 3. Arisaka Type 38 carbine 4. Arisaka Type 44 carbine 5. Arisaka Type "I" model. The Type "I" was produced by Italy for Japan and was basically an Arisaka with a Carcano action 6. Arisaka Type 99 (Earlier Model) 7. Arisaka Type 99 (Later Model) For some time after the Meiji Restoration, Japan continued to use imported weapons. The newly created Imperial Japanese Army used firearms intensively against more traditional samurai rebellious forces during the Satsuma rebellion in 1877, with an average of 320,000 rounds of ammunition fired daily during the conflict.[24] After the Satsuma rebellion, Japan relied extensively on the French Chassepot.[25] Japan finally developed its own model, the Murata rifle, derived from the French Fusil Gras mle 1874.[25] This was Japan's first locally made service rifle, and was used from 1880 to 1898. An industrial infrastructure, such as the Koishikawa arsenal had to be established to produce such new weapons. Later, Japan developed the very successful bolt action Arisaka series rifles, which was the Japanese service rifle until the end of World War II.[26] Japan produced relatively few submachine guns during World War II, the most numerous model was the Type 100 submachine gun of which 24,000–27,000 were produced, compared, for example, with the British Sten of which millions were produced. During the war, the Japanese worked on a copy of the American semi-automatic M1 Garand (the Type 5 rifle) but only a few hundred were made before the end of the war and it did not enter service. After the end of the war, the dissolution of the Imperial Japanese Army, and the establishment of the Japan Self-Defense Forces in 1947, Japan relied on M1 Garand rifles provided by the United States. In the mid-1950s however, Japan's Defense Agency started to develop battle rifles of its own, such as the Howa Type 64[27] and assault rifles like the Howa Type 89 which has been gradually replacing the former.[28] See also [ edit ] References [ edit ]Aston Martin says Adrian Newey's new road car will be quicker than a Formula One car around some of the world's fastest race circuits. The new car, codenamed the AM-RB 001, is being built as part of a new collaboration between Red Bull and Aston Martin, with under 100 examples expected to reach production in late 2018. Newey has been given a clean slate to design the car and is incorporating ground-effects and a mid-engined layout to create unprecedented levels of performance in a road car. Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer said the target is to make a car capable of lapping Silverstone quicker than an F1 car. "As we sit here today, the raison d'etre that we've given the team is to be faster than an F1 car around Silverstone - or indeed any other F1 track," Palmer said. "I am sure there are other cars that can go in straight lines quicker than this, but we don't make drag cars, we make cars you can use. That is the raison d'etre we use." Red Bull team principal Christian Horner says the potential performance of the AM-RB 001 will underline how much quicker Formula One cars could be with different regulations. "I think it showed with unrestricted aerodynamics what is possible," he said. "I think that F1 has got scope to move the lap times considerably quicker. There is a step coming for 2017, we personally would like it to go further but we seem to be a lone voice in that. But F1 should be the ultimate. "Taking unrestricted aerodynamics, this car will be seriously, seriously quick. And the initial indications we have had from it have generated more downforce than any car that we have ever produced." Concrete details of the car remain slim, with the engine, tyres and expected performance figures yet to be released. "We're not going to talk about tyre suppliers or anyone at the moment, but we are well down the line with talking to all of our suppliers," Aston Martin designer Marek Reichman said. "For anyone involved this is a very exciting programme to have your name as a supplier on this car. I don't know if you played Top Trumps when you were a kid, but this will be the Top Trump for everything."The past few days, it seems like every member of the media has been all over the attempt to conflate the Occupy Wall Street movement and the Tea Party. One person who’s not getting in the act, though? Glenn Beck. It’s unsurprising considering that Beck really, really likes the Tea Party and really, really doesn’t like Occupy Wall Street. And so, today on his radio show, Beck had fairly negative things to say about one such person making those connections; Jon Stewart. After playing clips of Stewart asking how the protesters are not like the Tea Party, Beck claimed he couldn’t fit all the reasons in even the two hour running length of his GBTV show. After accusing the OWS crowd of wanting to murder and cannibalize rich people, Beck went onto Stewart personally. “You know, Jon Stewart, I have absolutely no respect for you. You are not a thinking man at all.” So Glenn Beck and Jon Stewart don’t see eye to eye on the issue. I will say this, that’s one way the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street are exactly, 100% identical. Listen to the clip below: (h/t) Have a tip we should know? [email protected] Harrison, the two-time Olympic gold medalist in judo, will begin a mixed-martial arts career in the World Series of Fighting. The move is not a surprise. Harrison has been talking about becoming an MMA fighter since she became the first American woman to win a judo gold at the 2012 London Olympics. After she won her second gold this summer in Rio she said she was retiring from judo and hinted at transitioning into an MMA career. Harrison told the website MMAjunkie that she will fight in the World Series of Fighting and also become a commentator for the network starting on 31 December. USA's Kayla Harrison wins second straight Olympic judo gold Read more “I just want everyone to be excited and expect big things from me,” she told MMAjunkie. “This is only the beginning. I’m excited for this new chapter. I’m excited to commentate. I’m excited to be a brand ambassador and help the World Series of Fighting grow their organization as well as help me grow myself as a fighter and a brand myself.” Harrison, 26, has a gregarious, outgoing personality that will help her as a broadcaster and the possibility of being more than just a fighter seems to have driven her decision to join the WSOF. She had long been rumored to be a prospect for the UFC, given her friendship with the organization’s top female fighter, Ronda Rousey. Harrison and Rousey trained together as rising Olympians before the 2008 Games (an event Harrison missed out on) and the two have stayed in touch since. Back in March, Harrison said she considered Rousey a “frenemy.” She said then that Rousey had encouraged her to pursue an MMA career but Harrison moved slowly toward her decision. She already understood many of the judo and jiu-jistu moves but had done little sparring and was unsure how she felt about taking punches. In 2012 Harrison became an American Olympic star as she excitedly celebrated her first gold. She has become a strong voice against abuse after telling the story of how a judo coach sexually abused her. Her Rio celebration was more muted but still enthusiastic perhaps because she knew it was her last chance at another Olympic medal. She will begin her WSOF career with commentary before eventually moving to an actual fight.This election year has been absolutely unprecidented, even for people who have no real interest in politics. The television tells us that one of the two most untrusted, disliked candidates in living memory will become our next President- while simultaniously mocking and berating those who challenge the validity of this "representative democracy". Red-baiting, rampant corruption proven by email leaks, and mainstream denial- how the hell do we fix this? The key to understanding the chances of real change lies in recognizing that the most important variable in that equation is us. Life isn't a tv channel or Facebook feed to get updates on; it must be interactive for any success to occur. Think of Bernie's groundbreaking campaign- did we all just wait to see the results? Or did we make it happen? Yes, we were driven by enthusiasm and hope back then, which is now (quite purposely) in short supply... It's not all our fault- this purposely widespread and worsening poverty gives us no time or energy to do much more. Our "education" trains us to be disciplined robots, skilled mostly at consuming, following orders, and fighting with each other over petty personal differences without ever grasping the bigger picture. That self-destructive cognitive dissonance is also a primary cause for this country's (profitably medicated) rampant depression and mental illness. A lot of the issue is our successful creation of a "viewer" society, where the majority lives off the media's narrative for their reality checks instead of actually making anything happen. Reality is external, somewhere else, something that you get updates on from Twitter. In our Coke-or-Pepsi mentality, any healthy skepticism about the credibility or motive of 'news' is mitigated by the choice of different flavored networks- 'lesser evil' narratives become "truth". Then add to that all of the indoctrinated divisive thinking perpetuated by over-hyped labels, categories, and blatant scapegoating. Community spirit and true patriotism is disintegrating, being replaced by every-citizen-for-themselves desperation which breeds populace infighting instead of cooperative pride. The establishment's version of society is just another corporate product that we were lured into, then became a stranglehold monopoly at all our expense. What both Bernie and Trump had in common was the idea that we don't have to be willing victims to it. But while Bernie's approach was civil, gentlemanly revolution built around equality and integrity, Trump's was empowerment of belligerent non-conformity and disrespect as a blunt anti-status quo tool. Thus, we Berners largely considered the Trump crew to be ignorant and chaotic; the Trumpers called Bernie and his fans weak, establishment, and "cucks". As is the reality in just about every polarized situation, neither are entirely correct... and neither entirely wrong. What Trump's crew has right is that we are the victims only because we allow ourselves to be, following the polite rules even when completely, irrefutably unacceptable. We've just been held hostage long enough in an undemocratic system that our own rights and freedoms are things we no longer personally defend, just wait and hope desperately that others will- yet our lives, laws, and opportunities are dictated to us, worsening, and we have proof it's rigged. It's completely valid; however, when framed in a mob mentality with a fairly universally distasteful leader, it's easily condemnable, thus easily dismissable, thus susceptible to the current mainstream media tactic of "Trump says that the elections are rigged, CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? Because if you do, you must support TRUMP. How can anyone be so anti-American? PEACEFUL TRANSITION OF POWER, SAUSAGE BEING MADE, now here's more celebrities!" In a capitalist land of scheming dishonesty, where respectful integrity can be perceived as a fatal disadvantage in business, life, and politics, Trump fans picked their well-qualified challenger. Consistency and trustworthiness came second to the justified anger and hatred toward the smug, elitist establishment "left". Under that completely untrue false-progressive flag, dismissal of the Democratic party also easily included their'socialist' alternative candidate. What Bernie's political revolutionaries had right is that populace unity is absolutely essential, and finding common ground is always more powerful and productive than finding differences to fight among ourselves over. His example was that respectful dialogue, even (or especially) with those with opposing views, could be done using merely facts, not incivility and cheap personal shots. He taught an entire generation what the words "civil servant" could mean. The contrast left many Berners logically analyzing everything and everyone with their now validated "unrealistic ideological purity", including the ridiculously over-covered Trump campaign. They saw the violence, heard all the cavalier rhetoric, and summarily dismissed Trump and his fans as irrational, dangerous fools. While Hillary must indeed be stopped, exchanging one ego-driven con artist for another wasn't just irrational, but a moral antithesis. In my view, both were doing the best they could under ugly circumstances to work for the common greater good- end of this neoliberal tyranny, recognition of the ugly reality for the majority, and swift accountability for those who orchestrated and profited off this corporate takeover and subversion of our democracy. Those are the overlapping goals I firmly believe we must build on to take our country back; surely it far outweighs what might divide us all? The rich, duplicitous political actors have taken over both controlling political parties, replacing representation 'of the people, by the people, for the people' with representation 'of the sponsors, by the corporate media, for the elite agendas' - which by their greedy nature and forced perpetuation must continuously run contrary to our own rights, freedoms, and any hope of sustainable quality of life. This affects us all, regardless of our personal political views. What most people have lost sight of is that a political party is merely a tool, not an identity. Protecting our futures and say in governance cannot be effectively nor ethically handled through empty slogans, high-dollar lobbyists, or focusing on trivialities while atrocities get effectively normalized. Successfully clouding this fact has allowed most political opinion and direction to become just dictated and assimilated, instead of generated and represented. How about instead of teams or details, we unite in basic ethics? I know we've been taught "winning by any means" justifies dishonesty and spin for the greater good, but this bad
credit “Marxists Internet Archive” as your source. Joseph Stalin was a great man; few other men of the 20th century approach his stature. He was simple, calm and courageous. He seldom lost his poise; pondered his problems slowly, made his decisions clearly and firmly; never yielded to ostentation nor coyly refrained from holding his rightful place with dignity. He was the son of a serf but stood calmly before the great without hesitation or nerves. But also—and this was the highest proof of his greatness—he knew the common man, felt his problems, followed his fate. Stalin was not a man of conventional learning; he was much more than that: he was a man who thought deeply, read understandingly and listened to wisdom, no matter whence it came. He was attacked and slandered as few men of power have been; yet he seldom lost his courtesy and balance; nor did he let attack drive him from his convictions nor induce him to surrender positions which he knew were correct. As one of the despised minorities of man, he first set Russia on the road to conquer race prejudice and make one nation out of its 140 groups without destroying their individuality. His judgment of men was profound. He early saw through the flamboyance and exhibitionism of Trotsky, who fooled the world, and especially America. The whole ill-bred and insulting attitude of Liberals in the U.S. today began with our naive acceptance of Trotsky’s magnificent lying propaganda, which he carried around the world. Against it, Stalin stood like a rock and moved neither right nor left, as he continued to advance toward a real socialism instead of the sham Trotsky offered. Three great decisions faced Stalin in power and he met them magnificently: first, the problem of the peasants, then the West European attack, and last the Second World War. The poor Russian peasant was the lowest victim of tsarism, capitalism and the Orthodox Church. He surrendered the Little White Father easily; he turned less readily but perceptibly from his ikons; but his kulaks clung tenaciously to capitalism and were near wrecking the revolution when Stalin risked a second revolution and drove out the rural bloodsuckers. Then came intervention, the continuing threat of attack by all nations, halted by the Depression, only to be re-opened by Hitlerism. It was Stalin who steered the Soviet Union between Scylla and Charybdis: Western Europe and the U.S. were willing to betray her to fascism, and then had to beg her aid in the Second World War. A lesser man than Stalin would have demanded vengeance for Munich, but he had the wisdom to ask only justice for his fatherland. This Roosevelt granted but Churchill held back. The British Empire proposed first to save itself in Africa and southern Europe, while Hitler smashed the Soviets. The Second Front dawdled, but Stalin pressed unfalteringly ahead. He risked the utter ruin of socialism in order to smash the dictatorship of Hitler and Mussolini. After Stalingrad the Western World did not know whether to weep or applaud. The cost of victory to the Soviet Union was frightful. To this day the outside world has no dream of the hurt, the loss and the sacrifices. For his calm, stern leadership here, if nowhere else, arises the deep worship of Stalin by the people of all the Russias. Then came the problem of Peace. Hard as this was to Europe and America, it was far harder to Stalin and the Soviets. The conventional rulers of the world hated and feared them and would have been only too willing to see the utter failure of this attempt at socialism. At the same time the fear of Japan and Asia was also real. Diplomacy therefore took hold and Stalin was picked as the victim. He was called in conference with British imperialism represented by its trained and well-fed aristocracy; and with the vast wealth and potential power of America represented by its most liberal leader in half a century. Here Stalin showed his real greatness. He neither cringed nor strutted. He never presumed, he never surrendered. He gained the friendship of Roosevelt and the respect of Churchill. He asked neither adulation nor vengeance. He was reasonable and conciliatory. But on what he deemed essential, he was inflexible. He was willing to resurrect the League of Nations, which had insulted the Soviets. He was willing to fight Japan, even though Japan was then no menace to the Soviet Union, and might be death to the British Empire and to American trade. But on two points Stalin was adamant: Clemenceau’s “Cordon Sanitaire” must be returned to the Soviets, whence it had been stolen as a threat. The Balkans were not to be left helpless before Western exploitation for the benefit of land monopoly. The workers and peasants there must have their say. Such was the man who lies dead, still the butt of noisy jackals and of the ill-bred men of some parts of the distempered West. In life he suffered under continuous and studied insult; he was forced to make bitter decisions on his own lone responsibility. His reward comes as the common man stands in solemn acclaim.Photo by Erez Avissar UPDATE [11/28]: A third demo, "Fragile Friend", has been posted by the same user. Two previously unreleased Radiohead demos have surfaced online, thanks to YouTube user klootme (via Poptart, What's Our Mission? and Consequence of Sound), who uploaded them last month. The tracks, "Girl (In the Purple Dress)" and "Everybody Knows", were purportedly released on their debut 1986 demo tape, when Thom Yorke and Colin Greenwood recorded (sans Jonny Greenwood) as On a Friday in the late 1980s and early 90s. Stream both tracks, below, and read an explanation of their origin: History behind the tape is that my husband was at school with the band and partied with them (before Jonny joined them!)...The demo was given to my husband at 17 in school. We used to go and see them play in Oxford and was friends with them. They were fairly inactive from 1987 -1990 as a band. But when everyone had finished Uni they got back together and tried to make a go of it.A video of a bank teller working at an extremely slow pace recently went viral across social media, garnering close to 15 million views, with users criticising the “lazy employee and raging in general about being made to wait in lines at banks. The unfortunate thing is, while the video does show that the woman is being extremely slow in her movements, it leaves out one crucial bit of information. Premlata Shinde, sarcastically called the “fastest cashier in the world”, actually has a valid medical reason for her processing speed. Activist Kundan Srivastava, recently posted Shinde’s story on Facebook, to give the whole truth of the matter. The teller is an employee of Bank of Maharashtra in Pune, set to retire in February 2017. The important detail to note is that, Shinde is not in the prime of her health, having suffered a paralytic stroke and two heart attacks in the recent past. In fact, she has just returned to her job, when the original video was filmed, after undergoing medical treatment during a prolonged leave of absence. According to Srivastava, Shinde has enough available paid leave to stay at home until February, but she returned to work so she could “finish her service period honourably”. The bank branch even set up a separate counter for Shinde, so she could continue to work at her own pace without holding up customers. Srivastava is furious at the customer, Balaraju Somisetty, who posted the original video to Facebook, whom he says had no prior knowledge of the situation and acted in ignorance. Shinde’s husband passed away some time ago and her only son lives abroad with his wife and child, and they can’t visit very often either. It’s likely Shinde has paid for her medical expenses on her own. “Hats off to all the women of our nation who are striving and working hard making all our lives and our nation move ahead,” said Srivastava. His video has, over the past two days, received just over 69,000 views, but that number is still growing. The original video meanwhile, while accessible until yesterday, has now been taken down. Whether that was because Somisetty saw the new Facebook post or received hate online for his insensitivity is still unclear. But one thing is for certain, the ‘world’s fastest cashier’ has a least gained a few admirers, who all wish her well and a happy retirement. The original Facebook post has been removed by Kundan Srivastava, the reason for which he elaborated in the post below. "I've deleted the video of 'Premlata Shinde' from Facebook & YouTube, because now, the world knows the truth and dignity of 'Premlata Ma'am'. The video was deleted because, I want the video not to spread from now. I posted to teach a lesson to such people like Balaraju Somisetty, shared a video on October 24, 2016 without having a little respect for women & senior citizen and criticized saying her ‘Fastest cashier in the world.’ spreads like a wildfire over 4.9 million views, 149,203 shares and 72k likes. 'बालाराजू' ने गलत विडियो बनाकर गलत तरिक्के से पेश किया, मैं उसी गलत विडियो को शेयर कर सही तरह से पेश किया। आज भी सच का बोलबाला है, इतना ही शाबित करना चाहता हूँ। I do raise my voice against evil, I will do for today, tomorrow and beyond. Love. k."Washington (CNN) Donald Trump's son, Eric, said Tuesday night that the Republican presidential nominee pays a "tremendous amount of tax" after being asked to put to rest questions about whether his father has paid federal income taxes in recent years. "There's a lot of talk tonight about federal income taxes. Can you just put this to rest? Has your father paid federal income taxes?" CNN's Dana Bash asked Trump. "We pay a tremendous amount of taxes," Eric Trump responded. "Federal income taxes?" Bash asked. "Yes --" Trump said. Later, Trump was asked to clarify whether he is denying past reports that his father might not have paid income taxes. report from the New York Times published Saturday based on 1995 state tax documents showed a $916 million loss by Trump that year, which might have allowed him to avoid paying income taxes for up to 18 years. The Times obtained one page of his New York State resident income tax returns as well as the first page of New Jersey and Connecticut nonresident returns. The Times did not look at Trump's federal return. CNN has not independently verified the documents' authenticity, but Trump's campaign has not challenged any of the facts reported by The Times. On Tuesday night Trump's so faced further questions about the returns. "Eric, my question though is, has he paid federal income taxes over the last 18 years -- yes or no?" Bash asked. "Of course, yes, absolutely. My father has paid a tremendous amount of tax. We as a company pay a tremendous amount of tax," Trump responded. "So if we ever see your father's income taxes, it will show that he has paid federal income taxes?" Bash asked. "There's no question about it. We pay tremendous taxes -- " Trump said. "Will we see it?" Bash asked. "Listen, when the audit is over, my father will release it," he said, later adding, "Of course I've seen my father's tax returns. My father pays a tremendous amount of tax. As a company we pay a tremendous amount of tax." Later, CNN's John King asked Trump whether the Trump family has business dealings in Russia. "We have no assets in Russia," he said. "If you know if we have assets in Russia, go and see if our name is on a building." Nearly all registered voters surveyed in the poll -- 86% -- say they see paying taxes as every American's civic duty, while 12% say that they see taxes as an unnecessary burden to be avoided.Doctor Who’s 2013 Christmas Special The Time of the Doctor (available on Blu-ray and DVD today) is significant to fans of the series for several reasons: Not only is it the highly-anticipated follow-up to the Doctor Who: 50th Anniversary Special, but it’s also the series’ 800th episode, and it bids a fond farewell to Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor and welcomes Peter Capaldi as the new Doctor. That’s a lot for fans to digest in one special, but Doctor Who fans are a special breed of awesome and The Time of the Doctor was very well received upon its initial broadcast. Matt Smith in Doctor Who: The Time of the Doctor (Courtesy of BBC Home Entertainment) Parade is proud to premiere this exclusive clip from the Doctor Who: The Time of the Doctor Blu-ray release’s bonus material, which features stars Jenna Coleman, Matt Smith, James Buller, Sheila Reid, and Elizabeth Rider reminiscing about what makes Christmas with the Oswald family so special. It’s a funny clip that also includes a revelation by Reid (who plays Gran) that this isn’t the first time in her career that she’s encountered the Doctor. [onescreen item=”5215773″ playerFill=”width”] Doctor Who: The Time of the Doctor is available on Blu-ray and DVD today. Matt Smith & Jenna Coleman in Doctor Who: The Time of the Doctor (Courtesy of BBC Home Entertainment) Also on Blu-ray & DVD This Week:CBS Television Studios / Screenshot by Eric Mack/CNET Google continues its efforts to bring us the world of "Star Trek" and life on the U.S.S. Enterprise four centuries ahead of schedule -- minus the really hard stuff like the warp drive. The company's latest effort along these lines, according to Android product guru Hugo Barra, is a real-time universal translator. Barra told the U.K. Times that "several years" from now, he envisions devices (likely Android phones or something similar) that allow people to travel around the globe without having to be concerned about language barriers. Barra also spoke of the ability for calls to be translated from one language to another in real time, so that a person on one end of the call might speak in English, and that speech would then be instantly translated into Portuguese for the person listening on the other end in Sao Paulo. In fact, English and Portuguese was one language pairing that Barra specifically cited as already providing "near perfect" translations on Google's prototype devices. Translation from Mandarin to the recently extinct Eyak language of southeast Alaska? Yea, that might be a little trickier. Before we go praising Google for another forward-thinking humanitarian initiative, it's worth noting that the ability to listen to and translate countless conversations across the world amounts to a brand new mountain of data for the company to parse for ad targeting and other revenue-generating possibilities. Also, Google might not be the first to master instant translation. I recently was given a demonstration of a similar instant real-time translation service for phone calls from an Israel-based startup called Lexifone that's not only available right now, it's also pretty cheap and accurate, if a little jarring (the translation essentially adds two loudmouth digital voices to a phone call). Nonetheless, I'd certainly welcome a universal translator feature integrated into Android at some point in the future, particularly if it does a better job than the current crop of third-party translation apps, most of which suffer from subpar speech recognition. Perfecting speech recognition is one area where Google already has a significant investment with its all-in approach to Google Now. Perhaps by the end of the several years that Barra mentions, we'll not only see perfected universal translators, but the full-blown "Star Trek" computer that people at Google seem to be so obsessed with.Asian Americans struggle with suicide Suicide Traditions, stigma make many reluctant to seek help Jeannie Wong is assisted by Margaret Chao after describing her struggle with suicidal thoughts in San Francisco, Calif. on Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2013. Chao was one of the researchers on a study which focuses on suicide among the Chinese American senior population. less Jeannie Wong is assisted by Margaret Chao after describing her struggle with suicidal thoughts in San Francisco, Calif. on Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2013. Chao was one of the researchers on a study which focuses on... more Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 7 Caption Close Asian Americans struggle with suicide 1 / 7 Back to Gallery (01-24) 11:31 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- Jeannie Wong arrived in the United States with the hope of starting fresh away from her native Hong Kong. But life in America has been hard. Four decades ago, during a visit to San Francisco, she met the man who would become her husband. She married him at age 30, and they had two sons. She worked as a cashier at a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown. The good years faded fast. Her husband beat her and called her names, she said. They divorced. She got along with her sons less as they grew up, making her think she was a poor mother, she said. With a family across the ocean, few friends and a limited grasp on English, Wong sank into depression. She was prescribed antidepressants and antipsychotic drugs, but thoughts of suicide still entered her mind. "I wanted to just walk across the street and be hit by a car, but finally I didn't have the courage to do it," said Wong, 72, a Western Addition resident who spoke through a Cantonese interpreter. Wong may feel alone, but many elderly Asians silently suffer from depression and consider suicide, researchers say. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Asian American women ages 65 and older had a higher suicide rate - 6.5 per 100,000 - than any other racial or ethnic group in that age bracket between 2004 and 2007. White women had the next highest suicide rate: 4.3 per 100,000. Feelings of isolation Even decades after arriving in the United States, many Asian immigrants, like Wong, feel isolated, finding it difficult to adjust to challenges such as linguistic and cultural barriers, discrimination, limited economic opportunities and social isolation, mental health experts say. If these problems are not addressed, the experts say, they seem certain to grow since Asians - a group that spans a wide swath of languages and cultures - are the fastest-growing ethnic group in the country. "Suicide is happening," said Joyce Chu, an assistant clinical psychology professor at Palo Alto University. "Can we understand what puts them at risk for it, and what it means for them to consider suicide so we can help people to better manage it, better prevent it?" Until recently, Asian Americans' mental health has not been closely studied, in part because some subgroups find it shameful to air such issues. "Traditionally, in Chinese culture, if you have a mental health problem, you tend to try to deal with it yourself or within your family," Chu said. "If someone has a serious mental illness like schizophrenia or bipolar (disorder), that family member is not talked about or kind of hidden." To better understand the factors behind depression and suicide, Chu and a group of researchers recently surveyed 56 elderly Chinese adults and 26 non-Chinese adults at Stepping Stone Adult Day Health in San Francisco. In the survey, the results of which were released last week, 15 percent of the Chinese participants said they'd attempted suicide. What's behind it Behind the thoughts of suicide were physical illness and family conflict, the researchers found. When faced with stress, the participants reported feeling hopeless and dwelling on problems instead of solving them. When that happens, problems fester, said Benny Wong, program director at Stepping Stone's Golden Gate Avenue branch, one of four locations in San Francisco. About 65 percent of the clinic's 300 clients are Chinese, he said. "They are confused, they have memory problems, they have mental health problems, they have medical problems," he said. "It shames them to get help." In a 2007 study led by Loyola Marymount University, researchers found that less than 9 percent of Asians nationwide seek mental-health services. That's much lower than the 18 percent of the general population who do. U.S.-born Asians are more likely to use medical services in general and mental-health services in particular than those born outside the country, according to the analysis, which was based on data from a 2002-03 survey. For many Asian Americans, immigrants in particular, racial discrimination is a significant factor in depression, said David Takeuchi, a professor of sociology and social work at the University of Washington who studies minority health disparities. Social status - both real and perceived - is intertwined with a sense of success. The toll of bigotry That relationship became clear in a 2008 study of more than 2,000 Asian Americans. Takeuchi and other researchers asked participants to indicate whether and how often they experienced situations in which "people dislike you" or "treat you unfairly" due to race. Participants also answered questions about their mental state. Not surprisingly, the more often the subjects experienced discrimination, the more distressed they felt. In general, immigrants often struggle when they don't feel like they belong to their new community, Takeuchi said. "Part of the issue for immigrants is how comfortable and how much meaning they find in a new location," he said. "That attachment or detachment can, over time, lead to kind of a good quality of life, or if you're not so attached, you may find a poor quality of life, including poor health, poor mental health, lots of suicide and so on." Reaching out to Asian Americans requires a high sensitivity to these cultural values, said Stanley Sue, a psychology professor at Palo Alto University who specializes in Asians' mental health and was not involved with the latest study. Finding solutions First, it's important to emphasize that mental health problems are common and often won't get better on their own, Sue said. In addition, medical providers should use bilingual therapists, connect patients with similar community members and use phrases like "positive growth" instead of "mental health" in their program names, to reduce the sense of stigma, he said. And it's best to use role models who can relate to the patients' perspectives, Sue said. "What's also very nice sometimes is to bring a recovering patient who says, 'You know, I had these experiences, look at how my life has changed,' " he said. "Those kinds of things really sink in to a lot of Chinese because it shows they're willing to talk about it, be open about it, overcome these kinds of difficulties, and I think it's very inspirational to a lot of Chinese." For Jeannie Wong, the Hong Kong immigrant, Stepping Stone serves as that outlet. The clinic offers therapy, dietitians, medical care, and activities such as field trips and music - things that make her feel like she belongs somewhere. "After I come here, I can talk to the social workers about my feelings," she said. "I also can make friends here so I won't feel alone."It was all looking so good for the Tories: an assured leader taunting a government in tatters. But recently, criticisms of David Cameron's background and his party's political inconsistency have hit home. Now the prospect of a Conservative landslide seems to have disappeared Seventeen miles south of Bath and a half-hour drive from Glastonbury, the Somerset town of Frome is one of those English settlements that rather suggests the country in microcosm. Bits of the townscape have a pinched, austere aspect, though close by there are cafes and clothes shops brimming with chichi affluence – walking around the place, you occasionally get the sense that you can traverse the entire social spectrum in less than 50 yards. The town forms the core of the constituency of Somerton and Frome – number 11 on the Conservatives' target list, and currently held by the Liberal Democrats with a majority of 812. On a swing of only 0.56%, it would fall to the Tories and be represented by a new MP: 30-year-old Annunziata Rees-Mogg, daughter of the life peer and establishment mainstay William Rees-Mogg and sister of the Eton-educated Jacob, who just happens to be favourite to win the neighbouring seat of North East Somerset. Thus far, Rees-Mogg has crashed into the national headlines only once: last week, when, with the rising noise of class warfare coming from Westminster, there were reports of David Cameron bemoaning the number of Conservative candidates with double-barrelled surnames, and suggesting – as a joke, his people later claimed – she change her name to the altogether more approachable "Nancy Mogg". Frome, then, seems an appropriate setting for a thoroughly non-scientific exercise: trudging the streets with an A4 picture of Cameron, and attempting to find out what people make of our probable next prime minister. Who is he? What words does he bring to mind? And what might he do with all that power? "He's like the young Tony Blair," says 34-year-old Sean Kirtley, whom I grab as he leaves a kitchen shop with his young daughter. "Politicians are all very smooth these days, aren't they? Would I vote for him? I haven't made my mind up. But he's obviously talented. And he's got more charisma than the man in power at the moment." Over the next hour or so, I make my way through the uncertain tangle of feelings that will decide the next election. People talk about Cameron as an assured, on-the-up kind of figure – and routinely contrast his skills with a sitting prime minister who, true to recent reports, prompts a kind of sad sympathy. The more malign stuff I hear about the Tory leader includes "no substance", "too much of an opportunist", and "he's trying to get across that he's the common man, but he isn't". Those with a more positive opinion mention his credentials as a "family man", his air of winning confidence – and I have no great difficulty finding people who think he should soon be in 10 Downing Street. "I hope he gets in," says a thirtysomething mother who talks for England but won't give me her name. She says she voted Liberal Democrat in 2005, but having opted for the Tories in the past, she's now going to revive the habit. "He comes across as an honest family man. I work in education, and I hope he'll make some changes. I think education's underfunded, but I also think there's far too much bureaucracy and paper-pushing. I know we're in massive debt, and he's probably going to put taxes up. I don't want to pay more tax, but I'd rather pay tax that's well spent. At the moment, it isn't." At the top of the cobbled Catherine Hill, however, I get a rather more swingeing verdict. The Little Red Cafe is the kind of small business that would surely cause your average Cameroon to swoon – all beautiful coffee, home-made cakes and retro-look fittings – but Liz Andrew, the co-proprietor, may not be their easiest quarry. Her answers, in fact, would gladden those Labour politicians who are currently trying to portray Cameron as Lord Snooty-gone-Thatcherite. "What do I think?" she wonders, half-glaring at Cameron's portrait. "Slimeball. He represents the kind of smarmy upper-middle-classness I don't like, really. I've never been a fan. I wouldn't put my trust in him, put it that way." I wonder: can she think of one story that sums up what puts her off? "Probably the cycling to work thing," she says. "You know, with his limo driver behind him." As is now a Westminster cliche, the occasion in spring 2006 when the Daily Mirror caught Cameron cycling to work while his chauffeur brought up the rear with that day's paperwork has long been established as one of his biggest mistakes. More than three years on, it still haunts him, and the fact that it is fixed in some people's minds as a byword for chicanery and insincerity crystallises another modern political commonplace: the Tory leader's supposed failure to "seal the deal". November was not exactly a glorious month for the Tories. First, Cameron bowed to the inevitable and binned his supposedly "cast-iron guarantee" of a referendum on the Lisbon treaty – to howls of protest from the Eurosceptic right. At around the same time, some voices suggested that the Sun's shrill noises-off about Gordon Brown's letter to the mother of a dead Afghanistan veteran had tainted the Tories by association. There were also ongoing mutterings about how the new Conservative emphasis on cuts and austerity was backfiring, those revelations about Zac Goldsmith's non-dom status, and Labour's attacks on Tory plans to effectively raise the threshold of inheritance tax to a cool £2m. Small wonder, perhaps, that seven of last month's 10 British opinion polls gave the Conservatives less than 40% – the figure they need if they're to achieve a majority of Westminster seats. Two weeks ago, moreover, the Observer ran an Ipsos MORI poll that put only six points between Labour and the Tories, and it all went off: endless media chatter about the rising chances of a hung parliament, and the possible dashing of all kinds of Conservative hopes. And so to the big question. In the summer of last year, when Brown's woes over the abolition of the 10p tax rate fed into Tory poll leads of more than 20 percentage points, the great Conservative dream of a Blair-esque landslide seemed within their reach. Why has that prospect now seemingly disappeared? When I speak to Ipsos MORI's chief executive, Ben Page, he says he was surprised by their last poll, and is at pains to remind me of Cameron's enviable personal approval ratings – but eventually he explains some of what might be eating away at the Tories' popularity. First, Page mentions rising optimism about the state of the economy – according to Ipsos MORI's research, the gap between positive and negative feelings about the economy's prospects for next year is at its highest level for 12 years. Next, he focuses on a general unease that seems to distance the Tories from some of their potential supporters: "I think there are still issues about the fact they haven't been tested in office. There are lots of people who don't like Old Etonians, though a lot of them are concentrated in Labour seats. And there's maybe a nagging anxiety about public services. None of those things are killer factors, but there's a slight queasiness about the fact that 'These posh people don't really understand real lives, and they're coming in to run to the country.'" Up at the University Of Strathclyde, the psephologist John Curtice talks about the share of people who describe themselves as "Tory identifiers" – not just Conservative voters but, in their own eyes, essentially Tory people. As things stand, the numbers of Tory and Labour identifiers seem to be pretty much equal, meaning that the Conservative poll lead is classically "soft" – made up of people who, as he puts it, "have at least the potential to disappear". Curtice continues: "The reason the Conservative party looks to be in a strong position is, frankly, not because they're doing particularly well. It's just that the Labour party is doing so badly. In terms of shares of the vote, no government at this stage of a parliament has been as unpopular as this one. The fact that Conservatives often have a double-digit lead is simply down to them being on around 40 and the Labour party coming in under 30. And 40%, by historical standards, is nothing." Cameron, as Curtice acknowledges, has problems that Tony Blair never experienced. Most fundamentally, unlike New Labour, the Tories are faced with an electoral system with an in-built bias against them: it must seem particularly cruel that Labour got a majority of seats in 2005 on a mere 35.3% of the vote. Consider also the seismic impact of the expenses crisis, and how it has squashed the prospect of any vast outpouring of enthusiasm for mainstream politicians. In 1997, Labour was able to wage war on so-called Tory "sleaze" and trade on the expectation of politics somehow being redeemed, which contrasts sharply with the across-the-board cynicism that represents one of Cameron's biggest obstacles. And then there is the problem posed by all those increasingly popular "other" options, in particular the UK Independence party. When I call Nigel Farage – who recently stepped down as his party's leader, but remains a zealous Ukip mouthpiece – he does exactly what you'd expect, revelling in his party's current status as troublemakers to Cameron's right. "I spent some time last weekend in Norfolk," Farage tells me. "I stayed at a country house, and went shooting with seven land-owning, farming-stroke-business Norfolk types. One of the people I shot with gives the party a very large sum of money every year. That's just one segment of England, but it's what you would call classic Tory territory. "For them, the breach of the promise on a treaty referendum is pretty fundamental stuff. They're also becoming increasingly uncomfortable about the whole issue of global warming. Cameron's encouragement and support for wind farm projects, a belief in increasing green taxes – well, that's the second area where they find themselves at total variance to him. The third is tax, where the acceptance of the 50p band links into the idea that there's no real difference between him and Labour. The fourth I would go with, which came through very strongly in Norfolk, was education: the fact that Cameron has turned his back on the principle of selective education." He finishes with a menacing flourish: "Over the last few years, there are Conservative sources who have said the Ukip intervention at the last general election cost the Tories 28 seats. There are signs that with Ukip where it is in the opinion polls today, we might cost them 50. And that could mean Cameron will not get a majority." If Farage sounds characteristically full of himself, it may be some token of these strange political times that you do not have to try too hard to find a similar fighting spirit among Labour party insiders. For all Labour's miseries, some pizzazz has returned to their campaigning, as seen in last month's online wheeze, whereby Cameron and Osborne were done up as The X Factor's joke-cum-phenomenon John and Edward, with the words: "You won't be laughing if they win." The idea came from Labour's ad people at Saatchi & Saatchi – according to one Downing Street insider, approving it "was a no-brainer; there was no research involved, but even we were surprised at how much it took off". There is, of course, a you-would-say-that element to Labour people's views of Cameron's alleged weaknesses – but it's hard to doubt at least some of what they say. Their essential charge is that many of the undecided voters Cameron needs to seduce are not convinced the Tories have undergone any kind of transformation. This chimes with a recent Populus poll, in which only 28% of people agreed the party has "really changed". There is also, they claim, a palpable unease about the Tory leader. "People kind of like Cameron; in lots of ways, his scores would be pleasing," says Deborah Mattinson, Gordon Brown's personal pollster. "But underlying that is a sort of scepticism. Put it this way: the car and bike thing really sticks. Even now, I rarely do a focus group where that isn't mentioned spontaneously by somebody. It's one of those things that's stuck, and the reason is it speaks to a truth that people identify about him. There's something about him that doesn't quite ring true. That's very clear, and he's never managed to make it go away." On the proviso that the observation is completely off-the-record, one Labour high-up tells me that Cameron's self-appointed role as the supposed heir to Blair may be working against him: "When people kind of fell in love with Blair, they hadn't really seen a politician like that before. Cameron is positioning himself in quite a similar way, and you know what? They've seen it before, and in the end, they didn't like it. It became very toxic, and I think there's a halo effect from that which is personally contaminating for Cameron." Then there is this season's great political hoo-ha: class, the Tory leader's elevated background, and the fact that Labour has lately decided to start talking about it. There may be more of an appetite for this tactic than some people would like to think: according to last week's Sunday Times, 47% of people polled agreed with the assertion that Cameron is "too wealthy and privileged to represent ordinary people", and 52% endorsed the idea that the Tories are "still the party of the rich". At the weekend, the privately educated Alistair Darling and the work and pensions secretary Yvette Cooper attempted to ratchet down the political attacks focusing on Cameron's Eton schooling, which points up an interesting unease among most of the Labour people I talk to. There again, echoing Ipsos MORI's Ben Page, one Labour pollster I speak to says that among the voters they meet, Cameron's background is undoubtedly an issue: "What it plays to is, 'Are they in touch with me? I'm a mum living in Harlow, working for £7.50 an hour and getting my kids to the childminder – what does he know about my life?'" What's perhaps most telling is that it is not just archetypal lefties who point to the political salience of all this. "We did really heavy-duty polling over the summer," says Chris Fox, the Liberal Democrats' director of policy and communications. "One of the things we did was take 20 or 30 people in the south-west who said they were thinking about voting Conservative, and spent four hours with them. The overriding thing that came out was even people who were thinking about voting for them weren't doing it because of any real endorsement of their values. And as soon as you got them to pick imagery for the Tory party, it was all about class, looking after one part of society, and all those things. That's in the south-west; further north, it becomes even more ingrained." So what can the Tories do? "It would be much better, psychologically and in campaigning terms, to be above 40%," says a high-ranking member of the shadow cabinet and Cameron ally. "But you can spend forever checking your pulse. The important thing is to be match-fit." Among
additional notable health benefits. Many of these herbs are antimicrobial, helping to ward off winter-time contagions, and nearly all of them are digestive aids, helping to prepare the gut for breaking down food, stimulate bile for the digestion of fats, soothe bloating and gas, absorb nutrients, and relax the digestive tract. The extra daily dose of antioxidants can’t hurt either, helping to address inflammation and its downstream effects. Herbal truffles are a simple, delicious, and accessible opportunity to tailor your daily ritual to your and your loved-ones particular health needs.Slideshow: Amsterdam design studio Denieuwegeneratie have buried a woodland villa beneath a mound of earth at a Dutch nature reserve. The manmade hill disguises the building on its northern facade and creates a blanket of insulation around the walls during colder months. Entitled Dutch Mountain, the house emerges from the hill on the southern and western sides, where a panelled wall of glazing folds around a staggered living room and kitchen. Bedrooms, bathrooms and utility rooms are stacked up at the rear of the house in front of an exposed concrete wall that separates them from the piled-up earth behind. A reconditioned car with its engine removed is positioned vertically against the walls of the kitchen to function as a bookshelf and cabinet. We've featured a few interesting Dutch houses on Dezeen over the last few years - see them all here. Exterior photography is by John Lewis Marshall, while interior photography is by Jaap Vliegenthart. Here's a description of the project from Denieuwegeneratie: Dutch Mountain The house is located on a historical agricultural plot amidst hayfields and woods in a nature reserve, a - for Dutch standards - hilly area. Although the plot has been overrun with small trees in time, it still bears the original character of the open field. To minimize disturbance of the landscape and as a reference to the surrounding hilly terrain, the house is embedded in an artificial hill. At the same time, this answered the client’s demand for keeping his ecological footprint with the house to a minimum. The embedding in the hill simultaneously functions as camouflage and as a blanket, hiding the house from view from the north side and using the earth as thermal insulation. One enters the house through cuts in the mountain, sided with panels of slowly corroding scrap steel. On the south side, the house has been opened to a maximum. The grand glass facade is framed in timber, which guides the transition from the artificial to the natural. The canopy regulates sunshine through the seasons and allows for a large terrace along the full width of the house. The terrace follows the split level of the ground floor, jumps up to the higher west façade creating a henhouse underneath. Finally, it curls back up to become the canopy. The frame is constructed out of lark wood, forested from the immediate surroundings and therefore making it a hyperlocal use of material. Detailing creates a seamless transition between the interior and the exterior: the concrete floor, window frames and terrace finishing are all flush and continuous from inside to outside. The spatial structure of the house is a rectangular 12 x 19 meter open space. Steel cross the entire 12 meter width allowing great flexibility to the interior arrangement. Inside the hall-like space, the rooms are stacked in a disorderly manner and built out of light wooden structures, facilitating easy implementation of possible future changes. The interior can evolve along with its inhabitants, a young family, rooms being added or removed through time. There is a binary spatial experience in the house. Either you are in a room, with a cave-like atmosphere, daylight coming to you through deep cuts in the mountain - or you are in the large open space in front of the stacked rooms. This large space is oriented towards the 90 m2 glass facade which offers a spectacular view of the surrounding woods. The contrast between shell and rooms is clearly visible. The concrete wall, needed to retain the mass of the mountain, is left unfinished. The welding joints of the steel spans are visible and the wood is untreated. Within this rough shell of untreated construction materials, the stack of rooms tells a completely different story: every room is finished by the inhabitants in a unique and colorful way, which expresses the individuality of the boxes. The design is an experiment in sustainable strategies in both architecture - the hardware – and the technical installations - the software – which have been designed by Arup Amsterdam. The software concept consists of photovoltaics, LED lighting, wood pellet heating in combination with low temperature heating, CO2 monitored ventilation, a grey water circuit and the use of smart domotics. The result is a house in which the total amount of energy produced exceeds its consumption: excess energy can be used for a electric car. The house is bold and unpredictable: an experiment in sustainable strategies in concept, structure, material and technical installations. A house that blends quietly in its surroundings, but stands out with spatial surprises.I’d had serious relationships before meeting my fiance, with a couple lasting for years. I thought I was an adult; I thought I knew how to be a great girlfriend. Meeting someone I had a serious connection with taught me that nothing I had experienced before was real. True love feels different than casual relationships – even if those relationships lasted for years (often well past their expiration date!). When you’re in a good relationship, you learn things. You act differently; you think as part of a team, not as an individual making your way through the world. You’ll be more understanding and accepting of your partner, instead of just getting frustrated with them like you may have with past relationships. 1. Misunderstandings are inevitable. Misunderstandings are going to happen. If you take your partner’s words one way, then learn they meant something totally different, don’t punish them. Let it go. Bringing it up all the time is only going to bruise the relationship and cause communication problems later. Sometimes what you say or do will be taken the wrong way, and you’ll get frustrated that your partner doesn’t understand. Take a step back and realize it’s not a big deal. Misunderstandings are made to be swept under the rug because they’re so minor. They only become problems if you let them grow bigger and mean more in the scope of your relationship. Be laid back and forgive misunderstandings. 2. Learn to trust them. You have to trust your partner. Why would you share your life with someone when you think they’re doing something wrong every time you turn your back? If you don’t trust your partner to be faithful, honest, caring, or anything else, then you’re not in a good relationship. The best relationships begin with a deep trust, and even if problems come up (and they will!), the trust is strong enough to keep you together. 3. Let yourselves miss each other. You’re in love, so you want to be together all the time! It’s so fun to cuddle all night and be together all day, but when will you have time to experience different things? When you go to separate workplaces or schools, you experience things that will give you something to talk about later. When you go out with your friends and your partner spends time with theirs, you have time and space to yourself and come back to each other refreshed. You have a chance to miss each other, and it helps you really understand the value of your relationship. Missing someone is great because getting to see them after that period will make you so happy and so sure of your relationship. 4. Encourage growth and change. In a good relationship, both partners are encouraged to grow and change. You have one life to live – you should explore it to the fullest! If you want to quit your job and go back to school, your partner should support you. If you want to try something new or go back to something old, you should find support in your relationship. And you should give this support in return. Encourage your partner to explore hobbies and interests and meet new people. If you want your partner to stay the same, you’re going to have a very boring life together. 5. Compromising doesn’t mean you’re weak. Compromising doesn’t mean “giving in.” It doesn’t mean that you’ve lost the fight. In fact, it’s the opposite. Do you know how hard it is to compromise sometimes? You want your way because it sounds right and makes sense to you. Your partner is way off base with their suggestions. Take a step back and look at the argument diplomatically. What’s the logical conclusion? If your partner is right, don’t be afraid to say so. Accept their way, or modify both of your solutions to be half and half. The important thing is not getting your way, it’s staying in your relationship and helping it grow. Compromising will definitely help your relationship grow. 6. Admit your weaknesses. Your partner doesn’t expect you to be a superhero, and hopefully you don’t expect that of them! We’re all human; we all have flaws. It’s ok to let these show. In fact, to have a stable, serious relationship, you need to let your weaknesses be known. Your partner will be more sensitive to things that bother you, and can help build you up in areas where you need some help. 7. Sometimes you can only accept things, not fix them. People have baggage. You have some. Your partner has some. Can you go back and erase all of this? Nope! You’re stuck with it, and have to learn to deal with it. Some things are easier to get over than others, but the reality is that sometimes, you can’t fix things. You can’t make problems go away. You have to accept them and get over them and move on, or else your relationship will crumble. 8. Forgive quickly and truly. Whenever you have a fight, don’t worry about who wins or who loses. Learn from the fight – from what was said as much as from how it was resolved. Once you learn from a fight, you can apply that lesson to your relationship to avoid trouble later. That’s all well and good, but you’re not done! Forgive your partner! Forgive yourself. The fight is over, you’re past it, now let it go. Never hold anything against your partner because the resentment will build until you don’t want to be with them. 9. Never expect anything. Don’t expect your partner to read your mind, or to bring you breakfast in bed, or to offer to wash the dishes. It’s not going to happen. You can’t expect anything from anyone – you have to make it known. Communicate. Make sure your partner knows what you expect from the relationship, as well as your opinions on a wide variety of issues. This will help them act considerate towards you, but still – don’t expect anything! 10. Show your feelings. The worst thing you can do in a relationship is play games. Don’t tease your partner; don’t “reward” good deeds with love and affection. You have to make sure your partner always feels loved. You can be happy with them or be mad at them – it doesn’t matter – they just need to feel loved. They need to know your feelings in the moment as well, don’t get me wrong. But make sure you’re showing your feelings in a way that they won’t be misunderstood (back to #1!). Featured photo credit: Romantic young valentine couple in love kissing in cafe. Candid view through window glass. via shutterstock.com Allison Renner I’m a freelance writer with a background in fiction and a newfound passion for non-fiction. I write articles, columns, and personal essays, while still striving to achieve my preteen dream of writing for Saturday Night Live. I blog regularly at AllisonWrites.com. Credits: Lifehack. Guest.Fox News’ James Rosen Screenshot via C-SPAN The Obama Justice Department’s crusade against leakers just took a quantum leap—and it’s extremely worrisome. It’s one thing to go after officials who leak classified information to the press. The Obama administration has gone after more of them than all previous administrations combined. Nonetheless, officials with security clearances sign a contract pledging not to share material with the outside world—and they know they could face criminal penalties if they do. (Daniel Ellsberg figured he might go to prison for leaking the Pentagon Papers and was willing to make the sacrifice.) However, it’s something else entirely to go after a reporter who receives the leak. That’s what federal prosecutors are doing to James Rosen, the chief Washington correspondent for Fox News. And they’re going after him not as a witness to a crime—nor as a pressure tactic to get him to give up his source (in this case, the source has already been caught)—but rather, in the words of a Justice Department affidavit, as “an aider, an abettor, and/or a co-conspirator”: in short, as someone who might be indicted under the Espionage Act. This has never happened in this country. (Even in the Pentagon Papers case, several newspapers were served injunctions not to publish stories, but no reporter or editor was ever investigated, much less tried, as a co-conspirator.) If the prosecutors go through with their threat, the entire enterprise of national security journalism—which inherently involves uncovering secrets, to some degree—will be in jeopardy. A similar case occurred in 2006, during George W. Bush’s presidency. In United States v. Lawrence Anthony Franklin, et al., prosecutors indicted a Pentagon official and two policy analysts with AIPAC under the federal espionage statute. The official, Larry Franklin, was charged with leaking classified information. (He pleaded guilty and served a brief sentence.) The two AIPAC analysts, Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman, were charged simply with receiving it. The section of the indictment titled “Ways and Means of the Conspiracy” found that Rosen and Weissman: “… would cultivate relations with Franklin and others and would use their contacts within the U.S. government and elsewhere to gather sensitive information, including classified information, relating to national defense, for subsequent unlawful communication, delivery and transmission to persons not entitled to receive it.” Those final words are worth noting. They were charged with giving classified information not to foreign governments or spies but simply “to persons not entitled to receive it.” As I noted in a Slate column at the time, “This is what journalists do routinely every day. They receive information from insiders, write it up in a story, send it to editors, who publish it in newspapers, magazines, wire services, or on Web sites … which are seen by readers who have not been officially authorized to view that classified material.” If Rosen and Weissman were prosecuted for joining in a “conspiracy” with Franklin on the grounds that they’d received classified material, then the New York Times, Washington Post, The New Yorker, or any number of other publications could be next. The presiding U.S. District Court judge, T.S. Ellis, made this same inference, noting that the law “applies to academics, lawyers, journalists, professors, whatever.” In the end, though, Ellis dismissed the indictment against the AIPAC analysts for precisely that reason, noting that the statute was too vague, broad, and draconian. (For a jaw-dropping list of all the activities prohibited by the federal espionage statute, click here.) Now, though, President Obama’s prosecutors are pushing the logic of the AIPAC case to its absurd extreme: They’re labeling a reporter who received classified information as a criminal abettor or co-conspirator. Rosen’s Fox News story, which appeared in June 2009, did contain serious, possibly damaging intelligence information. It reported that North Korea was likely to respond to some United Nations sanctions, which had just been handed down, by conducting a nuclear-weapons test. It also reported that the CIA learned of this from sources inside North Korea. The key fact, from a prosecutor’s viewpoint, was that any North Korean official reading this story would now know that the CIA had sources inside North Korea—and that the source (whether it was a human spy, a phone tap, or whatever) would subsequently be shut down, one way or another. Rosen’s source for the story was Stephen Jin-Woo Kim, a State Department adviser and one of a small number of officials who received a top-secret memo about the CIA finding. Few dispute the Justice Department’s right to prosecute Kim, who did break his security pledge (though many are critical of how often, and how relentlessly, the Obama administration pursues leakers). One might also criticize Rosen or his editors for not writing the story in a way that finessed the fact that the information came from a source inside North Korea. But that’s different from arresting him under the Espionage Act. It’s possible that the prosecutors won’t indict Rosen, that they called him a criminal co-conspirator in their court affidavit in order to boost the chances that the judge would approve their request to track his email, phone calls, and movements. However, even if that is the case, it’s a dangerous game. Some future prosecutor could use the Rosen affidavit as a precedent to go all the way, to treat some similar reporter—potentially all reporters on the national security beat—as criminal conspirators. During the Franklin trial back in 2006, Viet Dinh, a former Bush Justice Department lawyer who’d helped write the Patriot Act, filed a “memorandum of law” in support of the AIPAC analysts’ motion to dismiss their indictment. Dinh wrote that the espionage statute had never been applied to recipients of classified information—and that its language is so vague that recipients had no way of knowing whether they were breaking the law. It would be ironic if we have to rely on a Bush lawyer’s reasoning to block Obama’s prosecutors from going too far.Massachusetts Legislature SHARE STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE A PRO-LEGALIZATION SENATOR will lead the Senate’s effort to make changes to the marijuana ballot law after Senate President Stanley tapped Somerville Sen. Patricia Jehlen to lead the new Committee on Marijuana Policy. Get the Daily Download Our news roundup delivered every weekday. Email * Jehlen, who supported the legalization campaign last fall, will take the lead for the Senate as the branch looks to work with the House over the next several months to revamp the new law and review everything from taxes on retail sales of marijuana to local control over the location of pot shops and the potency of edible marijuana products. The House chair of the committee is expected to be announced on Thursday. Sen. Jason Lewis, a legal marijuana opponent, will serve as vice chairman of the new committee. Lewis spearheaded the Senate’s marijuana policy research last session and emerged as a vocal opponent of the ballot law, prompting advocates to urge against his appointment to lead the committee. Until recently it looked as if Lewis would land the chairmanship, but Rosenberg went in a different direction. Jim Borghesani, who helped lead the campaign for the marijuana ballot question, hailed the selection of Jehlen. “We’re very pleased with the balance of the appointees that the Senate president has put on the panel. We hope the House speaker follows the same approach,” he said. “We hope the will of the voters is respected.” Six weeks into the new session, Senate Democrats caucused in private on Wednesday to ratify the leadership and committee assignments proposed by Rosenberg. Some of shuffling at the top of the leadership ranks was spurred by the departure of three Democratic senators who did not seek re-election in November. Lewis will take over as chairman of the Committee on Labor and Workforce Development at a time when unions and other groups are threatening to go to the ballot in 2018 if the Legislature does not approve a $15-an-hour minimum wage. He takes over the committee from former Sen. Dan Wolf. Sen. Michael Barrett, a major proponent of carbon pricing, will succeed Benjamin Downing as chair of the Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy, a panel expected to weigh major policy changes as lawmakers continue to examine energy sources, pricing, and reliability. Sen. Eileen Donoghue takes over this session from Wolf as chair of the Committee on Steering Policy and Scheduling. Donoghue will also co-chair the new Committee on Export Development. The other senator to leave after last session was Milton senator Brian Joyce. His position as chairman of State Administration and Regulatory Oversight will be filled by his replacement, Sen. Walter Timilty of Milton. Sen Kenneth Donnelly, an Arlington Democrat who has returned to work after battling cancer late last year, will take Joyce’s post in the leadership ranks as one of three assistant majority leaders alongside Sen. Cynthia Creem and Sen. Mark Montigny. Sen. Michael Rodrigues, a Westport Democrat, moves up one slot to fill Donnelly’s previous position as majority whip, and Sens. Linda Forry and Joan Lovely will serve as assistant majority whips. The Senate this week created an extra assistant majority whip position in its rules to accommodate the appointments, which carry with it a new $35,000 stipend authorized under the pay raises approved this month. Apart from those changes, the upper ranks of Rosenberg’s leadership team remain unchanged as he begins his second term at the helm of the Senate. Meet the Author Matt Murphy State House News Service Sen. Harriette Chandler returns as majority leader and will also chair the Redistricting Committee that Downing vacated. Sen. Marc Pacheco will continue as Senate president pro tempore and Sen. Karen Spilka will also stay on for her second cycle as chairwoman of Ways and Means. SHAREISRAEL and the Palestinian Authority are bracing for an escalation of violence in the West Bank following threats of retribution yesterday by militant Palestinian group Hamas for acts of "treason" by its Palestinian rivals. Following its drive-by killings last week of four Jewish settlers, Hamas warned Fatah, which through the Palestinian Authority controls the West Bank, that its "hands" could reach it. On its website, Hamas said: "We call on you, Fatah militia, to learn from what happened in Gaza before the people reject you. You know that the hands that have reached the heart of the occupier can reach you, too. Learn the lesson before it's too late to change your mind." Read Next Separately, a spokesman warned of retribution for the Palestinian Authority's arrest of Hamas supporters, including six men alleged to be responsible for the four deaths last week and two injuries of Israelis in an attack the following night. The men have yet to be handed over to Israel but if this happened, it could be the trigger for a new round of Fatah-Hamas violence. Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum said: "The continuation of this criminal campaign crosses all red lines and is direct collaboration with the enemy in the light of day. It will only increase Hamas's determination to continue the resistance and intensify our painful strikes on the Zionist enemy." Diplomats who this week had contact with Hamas in Gaza told The Australian there was a clear message that more attacks were possible. One diplomat described a sense of "celebration" over the four deaths while another said it was clear the go-ahead had been given for such attacks. Hamas is expected to do whatever it can to sabotage new peace talks - so far, Israel has been prepared to allow the PA to handle the response to the shootings in the West Bank while Israel has responded in Gaza. Overnight, Israel bombed what it said was a Hamas headquarters in Gaza in response to rocket attacks on Israel. The army said: "The IDF will not tolerate any attempt to hurt Israeli citizens and IDF soldiers and shall continue to operate decisively and powerfully against any element that utilises terror against Israel." Meanwhile, Iranian TV reported that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would visit Lebanon next month, his first visit since taking power five years ago. It said he would use the trip to visit the Lebanon-Israel border - which would heighten tensions with Israel as it weighs a strike on Iran to disable its nuclear program. A new poll has found an increase in the number of Americans supporting US help for a strike by Israel on Iran. Fifty-one per cent agreed such help should be given - up 9 per cent on two years ago. About 77 per cent believed Palestinians should acknowledge Israel as a Jewish state - something the Palestinian leadership says it will not do as it would alienate the Arabs living in Israel - while 51 per cent said Israel should accept the creation of a Palestinian state.The US Air Force has relaunched the first of its super-secret X-37B spaceplanes, the OTV-1, sending it on another mysterious mission in space. OTV-1's first mission was back in 2010. The experimental unmanned spaceship headed off from Cape Canaveral yesterday, just a few months after the second X-37B, OTV-2, made an autonomous landing at Vandenberg Air Force Base. The OTV-2 touched down on 11 June, after a record 469 days in space. The Air Force never reveals the exact purpose of each mission of these little reusable space vehicles, only saying that in general they run experiments on the craft that can then be returned to Earth. These include projects in advanced guidance, navigation and control, thermal protection systems, avionics, high temperature structures and seals, conformal reusable insulation, lightweight electromechanical flight systems and autonomous orbital flight, re-entry and landing. "We couldn't be more pleased with the strides we've made in this program and the success of the X-37B vehicle on the first two flights," Richard McKinney, deputy undersecretary of the Air Force for Space, said in a canned statement. "However, it is important to keep in mind that this is an experimental vehicle and a third mission is still relatively young for a test program. This is the first re-flight of a vehicle so that is certainly a key objective for us. We have only just begun what is a very systematic checkout of the system." OTV-1 spent 224 days in space after launching in April 2010, before getting refurbished for this mission. "This mission will incorporate the lessons learned during the refurbishment process on OTV-1," X-37B programme manager Lieutenant Colonel Tom McIntyre said. "As the X-37B program is examining the affordability and reusability of space vehicles, validation through testing is vital to the process. We are excited to see how this vehicle performs on a second flight." The Air Force naturally didn't say how long the OTV-1 would be up there this time round, that depends on "the execution of test objectives" and other factors, but it has an in-orbit shelf life of around nine months. ®A preserved skull recently discovered in Argentina belongs to an enormous dinosaur called Sarmientosaurus musacchioi, paleontologists announced in a new study published in the journal PLOS ONE. Sarmientosaurus could provide a lot of new insight into a class of dinosaurs called Titanosaurs. "Discoveries like Sarmientosaurus happen once in a lifetime," paleontologist Rubén Martínez said in a statement. PLOS ONE The Sarmientosaurus skull. Paleontologists rely on fossils, especially the skulls, to figure out how dinosaurs looked and how they used to behave. There are over 60 species of Titanosaurs discovered so far, but most of those fossils are incomplete, and we don't know much about them. That's why finding such a pristine skull like this one is a big deal. "Titanosaurs included the biggest land animals ever, so we want to know as much about them as we can," Matt Lamanna, a paleontologist at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, said in a statement. "But to truly understand a creature, you need to have its head. And because Titanosaur skulls are super-rare, lots of important aspects of how these dinosaurs lived and behaved have really been anybody's guess." Now we finally have some insight. Paleontologists think the Sarmientosaurus lived around 95 million years ago and likely grew to about 40 feet long and weighed about 10 tons. Based on CT scans of the skull, it had a pretty small brain compared to its large body size. Paleontologists also think it had better vision and better hearing than many of its Titanosaur relatives. The specialized hearing may have helped it track predators or the movement of its own herd, paleontologists speculate. The bone structure suggest the Sarmientosaurus spent much of its time looking down, which probably means it ate primarily ground-based plants. "The Sarmientosaurus skull is beautifully-preserved, which meant that we could tease out a ton of information," paleobiologist Lawrence Witmer said in a statement. "It was really exciting for us to work through the CT scan data because it gave us a glimpse into the biology and lifestyle of this animal like we rarely get with dinosaurs." h/t The New York TimesDevelopers in London are building what they claim is the world's first "sky pool" — a 25-meter-long swimming pool suspended 10 stories in the air between two blocks of luxury flats. The transparent pool at Embassy Gardens will be three meters deep with a water depth of 1.2 meters, and will be constructed with the help of aquarium designers using 20-cm-thick glass. The pool will allow residents to swim between the development's roof-top bar, spa, and orangery (a walkway will be available as well), with prices for apartments and penthouses in the complex starting at £602,000 ($942,572). "It will feel like floating through the air in central London." "My vision for the sky pool stemmed from a desire to push the boundaries in the capability of construction and engineering. I wanted to do something that had never been done before," said Sean Mulryan, chairman and CEO of the Ballymore Group, the project's developers. "The experience of the pool will be truly unique, it will feel like floating through the air in central London." Another view of the Embassy Gardens development in south-west London. (Ballymore Group) Although the sky pool is certainly architecturally striking, the project can also be seen as symbolic of London's housing problems, with developers in the city often promising to build affordable homes in central areas only to focus on luxury apartments instead. Embassy Gardens itself is part of the larger Nine Elms development in southwest London, which is intended to regenerate the inner-city district of Battersea. Instead, say critics, homes in the $23 billion development are being marketed primarily to wealthy buyers in Asia and the Middle East, with locals simply priced out of the market.Political leaders and law enforcement officials in Arizona are on high alert ahead of President Trump’s campaign rally Tuesday night in Phoenix. The big question is whether there will be more supporters of Trump inside the Phoenix Convention Center, which holds 29,000, or protestors outside. Trump’s response to the violence at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., has become the biggest controversy to date of his presidency. ADVERTISEMENT The Phoenix rally, as a result, has become an opportunity for Trump’s opponents to show their force. Some GOP leaders, such as Gov. Doug Ducey, are steering clear of the rally entirely. Trump is moving ahead with the event despite a plea from Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton, a Democrat, that he stay away. Stanton said in a statement that he is “disappointed” that Trump would hold a campaign rally while the nation “is still healing from the tragic events in Charlottesville.” Phoenix Police Chief Jeri Williams said in a statement that her force will have “maximum staffing during the visit.” The department is “working 24/7 with our partners to ensure all of our resources are in place,” Williams said. Stanton said the city is committed to keeping everyone inside and outside the arena safe. “The Phoenix police is always professional and the FBI and Department of Homeland Security have been great about coordinating with local law enforcement,” former Arizona GOP Chairman Robert Graham told The Hill. Charlottesville isn’t the only reason to think the Phoenix rally could be combustible. The president has mused publicly about pardoning Joe Arpaio, the controversial former sheriff of Maricopa County, Ariz., and an early Trump supporter who was found guilty in a Justice Department investigation of racially profiling Latinos. Arpaio was found guilty of contempt of court after he continued the practices. Democrats are warning that a public pardon at a campaign rally would stoke racial tensions at a time when the nation is on edge. Stanton said a pardon would “enflame emotions and further divide our nation,” while Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) said Arpaio “shouldn’t be let off the hook for his crimes” just so Trump can win “some bonus points with his most racist supporters.” But some Republicans in the state believe Arpaio was railroaded by the Obama Justice Department and are eager to see his name cleared. Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) released a statement on Monday calling Arpaio’s conviction “the culmination of a political witch hunt by the Obama administration to sideline and destroy a formidable opponent.” "Sheriff Arpaio has been a faithful servant of this nation for over six decades,” Biggs said. “He should be allowed to live out the rest of his days in peace and confidence that his efforts were not in vain.” Trump may also use the rally to lash out at Arizona’s home state senators, John McCain John Sidney McCainGOP lobbyists worry Trump lags in K Street fundraising Mark Kelly kicks off Senate bid: ‘A mission to lift up hardworking Arizonans’ Gabbard hits back at Meghan McCain after fight over Assad MORE and Jeff Flake Jeffrey (Jeff) Lane FlakeBrexit and exit: A transatlantic comparison Poll: 33% of Kentucky voters approve of McConnell Trump suggests Heller lost reelection bid because he was 'hostile' during 2016 presidential campaign MORE, two of his most vocal GOP critics in the upper chamber. Flake is a ripe target for attack after the release of his book, “Conscience of a Conservative,” which argues that Republicans must reclaim the soul of their party from Trump. Speculation is rampant among political operatives in Arizona about whether Trump will meddle in the state’s 2018 Senate primary, where Flake has attracted a challenger in former state Sen. Kelli Ward, who will attend the rally — though not as a guest of Trump’s. The president has not made an endorsement in Flake’s race but has tweeted support for Ward, who is not viewed as a credible challenger by many establishment Republicans. Ward mounted an unsuccessful primary challenge against McCain last year. A super PAC supporting Ward’s bid has received a $300,000 donation from conservative mega-donor Robert Mercer, and several operatives from a pro-Trump outside group have peeled off to work for her. Trump has teased his support for Ward in a tweet, but many believe the White House is waiting to see whether a stronger candidate like Graham or state Treasurer Jeff DeWit get into the race. This story was updated at 12:06 p.m.As always, I'll post a more in-dept commentary on the pony over on my tumblr. apple-dew.tumblr.com/ Commissions are open! appledew.deviantart.com/journa… Be sure to check out my commission status over on my front page. I'm currently not looking for critique on my ponies; I'm trying to work out all issues myself before I turn to the general public for help. Nice comments and favorites however, are greatly appreciated, thank you! This is a commission, andfor sale.Sunset Shimmer is made of sunshine, canary and cherry minky.Her mane and tail are sculpted up with a series of stitches; she containsHer eyes and cutie mark are machine embroidered. The streaks on her mane and tail are appliqued on~I'm glad I got a chance to make a none mean-eyed Sunset Shimmer! She's such an adorable character and I think neutral eyes suit her much better~ @ u @This body pattern is going to no longer be in use.I'll be posting a plush with the updated pattern real soon! ^^United Kingdom Independence Party leader Nigel Farage (center) arrives at Medway Park, Gillingham, near Rochester, Kent, Britain, on Nov. 20, 2014. (EPA/Facundo Arrizabalaga) Over the past few years, United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) has become a big deal in British politics. Their anti-immigration policies and opposition to the European Union have won them two seats in the House of Parliament and may get them a few more if right-wing Conservative party members defect before next year's election. However, the party's critics say that the populism the UKIP espouses can lend itself to xenophobia or racism. On Tuesday, the BBC's "Daily Politics" show attempted to address the controversy, by holding a straw poll in London and asking random members of the public if UKIP leader Nigel Farage had what it takes to be prime minister. It soon became an embarrassment for UKIP, but not for the reasons you might expect. Has @Nigel_Farage got what it takes to be PM? See how the balls fall in @reporterboy film on Tue #bbcdp after 1200 pic.twitter.com/0rtIoW1KrK — DailySunday Politics (@daily_politics) November 25, 2014 You can see the BBC's segment here: UKIP now has two MPs and has been rising in the polls, but do people see the party as a serious political force... http://t.co/dDhct2B7U6 — BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) November 25, 2014 As you can see, the "no" vote wins. That's not that surprising: It's hardly a vigorous poll, and UKIP has struggled in London. UKIP was apparently not pleased with the story. A Twitter account run by the party's South Thanet branch responded by asking why the poll had been held outside of "a mosque." The problem was that this wasn't a mosque. It was, in fact, a cathedral. And not just any cathedral, but Westminster Cathedral, the most important Catholic cathedral in the entire country. The building's Neo-Byzantine style is, to be fair, relatively rare for a church in Britain. But it is definitely not a mosque. The next day, Alex Andreou, an actor and writer, decided to point out some other things that are not mosques. The hashtag #thingsthatarenotmosques soon became popular on Twitter. This is not a Mosque, but those gentlemen look decidedly 'Foreign' don't they?#ThingsThatAreNotMosques pic.twitter.com/y6POok2PUq — Steven Moore (@MrStevenMoore) November 26, 2014 #ThingsThatAreNotMosques But it's got a dome, it must be a mosque?! pic.twitter.com/hw61pPBBa4 — Edward James (@edwardajames) November 26, 2014 Cardiff City Hall. Definitely not a minaret, and definitely not a dome. #ThingsThatAreNotMosques pic.twitter.com/GXhbnKlxCJ — Abdul-Azim Ahmed (@AbdulAzim) November 26, 2014 #NotWhite, can't speak English, took all our toast and custard, and building a tubby mosque #ThingsThatAreNotMosques pic.twitter.com/y0EHzHjwqu — Jayke Harrison (@JaykeHarrison) November 27, 2014 The meme even found itself on
Pentagon bases F-16s and F/A-18 fighters and P-3 surveillance planes at Isa Air Base in the southeast region of the island nation.Ready to fight back? Sign up for Take Action Now and get three actions in your inbox every week. You will receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation’s journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here. Sign up for Take Action Now and get three actions in your inbox every week. Thank you for signing up. For more from The Nation, check out our latest issue Subscribe now for as little as $2 a month! Support Progressive Journalism The Nation is reader supported: Chip in $10 or more to help us continue to write about the issues that matter. The Nation is reader supported: Chip in $10 or more to help us continue to write about the issues that matter. Fight Back! Sign up for Take Action Now and we’ll send you three meaningful actions you can take each week. You will receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation’s journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here. Sign up for Take Action Now and we’ll send you three meaningful actions you can take each week. Thank you for signing up. For more from The Nation, check out our latest issue Travel With The Nation Be the first to hear about Nation Travels destinations, and explore the world with kindred spirits. Be the first to hear about Nation Travels destinations, and explore the world with kindred spirits. Sign up for our Wine Club today. Did you know you can support The Nation by drinking wine? Yuri Herrera’s Signs Preceding the End of the World (And Other Stories; Paper $13.95) is a deceptively small book—barely a hundred pages, with generous margins—and its prose is baked dry and hard, picked clean like a body left out in the desert. But just as, on the first page, the ground opens up beneath its protagonist—an interpreter, a hard-boiled go-between, and a pilgrim named Makina—Herrera’s novel contains uncharted depths beneath. On the surface, it’s a novel about the US/Mexico border, today, and Makina is a border resident as Dashiell Hammett might have written her, or Raymond Chandler, or Walter Mosley. But as she sets off into the northern underworld to find her lost brother, she is revealed as a Mexican Orpheus, traveling deeper and deeper through the nine layers of the Mexica afterlife, Mictlan the kingdom of the dead, ruled by Mictlantecuhtli and Mictecacihuatl. Ad Policy This interview was conducted in September 2015 over Skype, and has been edited and condensed—in collaboration with the author—for clarity and space. Aaron Bady: Signs Preceding the End of the World is your first novel to be translated into English, but it’s not the first novel you’ve written. Yuri Herrera: Yes, Signs is the second novel that I published. The first one is called Trabajos del reino; the third one is called La transmigración de los cuerpos. Before, I wrote another novel that will never be published, because it’s…bad. My publisher in English decided that they wanted to start with this one, rather than publish them in the order they were originally published in Spanish. I’m not sure why… I think maybe they were thinking of the migration issue, of the importance of that, and one of the ways you can read this book is a book about migration. In any case, the second book they are going to publish will be my third novel, La transmigración de los cuerpos, which will be called The Transmigration of Bodies. And in 2017, if everything goes well, they’re going to finally publish Trabajos del reino, which the provisional title is Kingdom Cons. AB: Are these novels a trilogy, in any sense? YH: They ended up being a trilogy, though that wasn’t planned. When I wrote the first novel, I had a lot of ideas I wanted to write, but I didn’t know when, or if they were going to have connections with the first book. When I was writing the second novel, though, I was thinking of the third novel. You know that cliché that writers have a fear of the white page? What happens to me is that I have too many projects, and I don’t have the time to do them, and I write a lot more than I publish. So these books can be considered a trilogy, but only in terms of the presence of certain topics, certain ways of using of the language. AB: How would you describe the connections between this novel and the other ones? YH: Well, you can only see these connections in retrospect. There should be an asterisk, saying it was a trilogy that was created afterwards. They are independent books, with no strict organic connections, in other words; there are different characters in each. But, that said, the protagonists in all three novels are what I would call “border characters,” though not only in the sense that they live on the actual physical border between two countries; they share the border condition, which is any situation where you have different individuals and different communities exchanging values, exchanging goods, always in conflict but also in different levels of dialogue. In different fashions, in different contexts, these three characters try to put things in contact. They try to put different people in contact—enemies, or people that seem to be enemies, or people that are far away from each other. They try to understand and shape the different roles that they are in the middle of, between. AB: That’s interesting, because as a translator, interpreter, and go-between, Makina’s “border condition” is not just that she lives on the US/Mexico border, or not only that. I mean, the novel is obviously set there, but there’s also a lack of specificity to the setting, a kind of mythic quality. It reminded me of Juan Rulfo’s Pedro Páramo, actually, in that way. YH: I get that a lot. AB: Was Rulfo a particular influence? YH: It’s not something that I was conscious of when I was writing it. I mean, I love Juan Rulfo, I have read each of his books several times. But he’s not one of my intimate, personal authors. I don’t mind being compared to Rulfo, because he is probably the best novelist we have ever had—but it’s not something I set out to do. GET THE LATEST NEWS AND ANALYSIS DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX EACH MORNING SIGN UP! Rulfo is, in Mexican culture, a monument. And monuments are in the middle of the square. Whether you know who he is or not, whether you stand in front of the monument and reflect on it, you organize your life around this monument. You have dates by the monument, you smoke a cigarette by the monument. You take a leak behind the monument. It determines a lot of things. And so, Rulfo, yes, of course! He’s not someone that I have as a personal teacher. But as someone who has read a lot of Mexican literature, Rulfo is important to me. He’s someone that I would like to learn from. There is this sort of dryness in his literature that is really difficult to achieve, and that I have tried to achieve. Of course, it’s not only him. There are other Mexican writers that have tried to do this; I would mention Jesús Gardea, who is an obscure, difficult author from the north of Mexico, who is not very widely read. And there is Ricardo Garibay, a writer from my state who wrote a lot of very different books. One of them—well, he wrote several that deal with the north of Mexico, but one of them, specifically—was called La casa que arde de noche, which is about a whorehouse of the border. It was only in retrospect, but I realized that I also have tried to learn something from that book. I have tried to learn from Rulfo, the same way I have tried to learn from Gardea or Garibay. But again, that’s something I’m not very conscious of doing it while I’m doing it. It’s something you realize later. AB: I love that way of describing the novel’s dryness. It’s such a small book, and yet Signs is also a big book, even epic. There’s something to the sparseness and blank spaces that makes a tiny novel into something vast. YH: Some of my first stories were written when I was living in the state of Hidalgo. Hidalgo is a weird state, because it was created in the second half of the 19th century, when the French invaded Mexico and the then-president, Benito Juarez, created a military zone out of parts of different states in the center of Mexico. When the French finally abandoned Mexico, this military area would become a new state, so it has a mix of very different ecosystems and very different landscapes. One of these landscapes is called Valle del Mezquital, which is a sort of desertic area. Some of the first stories I wrote, when I was a teenager, were based on this area. And so, one of my first tasks, when I started writing seriously, was to find a beauty in dry, hot, deserted areas, in this absence of exuberance. When I moved to Texas, I had already lived in Hidalgo, then in Mexico City, and then I lived for one year in France. But I wrote my first novel when I moved to Texas, and I took as a model that area of the border around El Paso/Ciudad Juarez. It’s one of the challenges in writing, to discover things under the surface of spaces, of people, of situations, of objects. That are apparently dry, or even, or empty, or without a lot of… AB: Layers? YH: Layers. Part of the interest and pleasure of writing, and the difficulty of writing, is discovering and recreating all those layers. AB: Those layers make me think of Dante’s Inferno. Is that kind of mythological structure—of the pilgrim that goes deeper and deeper—is that a part of this novel? Or should we use that asterisk you mentioned, that when you’re writing, you try not to think about those other books that might have influenced you? YH: I do make a deliberate effort not to. If you’re too worried about what category people will put you in, it will stop you from doing anything. And my list of favorite writers is always changing. For a long time, Boris Vian was very important to me, the French writer. Also, the American hard-boiled novel or what we call novela negra, Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Walter Mosley. And at some point, I discovered medieval literature; I don’t understand why many more people don’t read medieval literature, because it’s a time when writers are openly inventing categories; it doesn’t matter if they have visited a place or not, they are just creating an image of the world. There’s a border book, somewhere between a play and a novel, called La Celestina by Fernando de Rojas, that I have been obsessed with. Kurt Vonnegut, E.L. Doctorow, in some other moments. But this is a list that keeps changing constantly. Kundera, Italo Calvino. AB: And Dante? YH: About Dante, in my next novel, there is a very specific thing that I have… well, pretty much stolen from the Inferno, in the last page of that novel. In this one, when I was thinking about the whole novel, this was one of the structures I had in mind. But it’s not the main structure I was thinking about. There is a myth present, there, but it’s not Dante. It’s something that we can spend a lot of time talking about it, actually, this is the only novel where I actually did very specific research for the purpose of giving me a structure, and giving me particular symbols to use, and giving me certain features of several characters. But before telling you about this, I have to say that my purpose was to write a novel in which it was not necessary for the reader to know all these other things. All of these things that I am going to tell you, they were important to me, in terms of telling me an organic narrative, and helped me to establish certain connections between the characters, and certain symbols. But what I wanted to do was to write a story in which the reader could feel the density of that, but that they didn’t feel they needed footnotes, or wouldn’t need to go and look up these things. It’s not a re-creation of the myth; I’m using that myth as a found object. I take it, and I put it in this other context, in this other time, in this other situation, and let it do its thing. But I’m not trying to revive it. Anyway, the thing is this: Among the Mexicas, what are commonly known as the Aztecs (actually, their name is Mexicas, that’s where the name “Mexico” comes from), there were different places where you go when you die. One of them is the place where the warriors go after they died, both the warriors and the women who died in labor (because that was considered as dying in the middle of a battle). Another one was a place for people that died by water, like drowning. But another place, the place where most people went after they died, was called “Mictlan.” There were two rulers, though that was really one ruler, because—with this people—all the gods were at the same time two gods, feminine and masculine. There would be a feminine and masculine part of the same god, for example, the two rulers as the two versions of the one god of the dead. In order to get there, you would have to go through nine underworlds. In each one of these underworlds, you would have to face a challenge. Nobody knows the exact meanings of these challenges, because this is a world that disappeared, that was destroyed by the Spaniards. We only have a general understanding, not very precise. But we do understand that with each underworld that you cross, you are getting rid of some part of you, some part that makes you a living human being. And when you get to the last underworld, there is only silence; no others and no sounds and no life. The first Spanish priests identified that point as hell, even though there was no such thing as “hell” among the Mexicas. That place is the place of re-creation. In this world, you didn’t die and disappear, and you weren’t reincarnated: You came to this place of silence to somehow be part of a re-creation. I had known about this for a lot of years, and I had thought about it for a lot of years, and I had thought it could be the structure of a novel. When I was at Berkeley, I researched the sources that exist about this. There were not a lot. But I took certain symbols of the Mexica cultures, I took certain gods of the Mexica culture; in a very loose way, these correspond to the first guys that Makina visits at the beginning of the novel, who help her. And I took the names of these underworld as the titles of the chapters. But it was just something that I used; I wasn’t trying to tell you about the Mexica culture. I just used it, I took it, and then I did whatever I wanted with it. AB: Maybe not knowing all that it makes it feel more deep and vivid than if I did know. If there were footnotes, maybe I would feel like I had to look them up first, before reading. YH: There’s a way in which objects contain history: You can feel the presence of other times in stories, and objects. This narrative, this mythology, is an object for me. And the presence is felt, not as a paying passenger, but a stowaway. This is the thing with this mythology: Its meaning and its depth and its force is like a stowaway. It’s not supposed to be the main thing in the story. AB: What about the neologism jarchar, which Lisa Dillman translated as “to verse”? Is that a similar kind of stowaway? YH: The first thing I have to say is that I’m really happy with the translation that Lisa Dillman has done. This book has been translated into French, German, Italian, Dutch, and now English, and I always try not to put pressure on the translators, not to micro-manage. Translators know their literary field; they know their readers. But I’m always available and I’m willing to work as close as they want. Lisa decided to work really close to me, so, for months, we exchanged daily emails. Jarchar is a word that defines a part of a poem in the middle ages, in what is now is Spain, in poems that were written in Arabic characters, but when they sounded like what would later be called the Spanish language. In a way, this word defined a lot of things that I had in my novel. For me, this novel is about a character, Makina, who is in transition, who is moving in between countries, who is moving between languages, who is moving between identities. Jarchar defines a part of a poem, that is not strictly Spanish, not strictly Arabic; a part that used to be the last part of the poem, and very frequently it would be a feminine voice, saying good-bye. It was really just an intuition. I decided that I wanted to use it, without any explanation, and that I would use it very loosely, as a synonym for going out, going between one place and another. I know that this poses a difficulty for a translator, and this is one of the things that I discussed with Lisa. She decided on “to verse,” and I really like that solution. Because you have in English several words that describe movement like include the word “verse”: traverse, converse, reverse. And also verse as poetry. But there’s not a straightforward clear-cut translation; it has more to do with what the reader is going to do with the word. AB: How do Spanish-speakers read it? YH: It’s interesting, because in Spain people sometimes ask me if it’s a word that comes from some language in Mexico. In Mexico, they ask if I got the word from a Spanish text. This is part of what I wanted: to create some strangeness, to open some space for the reader to resignify the text in his or her own terms. Even if people don’t know where the word comes from, they will understand the function of the word—in terms of what it does as a verb—but also they will understand that it has something else to it. The fact that I didn’t use the word “exit” or “going out” will give the reader a hint that there’s something important that has to be named with a different word. It is not simply going through a door or exiting; it’s what this process is doing to you. AB: Like when a camera in a movie lingers on some object, and you don’t know why, but the director is telling you what to look at? YH: And you would ruin it if you explained it! AB: What is your opinion about the translator’s note at the end that explains all of this? YH: Well, the publisher wanted a prologue or an introduction. Introductions are fine with books that already have a life of their own, that have already been published. But with the first edition, it seemed to me that a prologue or an introduction can sometimes feel like a lightning rod. I told the publisher that if it is needed for the English-speaking world, fine, it’s ok. But it feels more like an apology than something that really helps the reader. So let’s instead include a note from the translator. And I’m happy with that because it reflects the very rich and creative relationship that we established. I think that was important, especially in this book. But in general, translators deserve a lot more recognition than they get. Translating is not just transposing a story; it’s recreating, it’s reimagining, it’s doing a lot of stuff. So I feel good about it because even though it explains a lot of thing, it leaves all the spaces open. AB: Do you know how the other translators worked with the word jarchar in those other languages? YH: I learned afterwards that the French translator decided just to translate in a very straightforward way, just “goes out.” I think it’s a very good translation, but this is a detail that I hope will be changed in the future, because it’s an important part of it. AB: Even “to verse” is not really a perfect solution. Well, there is no such thing as a perfect translation. It’s impossible; every translation loses something from the original, and adds something else. That’s why I can’t try to micro-manage every single part of it; if a translator asks me for my cooperation, I always do it. Otherwise, you have to assume, and just walk into the abyss. AB: Is it hard to let go of the text? YH: [long pause] Well, yeah but… I don’t show it [laughs]. You always hope the text, in other languages, is going to do the same things that it does in your language. But you can’t be absolutely certain. So you just have to let go.Source: Michal Bednarek/Shutterstock The misogynists. You may have heard of them. But what you may not realize is that they can be anywhere around you. They are notoriously hard to spot. They do not come with a label attached, and they may even come across as pro-woman. In most cases, misogynists do not even know that they hate women. Misogyny is typically an hatred that men form early in life, often as a result of a involving a female figure they trusted. An abusive or negligent mother, sister, teacher or girlfriend can plant a seed deep down in their brain’s subcortical matter. Once planted, this seed will germinate and begin to grow, the tiny root working its way into the processing and areas of the brain as its tiny stem works its way into frontal areas of the brain, affecting emotion and rational. The first signs of misogyny are barely noticeable, but with additional exposure to neglect, abuse, or lack of treatment, this behavioral seeding will grow larger and more prominent. But even when the misogyny reaches maturity and the tendency toward acting with hatred toward women can no longer be controlled, the misogynist and the women around him will often fail to notice the condition until it’s too late. The following traits are typical of the misogynist: He will zero in on a woman and choose her as his target. Her natural defenses may be down because he’s flirtatious, exciting, fun, and at first. As time goes on, he begins to reveal a Jekyll & Hyde. He may change quickly from irresistible to rude, and from rude back to irresistible. He will make promises to women and often fail to keep them. With men, on the other hand, he will almost always keep his word. He will be late for appointments and dates with women, but be quite punctual with men. His behavior toward women in general is grandiose, cocky, controlling, and self-centered. He is extremely competitive, especially with women. If a woman does better than him socially or professionally, he feels terrible. If a man does better, he may have mixed feelings about it but he is able to look at the situation objectively. He will unknowingly treat women differently from men in and social settings, allowing men various liberties for which he will criticize female colleagues or. He will be prepared (unconsciously) to use anything within his power to make women feel miserable. He may demand or withhold sex in his, make jokes about women or put them down in public, “borrow” their ideas in professional contexts without giving them credit, or borrow money from them without paying them back. On a date, he will treat a woman the opposite of how she prefers. If she is an old-style lady who prefers a "gentleman" who holds the door for her, orders for both and pays for the meal, he will treat her like one of his male buddies, order for himself, and let her pay for the whole meal if she offers (and sometimes even if she doesn’t). If she is a more independent type who prefers to order her own meal and pay for herself, he will rudely order for both and pay the check while she goes to the bathroom. Sexually, he likes to control women and gives little or no to their sexual pleasure. Foreplay, if it occurs at all, is only a necessary means to an end. He likes oral sex but only as a recipient. His favorite positions enable him to avoid looking the woman in her eyes. He will women he is or in a relationship with. Monogamy is the last thing he feels he owes a woman. He may suddenly disappear from a relationship without ending it, but may come back three months later with an explanation designed to lure the woman back in. Only rarely will a misogynist possess every one of these traits, which makes it harder to identify them. Their ability to lure women in with their charm and charisma adds to the difficulty of spotting the early-warning signs. Women haters (unconsciously) get off on treating women badly. Every time they can put down a woman or hurt her feelings, they unconsciously feel good because deep down in their hidden brain, their bad behavior is rewarded with a dose of the pleasure chemical —which makes them want to repeat the behavior again and again. Berit Brogaard is the author of On Romantic LoveKentucky Wildcats head coach John Calipari talks during a news conference before their men's NCAA Final Four college basketball game in New Orleans, Louisiana, April 1, 2012." The master of the so-called one-and-done, Kentucky coach John Calipari has a solution for keeping the nation's best basketball players in college for more than a single season before jumping to the National Basketball Association (NBA). Calipari believes schools should take care of disability insurance, which currently the players have to pay, and that the NBA should give some credit to students who stay in school. Currently, players must be in the NBA for several years before being eligible for big-money contracts, an incentive, some say, to leave college early. Advertisement "I don't like the rules," Calipari told reporters on the eve of Monday's National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) title game between Kentucky and Kansas. "I want (freshman Marquis Teague) to come back and be my point guard next year, it's what I really want. "There's only two solutions to it: either I can recruit players who are not as good as the players I'm recruiting or I can try to convince guys that should leave to stay for me." Calipari often recruits the nation's best players to come to Lexington but they leave for the NBA after one year. He had four players drafted from his 2011 Final Four team but recruited so well the freshman-laden Wildcats are playing in the championship the very next year. The NBA mandates players must be 19 years old during the calendar year of the draft and at least one year removed from the graduation of his high school class. Calipari has been a lightning rod for criticism of the "one-and-done," yet has repeatedly said he would like the rules changed to make it easier for players to remain in school. Now that other schools are being slammed by kids jumping to the NBA, Calipari thinks fans could be more vocal about changing the system." "Now, what's happened is North Carolina lost three underclassmen, Duke is losing them," he said. "Now it's different. But that's okay. "I'm going to do what's right for our kids. At the end of the day I don't apologize for anything we do." One of Calipari's freshmen, Anthony Davis, is the consensus player of the year in college basketball, one of three first-year players starting for Kentucky. Calipari has had three other teams reach the Final Four although two of those squads had their results vacated for using an ineligible player. The 53-year-old coach, who has a 101-14 record since arriving at Kentucky three years ago, has not been implicated in either case. "We had a 3.0 grade point average last year (B), 2.8 last term," Calipari said. "We have the highest APR (Academic Progress Rate). "How they judge our retention and our academics, the highest in the Southeastern Conference. They go to class, do what they're supposed to do. "I mean, Steve Jobs left, Bill Gates left. The integrity of their schools were at stake when they left. They should have stayed and not changed the world." Calipari, who has frosty relationships with several of his coaching brethren, said he does not care if he is liked. "Some like you, some don't," he said. "I'm not here for a popularity contest. I coach young people. I'm worried about those 13, I'm worried about their families, I'm worried about the campus, I'm worried about the city I live in, the state I live in. Other than that, I'm not. "If you beat somebody five times in a row, I don't think their fans are all going to be happy with you. If they are, it's probably 400 showed up for the game. But that's all part of what we do."A lawyer in Baltimore has offered a pro-bono defense for Freddy Gray protesters — or at least, for the first one to contact him after being arrested in Saturday night’s protests. Justin C. Brown, who is also an attorney on the high-profile Adnan Syed case, which became well-known across the country via podcasts, first Serial, then Undisclosed, tweeted during last night’s events that he would offer his services to the first person to contact him. If anyone needs a pro bono lawyer for protest arrest tonight I’ll take first one to contact my office. #FreddieGray — Justin Brown (@CJBrownLaw) April 25, 2015 The attorney tweeted about the protests several times throughout the evening, appearing to express distaste with police actions that lead to the death of Freddy Gray and support for protesters. Just spoke to a Hopkins neurologist who says #FreddieGray injury possible from crashing around inside police van. — Justin Brown (@CJBrownLaw) April 25, 2015 Cops to blame regardless of where #FreddieGray was fatally injured. — Justin Brown (@CJBrownLaw) April 25, 2015 Brown has expressed strong stances in cases involving police misconduct, and his firm’s blog covers many such cases, such as a recent one in which they argue that a defendant’s Fourth Amendment rights were violated by police tracking of his cell phone. Freddy Gray died of injuries sustained, according to NBC, during arrest and subsequent transport. Officials admit he was handcuffed and placed in a transport van with no seatbelt and no way to protect himself against being thrown from his seat against the vehicle’s metal interior. Last night in Baltimore, protesters called for justice, and in some areas, the protests became destructive, with cars and city property damaged. While many describe the protests using the words “violent” and “riots,” protesters spoke out on Twitter, noting the disparity in description — saying that riots over sporting events are spoken of less fiercely, and that destruction to property is decried as more violent than a death in police custody. Blacks riot over Baltimore PD murdering #FreddieGray. Wait, no this is white people rioting because KU lost. (My bad) pic.twitter.com/yObQeC7aUk — Anis (@hertzmau5) April 26, 2015 Throughout recent protests, over Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and so many others, numerous protesters have been arrested. Funds have been raised through some groups (like Operation Help or Hush for Ferguson protesters) to help pay some bail costs for these protesters, and when it took place in his own city, it seems attorney Justin Brown felt the need to help in a substantive way as well. His offer was extended to any Freddy Gray protesters arrested in last night’s events, with a promise of pro-bono aid to the first person to contact his offices. [Photo by:Alex Wong/Getty Images]Skip to comments. HOW TO GIVE YOUR CAT A PILL IN TWENTY EASY STEPS Posted on by SAMWolf Sit on sofa. Pick up cat and cradle it in the crook of your elbow as though you were going to give a bottle to a baby. Talk softly to it. With right hand, position right forefinger and thumb on either side of cat's mouth and gently apply pressure to cheeks while holding pill in right hand. (be patient) As cat opens mouth pop pill into mouth. Allow cat to close mouth and swallow. Drop pill into mouth. Let go of cat, noticing the direction it runs. Pick the pill up off the floor and go get the cat from behind sofa. Cradle cat in left arm and repeat process. Sit on floor in kitchen, wrap arm around cat as before, drop pill in mouth. Let go of cat, noticing the direction it runs. Retrieve cat from bedroom, and throw soggy pill away. Scoot across floor to pick up pill, and go find the cat. Bring it back into the kitchen. Take new pill from foil wrap, cradle cat in left arm holding rear paws tightly with left hand. Force jaws open and push pill to back of mouth with right forefinger. Hold mouth shut for a count of ten. Drop pill into mouth. Pry claws from back legs out of your arm. Go get the cat, pick up half-dissolved pill from floor and drop it into garbage can. Retrieve pill from goldfish bowl and cat from top of closet. Call spouse from backyard. Kneel on floor with cat wedged firmly between knees, hold front and rear paws. Ignore low growls emitted by cat. Get spouse to hold head firmly with one hand while forcing wooden ruler into mouth. Drop pill down ruler and rub cat's throat vigorously. Retrieve cat from curtain rod, get another pill from foil wrap. Make note to buy new ruler and repair curtains. Carefully sweep shattered Doulton figures from hearth and set to one side for gluing later. Get spouse to lie on cat with head just visible from below armpit. Put pill in end of drinking straw, force mouth open with pencil and blow down drinking straw. Check label to make sure pill not harmful to humans, drink glass of water to take taste away. Apply Band-Aid to spouse's forearm and remove blood from carpet with cold water and soap. Retrieve cat from neighbor's shed. Get another pill. Place cat in cupboard and close door onto neck to leave head showing. Force mouth open with dessert spoon. Flick pill down throat with rubber band. Fetch screwdriver from garage and put door back on hinges. Apply cold compress to cheek and check records for date of last tetanus shot. Throw T-shirt away and fetch new one from bedroom. Call fire department to retrieve cat from tree across the road. Apologize to neighbor who crashed into fence while swerving to avoid cat. Take another pill from foil wrap. Tie cat's front paws to rear paws with garden twine and bind tightly to leg of dining table, find heavy duty pruning gloves from shed, force cat's mouth open with small spanner. Push pill into mouth followed by large piece of fillet steak. Hold head vertically and pour one cup of water down throat to wash pill down. Get spouse to drive you to the emergency room, sit quietly while doctor stitches fingers and forearm and removes pill remnants from right eye. Call at furniture shop on way home to order new table. Get last pill from bottle. Go into bathroom and get a fluffy towel. Stay in the bathroom with the cat, and close the door. Sit on bathroom floor, wrap towel around kitty, leaving only his head exposed. Cradle kitty in the crook of your arm, and pick up pill off of counter. Retrieve cat from top of shower door (you didn't know that cats can jump 5 feet straight up in the air, did you?), and wrap towel around it a little tighter, making sure its paws can't come out this time. With fingers at either side of its jaw, pry it open and pop pill into mouth. Quickly close mouth (his, not yours). Sit on floor with cat in your lap, stroking it under the chin and talking gently to it for at least a half hour, while the pill dissolves. Unwrap towel, open bathroom door. Wash off scratches in warm soapy water, comb your hair, and go find something to occupy your time for 7-1/2 hours. Arrange for SPCA to get cat and call local pet shop to see if they have any hamsters. TOPICS: Miscellaneous Political Humor/Cartoons KEYWORDS: To: SAMWolf What a revolting cat! To: SAMWolf To: Hillary's Folly Aw man, my side hurts! ROFLMAO!!!! To: Hillary's Folly ROTFLMAO!!! To: SAMWolf LOL -- May I suggest rolling the pill in mouse paste first? That is one use for the food processor that Martha Stewart hasn't come up with yet -- the making of mouse paste for medicinal purposes. To: Hillary's Folly Ha ha. LOL. To: SAMWolf Funny. LOL. There's a good one about cooking a turkey also. To: SAMWolf LOL This is a treasure, SAM! BTTT To: Hillary's Folly ROTFL That's the funniest site I've seen in a long time! To: SAMWolf Giving a cat a pill is tough, but I need to give my cat ear medicine, simply put, she don't want it, any tips would be helpful. To: SAMWolf Giving a cat a pill is tough, but I need to give my cat ear medicine, simply put, she don't want it, any tips would be helpful. To: SAMWolf How to give a dog a pill: 1. Insert pill into a spoonful of peanut butter (or canned dog food). 2. Place spoonful of peanut butter or dog food into dog's dish. 3. Stand back. To: Hillary's Folly ROTFLMAO! Thanks for the cat enema link. To: SAMWolf The funny(?) thing is, that my husband and I have tried almost every step for our neurotic cat Raja. The only thing we haven't tried is putting her in a cadinet with only the head showing!
FTAs were on February 14th. The BRITs were on February 24th. The League Cup final was on February 28th. The Six Nations was on throughout February. Individually, none of these events is probably enough to turn Parliament celibate – but it’s perfectly plausible that, cumulatively, they helped chip away at their attention. Still, the frequency at which Westminster employees are perusing pornography is all very interesting – but it’s not nearly so interesting as the type of pornography they’re most likely to be looking at. What sort of stuff are these people into? Thankfully, PornHub can give us a clue. What’s Your Flava? 650 MPs sit in the House Of Commons. Though they only make up a fraction of the number of people using the wider Parliamentary network, we’re going to focus on them because – as public servants – we have more easily accessible data on them than we do on the HoC’s other employees. Plus, they’re undeniably juicier. So, taking the 650 MPs as our sample – what can we extrapolate about their likely pornography preferences? – Age We know, thanks to Parliament’s own figures, that the average age of a British MP in 2015 was 50. This comfortably lumps them right into the middle of the 45-55 age bracket that PornHub has some data on. What sort of porn will 45-55 year olds (and therefore, by extension, British MPs) likely be searching for? Certain MPs have shown a shocking lack of understanding about digital information security in recent weeks (some trying to imply that someone else may have used Damian Green’s log-in), but it’s encouraging to see that most people in this age range are trying their hardest to keep up to date with technology – if only by getting into Virtual Reality pornography. If that’s what it takes to keep their generation in touch with our increasingly digital culture, we suppose that can only be good. (Also: “robber” porn up 466%? Someone might want to check the laptops at the Ministry of Justice…) – Gender In the 2015-2017 Government, 196 of the 650 MPs were female, 454 of them were male: roughly a 30/70 split. In 2016, UK traffic to PornHub was 24% female driven, 76% male driven. This being so, the House Of Commons actually has the potential to make a decent strides towards gender equality in pornography consumption – provided that female MPs try to watch it at work as frequently as their male counterparts clearly do. They also appear to be taking much more of an interest in LGBT matters than previous generations. Specifically they seem to be concerned with L matters. A little bit of B matters too. But mainly L matters. – Location As you’d expect from a country that is currently in the throes of a bit of an identity crisis, it seems that there is an above-average interest from Britons in our own, homegrown pornography. Whether that’s a result of the brash streak of patriotism that seems to have been stirred in the country recently; whether it’s a result of the spike in xenophobic sentiment since the EU referendum; or whether it’s simply people preparing for Brexit by developing a taste for good old British pornography (in the event that it’s the only stuff we’ll be able to get our hands on once we leave Europe) – who knows? Whatever the case, it’s reassuring to know that our MPs aren’t squandering their taxpayer-funded salaries on foreign-made muck. – Famous Faces There’s also one other element our research threw up which is worth noting. It may make you a little uncomfortable to think about our MPs living active sexual lives and having thick, shuddering orgasms between rounds of case work, but that’s not a patch on what’s coming. The cold, hard truth of it is that people around the world find our MPs attractive. Not just “pleasant to look at”. Not just “objectively handsome”. They want to see our elected officials at it. They want to see our politicians fuck. Don’t believe us? Take a look at PornHub’s celebrity searches for 2016. In among the Kardashians and the Trumps – look who’s there… Theresa May. And Boris Johnson. The good news is, looks like Meghan Markle is going to fit right in here…This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form. AMY GOODMAN: Confirmation hearings for President-elect Donald Trump’s key Cabinet nominees begin next week. One of the first to go before Congress will be Trump’s pick for homeland security secretary, retired Marine General John Kelly. Kelly was formerly the head of United States Southern Command, where he oversaw the military prison at Guantánamo. He has repeatedly testified to Congress that the U.S.-Mexico border represents a threat to national security, leading many to worry he’ll escalate the militarization of the border and U.S. immigration policy overall. He’s one of three generals Trump has nominated for Cabinet and Cabinet-level positions, including retired General James “Mad Dog” Mattis as defense secretary. Mattis is likely to face questioning about his actions in May 2004, when he ordered an attack on a small Iraqi village that killed more than 40 people attending a wedding ceremony. Mattis went on to lead United States Central Command from 2010 to 2013, but the Obama administration cut short his tour over concerns Mattis was too hawkish on Iran, reportedly calling for a series of covert actions there. Mattis only retired from the military in 2013, meaning he’ll need Congress to waive rules requiring defense secretaries to be civilians for seven or more years after leaving the military. The rules are in place to ensure civilian control over the U.S. Armed Forces. Trump’s third general is retired Army Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, who’s been appointed national security adviser. Flynn is well known for his anti-Muslim worldview, having called Islam a “cancer” and saying “fear of Muslims is rational.” His position does not require Senate confirmation. Despite the fact that during Trump’s campaign he railed against generals… DONALD TRUMP: I know more about ISIS than the generals do, believe me. AMY GOODMAN: …if Generals Kelly and Mattis are both confirmed, Trump will have more generals in his Cabinet than any administration since World War II. Well, for more on Donald Trump and his generals, we are joined by Gordon Adams, professor emeritus at the School of International Service at American University. He just wrote a piece for The New York Times headlined “Donald Trump’s Military Government.” He is also co-editor of the book Mission Creep: The Militarization of US Foreign Policy? Welcome to Democracy Now! GORDON ADAMS: Thanks for having me. AMY GOODMAN: So, talk about Trump’s picks, these military generals, and what they mean to you. GORDON ADAMS: Well, I think, Amy, the first point to recognize, that in the Cabinet as a whole, this is not normal. We’re not dealing with a normal situation anywhere. If you appointed Cabinet officers that are basically highly wealthy, relatively inexperienced in government, very rich, largely white males, that doesn’t look like 21st century America. And many of them simply oppose the agenda of the agencies they’re in charge of. The particular abnormality that we’re talking about here is the appointment of three generals to senior—of the five senior positions in national security and foreign policy—the national security adviser, the secretary of defense, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the state—secretary of state. Those are the five positions. We almost had four, because Petraeus was rumored to be a candidate for secretary of state. That’s quite unusual. People will say Barack Obama had three generals in his Cabinet, too, at Cabinet levels, and indeed he did. One was the director of office of—director of national intelligence, the early version of James Clapper. Mostly, that job, which is advisory, not policymaking, has been filled by a military officer. And for a while, he had James Jones, who was a retired Marine general, as his national security adviser. Jones didn’t do very well. The third was actually in charge of the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is not a crucial foreign-policymaking department. So, here, really, at the top of the architecture and right at the center of foreign policy and national security policy, we have Generals Flynn, Mattis and Kelly in the key advisory position to the president and two of the biggest departments involved with American security. That’s unusual. AMY GOODMAN: And talk about what this will mean, the militarization of U.S. foreign policy, as you put it. GORDON ADAMS: Right. And what I mean by that term is not what is traditionally thought. It’s not—this is not a coup. But it’s not normal. If this happened in a Latin American country over the past 20 years or so, we’d simply say to the government of that country, “You know, tut-tut, generals should be in the barracks. They shouldn’t be running civilian departments of government and engaged in this kind of mission creep across the American government.” But here we have more what I call the velvet militarization of American foreign policy—the gradual assumption that the right tool to use is the military tool, the tool they know is the military tool, a gradual sense that only the military capacity is capable in the American government of executing and implementing American foreign policy and national security policy. Generals grow up in a particular culture. It’s hierarchical. It’s order-driven. It tends to see kinetics as a useful and the most useful tool for dealing with America’s foreign and national security challenges. Now, around him, the president has three generals advising him about how to proceed in foreign policy, but he doesn’t have what I call a balanced toolkit of statecraft. He doesn’t have a diplomat. He has a businessman at the secretary of state position with no government agency experience, and certainly no diplomacy experience. And he has a relatively ineffectual new appointee announced at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, who is likely to be basically wiped off the face of the Earth in intelligence matters by Mike Pompeo, the head of the Central Intelligence Agency, a fight that Leon Panetta and Denny Blair had eight years ago, in which Leon Panetta won as the head of the CIA. So, we don’t have balanced statecraft. The advice is biased, as it were, towards the kinetic instrument. AMY GOODMAN: And explain kinetic. GORDON ADAMS: “Kinetic” means going to war, deterring and fighting, basically, the combat and deterrence missions of the military. That orients a foreign policy in a particular way towards combatant operations, towards giving the military capability to undertake tasks. That’s the velvet militarization, is who does the job. AMY GOODMAN: So I want to talk specifically about who is about to be—go before the Senate. As head of U.S. Southern Command, General Kelly was responsible for Guantánamo prison. He differed with Obama on many key policy positions, including whether to close Guantánamo. In an interview with Defense One, Kelly disputed the argument that Guantánamo is a recruiting tool for terrorists, saying, quote, “Bombing the living [bleep] out of ISIS in Iraq and Afghanistan, Syria, that would maybe irritate them more than the fact we have Guantánamo open.” This is General Kelly talking about Guantánamo last year. JOHN KELLY: Because of the nature of the detention, DOD has to continue guarding them. But I do think there’s a place that we would need to indefinitely hold detainees, at least until whatever the conflict is is over, so whether it’s Guantánamo or a place in the States, continental United States. But I do think we need a place. AMY GOODMAN: That’s General Kelly. GORDON ADAMS: Yes, and General Kelly is probably the mildest of the three in terms of the militarization I’m talking about. “Mild” is a relative term here, because clearly his orientation is towards greater militarization of the American border, the maintaining of Guantánamo as a base. He has been outspoken about defense operations in the Caribbean and at the border with respect to drugs and criminal organizations. General Kelly has that particular can-do, organized, hierarchical, essentially kinetic, militarized view of how we should approach our national security. There’s no balance there. And he’s unusual in being the first general that’s actually headed the Department of Homeland Security, which has its own, as it were, Border Patrol semi-military capability. AMY GOODMAN: Mattis, who would be defense secretary, having to get that waiver? GORDON ADAMS: Mattis is, I think, what should be the focus. What’s interesting to me is that the Democratic Party has targeted eight of Trump’s Cabinet nominees as their principal focus. None of them are Mattis. They seem prepared to give Mattis a bye. They seem prepared to authorize the waiver that he requires in order to serve. Now, that waiver is there for an interesting historical reason. There’s only been one general that ever headed the Defense Department, and that was George Marshall. That was back in 1950. He was secretary of defense for one year. And the law, the waiver law, was written with language in the statute that basically said this is intended to be a one-time exception, because those who wrote the original national security state origins knew that it was ill-advised. It was a question of civilian control to have somebody as the civilian secretary in the Department of Defense. The military side of the Department of Defense is assured by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the service chiefs. And frankly, since 1986, if the president wants military advice, he need only turn to a man in statute called his principal military adviser, who’s the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. So he has military advice. It’s not a question of giving him military advice. It’s a question of putting a necessary professional deformation towards military and kinetic operations in charge of the civilian control in the department. As I say, in a Latin American country, we’d say this is ill-advised. AMY GOODMAN: Now, I think General Flynn will be with Trump today as he gets briefed. He doesn’t need—he doesn’t need approval. He’s one of the ones who pushed the idea of the child sex trafficking ring that he said Hillary Clinton was involved with and that she declared war on the Catholic Church. We just have 15 seconds. GORDON ADAMS: Yeah, General— AMY GOODMAN: National security adviser. GORDON ADAMS: General Flynn is not unusual, because we’ve had Colin Powell, Brent Scowcroft as national security advisers. Not unusual to have a military person. He just seems temperamentally ill-suited to a job which is to arrange the options for the president and give a relatively neutral array of choices to the commander-in-chief. AMY GOODMAN: We’ll leave it there. Gordon Adams, professor emeritus at American University’s School of International Service, distinguished fellow at the Stimson Center. His latest book, Mission Creep.Justin Trudeau, Canada's prime minister, center, arrives to deliver a speech at the Senate of the Republic in Mexico City, Mexico, on Friday. (Brett Gundlock/Bloomberg) President Trump has called the North American Free Trade Agreement "the worst deal ever," but one thing might actually be worse: no deal at all. The fourth round of negotiations to revise the agreement wraps up Oct. 17, but many people close to the talks have expressed doubts that they will succeed. If NAFTA crumbles, trade among Mexico, Canada and the United States would fall under World Trade Organization rules with modest average tariff rates and an established, if unwieldy, process for resolving disputes. But the tariff rates, although relatively low, would be higher on U.S. exports than on U.S. imports. Many trade experts say that would hurt U.S. exporters of everything from corn to auto parts and that the United States could end up with fewer jobs while paying higher prices for goods than it does. Meanwhile, Canada and Mexico would be able to fall back on free-trade agreements they have forged with Europe recently, providing zero tariffs. Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray told a Mexican Senate committee this week that the end of the North American Free Trade Agreement "won't be the end of the world." And in some ways Videgaray is right. The world of global trade has far fewer walls and stumbling blocks than it did 23 years ago, when NAFTA went into effect. [Trump Twitter bombs and a negotiating standoff: How NAFTA talks could fail] Nonetheless, even small tariff differences can have substantial effects, many trade experts say, and could upend established supply chains. "If NAFTA ends, the tariffs the United States imposes on imports from Mexico would revert (from currently zero) to their WTO levels. For the United States, these tariffs average 3.5 percent" across all goods, Chad Bown, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said in an email. "Mexico's WTO tariffs are a bit higher — on average 7.1 percent," he wrote. "So U.S. exporters would go from facing zero tariffs currently for their sales to the Mexican market under NAFTA to 7.1 percent on average without NAFTA." For automobiles, the gap could add hundreds of dollars to the price of a car. Or carmakers in Mexico might drop U.S. suppliers subject to WTO rates and look for European auto parts manufacturers, who would not have to pay any tariff under their free-trade pact. NAFTA's rules of origin for automobiles would also disappear. Those rules were designed to prevent countries outside North America from using the treaty as a back door into the U.S. market. Under NAFTA, 62.5 percent of the value of an imported vehicle must originate in Canada, Mexico or the United States for that vehicle to get duty-free access to the region. Without NAFTA, supply chains could reorient themselves. Cars sold in the United States might contain more foreign parts, and Mexican cars sold to Europe or Latin America might use fewer U.S. components. "U.S. producers would face less market access in Mexico without NAFTA than Mexico would face in the United States," said Caroline Freund, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and former economist at the World Bank. Getting rid of NAFTA could also hurt the agriculture industry, which is strong in the states Trump carried in his presidential campaign. Since NAFTA was enacted, U.S. food and agricultural exports to Canada and Mexico have more than quadrupled, to $38 billion in 2016, according to the Fresh Produce Association of the Americas. And Mexican agricultural exports have given consumers year-round access to fruits and vegetables that had been available only during certain seasons. A collapse of NAFTA could also boomerang on some of the accord's harshest critics, especially labor and environmental groups that want to toughen up what they see as ineffective side agreements to the original treaty. Without NAFTA, however, those agreements would simply vanish. Leo Gerard, president of the United Steelworkers union, says NAFTA was sold to the American public with "a bag full of lies." He says it has done little to bring good wages to Mexico and has therefore siphoned jobs to Mexico away from the United States and Canada. He singles out auto factory jobs; half his members make auto parts. But Gerard isn't ready to simply shred the NAFTA agreement. He wants to fix it with enforceable labor standards and wages. "If you just rip it up, it's worse," he said. "If you bail out of this, you're going to have to have new rules." [What you need to know about NAFTA as it goes through a quarter-life crisis] Mexico, however, would not escape damage from a collapse of NAFTA. NAFTA has helped generate confidence in all three nations, which has been especially helpful in attracting investment to Mexico. A collapse of the accord could choke off some of that investment. Moreover, the WTO tariff numbers are averages and in some areas — especially in agriculture, sneakers and textiles — the United States could impose much higher duties. It would impose a 25 percent tariff on pickup trucks, 48 percent on sports sneakers, and between 5 and 20 percent for textiles, Freund said. Even with the free-trade agreements Mexico has with Europe and others, it will be hard- pressed to divert goods from the United States, where Mexico sends 80 percent of its exports. In a roundabout way, the collapse of NAFTA could help Mexico sell those goods. The end of the agreement probably would undermine confidence in Mexico's currency, the peso, which has declined nearly 6.5 percent over the past month amid squabbling over trade. That could further lower costs of manufacturing in Mexico, making it even harder for the United States to compete with its southern neighbor. The impact a NAFTA collapse would have on U.S.-Canada trade is less clear. Before NAFTA, the two nations had a bilateral free-trade agreement that might come back into force after NAFTA. If so, each country would have zero tariffs on the other. If that treaty were not brought back into effect, then Canada could impose an average tariff of 4.2 percent on U.S. goods under the WTO rules.Is Web 2.0 headed for Bubble 2.0? That was the subject of debate at the TiECON East Confernece. Fred Wilson (Unionsquare Ventures), Don Dodge (Microsoft), Nabeel Hyatt (Conduit Labs), and Brian Balfour (Viximo) had a lively debate and arrived at very different conclusions. All booms go bust - Business runs in cycles. All big booms have been followed by painful busts. The market is ruled by two things; fear and greed. Greed fuels the boom, and fear prolongs the bust. Fear is very powerful. Everyone starts to question their own beliefs. But, fear is temporary, greed is permanent. We have all pretty much forgotten the Dot Com Bubble. Greed and optimism always overcome fear and lead a new economic boom. Hundreds of smaller successes- Fred Wilson believes there will be hundreds of companies with smaller successes, not a few billion dollar successes. Facebook and MySpace get all the headlines but hundreds of smaller companies with $50M in revenue and $20M in profit will be successful. But, will VCs invest in these companies? Lots of VCs look at Web 2.0 companies and say "I like the concept, and I like the team, I'm just not convinced it will generate VC level returns at exit." Capital efficiency matters - Web 2.0 companies can be launched for far less money than ever before. Many don't take VC money at all. The point is that capital requirements and operating cost structure must be commensurate with the opportunity. Is advertising the only revenue model?- Too many startups point to Google and Facebook as evidence that advertising is the best path to success. They fail to understand the scale (users and page views) required to make it work. Most social network sites generate CPMs of $0.40 or less. To generate $1M in ad revenue would require 2.5 Billion page views. Not many sites attain that scale. Freemium Model- Free services like Flickr, TypePad, and others provide a free service with premium upgrades for more storage, more features, or other services. This model works as long as the marginal cost of providing the service is close to zero. Conversions from free to paid run about 3% to 5%, so the revenue from paid subscribers must cover the cost of all the free service plus provide a profit. Think of the cost of free service as marketing costs...and make sure it fits your business model. Virtual or Digital Goods- The cost of goods and distribution costs of digital/virtual goods is almost zero. Ringtones, avatars, icons, virtual flowers, widgets, virtual cards, and lots of other products are producing big revenues (and profits) for web companies. Socializing online is similar to real life. We want the same sorts of fun, impulse items, and entertainment online, and we are willing to pay a few bucks for them. The gross profit on these impulse items is huge. New models?- Social networks and word of mouth recommendations are powerful. All the demographic data, ratings, attention data, profiles, and social connections will enable new ways to target advertising and ecommerce. Advertising is annoying when it is irrelevant, but very helpful when it is timely and relevant. Facebook's Beacon attempted to leverage the social network and user intentions into a new advertising and revenue model. It didn't work, but something like it will emerge that strikes the right balance between privacy and convenience. Being able to selectively opt-in or out is critically important. One panelist said "Privacy doesn't matter anymore. If it did, Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube wouldn't exist. This is the "Full Monty" generation." The trend is certainly in that direction, but the Facebook Beacon experience suggests we aren't there yet. Conclusions?- Web 2.0 and social networks have already changed the way we interact on the Internet. There have been some successes like Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube, but future successes are likely to be smaller. Valuations and expectations are reaching "bubble levels". New revenue models will emerge that leverage our social interactions. Most business cycles run for 10 years, and we are in the early stages of this social network cycle. MacroMyopia, the tendency to overestimate the short term impact, and underestimate the long term results, is evident today. It is similar to the hype cycle; a period of early hype, followed by disillusionment, followed by real payoffs and impact. It happens in every business cycle. The question is, where are we now in the cycle?During our initial review of the HTC One M9‘s new camera, we came away kind of disappointed. It didn’t do so well when compared to the Samsung Galaxy S6 either. Sure, it has a 20 megapixel sensor with an f/2.2, 27.8mm lens protected by sapphire cover material, and that offers a lot more detail than HTC’s previous 4 megapixel cameras, but the images looked so over-processed. The heavy noise reduction killed the details while over sharpening put white halos around the edges and slight exposure differences seemed kind of random. Well, recently HTC provided an update to the camera software which generates Adobe Digital Negative (DNG) format files. DNG files are basically a standardized way of wrapping up raw digital camera data. To learn more about the advantages and disadvantages of the RAW formats, be sure to check out “Why would you want RAW photo support in a smartphone.” Meanwhile, let’s take a look at some of the differences between the JPGs made by the HTC One M9 and its new DNG image format. In the animated GIF above, you’ll see a photo from the HTC One M9 flipping between its processed JPG version and unprocessed untouched RAW DNG version. You’ll quickly notice that there’s a lot of modifications being made before saving the JPG. The DNG shows a huge amount of light falloff or vignetting around the edges where it’s unable to push as much light as it can in the center. The JPG file adjusts for that by brightening the corners significantly, and subsequently you can see a major increase in color noise in the corners. You can see much more detail in the background with the RAW file as well. If you’re serious about getting the most out of your RAW DNG photographs, I highly recommend building your own lens distortion, falloff and chromatic aberration models that you can use to automatically correct those type of lens defects that are prevalent in smartphone cameras. In the above 100% crop of a photo of the U.S.A. flag, you’ll see the JPG version on the left and the RAW DNG version on the right. In the JPG, you can see some extra light and dark areas surrounding the edges of the stripes. That’s the sharpening filter. The RAW file looks more realistic and also seems to have a bit more detail. Notice how you can make out the wrinkles in the blue area of the flag while the JPG kind of flattens it with noise reduction filtering. Above is another bright, outdoor light sample at 100% cropping, but this time we’re looking at the macro capabilities. Again, you can see the noticeable sharpening and noise reduction filters being applied in the JPG which, in my opinion, kind of ruin the image quality. On the right is the RAW version, where noise is certainly more visible in the lower right corner, but also notice the increased detail in the fibers of the edge of the leaf in the top part of the cropping. In a dark room is where all cameras really struggle to capture light. The comparison above was shot at ISO 1600 with the f2.2 aperture and 1/10th of a second. The JPG generated on the left is an awful mess. There are splotches of blue and green and pink all over the image. On the right is a much better image that uses the RAW DNG file along with a few tweaks of the exposure settings made in Adobe Camera RAW after the shot was taken. I was able to get more detail, a brighter exposure, and better color by adjusting the RAW file, though there’s still plenty of noise. I probably could have applied some other RAW capable noise filters to improve that as well. Low light flash photos are important too. The above 100% crops were shot at ISO 100 with 1/40th of a second and again we’ve got more detail in the RAW file on the right. It’s especially noticeable in the black ring around the microphone. DNG Samples processed in Adobe Camera RAW JPG Samples processed in HTC One m9 Conclusion It’s pretty clear that you can get much better image quality out of the HTC One M9 by using the RAW mode, but in order to really take advantage of that, you’re going to have to copy those DNG files to a PC and tweak them in Adobe Camera RAW or Lightroom software (Capture One and AfterShot Pro don’t do too well with DNGs). There aren’t really any great smartphone-based RAW DNG image editors available. Thankfully, if you just want to post a quick picture on Facebook or Instagram, the HTC One M9 saves both the processed JPG and RAW photo at the same time. So you can always get the RAW file later for that increased image quality. Photography by Hayato Huseman.Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain said Tuesday he is concerned about the looming confirmation process for retired Marine Gen. James Mattis, who President-elect Trump says he will nominate to become the next secretary of defense. McCain, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told reporters in the Capitol he is "very worried" about Mattis' confirmation process. Mattis will have to receive a waiver allowing him to serve in a civilian position less than seven years after retiring from the military. "I'm very worried about it," McCain said when asked about receiving a waiver for Mattis. "We have to work on it." Mattis left active service in 2013 after concluding his time as commander of Central Command, forcing the need for a waiver. George C. Marshall, who received one in 1950 in order to also become secretary of defense, is the only person to have received one in the past. "This is probably the most important post, obviously, of all the cabinet positions, so we should expedite this process just like how I expedited every other process when Obama proposed nominees for the secretary of defense," McCain said. "I was active in helping move that process forward as quickly as possible. The Democrats should do the same for us," McCain continued. "And when they don't, and we have to resort to parliamentary action to force them to, then that's disgraceful because we're talking about defending our nation. And when you block a secretary of defense for some reason, you go back to our reluctance to confirm a nominee for the United States Supreme Court, there's no connection between the two, and it's disgraceful." The Arizona senator was referring comments made by Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, who openly questioned why Democrats would support Trump's cabinet selections after Republicans refused to bring Merrick Garland's nomination up for consideration after the death of longtime Justice Antonin Scalia. Democratic opposition to a waiver started soon after Trump announced his intention to nominate the retired Marine to the post. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., came out immediately against granting Mattis a waiver, citing the need to have a civilian heading the position.Figure 1 Three-dimensional (3D)-multiple object tracking (3D-MOT) task: comparison of tracking performance in the donepezil (DPZ) and placebo group. (A) Example of the 3D-MOT: eight yellow spheres are randomly positioned in a virtual 3D environment; four randomly selected spheres turn orange for identification of the spheres to track (targets); then all spheres turn back to yellow and move following a random linear trajectory (arrows represent initial movement) at a defined speed; the spheres stop, are numbered and the participant identifies the targets (orange border); finally, the targets turn orange for correct feedback; the targets turn yellow with a red border for a wrong answer and the targets turn light orange for a right answer not identified. The trial is then repeated, changing the speed of the movement of the spheres using a 1-up-1-down staircase procedure. The speed threshold for which the subjects are able to track balls is calculated from the mean of the last four reversals of the staircase. (B) Tracking performance in terms of speed threshold (cm/s) for each participant every testing week (Weeks 1–5) in the control group (blue-shaded squares) and DPZ group (purple-shaded circles). The mean of the speed threshold (gray bar) is given. (C) Speed threshold (percent change from baseline) for tracking performance of subjects every testing week and during long-term testing (4–14 months after the initial training) for the control group (in blue) and the DPZ group (in purple). (D) The significance table represents (a) the statistical comparison of the mean speed threshold for each group using Friedman’s test with Bonferroni correction (upper panel). Note that the DPZ group significantly improved their performance (significant difference in speed threshold compared to baseline value) at Weeks 4 and 5, while the control group only reached this level of improvement at Week 5; (b) the statistical comparison of the mean speed threshold of long-term testing to baseline values using the Wilcoxon test. There was a significant sustained improvement in the speed threshold in the DPZ group but not in the control group. *Significantly different compared to baseline (week 1), p < 0.05.Greece's defence minister Panos Kammenos (3rd from left) and Russia's president Vladimir Putin review an honor guard during an arrival ceremony at the Athens Airport. (Alexei Druzhinin/Alexei Druzhinin/TASS) A brass band played, fighter jets streaked the clear blue sky and a red carpet adorned the airport tarmac on the day in May 2016 when Vladimir Putin came to Athens for a visit. "Mr. President, welcome to Greece," the Greek defense minister, Panos Kammenos, said in Russian as he smiled broadly and greeted a stone-faced Putin at the base of the stairs from the plane. Kammenos, a pro-Russian Greek nationalist who bragged often of his insider Moscow connections, would receive a second key visitor that day, but with considerably less fanfare. Not yet 30 years old, George Papadopoulos had been unknown in Greece — and everywhere else — only two months before. But suddenly, just as Putin arrived, he was in Athens, quietly holding meetings across town and confiding in hushed tones that he was there on a sensitive mission on behalf of his boss, Donald Trump. This October, Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his extensive efforts to connect Trump's presidential campaign with senior Russian officials. Trump has since dismissed Papadopoulos as a "low level volunteer." But in his ancestral homeland, the man whom Trump had named in March 2016 as one of five top foreign policy advisers and an "excellent guy" was regarded as a critical interlocutor, first to the Trump campaign and later to the incoming Trump White House. He may have carried on like "a second-rate actor in a political thriller," as one acquaintance described his manner. But when he bragged that he had helped Trump win the presidency, many here believed it. Before his spectacular fall, he was lavishly wined and dined by local business kingpins, celebrated in official tweets and rewarded with the perks — judge in an island beauty contest — of a favorite Greek son. He also received access to officials at the highest levels of the Greek government, many of whom shared links to Russia and sympathies that would be unusual in other Western capitals. Kammenos, in particular, stood out both for his pro-Russian views and his determination to forge a bond with the young Trump adviser. Although Papadopoulos's plea deal focused on his contacts with an obscure and mysterious Maltese professor who claimed Russian ties, Greek politicians and analysts say his best and most obvious path to Moscow would have run through Athens. George Papadopoulos's booking photograph taken after his arrest at the Alexandria Detention Center in Virginia on July 28. (Alexandria Sheriff’s Office/Alexandria Sheriff’s Office) "If I were in his shoes, I would have thought, 'Can my Greek friends help me make the Moscow connection?' " said Thanos Dokos, director general of the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy. "It would make sense." Whether that's how it happened may be a subject for special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, who continues to investigate possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government to influence last year's presidential election. Former national security adviser Michael Flynn's Dec. 1 guilty plea — also for lying to the FBI, about Russia — suggests that Mueller is looking at an array of possibilities. But in Greece, the connection between the officials Papadopoulos cultivated and his vigorously pursued campaign objective — to build up relations with the Kremlin, and ideally broker a meeting between Putin and Trump — is hard to miss. The son of Greek immigrants who was raised in Chicago, Papadopoulos had a thin résumé that was full of exaggerations, including a nonexistent stint at Model United Nations. But during a meeting with The Washington Post's editorial board in March 2016, Trump named him as one of five foreign policy advisers. At the time, the Republican front-runner had been largely abandoned by the party's foreign policy establishment and was under pressure to produce his team, having previously said his top foreign policy adviser was "myself." Even in the relatively intimate world of Greek and Greek American international relations experts, Papadopoulos was a mystery. The few who had met him said he was earnest — he showed up to casual get-togethers in suit and tie — and ambitious. His aim, he told associates, was to get a job on a U.S. presidential campaign and to work in the White House. But
characterized as "a police groupie" by one former staff member. "Kathy has a hard edge that some people find offensive," one of her editors told me, but he praised her skills. Police reporters are often "dictation pads" for local law enforcement; recently the American Journalism Review sharply criticized The A.J.C. for the scanty confirmation and lack of skepticism in its coverage of Jewell. The newsroom atmosphere resembled that at F.B.I. headquarters; there was a frenzy to be first. Kent Walker, a newsroom intern, published a story in the same edition, with a glaring mistake in the headline: bomb suspect had sought limelight, press interviews. Since Ray Cleere's tip to the F.B.I., the "hero bomber" theory had been circulating among Atlanta law-enforcement officers. Maria Elena Fernandez, a reporter, was sent to Habersham County on July 29. By coincidence, William Rathburn, the head of security for the Olympics, had been at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984 when a fake bomb was found on a bus—left by a policeman who sought attention. On the surface, the story had an irresistible newsroom logic: Jewell was clearly looking for recognition. Bert Roughton, the city editor, had answered the telephone when a representative from AT&T called to ask if the paper would like a Jewell interview. According to Walter, Roughton himself typed a sentence in the Scruggs-and-Martz piece: "He [Jewell] also has approached newspapers, including The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, seeking publicity for his actions." But he hadn't. Walter explained, "There was nothing wrong with that sentence. That's journalistically proper. It is not common practice, to my knowledge, to ask someone you are interviewing … 'Are you here of your own free will?'" Jewell had not contacted the paper—a fact which would have been easy enough to check. Walter became snappish when I described the sentence as "a mistake." "It was not a mistake," he said angrily. Scruggs and Martz quoted Piedmont College president Ray Cleere as backup. According to Cleere, Jewell had been "a little erratic" and "almost too excitable." There was no doubt raised by The A.J.C. about the value of Cleere's information or the fragility of the F.B.I.'s potential case. On Tuesday morning, July 30, Christina Headrick, a young intern on the paper, was sent to Buford Highway to stake out Richard Jewell's apartment. She phoned in that there were men doing surveillance. By deadline, John Walter had made a decision: he would tear up the afternoon Olympics edition and lead with Jewell. Several states away, Colonel Robert Ressler was watching CNN when the A.J.C. extra edition was shown. Ressler, who was retired from the behavioral-science unit of the F.B.I., had, along with John Douglas, developed the concept of criminal-personality profiling. He was the co-author of the Crime Classification Manual, which is used by the F.B.I. He had interviewed Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, and John Wayne Gacy, and as he watched the TV report, he was mystified. "They were talking about an F.B.I. profile of a hero bomber, and I thought, What F.B.I. profile? It rather surprised me." According to Ressler, the definition of "hero homicide"—a person looking for recognition without an intent to kill—perhaps emerged as "hero bomber." "There is no such classification as the hero bomber," he told me recently. "This was a myth." Later he said, "It occurred to me that there was no database of any bomber who lived with his mother, was a security guard and unmarried. How many hero bombers had we ever encountered? Only one that I know of, in Los Angeles, and his bomb did not go off." Ressler knew that something was off; profiles are developed from a complex set of evidence and facts derived only in part from a crime scene. The bomb had been deadly, which was not consistent with the "hero complex." Furthermore, he wondered, where did they get the information to put the profile together that fast? He asked himself, What came first here, the chicken or the egg? Was the so-called profile actually developed from the circumstances, or was it invented for Richard Jewell? When Jewell returned home from F.B.I. headquarters just before eight p.m., NBC was showing special Olympic coverage. He sat on the sofa and watched Tom Brokaw say, "They probably have enough to arrest him right now, probably enough to prosecute him, but you always want to have enough to convict him as well. There are still holes in this case." Jewell knew that Brokaw was his mother's favorite newsman; he looked at her and noticed "the color and the blood flow out of her face when she heard that." Bobi turned to him and asked, "What is he talking about?" Jewell later recalled, "Brokaw was talking about her son as a murderer.… She started crying, and what am I going to say to her? 'Mom, Watson is going to fix this'? What do you say? She doesn't hear anything anyway—she was in hysterics." At that point, Jewell said, he broke down as well. The day Watson Bryant inadvertently became the lead lawyer for Richard Jewell, he was an attorney whom almost no one in the Atlanta legal establishment had ever heard of. "Who the hell is Watson Bryant?" a caption in the daily legal sheet, the Fulton County Daily Report, would read after he had appeared on the Today show. Bryant understood Jewell's vulnerability and decided on a strategy: he would treat him as a member of his own family. In Atlanta, the Bryants were a clan: Watson's father, Goble Bryant, had been a West Point tackle, on the 1949 college all-star team; his grandfather had invented a process for putting handles on paper bags. Watson had partied through Vanderbilt University and had barely gotten accepted to law school at the University of South Carolina. He had a close relationship with his brother, Bruce, and their sister, Barbara Ann, and if he lacked staff at his office, he knew he could count on his family to pick up the slack. Bruce enlisted Jewell to help coach his junior football team; Watson had a picnic for Richard and Bobi at his parents' house at the Atlanta Country Club. When Bryant arrived at the Jewells' apartment that night, he pushed his way through the crowd standing outside in the spongy Atlanta humidity. Microphones were shoved in his face. "What is happening, Watson?" Bobi asked him. Bryant asked Jewell to speak to him alone. "I want to know if you can tell me, without any hesitation at all, if you had anything to do with the bombing," he said. "I didn't," Jewell told him. "I said, 'I am going to ask you again.' He would not look me in the eye. I said, 'Don't give me this "sir" shit.' I said, 'Richard, these people want to kill you. I cannot help you unless you tell me the absolute, unequivocal truth.' I was in his face. He said he did not have anything to do with it." Jewell was bewildered and numb, said Bryant, who left at 10:30 p.m. At midnight, Jewell called him to say, "They are massing outside the apartment, Watson." The next morning, Bryant went from talk show to talk show, starting with NBC. With the notable exception of The New York Times, virtually every newspaper in the country had picked up the A.J.C. story and run it as front-page news. There were 10,000 reporters in Atlanta; the Los Angeles Times would later call the squad bearing down on the Jewells "a massive strike force … Tora! Tora! Tora!" Bryant was in a daze, but he held his own. "Is it true that Jewell was at some time ordered to seek psychological counseling?" Bryant Gumbel asked him. "I know a lot of people that ought to have psychological counseling," Watson Bryant replied. By 10 a.m. he was back at the Jewells' apartment, studying a search warrant that had been delivered that day. The F.B.I., Jewell recalled, said that he could not be inside the apartment during the search. Bryant called F.B.I. headquarters: "What the hell is this? Why can't he be there?" Within an hour, at least 40 members of the F.B.I. had arrived, with dogs. "There was a physical-evidence team. There was a scientific team. There was a team for the bomb-squad people, and then the A.T.F.… They all had different-color shirts. Light blue for bombs, dark blue for evidence protection, red and yellow." Bryant could not believe what he was seeing. "This is like damn Six Flags over Georgia," he told them. "I kept saying to Watson, 'I didn't do this.' And he said, 'Hey, kid, I believe you—we are doing what we can.'" Jewell was a gun collector. Bryant was sharp with him: "You get all those guns out of your closets and put them on your bed. We don't want any trouble." For seven hours, Jewell sat outside on the staircase in what has become one of the most famous images of last summer. Bryant had to take his daughter, Meredith, to the Olympic equestrian competition, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for her. As he left, he said, "Don't do anything stupid. Just shut up and let them do what they have to do." Hours passed as Jewell sat in the heat. "Finally I decided I would ask them if I could go in and use the rest room. They said, 'We got the order a couple of hours ago you could come in; you just can't get in our way.'" Jewell was told he had to wear rubber socks and gloves in order not to contaminate the site. The Jewell apartment is small—two bedrooms with a bathroom in between, a living room, an alcove dining room that has been turned into a den. As Jewell sat on the sofa, he thought he heard a crash in his bedroom. "I thought my CD player was on the floor, and I said, 'What are you-all tearing up?' and they said, 'You can't go in there right now; we are searching.' I said, 'I want to know what you-all just broke.'" One search warrant listed some 200 items the F.B.I. could confiscate, including "magazines, books … and photographs which would include descriptive information such as telephone numbers, addresses, affiliations and contact points of individuals involved in a conspiracy to manufacture, transport and … detonate … the explosive device used in the bombing at the Olympic Centennial Park on July 27, 1996." "They had all my pictures, all the stuff that was in the drawers. My personal things. How would you like to know that 12 different guys had been in your underwear, laid it out on the floor, probably walked on it and then folded it back up like nothing ever happened and put it in your drawer? So then Mom got to go and watch it on TV: 'Live from the Jewell house, the search continues.… We are expecting an arrest any minute.'" When Bobi Jewell returned home, the apartment appeared neat, until she walked into her kitchen. She looked down at her counters, where all her condiments, dog biscuits, spices, and crackers had been taken out of their Tupperware containers and placed in Ziploc bags. She began to cry. And then she went into the bedroom and "immediately started washing clothes," Jewell said. Driving home from the equestrian events, Bryant heard the live coverage of the search on the radio. "Why are you helping this guy if he's guilty?" Meredith asked. The next morning, Bryant received a copy of the F.B.I. inventory of articles confiscated in the apartment. On the list he was stunned to see "one hollowed-out hand grenade, ball-shaped" and "one hollowed-out hand grenade, pinecone-shaped." "What the hell is this?" he asked Jewell. "They were paperweights," Jewell said. "I bought them at a military store." "Oh, shit," Bryant said. For the first few days, the Jewells lived on ham omelettes; a neighbor had brought them half a ham from the Honey Baked Ham Company on Buford Highway. Bobi Jewell had a vacation scheduled, so she remained at home, lying on the bed and "listening to the ball game if it was on." For two weeks, she cleaned out her bureau drawers. Richard would spend the day watching CNN or movies such as Backdraft and Midnight Run. "I would look out the window and see about 150 to 200 press people. Then it would drop to five or six on the hill. They had one person sitting up there at all times with their binoculars." Richard believed they were being monitored. "They heard everything that was going on. They were over there with high-intensity zoom lenses. They had people over there who could read lips. They had a sound dish. They could hear everything that we said. They had a person writing down everything we said. I saw them." Once, Bobi's cat jumped on the window ledge under the curtain and the photographers began frenetically shooting pictures, believing that one of the Jewells was in the window. Sound trucks and boom microphones prevented the neighbors from getting near the apartment. Three F.B.I. agents were usually sitting near the tiny swimming pool; each time Jewell or his mother left the house, a cavalcade of unmarked cars would follow. Richard soon began to write a speech describing the horror he felt at being falsely accused. He ate grilled-cheese sandwiches, huge pans of lasagna, and can after can of Campbell's tomato soup. "If my mom and I had something we wanted to talk about that we didn't want anyone to hear, we wrote it on pieces of paper. When she left to go to work the next day, she would take it with her, tear it up, and put it in the trash! That is how I kept my mother informed about what was going on with the case." The notes were specific: "What the Justice Department was saying, what my attorneys were hearing through the grapevine that I could tell my mom that was not privileged. It was mainly stuff like 'Keep the faith' and 'Can I borrow $10 for gas in the truck?'" Jewell described how, when his mother would walk out the door, "they would holler obscenities at her. They would yell, 'Did he do it? Did he blow those people up?' They would yell, 'You should both die.'" According to Jewell, "The cameramen were just trying to get us aggravated so they could get it on-camera. You don't know how hard it is when they are saying stuff about my mother and me.… All she was trying to do was walk her dog. And she cannot do that without hearing that yelling. When someone did that to my mother, I would want to be up on the hill calling the police, because I would want them arrested. I was going to say, 'Mom, tell me which one said that!' And I was going to walk up to that person and introduce myself and say, 'Hi, my name is Richard Jewell. What is yours? Who do you work for? Who is your supervisor?' And I was going to go home and call 911 to get a warrant." By disposition, Jewell is a night person, but he would get up early when his mother went back to work and make her breakfast. By 11 a.m. he would be playing Mortal Kombat II and listening to 96 Rock on the radio, where one of his friends is a disc jockey. Four days into his period of captivity, he called the DeKalb County police. He recalled telling a Mr. Brown, "'This is Richard Jewell. I am sure you are aware of my situation over on Buford Highway.' He said, 'Yes, Richard, I know.' I said, 'I just want to tell you my situation. Number one: I did not do this. Number two: I am here and I am not leaving the apartment for any reason at all.' I said that all the press was doing right now was aggravating my mother and disturbing my neighbors, and I would really appreciate it if the neighbors could return to a normal life." On Saturday, August 3, as Bryant stared at the F.B.I. agent plucking Jewell's hair, he had already made a decision. "It was, like, screw it. I had had it." The next day was the closing ceremony of the Olympics; Bryant imagined that that would be the day the government might choose to arrest Jewell. "Who is the best criminal lawyer in Georgia?" he asked a state lawyers' association. Within a day, he had brought in Jack Martin, an expert on the federal death penalty and a Harvard law-school graduate with close ties to the local U.S. attorney, Kent Alexander. "Let me tell you something about myself," Jewell told him in their first meeting. "I hate criminal lawyers." "Well, Richard," Martin said, "I don't much like cops, but sometimes I need one, and this is a time you sure need a criminal lawyer." That weekend, watching the Olympic basketball finals, Bryant had an idea: he wanted to be prepared with his own polygraph test of Jewell if the F.B.I. arrested him. From the game, Bryant called a close friend who was a former federal prosecutor. "Try Richard Rackleff," he said. "We worked together on the Walter Moody bombing case." Rackleff had recently set up a private practice, and he agreed to test Jewell the next day. On Sunday morning, Bryant was up early, unable to sleep. He drove around town, making calls from his cell phone. He dialed 679-9000—the F.B.I. "This is Watson Bryant. I am going to pick up Richard Jewell. I just want you to know that. I don't have a white Bronco. I don't have a wig, and I don't have cash in my car. We are just going to my office." Watson had coordinated an elaborate plan with his brother to dodge reporters; he would use a decoy and snake through a parking garage. Rackleff had been instructed to park blocks from Bryant's office, because his car could be identified easily, since he was well known in Atlanta law enforcement. When Rackleff sat down with Richard Jewell in the conference room, he later told me, he sensed almost immediately that Jewell was innocent. Rackleff had tested many bombers before, including Walter Moody, who was convicted of killing a federal judge. "They are strange ducks—they leave their attorneys cold," Rackleff said. Although no one knew Rackleff was in the building, more than 100 reporters gathered outside to get a look at Jewell. Inside, Jack Martin, Bryant, Nadya Light, and Jewell spent 12 hours in Bryant's office. Rackleff asked Jewell a series of questions, but the test was inconclusive. "Richard is tormented. He is exploding on the inside," Rackleff said. While he was testing him, CNN's Art Harris was visible through the window of Bryant's office, but he could not see inside. Bryant was thoroughly deflated, close to despair. "You have got to try to buck Richard up," Rackleff told him. "Who is going to buck me up?" Bryant asked. ‘We are not in missile range of arresting Richard Jewell, but we want him to take our own polygraph," Kent Alexander told Bryant and Jack Martin in their first meeting on the case. In the meantime, Rackleff had tested Jewell again, and he had passed with "no deception," the highest rating. By this time, it was clear that there was no damning evidence against Jewell discovered at the apartment or in his old house in Habersham County. Alexander was only 38, but he had been groomed for politics in a fancy local family. His father was a senior partner in a good Atlanta law firm, and he had worked as an intern for Senator Sam Nunn. Bryant worried about Alexander's lack of experience, but Alexander told colleagues that he was disturbed by the lack of substantial evidence against Jewell. He was trying to operate with decency, but he was cautious and had to check every detail with Washington. Bryant, however, didn't trust Alexander; he had had a bad experience with Alexander's predecessor. In 1990, Bryant had almost been put out of business in a tussle with the then U.S. attorney. The local Small Business Administration accused a bank Bryant represented of improper use of funds; the bank blamed Bryant, who was brought before a grand jury and over the next two years almost lost his practice. He spent $50,000 defending himself, and Nadya Light had to take another job, but eventually the case was settled with Bryant's agreeing not to do business with the S.B.A. for 18 months. Bryant had always felt that he had been manhandled by the office. "I learned everything I needed to know about dealing with this office in 1990," Bryant recalled telling Alexander. "No polygraph for Richard." At the meeting, Alexander told Bryant and Martin, "This is all off-the-record. This is a request that is strictly confidential." Weeks later, Louis Freeh came to town to address a breakfast of former F.B.I. agents. Almost immediately, the polygraph request was reported on CNN. "Kent, I thought we had an agreement," Bryant told him. "I cannot control Washington," Alexander said. When two of the bomb-blast victims sued Richard Jewell, Bryant brought in Wood and Grant to handle the civil litigation. Martin opposed the move. He believed in the cone of silence: "Circle the wagons and don't speak." He said that Wood and Grant had a different perspective: Attack, attack, and if you give any quarter, it is a sign of weakness. Martin had been reassured in private by Kent Alexander that Jewell was not in any immediate danger of being arrested, but the team disagreed about press tactics. Martin worked through the Atlanta-establishment back channels; Lin Wood was a rhetoric man. He favored "one big newsbreak a week." "You know who wrote the book Masters of Deceit? J. Edgar Hoover! And that was about the Communist Party in America. So now they have gone from masters of investigation to masters of deceit!" he would routinely tell reporters who called. Three days after Wood and Grant surfaced as the two new civil lawyers, a Ford van with a tinted bubble-shaped window appeared on the top level of the Macy's parking garage which faced the conference-room windows of their offices. According to Wood, the van did not move for 10 days. "We used to sit there and wave at it." Then the lawyers placed a camera in the window, and the next day the vehicle was gone. "For sure that van had laser sound-detecting equipment," Wood said. Jewell was annoyed that press descriptions of him always emphasized his "overzealousness"; he considers himself a man of details. Often, when he's watching movies at home, he freeze-frames in order to study props in scenes. The second weekend he was considered a suspect, he told me, "I walked in and I noticed white powder all over the telephone table in the conference room." It was a Saturday morning, and Jewell had been with his lawyers until late the night before. He told me he was convinced that the F.B.I. "had lifted a ceiling tile," and that the white powder was "dust that came down." Bryant and Jewell made light of it and did not sweep their phones, believing that any tap the F.B.I. would use would be of a laser or satellite variety and impossible to trace. "In the beginning of every conversation, Watson would curse for about a minute and tell them what lowlives they were. And then he would say, 'By the way, this is Richard's lawyer. Y'all can cut your tape players off,'" Jewell said. "I would call them dirty scumbags," said Bryant. But the local U.S. attorney, Kent Alexander, insisted that their phones were not tapped. "There are no wiretap warrants," he said. The F.B.I. did turn up one bit of potentially troublesome evidence in the Jewells' apartment—fragments of a fence that had been blown up in the explosion. After a telephone conversation with Watson Bryant, Kathy Scruggs quoted him saying, "Yes, he did have a sample of the blown-up bomb." Bryant accused her of egregiously misquoting him. He remembered saying to her, "Yes, Richard had souvenirs of the bombing." Scruggs had not taped their conversation. "She cut the 'ing' off of 'bomb,'" Bryant later told me, but Scruggs strongly denies this. The day the story broke, Bryant criticized Scruggs on local radio. That afternoon she appeared at his office to attempt to clear up the misunderstanding. "I don't like your reporting," Bryant recalled telling her. "I'm human, too," she said. The next day, Ron Martz inserted a quote from Bryant in an unrelated news story: "Oh, man, it's not even a scrap of the bomb—it's a piece of damned fence, for God's sake." But the quote would have little impact. Scruggs's version had been picked up; gathering force, it was eventually related by Bill Press on Crossfire on the evening of October 28: "The guy was seen with a homemade bomb at his home a few days before." (The next day CNN would be forced to apologize for the mistake.) By this time Bryant had grown enraged by the media coverage. The New York Post had called Jewell "a Village Rambo" and "a fat, failed former sheriff's deputy." Jay Leno had said that Jewell "had a scary resemblance to the guy who whacked Nancy Kerrigan," and asked, "What is it about the Olympic Games that brings out big fat stupid guys?" The A.J.C.'s star columnist, Dave Kindred, had compared Jewell to serial murderer Wayne Williams: "Like this one, that suspect was drawn to the blue lights and sirens of police work. Like this one, he became famous in the aftermath of murder." Television journalism was also a revelation to Bryant; he felt he had "landed on Mars," and spent hours channel-surfing. On CNN, one criminologist said "it was possible" that Jewell had a hero complex. Bryant told his brother, Bruce, "I know I am going to sue someone. I just don't know who." Bruce Bryant searched for Jewell's name on the Internet three weeks into his ordeal and found 10,000 stories. The tone many of the journalists took was accusatory and pre-determined, with a few rare exceptions, such as that of CBS correspondent Jim Stewart. "Don't jump to any conclusion yet," he said sharply in a broadcast at the height of the frenzy. In his first week as Jewell's lawyer, Bryant went to the CNN studio to be interviewed by Larry King. After the broadcast, he was asked to stop in at the office of CNN president Tom Johnson. "They wanted to know what I thought of their reporting so far." Art Harris was in the room. "I turned around and I said to Art Harris, 'Who the hell are you and the rest of the media to make fun of how Richard Jewell and his mother live? Who are you to make fun of working people who live in a $470-a-month apartment? Is there something wrong with that? Who are you to say that he is a weirdo because he lives with his mother?'" According to Jack Martin, the F.B.I. spent weeks on one erroneous early theory—that Richard Jewell was an enraged homosexual cop-hater who had been aided in the bombing by his lover. Jewell had purportedly planted the bomb; the lover then made the 911 phone call warning that it would go off in Centennial Park. The rationale behind this idea was that Jewell was "mad at the cops and wanted to kill other cops," Martin told me. The rumor began at Piedmont College, perhaps invented by several of the students Jewell had turned in for smoking pot, but it had a chilling consequence. In mid-August, three agents appeared at the Curtis Mathes video store in Cornelia, where Chris Simmons, a senior at Piedmont, worked part-time. Simmons, a friend of Jewell's, who was engaged to be married, was a B student, but he displayed the same porcine blankness as Jewell and spoke in a slow drawl. He had a deep distrust of the government and carried a card in his pocket that read: christopher dwayne simmons—campaign support for conservative candidates. The agents questioned Simmons in the store for one and a half hours. "They asked me if I was a homosexual. They asked me if I had accessed the Internet.… They later wanted to wire me. They said, 'If he is really a hero, we will find out, and if not, he has killed someone and injured a lot of people.'" Simmons was short with the agents and denied everything. They accused him of lying and said they could take him to Atlanta. The agents told someone Simmons had once worked with that Simmons might be involved in the bombing. "They kept wording questions differently. They kept saying: Do you think Richard Jewell could have done this if he believed that he could get people out in time and nobody would get hurt?" Simmons later called one of the F.B.I. agents and said, "I hear you don't believe my story." He recalled their conversation: "'I think you are sugarcoating your answers,' he said. I said, 'Next time I talk with you, it will be with a lawyer.' And he asked me if I was threatening him. Then he hung up on me." Ultimately, Simmons volunteered to take a polygraph, which he says he passed. "I was a nervous wreck," he said. "I had only seen this on TV." What was not known outside a small circle of investigators was how deadly the Centennial Park bomb really was. It was well constructed, with a piece of metal shaped like a V, and inside, it had canisters filled with nails and screws. Jack Martin, who had spent time in Vietnam, compared its construction to that of a claymore mine, a sophisticated and lethal device. The bomb weighed more than 40 pounds. It was "a shaped charge," F.B.I. deputy director Weldon Kennedy would announce in December. It could blast out fragments from three separate canisters, but only one of the canisters exploded on July 27. Someone had moved the Alice pack slightly before the bomb detonated, causing most of the shrapnel to shoot into the sky. The composition of the bomb did not suggest the work of an amateur, Kathy Scruggs would ironically later report, after interviewing an A.T.F. chemist. As the weeks went by, Richard Jewell withdrew into a state of psychological limbo; he began to try to analyze what the agents might think of his behavior within the small apartment. "I would be watching a spy show on TV or something like a John Wayne movie. Someone would be talking about blowing something up, and I would think to myself, My God, that is going to sound really bad if they think I am listening to that." He worried that "they would think I was some kind of a nut," and often, when he could not sleep, he would find himself consciously switching to exercise videos and soap operas. Over Labor Day weekend, he drove up to Habersham County for a picnic with his ex-girlfriend's family, the Chastains. As usual, three F.B.I. cars followed him, but he had gotten adept at picking out the unmarked vehicles. As Jewell drove into town, he noticed that white ribbons hung from hundreds of trees; the Chastains had organized a campaign in his behalf. On the way home, Jewell drove with his friend Dave Dutchess. For the first time, he did not see an F.B.I. car following him, but he noticed an airplane flying low overhead. He drove another 20 miles, and the plane was still on him. "I said, 'Dave, do you think the F.B.I. would be following us in an airplane? It wouldn't be that hard to do, if they put some kind of beeper on the car.'" The plane followed them through Gainesville all the way to Atlanta—an hour's drive. "Just to make sure, we got off on an exit ramp and went about five miles back north. And I got out and took a picture. They followed us all the way back to the apartment! And they circled the apartment for about 15 minutes, until the F.B.I. car showed back up. I got very emotional. My cheeks got beet red. And Mom came home and said, 'What is going on? What is the matter?' It just destroyed the whole day." On September 2, Dave Dutchess and his fiancée, Beatty, were driving to their house in Tennessee. It was raining hard, and they noticed they were being followed by several F.B.I. cars. The storm grew worse, and they stopped at a hotel for the night. The next day, while getting coffee at a McDonald's, they were surrounded by F.B.I. agents. "We just want to talk to you. We are trying to be discreet." One agent, Dutchess recalled, spoke into his radio: "We have the suspect in hand." As they walked back toward their car, Dutchess said to Beatty, "They think I am his accomplice. I heard on the news they were looking for his accomplice!" After the interview, which lasted several hours, Dutchess spoke to Watson Bryant. "What did they ask you that concerns you?" Bryant asked him. "Well, I decided that I had to tell them the truth. Me and one of my friends used to set off pipe bombs for fun," Dutchess told him. "What?" Bryant exclaimed, incredulous. "Yeah, I told them we liked to throw pipe bombs down gopher holes when we lived out in West Virginia." "Did Richard know this friend?" Bryant asked apprehensively. "Hell, no. He never met him," Dutchess said, but Bryant knew that this could prolong the F.B.I.'s investigation perhaps by months. "I hung up and I was thinking, I cannot believe that I even know anyone who throws pipe bombs into gopher holes." As part of their strategy, Wood and Grant decided to mount a strong counterattack against the government. Wayne Grant had come up with the idea: Bobi Jewell should hold a press conference during the Democratic convention and make a direct plea to Bill Clinton. The day before she was to appear, Grant rehearsed her. It was difficult to work with Bobi; she was exhausted and could not stop crying. Confined under siege for almost a month, she could not see an end to it, since every day brought a new humiliation. The resident manager had threatened to take away their lease, and the manager's son was out selling pictures he took of them. A close friend from church was dying, Bobi said, and Richard could not go to see him, because of the swarm of F.B.I. agents and reporters who followed him everywhere. All of it came out in a rush in the conference room with Wayne Grant: Bobi had even had to give Bryant and Nadya Light the Olympic-basketball tickets she had won as colleague of the year, and every night she and her son were stuck together, staring at each other across the kitchen table. They were often irritable, and Richard sometimes lost his temper. "Mother, just shut up," he would tell her when she nagged him about the case. Then, Bobi later recalled, she would go into her bedroom and lie on the four-poster bed hoping that the photographers who rented an apartment across the way for $1,000 a day had no way of knowing what was going on. Grant kept careful notes on the session. Bobi was terrified about appearing in front of cameras. She sobbed and told him, "If I go on TV Monday, I'll be embarrassed. It will be, like, whenever I go anywhere, people will be looking at me: 'Did he do it or didn't he do it?'" "If you talked to the person who is in charge of the investigation, what would you say?" Grant asked her calmly. Bobi's voice was halting, but she was firm: "He is innocent. Clear his name and let us get back to a life that is normal." A few weeks later, Wayne Grant went to a party for a Bar Mitzvah, and a guest cornered him. She asked him if he had told Bobi Jewell to cry at the end of her press conference, and then added coldly, "Nice touch." The lawyers' strategy worked: after Bobi's press conference, the Jewells were deluged with interview requests. Bryant often received 100 phone calls a day. Bobi soon developed a system: letters from Oprah Winfrey, Sally Jessy Raphaël, and TV producers were stacked on the console in the living room; flowers and baskets of Godiva chocolates and cheese and crackers from the networks were sent to the offices of Wood & Grant and then on to a children's hospital. At the U.S. Attorney's Office, it had become increasingly clear to Kent Alexander that something had to be done about Richard Jewell. Janet Reno had seen Bobi Jewell on TV and was moved by her sincerity. Privately, Reno and Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick were said to be concerned about the heavy-handed tactics of the F.B.I. "The case had become a total embarrassment," a Justice Department official told me, but Alexander was in a complicated situation. He was working closely with the F.B.I., and there was no sign that the bureau was ready to let go, despite growing consternation among the local agents that the Washington command center had mishandled the case. And there was another problem: Alexander did not trust Lin Wood. By late September, there was a tremendous strain within the team Bryant had hastily assembled. The other lawyers accused Jack Martin of cutting private deals with his friend Kent Alexander, pulling focus, and not being tough enough. For his part, Alexander, according to Martin, admired Bryant even though he believed he was a loose cannon, but he was fed up with Lin Wood. "Alexander would say something fairly candid to me, and I would report it to the attorneys, and the next day he would see it on TV," said Jack Martin. "Alexander had checked out Lin, and he knew that he was a take-no-prisoners guy." The lawyers often argued
5, [card lightning bolt]Bolt[/card] you for 3, activate [card deathrite shaman]Deathrite[/card] exiling Bolt. Game 2?” Jason’s Cube Site – http://riptidelab.com/Template:Infobox Album Under Blackpool Lights is the only official DVD from The White Stripes. The DVD consists of 26 tracks recorded at The Empress Ballroom at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool on January 27 and 28, 2004 and directed by Dick Carruthers. Among these tracks, there are some cover songs such as "Take a Whiff on Me" (Leadbelly), "Outlaw Blues" (Bob Dylan), "Jack the Ripper" (Screaming Lord Sutch), "Jolene" (Dolly Parton), "Death Letter" (Son House), "Goin' Back to Memphis" (The Soledad Brothers), and "De Ballit of de Boll Weevil" (Leadbelly). Track listing Edit DVD Easter eggs and other oddities Edit There are a number of Easter eggs on the DVD. On the third page of song selections, highlight the third song ("Let's Shake Hands") and press right three times on the navigation controls. It will cut to a short scene. (Remember Jack's obsession with the number 3!) page of song selections, highlight the song ("Let's Shake Hands") and press right times on the navigation controls. It will cut to a short scene. (Remember Jack's obsession with the number 3!) Watch the writing on Jack's arm. It changes from "Noxious" to "Obnoxious" over the course of the show. Apparently this was Meg's doing as a way to play a joke on the director. This is possible since the film was shot over the course of two performances. After "Let's Shake Hands", at the 58:09 mark, you can see Jack and Meg applauding themselves. The recording is out of sync right at the end of "Goin' Back to Memphis", with the sound of a crash cymbol being hit a second before Meg actually hits it. This is the same straight after with Jack's strumming of his guitar. Wait until the end of the credits at the end of the DVD to hear Jack say in a hushed tone, "Lets split the money, fifty-fifty". There may be other secrets or oddities in the DVD. On the band's website Jack left a message saying, "There are so many secret things in it! I can't wait for you all to find the secrets. Sometimes you have to pay attention you know? Like listen really closely, or maybe some things are upside down? Always look at things from more than one angle you know? But after you've done that listen to your gut and shoot from the hip. If you follow your heart you won't be sad with yourself." Also it has been rumored that Ben Blackwell said there is one last easter egg that if ever found will most likely be found by chance or accident. This last secret may relate to the above message Jack left on the site. Setlist from January 27 and January 28, 2004. Template:2000s-rock-album-stubFarrah Abraham appeared on Sunday's season-two finale of Botched to consult with Dr. Terry Dubrow and Dr. Paul Nassif on fixing her lip implants — which, as she shared earlier in the year, had gone horribly wrong. Cosmopolitan.com spoke to the Teen Mom OG star about the horrifying mishap, why she now wants to become a plastic surgeon herself, and the latest update to her Farrah Abraham Collection, a line of sex toys that, as of July 13, will finally include playthings for her as well as him. Why did you post your botched surgery on Twitter in the first place? I wanted to show that this serious thing could happen. It has happened to other celebrities or their parents; [they] have gone in for a procedure and died. I believe Kanye West's mom, for example. It affects many people and the public can relate to this. In the episode, I ended up just doing a regular lip injection, not the implant, because I had such anxiety and I was so scared. The doctors said, "Let's just ease into this slowly, figure this out together." Dr. Nassif was pretty crazy with his anxiety relief. He did some good stuff to my neck. There were some people who suggested the whole thing was fake or a publicity stunt. So many people thought it was fake! I went and did [the original procedure] under the radar. Then when it backfired and I'm on the news, the Botched people reached out and said, "We really want to share your story." I obviously should be sharing my story and helping others, and that's what Botched is about. I had to take steroids, I had to take shots, I had to go to the emergency room, I had to stay in contact with doctors; it was really a struggle. When you first saw yourself after the horrible surgery, what was that like? First of all, I was drenched in sweat. I probably looked like hell. And then I saw my face and thought, I can't even believe it. My second thought was, I'm going to call my lawyer and have him take care of this because I can't believe what this person did to my face. What did the doctor say? Did he offer any explanation? Well, my boyfriend at the time took me to the hospital [and] the head of the emergency room was not OK with the doctor who had attempted to do my lip augmentation and said, "You need a follow-up with this and report this. There is no reason for all of these relaxers in your system and there are a couple of things that he injected that are questionable." He should not have kept injecting the numbing serum — and it wasn't working. So I basically didn't go numb at all — that's when I got concerned and called my boyfriend and went to the emergency room. They were talking to me about who I was and all these other things instead of focusing on my health and doing the procedure the best way that they can. And I know it may sound like, "Oh, Farrah is in her own world of being on Teen Mom and being a public figure" — that's really not the case for me. I walked in and I never told them what I did. I filled out the form and basically said, "I would like to do my tests and see if I'm healthy and well enough to do the procedure, so please let me know what your schedule allows." And he said, "We'll get you in the next day, your tests will be fine." And I come in the next day and all they talk about what I do — it was never a topic that I brought up. Honestly, I think he did this to create attention and get eyes on him, and he obviously did it in a very wrong way and I wanted to warn others. I think people assume that celebrities get the best care but look at the Joan River's situation — they cut corners and acted unprofessionally and it cost her her life. Yes. That's the scariest thing. It is so sad about Joan Rivers. Also, I am looking to be a plastic surgeon in the future and there are a lot of things I need to do with aesthetics and schooling and job shadowing, and a doctor who I was going to be doing an internship with I had to cancel on because he was more focused on being a celebrity and being around celebrities [than he was with his practice]. He was very disrespectful and not focusing on the health and safety of his practice. Drs. Nassif and Dubrow, they are doctors on TV, but they do not care about fame or anything. They know their practices inside and out, and they see their patients regardless of whether they are on TV or not. Will you go under the knife again? I would use doctors who I know are safe and focused on their practice. Personally I don't foresee any procedures or anything I need, other than perhaps fillers for prevention, but other than that, I just believe in doing skin treatments and taking care of my body and being healthy in a natural way right now. Some experts say plastic surgery can be an addiction. Are you worried you'll never feel finished? I definitely feel finished when I'm finished. I know the exact things that I need. I know, for me, what I see in my head and what I envision I am as Farrah — it's like Caitlyn [Jenner], who talks about this openly, how she envisions herself... "this is who we are" kind of thing. This is why they do mental health talks and try to council each patient, like every plastic surgeon should. So you know [the patient's] mental health is OK, they are sane, and they understand who they are and are not going through depression. I can't speak for everyone, but I know that I definitely don't want to be a consistent plastic surgery, cosmetic kind of scenario. I don't like going to the hospital. I don't want to put myself through pain. So I'm very limited; I know what I need and then I call it a day. You mentioned Caitlyn and her openness about discussing her identity. What are you thoughts on her and her public journey? I definitely support that. My grandma was a nurse and she helped a lot of transgender clients, so growing up, I was very aware of that, and my family and I have always been very supportive of people going through this. Caitlyn sharing this is something awesome and we should all embrace that. I talk about it very openly too. I envision myself one way... I know how I am and I would love others to understand this. If we have more and more people talking about [plastic surgery], then one day, we will really understand that we aren't trying to change ourselves, we're not trying to change how God made us — this is how God made us and we're going to get there. It's like a transformation from a kid to a tween to teens to adulthood. Everyone has their own transformation and whether it be natural or [with] a little help, I hope others see that in a loving, kind, and educational way. Have you ever brought in a picture or told a doctor that you want a particular celebrity's lips or breast? I definitely have my own brand and so I never ever envision myself with anyone else's lips. I think I'm pretty confident and I know I'm different than everyone else, so I'm going to do what's me. Have you ever had a fan tell you, "I'm getting a Farrah breast job"? Or your nose? Of course, of course. I recently went home to the Midwest and I was randomly shopping and everyone [finds out] I'm in Victoria's Secret for a hot second and then they're all like, "Oh my god, I got my boobs done by your same doctor and I saw you on the wall and I wanted my boobs to look just like yours in the end!" So I am very flattered and I'm hopefully setting an example to not be overly big and not to choose something you're not happy with. On a similar note, your line of sex toys is molded from your body parts, right? Yes, for the male items. And we have the female items, the novelty toys, coming out the 13th of [July]. We're taking care or our women for sure, so now everyone is on the same page. Who was your male model for the mold? I actually did not use a male model, I wanted to be more scientific about it. There was a group of engineers I worked with and they definitely know this is what our women want. We have women who try it out and give us feedback and we go from there. So with the help of a panel of ladies, I think we chose the right vibrator, bullet, and G-spot type of thing — and that's all a girl can need in a kit! Amazing. And you've tested it too? Oh my god, duh! Why would I ever release something if I wasn't all up in there? This is definitely five-star! Did you ever consider doing a crazy lip mold? Like a crazy blow-job mold? Well, that was talked about. But the male feedback was that they would much rather a stroker looking like the lady parts rather than the lips. We chose the three top items the panel was really excited about. Yeah, the Botched lips would just be a bit too much. Oh my god, that's so funny. Maybe we should do a Botched blow job toy. Tell me where you're at in your pursuit of becoming a surgeon. Basically I would go back and go for my other degrees. I plan on doing that at the end of this year because I have a couple other projects that I'm working on. I'm very excited to get into it and I think I will be doing it more so in California, since that's where I had my complication. I plan to do my schooling there and see where I can improve that field of work. I care to improve it and work my hardest to do whatever I can. This is my next thing. So are you thinking full medical school or a different route, like nursing? Or would you be a cosmetician? I'm actually working all the way up — aesthetics, nursing. I just think it's very important to go from the very bottom to the top. Luckily for me, I have many friends and many doctors who I can job-shadow and who I believe in and are top surgeons. So I am very excited to do that and definitely have the support. That's a huge undertaking. Good for you. You know what? Go, women! Go, girls! I'm all about it. Follow Darla on Twitter.Ed Tomlin, a longtime civil rights activist and former president of the Marion County NAACP, died suddenly on Monday. He was 63. Ed Tomlin, a longtime civil rights activist and former president of the Marion County NAACP, died suddenly on Monday. He was 63. Tomlin, a native of Ocala, suffered an apparent heart attack after he returned home from a day of fishing, according to his family. He was the father of Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin. "He loved people. He was very knowledgeable, outgoing and loved fishing," said Mazella Tomlin, Ed Tomlin's wife of 12 years. Tomlin was speaking with his brother, Michael Tomlin, when he collapsed. "I love him. He wasn't just my brother, he was my best friend. We talked about everything. We talked every night," he said. Tomlin took the reins of the local National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 2003 and helped shepherd the organization back to stability after several years of leadership changes and a dwindling membership. "He added a lot to the NAACP. He was a leader and had the ability to draw people to him. He worked well with a broad category of people across race lines. He was a very thoughtful person and had a great knowledge of the community history and civil rights history," said Whitfield Jenkins, another local NAACP past president, who worked with Tomlin. Tomlin resigned from the post in June 2006, citing health issues. Despite his retirement, he continued to champion civil rights and community issues locally, even as recently as three weeks ago. In late December, Tomlin attended a meeting with Ocala Mayor Kent Guinn to voice his objections over Guinn's nomination of Greg Graham for Ocala police chief without community input. Graham was eventually approved for the post and was sworn in Tuesday. "I was shocked to hear the news" of his death, said former OPD Chief Sam Williams on Tuesday. "I considered him a friend." Tomlin was on the 2003 search committee that selected Williams, the second black man to lead the department. "He was a hard worker trying to get things equal in the city of Ocala. He worked on a lot of civil rights issues. He was a very good citizen, and he was very concerned about the way people in Ocala are treated," said Mary Sue Rich, an Ocala City Council member since 1995. Tomlin's participation in civil rights causes started early. He was an NAACP member since the age of 13 and protested segregation in Ocala as part of the NAACP Youth Council in the 1960s. He was a quiet man, but had a big presence. "He displayed statesmanship. He used to talk about the difference between a politician and a statesman. The way he related to people, the way he approached issues and problem solving was very statesman-like. He was very courageous, but at the same time he gave people an opportunity to give their opinion," said Jenkins, who knew Tomlin since his high school years, when Tomlin was a football standout. Tomlin played football at the former Howard High School in Ocala, where he graduated in 1964. He attended Hampton Institute, now Hampton University, in Hampton, Va., and was drafted by the Baltimore Colts in 1968. That year, he played eight games with the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League. His son, Mike Tomlin, the current head football coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, could not be reached Tuesday for comment. At Hampton, Ed Tomlin majored in chemistry and later developed a chemical formula used to paint bicycle frames so they would reflect light at night. Tomlin and a friend formed their own paint business, according to Tomlin's sister, Alice. Ed Tomlin returned to Ocala in the mid-1990s and worked as a business manager for various Ocala businesses, including as assistant warehouse manager at ClosetMaid. He also became involved in the community. "He had so many good qualities about him. He cared about the important things in life. His legacy will go beyond his leadership with the NAACP. He genuinely cared about young people and cared about his faith," Jenkins said. "He was a guy that a lot of us are going to miss." Tomlin is survived by five sisters, a brother and two sons. Between them, he and Mazella have seven children and 16 grandchildren.THE MORNING PLUM: For many of us who were wrongly convinced that Hillary Clinton would be elected president yesterday, there seemed to be a kind of upside to running against Donald Trump. Whereas the 2012 campaign centered on a big argument over government and the economy, Campaign 2016 presented the occasion for a grand argument between a vision of an evolving America that embraces pluralism, tolerance, inclusion, and cultural change — and one that is standing athwart those changes. Trump crudely but shrewdly positioned himself as that latter vision’s champion, through an explicit embrace of intolerance, bigotry, ethno-nationalism, and white identity politics. Simply put, our operating premise was that the inhabitants of that evolving America outnumbered those who are resisting it. Clinton could assemble large numbers of nonwhites, millennials, and just enough college educated whites — particularly women — who were horrified by Trump’s racism, misogyny, and hatred to constitute a winning coalition. Barack Obama had done something similar twice before, even without facing a monstrous bigot and hater like Trump, and the national majorities embracing culturally changing America would rally behind Clinton and continue to deliver Democrats the White House. Clinton — who came of political age in the south and rose to national prominence during an era when Democrats still winked at white grievance — was an imperfect vehicle for this argument. But she gamely took it on, and we cheered when she went all in on an effort to force a national debate over Trump’s overt mainstreaming of hate, as she put it. Supporters of President-elect Donald Trump rejoiced across the nation on Election Night as their candidate defied the polls. (Monica Akhtar/The Washington Post) I thought she had won this argument. It turned out she lost it. At least she lost it in the sense that it failed to win over enough white voters to build a winning coalition, and failed to sufficiently energize the core elements in the Democratic coalition that were supposed to enthusiastically march into this battle. [A stunning cake and a stunned nation] Ron Brownstein aptly describes the election as a “cultural civil war,” and explains why Democrats lost it this time. Trump ran up enormous margins among blue collar whites, in part because Clinton under-performed among them relative to Obama: The Trump coalition was centered on white voters without a college education. Exit polls posted on CNN.com showed him crushing Clinton among those voters by enormous margins almost everywhere….Trump beat Clinton among non-college whites by 18 percentage points in New Hampshire, 21 in Colorado, 22 in Arizona, 24 points in Wisconsin, 31 points in Michigan, and 35 points in Missouri…. In several cases, those showings represented significant declines for Clinton relative to Obama in 2012…her share of the vote among non-college whites, relative to Obama’s showing in 2012, fell 14 points in Maine, 13 points in Michigan, 12 points in New Hampshire, 11 points in Colorado, 10 points in Wisconsin, nine points in Pennsylvania, and six points in Florida. In some states, Clinton not only failed to hold down Trump’s huge margin among noncollege whites; she also failed to supplant it with enough college educated whites: In some traditionally Democratic states, Clinton was able to overcome this surge with strong performances among minority voters and college-educated whites. The exit polls gave her 55 percent of college whites in New Jersey and Wisconsin, 54 percent in New Hampshire, and 51 percent in Colorado, Pennsylvania, and Washington. Compared to Obama, she improved the Democratic showing among college-educated whites in Arizona, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. But in other key battlegrounds like Michigan, New Hampshire, North Carolina, and Ohio she only essentially matched his performance; in Florida she slipped slightly among the white-collar whites. Meanwhile, all this was exacerbated by Clinton’s failure to run up quite enough of a margin among Latinos in states like Florida, though we need much more data to understand what the role of the Latino vote played here and why it fell short of having the impact Democrats expected. Now, Clinton’s awful performance among non-college whites — and particularly her underperformance among them relative to Obama — will prompt a searing debate among Democrats over whether Clinton and the party failed to articulate a strong enough economic message. That’s a debate we can and should have. Meanwhile, surely there are countless Trump voters who supported him for reasons having nothing to do with his racism and displays of hate. [Trump voters will not like what happens next] But what is undeniable for now is that in too many battleground states, enormous numbers of white voters either did embrace Trump’s bigotry and intolerance, or were not sufficiently alienated by those traits for it to make a difference, or simply found Clinton’s spirited rebuke of them to be insufficiently compelling or inspiring or relevant. I am not quite as despairing about this as are David Remnick and Brian Beutler and Paul Krugman, all of whom feel as if Trump’s win reveals America to no longer be the open and tolerant country they thought they inhabited, and threatens to drag us backward in dangerous ways. After all, Clinton does seem to be winning the national popular vote, suggesting there still is a popular majority aligned with our side of the argument. But it certainly was a horrible shock to discover that there are so many of our fellow Americans on the other side of it. **************************************************************************** * HOW THE POLLS GOT IT WRONG: Nate Cohn tries to explain what might have happened: The polls were wrong about one big thing: They missed Mrs. Clinton’s margin in the Midwestern states, like Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania….Perhaps undecided voters broke for Mr. Trump; maybe there really were “silent” voters for him, people who were reluctant to tell pollsters that they backed him….Maybe Republican voters came home to the party over the last week in well-educated suburbs, while undecided white working-class voters broke for Mr. Trump. All of the internal Democratic polling I was privy to also showed Clinton leading, though the margins were pretty tight. There will probably be a major reckoning in the polling industry now. * CLINTON ADVISER SAW ‘RAGE’ OF TRUMP VOTERS: Dan Balz talks to a Clinton adviser about Trump’s appeal: One Clinton adviser described it as “a quiet rage” that existed in the privacy of living rooms and around kitchen tables, frustration with the political system and the lack of tangible results from government’s actions for many hard-working Americans. Well, Trump did essentially vow to break the system over his knee and get it working again, so maybe the details he offered — or lack of them — were beside the point entirely. * TRUMP VOWS MAJOR INFRASTRUCTURE SPENDING: This nugget from Trump’s victory speech is noteworthy: “We are going to fix our inner cities and rebuild our highways, bridges, tunnels, airports, schools, hospitals. We’re going to rebuild our infrastructure, which will become, by the way, second to none. And we will put millions of our people to work as we rebuild it.” After so much resistance to infrastructure spending among many Republicans, it should be interesting to see if the GOP Congress is suddenly willing to spend this money. * TRUMP PRESIDENCY WILL UPEND WORLD ORDER: Peter Baker spells out just how massive a shift in American’s posture towards the rest of the world this could mean: Mr. Trump’s win foreshadowed an America more focused on its own affairs while leaving the world to take care of itself. Mr. Trump’s success could fuel the populist, nativist, nationalist, closed-border movements already so evident in Europe and spreading to other parts of the world. For Mexico, it seemed to presage a new era of confrontation with its northern neighbor. For Europe and Asia, it could rewrite the rules of modern alliances, trade deals, and foreign aid. For the Middle East, it foreshadowed a possible alignment with Russia and fresh conflict with Iran. One immediate question will be whether Trump moves to scrap the Iran nuclear deal. * OBAMA CONGRATULATES TRUMP: The President called Trump early this morning to congratulate him, and: Obama invited Trump to meet with him at the White House on Thursday to discuss the transition. That might get a bit awkward. * CLINTON TO SPEAK ABOUT TODAY’S RESULTS: She is set to speak at 9:30 a.m. This should be one for the ages. * AND EVANGELICALS BACKED TRUMP IN FORCE: The Wall Street Journal ferrets out an amazing number from the exit polls: More than 80 percent of evangelical and born-again Christians backed Trump. And despite Trump’s lewd boasts about groping women and multiple allegations of unwanted advances, more than 75 percent of evangelical women backed him. Well, Trump did repeatedly vow to Make Christianity Great Again, so maybe that explains it. That’s not merely a joke: As one expert recently noted, evangelicals respond deeply to Trump’s appeals to nostalgia and vow to restore a mythical golden age.Previous story: Rise of Kozilek The plan had worked. Together, Nissa, Jace, Gideon, and the army of Zendikari had succeeded in constructing an enormous hedron prison capable of holding an Eldrazi titan. And as of just a moment ago, Nissa had heaved the last hedron into place, trapping Ulamog, the monster that had ravaged her world. Standing on the floating rock next to Gideon, Nissa was at eye level with Ulamog's massive, bony faceplate. The impossibility of what they had just done threatened to send her off balance, but the cheers from the Zendikari below buoyed her up. Aligned Hedron Netwrok \| Art by Richard Wright For too long, her world had been at Ulamog's disposal, careening down an inescapable path toward destruction—Bala Ged, Sejiri. But now, finally and almost inconceivably, it was the other way around. At last, it was Zendikar's turn to do the destroying. And Zendikar would show no mercy. "All right, let's start to pull back! Hold your lines!" Gideon called orders to the Zendikari below as he made his way down a rope ladder toward Sea Gate. "Keep the perimeter secure!" It was good that Gideon was in charge; the people would be safe with him at the helm, which meant Nissa was free to focus on the titan. A surge of anticipation rushed through her. She looked across the battlefield to Jace. As he met her gaze, he opened his mind to her. He's trapped like you wanted, she said. Now it's time to destroy him. Yes. How many more hedrons were out there buried in the bluff? Jace asked. Nissa could sense the excitement in his voice, even in her head. We're going to need another one, no, two actually. Nissa, this is going to work! I have a plan. So do I. Nissa drew her sword. But before she could make her advance, Jace pushed her attention toward the hedron ring. He had recreated his superimposed, life-size illusionary diagram. With just two more hedrons to redirect the power we're channeling, I believe we'll be able to destroy the titan without ever having to touch it. The risk is minimal—relatively speaking. If we just...Jace continued talking, but Nissa ceased listening. She didn't want a calculated, clinical strike. She wanted to drive her sword into Ulamog's neck. She wanted to eviscerate him. She wanted to end him, right here and right now. She had promised Jace she would not attempt to destroy the titan until he was trapped; now he was trapped. She turned to face the land, looking to the rocky bluff, and she reached out for the soul of the world. She called, and Ashaya answered. The elemental rose with a determination Nissa had not yet seen in the world. With a hope that she had never before felt. Zendikar emerged ready, finally, for freedom. Ashaya, the Awoken World \| Art by Raymond Swanland Then something broke. Like a twig snapping underfoot, Ashaya cracked and faltered, pieces of her form crumbling away. Confused, Nissa reached out further, pulling harder. But Ashaya did not respond; her branches convulsed and quavered, and with her, all of Zendikar trembled. The floating rock Nissa was standing on swayed, slowly at first and then faster, violently. Nissa stumbled, thrusting her arms out for balance. The bucking and quaking was so severe that it felt as though Zendikar was going to tear itself asunder. Then, just as quickly as the quaking had begun, it stopped. The world calmed, and everything was quiet. But Nissa knew it was a false calm. Something was wrong, she could sense it, something— A ragged gnashing blasted the silence apart. To Nissa's right, the seawall and everything on it swelled like a tidal wave. Nissa watched in horror as Zendikari and Eldrazi alike were sent flailing into the air and came crashing down on the hard stone wall, only to be thrown back up again as the whole thing reared a second time. Wide-eyed and wild, Nissa turned back to Ashaya. Zendikar radiated a flood of pain and terror as the elemental crumbled into a pile of rubble. "Ashaya!" Nissa ran for her friend, but was thrown to her knees as yet another undulation heaved through the world. Out over the sea to her left, the ring of hedrons rocked as violently as the land. The leylines strained to maintain their formation as surge upon surge of rippling tremors tore across the bay. The prison was going to come undone. But it was not the rocking of the world that was putting strain on it. It was the other way around. The unsettled prison was putting a strain on the world. There, above the prison, Nissa saw a stray hedron, a dark power blasting through it, destroying the integrity of the leyline alignment. It was wrong. It shouldn't have been there. Where had it come from? Anxious, she searched out Jace. Nissa, get out of there! Jace's cry filled her mind as soon as he had her attention. With a great, echoing crack, one of the leylines of the prison snapped. The circle was broken. Nissa's heart stopped. Run, Nissa! Now! But Nissa didn't run. She launched herself out toward the broken leyline. This couldn't happen. Not now. It was Zendikar's turn. As she landed on a floating rock near the breach, one of the half-freed hedrons tipped, straining its remaining connection until that connection, too, was shattered. For a breath, the great rock teetered, suspended on the last hint of the magical bond that had held it in place, and then it plummeted toward the sea. Nissa was drenched by the massive splash that followed the hedron's impact, but she didn't pause to so much as wipe her eyes. This couldn't happen. She reached out to the dangling leyline, the one that had been connected to the fallen hedron, and she pushed her feeling down into the powerful mana the leyline was made of until she could touch it. The moment she succeeded, an unbelievable surge of power rushed into her. She felt stronger than she had ever felt before. But that wasn't important. What was important was where she channeled that power. She would send it through herself and into the other dangling leyline; she would complete the broken circle using her own body. She would fix this. She reached out for the other leyline, digging down into her own well of strength to stretch herself toward its magic, pouring everything she had into her effort to close the ring. Just a little closer and— She was knocked off her feet. Nissa only saw the thick, pink tentacle after it had struck her. Ulamog. With the integrity of the prison compromised, he had been free to breach its border. Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre \| Art by Aleksi Briclot The hedrons of the ring began to sway, off balance. The leylines were whipped out of her reach. Ulamog would not be contained any longer. No! Nissa jumped up, springing for the nearest vine, this time with her sword in hand. She set her sights on the titan. This couldn't happen. Trapped or not, she would destroy Ulamog. This was Zendikar's turn. Swinging from a vine, Nissa brought her sword down on one of Ulamog's flailing tentacles. Her blade didn't so much as leave a scratch, but she didn't care. She struck again. And again. And then the rest of the ring gave way. One by one, the other hedrons plummeted into the sea. Wave after wave of salty seawater splashed up at Nissa as a cacophony of terror-laden screams sounded from behind. Ulamog, free of his bonds, was moving toward Sea Gate once more. Nissa cried out in anguish. As impossible as their initial success in trapping Ulamog had been, this end seemed all the more unthinkable. This end? Was this truly the end? With that thought, a wave of weakness washed through Nissa, draining her. It was all she could do to force her fingers to hold on to the vine. Nissa, what are you doing? You have to get out of there! Jace's voice in her head again. He was as desperate as she had ever heard him, but she couldn't bring herself to move. Now! Jace cried. His anxiety didn't affect her. She stared at the water crashing below. It would be cold if she fell. The prison is broken, Nissa, Jace's voice was quieter. The demon broke it. There's nothing more to do. Just get out. Please. The demon...Nissa shook herself. The demon? All at once she felt him, felt the evil of the monster he was. He was here. She looked up. There he was. The demon she had faced back on Bala Ged, the one who had uprooted Khalni Heart, the one who had tried to destroy Zendikar. He had come back. Ob Nixilis Reignited \| Art by Chris Rahn Suddenly it all made sense. His was the darkness she had sensed, he was the thing that had been wrong. It was his hedron that had upset the prison, that had made the land quake. He was the cause of all of this. And now he was casting a spell, a spell so ancient and powerful that Nissa didn't recognize anything more than its vague shape and its complete and consuming darkness. With the casting of this spell, all the land of Zendikar cried out in pain. "Rise!" the demon screamed. And something rose. Nissa turned to see a row of impossibly large, glistening black shards tearing through the ground. Even before the rest of the monster so much as breached the surface, Nissa knew she was looking upon a second titan. Kozilek. The demon had called yet another horror to ravage her world. Art by Lius Lasahido She looked back up at the demon, and he smiled down at her. Smiled. Nissa shuddered, sickened, and in that moment something inside her was uprooted. Some part of her that she recognized from long ago, a piece of herself that she had tried to temper, had tried to forget. There was power in that part of her, and now it was that power that was coursing through her veins. It was not unlike the sensation of the power of the leylines surging through her, but this time she could keep it all for herself. That felt good. Her strength returned tenfold, and she climbed the vine hand over hand, pulling herself up onto the top of the floating rock above. She stood there staring at the demon. She knew that she should turn away from him. She knew that she should flee—or battle the titans, or help the people, or do anything but what she was about to do. But if she did any of those other things, would it matter? Would her actions make a difference? Was there any hope left, any last shred of hope left to save Zendikar? If she turned away from the demon, Nissa would have to answer that question. So she did not turn away from the demon. Instead, she looked straight at him, the eyeblight that had stolen her world's last chance to survive. For that, and for everything else, she would end him. She leapt down onto the thrashing seawall and raced toward the demon, her blade poised, ready to strike. It had been her mistake not to ensure that she had ended him when last they met; she
ie to note this morning that “a good deal of conservative politics is an elaborate scam for cash.”CDC Reports Nearly 300 Pregnant Women In U.S. Infected With Zika Due to a new method in reporting the cases, the known number of pregnant woman who have been affected has nearly tripled. Meanwhile, calls for proper funding to battle the outbreak have increased in urgency, as states try to get control of the virus without the money to do it. Reuters: U.S. Reports 279 Zika Cases In Pregnant Women, Obama Pushes Congress On Funds Health officials said 279 pregnant women in the United States and U.S. territories have tested positive for Zika infection, prompting a new call from President Barack Obama for more funding to fight the outbreak spreading through the Americas. Obama wants the U.S. Congress to provide close to $1.9 billion for vaccine development, faster diagnostic tests, and new tools for killing the mosquitoes that carry the virus, which can cause a rare birth defect in newborns and neurological disorders in adults. (Pierson, Berkrot and Rampton, 5/20) Politico: CDC: Nearly 300 Zika Cases In Pregnant Women In U.S. And Territories All of the U.S. infections occurred in women who had traveled abroad or, in rare cases, contracted the virus by infected sexual partners who returned from areas where the Zika is prevalent. In Puerto Rico, the virus is being transmitted by mosquitoes. The CDC is tracking the outcomes of these pregnancies, but reported no data today. At least one infected woman in Puerto Rico miscarried and another in Washington, D.C., had an abortion after imaging revealed the fetus had a misshapen head and brain. (Allen, 5/20) The Associated Press: Pregnant Women In US With Zika Spikes To 157 On New Counting Method The number of pregnant women in the United States infected with Zika virus is suddenly tripling, due to a change in how the government is reporting cases. Previously, officials had reported how many pregnant women had both Zika symptoms and positive blood tests. In a change announced Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's count will include all women who tested positive, regardless of symptoms. (Stobbe, 5/20) PBS Newshour: How Many U.S. Pregnancies Affected By Zika? Almost 300, CDC Says The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention has tracked close to 300 pregnant women with Zika virus in the U.S. and its territories. These figures come as part of the health agency’s decision to release a weekly update on the numbers of pregnant women dealing with the mosquito-borne disease. “As of today, national reporting of the number of U.S. pregnant women affected by Zika virus will change,” said Dr. Denise Jamieson, co-leader of the CDC’s pregnancy and birth defects team for the Zika response. These cases will be compiled in a new Zika pregnancy registry that will be updated every Thursday. (Akpan, 5/20) The Hill: Pressure Builds On Zika Funding Republicans are facing growing pressure from the White House and congressional Democrats to get a bill funding the United States's Zika virus relief efforts to President Obama's desk. Obama said Friday that Congress should not leave for recess without getting him a bill. (Sullivan, 5/23) Politico: How A Deadly Tropical Virus Became Another Washington Mess Even pregnant women have become fodder for partisan Washington funding fights. With nearly 300 pregnant women in the United States already infected with the Zika virus and the summer mosquito season looming after a soggy spring, Congress has yet to approve the Obama administration’s 3-month-old, $1.9 billion request for emergency funding. The bipartisan response to previous public health crises, such as the 2014 Ebola outbreak and the H1N1 flu pandemic in 2009, is not evident in the months-long congressional debates about Zika, despite its huge human costs. The virus in pregnant women has been closely linked to severe brain abnormalities in fetuses. (Haberkorn, 5/20) The Associated Press: Trying To Get Jump On Zika Preparations With Money In Limbo Beg, borrow and steal: Zika preparation involves a bit of all three as federal, state and local health officials try to get a jump on the mosquito-borne virus while Congress haggles over how much money they really need. With that financing in limbo, health officials are shifting resources and setting priorities — and not just in states where mosquitoes are starting to buzz. All but six states so far have seen travel-associated cases of Zika. (Neergaard, 5/23) Reuters: U.S. States On Zika's Frontline See Big Gaps In Funding, Expertise Because they are funded by local taxpayer dollars, U.S. mosquito control programs reflect deep economic disparities between communities, leaving some at-risk locations badly unprepared for the virus that is spreading through the Americas. (Steenhuysen, 5/23) New Hampshire Union Leader: No Uptick In Mosquito Spraying In NH Despite Zika Threat Fear of the Zika virus has prompted increased interest in professional mosquito control among private property owners in New Hampshire, but not among cities and towns. As of Wednesday, 37 municipalities applied for and received spraying permits for 2016, compared to 39 municipalities last year, according to David Rousseau, director of the Pesticide Control Division at the state Department of Agriculture. (Solomon, 5/21) In other Zika news — The Baltimore Sun: Mothers And Mothers-To-Be Assess The Risk From Zika, Take Precautions After marrying six months ago in Aruba, Laura and Rob Cancelliere planned to return for their first anniversary, but the Severna Park couple canceled the trip and even put thoughts of a baby on hold after learning about the emerging threat of the Zika virus. (Cohn, 5/22) NPR: Today's Tools For Combating Zika Mosquitoes Hark Back To 1945 "It's up to you," said a 1945 public service announced aimed at Americans. Find "one of man's worst enemies" and "destroy their foxholes." The video came from the Office of Malaria Control in War Areas (now known as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). And it was talking about a particular species of mosquito, Aedes aegypti — the very same mosquito in the news now. Back then, public health officials were mostly worried about dengue and yellow fevers. (Bichell, 5/21) Meanwhile, the Ebola czar warns about taking money from one outbreak to fight another — The Hill: Fauci: 'We Can't Take Our Eye Off The Ball With Ebola' The head of infectious disease research at the National Institutes of Health said on Sunday the U.S. still needs to focus on the battle against the Ebola virus, criticizing those who have said the money left over from the fight against Ebola could be put toward the Zika virus. "We can't take our eye off the ball with Ebola," Dr. Anthony Fauci said on ABC's "This Week." (Savransky, 5/22) This is part of the KHN Morning Briefing, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscriptionIf there's another game with as convoluted and confusing history as Magical Flying Hat Turbo Adventure, I've yet to hear of it. Vic Tokai's jaunty platformer essentially had four different lives, with the same game appearing in slightly modified forms on the NES, Sega Master System and the Sega Mega Drive. To make matters even more befuddling, there were two NES and Mega Drive versions, each tailored for different markets due to licensing issues. For this writer, Magical Flying Hat Turbo Adventure may be the best of the lot. But before we delve into exactly why, let's head back to the year 1988, where the game's curious story first began. The Quest For The Seven Wonder Herbs It all seemed to begin with a Japanese child star named Kenji Sagara, better known by his TV name Kakefu-kun. The kid's popularity was such that he got his own NES game courtesy of Vic Tokai, which went by the katchy name Kakefu-kun no Janpu Tengoku: Supido Jigoku (or, according to Wikipedia's translation, Kakefu's Jump Heaven: Speed Hell). Here's the Japanese box art, in case you're interested: The game itself's a simple yet fun platformer in the Super Mario mode, where the baseball hat-wearing Kakefu runs and jumps on the heads of Goomba-like enemies on his journey to the end of each stage. The twist is that Kakefu has a little furry friend he can use to throw at enemies. After a short time, the critter returns to Kakefu's shoulder, making it a useful ally in an otherwise unforgivingly harsh game. Of course, Kakefu meant nothing at all to western audiences, so his game was localised under the title Kid Kool And The Quest For The Seven Wonder Herbs for its 1990 release in the US. A name change and a few graphical tweaks aside (the main character is hatless in the western version), Kid Kool is essentially identical to its Japanese counterpart - right down to the different endings you're presented with depending on how long you take to complete it. Psycho Fox Between the release of Kakefu-kun and Kid Kool, Vic Tokai released what was essentially the same game again for the Sega Master System. Called Psycho Fox, the game replaced the slightly bland-looking little kid with an athletic mammal and his trusty owl. The graphics are enhanced for the Master System's expanded colour palette, and there are a few additional bonus rounds and level design tweaks, but the underlying mechanics are clearly the same. But with its wealth of secret portals, expansive maps and surreal usage of Japanese folklore (the hero can turn into a variety of creatures, including a monkey and a hippo), Psycho Fox is among the very best platformers ever released for the Master System. Psycho Fox was never released in Japan, which means that its distinctly Japanese cultural references were never fully appreciated on its own shores. Weirdly, a localised version of Psycho Fox was released in Brazil in 1995 - six years after it first appeared on the Master System in Europe and America. Called Sapo Xule, its graphics were changed to tie in with the popular Brazilian comic book character (a luminous frog) of the same name. Magical Flying Hat A year after the release of Psycho Fox (1990 - the year Kid Kool came out in America), Vic Tokai released Magical Flying Hat Turbo Adventure. Based on Studio Pierrot's anime series Magical Hat, which ran from 1989 to 1990, it once again evolved the basic platforming mechanics from Vic Tokai's earlier iterations. As the young hero Hat, you run and leap across a series of colourful, themed levels with a small companion you can throw at enemies - this time, a little smiling mechanical egg. The graphics have been improved to take advantage of the Mega Drive's 16-bit grunt, with parallax scrolling to add the illusion of depth and some charmingly detailed sprites. While the backgrounds are a little repetitive, the shading and animation on the central character is superbly wrought - it really does feel as though you're controlling the hero from a late 80s anime series in Magical Hat's best moments. The soundtrack also has more depth than its 8-bit predecessors, with synth drums and a breezy, infuriatingly catchy melody that is capable of lodging itself in the brain for days. Most of all, though, Magical Hat's best improvements are mechanical. Unlike its predecessors, Magical Hat lets you run back and forth through the expanded, maze-like levels, which means you can backtrack and locate items you may have missed. Thanks to his magical turban, Hat can also control the rate of his descent after a jump. Okay, so he can't actually fly as the title suggests, but it does make the action a bit more forgiving when you're trying to time the perfect leap to a distant platform. The strange transformations of Psycho Fox also make a return in Magical Hat. Collect the right items, and you can transform into a helicopter, submarine or even a rocket-firing mechanical gorilla in moments of crisis. Oddly, the game's quite strict about when these special powers can be activated, which means you can go through much of the game without even using them. The mechanical gorilla seems to be the only transformation you can select during a boss battle, for example. Of all the iterations Vic Tokai made of its same basic platformer, Magical Hat is by far my favourite. Sure, it's far from perfect, especially when placed alongside the kinds of things Nintendo was putting out at the time. But Magical Flying Hat's a relatively low-budget offering compared to, say, Super Mario World, so comparing the two's a bit like comparing Primer to something like Avatar. For what it is, Magical Flying Hat stands up as a fun way to while away a few hours. Some of its design decisions are really, really strange, admittedly. On one hand, its attempts to kill you with hidden enemies are immensely frustrating, but on the other, it liberally showers you with extra lives at every turn (there's a secret trick that will give you about 14 or 15 of them on certain levels). But even with all this in mind, there's a charm and pace to Magical Hat that keeps me going back to it. Certainly, before Sonic The Hedgehog, Magical Hat was the speediest platformer on the Mega Drive, and the breadth of its levels gave it more of an epic feel than the more restricted stages of, say, Castle Of Illusion. It's also far more entertaining than the disappointing Mega Drive iteration of Alex Kidd. DecapAttack Like Kakefu-kun, Magical Hat was based on characters that wouldn't have meant very much to western audiences. So when Vic Tokai couldn't get the license to release the game in Europe and America in its unexpurgated form, the decision was made to give its graphics and sound a fairly major overhaul. The result was DecapAttack, a cartoonish, horror-themed game which replaced Hat with a mummy-like character named Chuck D Head. Instead of a furry helper or mechanical egg, his special attack involves (you guessed it) chucking his own head at the game's army of grotesque enemies. There are a few other mechanical changes, too: Chuck can take four hits from enemies before dying rather than Hat's one-touch-death, while extra lives are no longer in quite such abundance. It's still a fun, quirky game, but for this writer, the decision to replace the vibrant colours of Magical Hat with the drab browns and greys of the western version was more than a little disappointing. I can still recall having a couple of copies of the 90s magazine Mean Machines, comparing the Japanese version's graphics to DecapAttack, and wishing that Magical Hat could get an official release in the UK. Released in 1991 in the US and in Europe the following year, DecapAttack brought Vic Tokai's very odd dynasty of interlinked platformers to a close. Spanning two console generations and no fewer than three separate systems, the games suffered from something of an identity crisis, but there was always a certain energy and sense of fun to be found in all of them - particularly the delightful, extremely odd Magical Flying Hat. For me, it's one of the most entertaining games ever released for the Mega Drive. Follow our Twitter feed for faster news and bad jokes right here. And be our Facebook chum here.The number of names on a US database used to track suspected terrorists has skyrocketed to 875,000 in five years, a US official told media. One of the alleged Boston Marathon bombers, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was added to the list in 2011. The Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment (TIDE) database has reached 875,000 names from 540,000 just five years ago, an anonymous official told Reuters. The increase in names is due in part to security agencies using the system more in the wake of the failed 2009 attack on a plane by "underpants bomber" Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab in Detroit. US agencies use the database to build other catalogs of possible terrorists, such as the ‘no-fly’ list. The list is maintained by the National Counterterrorism Center. The vast size of TIDE came into the spotlight after last month’s Boston Marathon bombing, which killed three people and injured more than 260 others. Twenty-six-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev was proved to have been on the list since 2011, after the CIA received a request from Russian authorities to investigate him for suspected radical Islamist activities. After being put in the TIDE system, Tsarnaev’s name was entered in another database maintained by the Homeland Security Department’s Customs and Border Protection bureau. Tsarnaev was flagged on that database when he left the US for Russia in January 2012, but no alarm was raised. When he returned from Russia six months later, he had been automatically downgraded in the database, as there was no new information requiring that he be placed under further scrutiny. Tsarnaev’s inclusion in the list, as well as the tip-off from the Russian government, prompted many to criticize the US for allowing the alleged terrorist to fall through the cracks. But officials say that simply being listed in TIDE is not enough to justify special attention by law enforcement, and that Tsarnaev was not known to be an active threat. TIDE has been scrutinized in the past for being so large and vague. However, an official familiar with the latest statistics said that the growing database does not mean the information is any less manageable. He said that intelligence agencies have become better at extracting information from the sea of data. But others are less optimistic about the database’s growth, fearing it could have negative consequences on TIDE’s efficiency. "What you want is more focus, not less focus. It can't be just about quantity. It has to be about specificity," said Karen Greenberg, expert in counter-terrorism policy at Fordham University.Let's get one thing out of the way first. Jorge Soler is going to get the bulk of the playing time, but I think there is plenty of room for Tommy La Stella in this rotation. I've said this as recently as the day of the Schwarber injury. And while we may see Soler get the lion's share of ABs with Schwarber gone, I do expect La Stella to fill in again at 3B for tough RHP matchups such as (Rubby) De La Rosa. The first reaction to Schwarber's injury is that the Cubs could simply plug in Soler and he can replace much of that production. In terms of power...yes. It is possible Soler can fill that void, especially if he can better translate that raw power into games, which he has yet to do consistently at the MLB level. But Schwarber left a bigger void than just power. His grind-it-out approach at the plate won't easily be replaced Soler. And he was harder to pitch to for RH power pitchers, particularly those with solid command and a good secondary pitch to make a less polished hitter like Soler chase. There's even a bit of a defensive downgrade. Schwarber wasn't Alex Gordon out there, but he was more dependable than Soler. What I am getting at here is that Soler is only a partial replacement for Schwarber at this point of his career and if the Cubs want to more closely approximate the production they will miss, they need to fill some of those gaps by utilizing other players such as La Stella. La Stella can grind out those ABs, moving him to 3B (where he has been surprisingly good over the past two years) and Kris Bryant to LF improves the defense. He can also help neutralize the same kind of RH power pitchers that give Soler trouble. There is no question that Soler is the better player overall -- but that doesn't mean he is better in every situation. This is probably hard to hear but it doesn't make it any less true. In the smaller scope, think about who you would want up in a tie game with a RHP on the mound, men in scoring position and less than two outs? La Stella or Soler? I think if we are honest, the answer should be obvious. And it isn't enough to say that is why you save La Stella on the bench. Who does he pinch-hit for when and if that situation arises? Maybe just the pitcher or David Ross. At that point it's even awkward to pinch-hit for Soler, even if we believe La Stella gives them the better chance to score in that situation. Moreover, these kinds of scenarios appear throughout the game, not just in late game situations when it's a close game and the pitcher just happens to be coming to bat. Starting him gives 4 chances to bat in that kind of scenario as opposed to one, or more likely, none. Most games are essentially won before the last couple of innings. Given that the Cubs struggled with lineup balance and that very scenario last season, it makes sense to put him in games where his skills are expected to be most needed from start to finish. Expanding the scope here then to an entire game, we can see where this is true, at least when we are looking strictly at process. There was a lot of disappointment when La Stella got the start over Soler in the wild card game last year but if we look back at it now rationally, it made a lot of sense. The Cubs were playing the kind of power RHP that matches up well against Soler in Gerrit Cole. The outfield at PNC park is a spacious one -- especially in LF and the cooler Octobers in Pittsburgh can mitigate some HR power. Getting a LH hitter in who can make Cole work, put the ball in play, get on base, and indirectly improve the defense is the logical one. Now La Stella wasn't really a factor in that game one way or the other and we don't know if Soler would have been. It turns out it didn't matter. We also know that Soler caught fire in the next two series and helped carry the Cubs over the Cardinals and was arguably their best player against the Mets, a set of scenarios that was actually very similar to that wild card game in Pittsburgh (power RHPs, cool weather, bigger OF). If the Soler of those last two playoff series were to show up more consistently, we wouldn't even be having this discussion. That version of Soler worked counts and laid off those hard, low and away breaking pitches and forced pitchers to come after him. As we have seen, when pitchers come after Soler, it doesn't often end well for them. The problem is that is not yet who Jorge Soler is on a day-to-day basis. He can be and the Cubs certainly want him to be that kind of hitter. but he isn't. Not yet. It was for that same reason that manager Joe Maddon strongly considered starting La Stella as the DH against power RHP Garret Richards on Opening Day. I believe if it was strictly a tactical baseball decision, it would have indeed been La Stella in the lineup, but Maddon is a players' manager too. He understands the importance of developing Soler and getting him started off on the right foot. So Soler started the game, but wasn't really a factor in the Cubs win. Again, it turns out it didn't matter. Given another opportunity against the Diamondbacks and a power RHP in De La Rosa who is really tough on RH hitters (.262 wOBA against in 2015), Maddon opted for La Stella at 3B and Bryant in LF. Again, it caused some confusion and frustration for those who want to see Soler play as much as possible, but it made perfect sense. The Cubs offense clicked just fine, outscoring the Diamondbacks 12-2 from that point forward, including 5 more off De La Rosa. It's not just about raw talent -- not on a team with these kinds of expectations. The Cubs are focused on winning now and the best way to do that is to play the best players who are the best fits as often as they can -- but that question isn't as simple with Soler as it was with Schwarber, or currently is with current starters like Rizzo, Russell, Fowler, Zobrist, Montero, and Bryant. The Soler of today is a one-dimensional offensive player who is a big negative on the defensive side of the ledger. There are certain situations, matchups, stadiums, and environments where he is not the best player available to start. In other words, it's not just about resting Soler or getting La Stella some ABs to keep him fresh, there are actually scenarios where he provides more value with his ability to get on base, put the ball on play, help shore up the defense, and provide a better match up with the starting pitcher. There may be days when the conditions are best suited to grinding out runs and focusing a bit more on run prevention. If the Cubs are serious about winning now -- and they are -- they owe it to themselves to play La Stella in those particular scenarios. The team can no longer afford to give players ABs strictly for development purposes. Those days are over. We better get used to it. That is not to say that Soler isn't the better player in many, if not most, of the scenarios. It's also not fair to say that this is a lost development opportunity either. Maddon is considered among the best at developing young talent and a big part of why that is true is that he puts them in the best position to succeed, increasing their confidence, and then building on top of that. As I mentioned at the top of the piece, it will be Soler who should get the lion's share of ABs. But if he is to get even more and become a starter on an everyday basis, he has to hit more like the hitter we saw in the postseason or, more recently, the player who shortened up and hit a sacrifice fly to RF to drive in a key run with a man on third and less than two outs. We know he can crush mistakes, but that sac fly was a good, intelligent piece of hitting. We know Soler is capable of doing both. And he has to do both if he is going to take this opportunity and run with it, as I talked about on our staff predictions. 5. Surprise/Breakthrough Player Given that I am picking him to have the best season, it would probably have to be Russell again, but I don't want to put all my eggs in one basket, so I could go with Javier Baez, but my instinct tells me his breakthrough year may still be a year or two away. Not much to pick from on a team that has already had a lot of young players with big seasons. Maybe I go with Tommy La Stella, who could put up good numbers if injury somewhere opens up some playing time, but I'm going to go with Jorge Soler and say he'll get an opportunity and make the most of it. Due to unfortunate circumstances, Soler will indeed get that opportunity, but he still has to make the most of it. He has to prove he can contribute more than just the occasional exhilarating HR or ridiculously accurate, powerful throw from the OF. To be the best fit on a regular basis, he has to find out ways to contribute when the power isn't there, much like current regulars Rizzo, Bryant, Russell, Zobrist, Montero, and Fowler do now. We saw a glimpse of that in yesterday's game and if that becomes the norm, it will end the discussion about who should be playing. But until that more complete offensive player arrives, the Cubs will have to give time to players like La Stella who complement Soler's skills and help fill some of the gaps left by the Schwarber injury.After spending months at the Dakota Access pipeline protest, Kelli Mattingly had no qualms when asked to help with a benefit concert in Louisville for those on the front lines in South Dakota. “I couldn’t watch that happen and not do anything about it,” the Louisville-native said, adding that she had intended to stay at the protest for a week. “And it turned into two months, because I had finally found some meaning to my life. I encourage everyone to find their cause and fight for it. There is no feeling like it in the world.” The Department of the Army said in December it would not allow the pipeline to travel under the Missouri River, but the new Trump administration could overturn that decision, allowing oil to travel through sacred land of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. This weekend, Louisville artists, activists and musicians come together for the Louisville Standing Rock Benefit, three days of events that feature a who’s-who of artists. Proceeds will go to the Standing Rock Legal Defense Fund and the Oceti Sakowin Go Fund Me for community supplies, as well as the Water Protectors Legal Collective which has just filed a lawsuit against Morton County police for the excessive force used on Nov. 20. Mattingly, a recent transplant to Seattle, felt moved to activism after videos of the Dakota Access operators releasing dogs and pepper spray on the protesters. Since she spent several weeks at the protest, she acted as the eyes and ears and inspiration for the benefit concert, sharing her story and advising on which organizations need the money. “It was heartbreaking and traumatizing to see such beautiful people being brutalized but inspiring when everyone was ready to try again the next day,” Mattingly said of her experience in the Oceti Sakowin Camp. Advertisement Margaret Morley, a musician, muralist and mental health professional who helped organize the event, said she and event coordinators turned to Mattingly for insight into the best ways to get involved from Louisville. “There was little-to-no stress in organizing this event,” Morley said, explaining that recruiting bands was easy. “There are a few bands I asked personally, because I knew they would want to take part, and they would draw a crowd and they are friends.” Mattingly stressed the urgency of the situation. “It’s important that people realize construction of the pipeline has not been stopped,” she said. “Construction equipment and crew members remain. Drone footage from the water protectors has shown movement of the drill pad which means construction is still happening. DAPL believes that money will buy them out of everything they have done illegally.” • The Louisville Standing Rock Benefit runs Friday to Sunday at three venues with a lot going on at each event. On Friday, Kate Sedgwick will host a night of music and weirdness with Memory Gloss, Santanna Jones, Octo Claw’s Bizarre Bazar and Isolation Tank Ensemble at Kaiju. Saturday sees a performance by Cher Von, Wombo and Anwar Sadat at the Green Room in the Fresh Start Grower’s Supply. Sunday features The Other Years, Sapat and Keenan Lawler at Dreamland with field recordings from Aaron Rosenblum.DETROIT, MI - The ground might be frozen and the big red shipping crates moved, but work at the future site of the $650 million Red Wings arena and accompanying entertainment district is on track, Olympia spokesman Ed Saenz said Tuesday. "We're on schedule and nothing's changed in the plan," he said. Crews will start "moving earth" in the spring, Saenz said, matching what Olympia Entertainment and Ilitch Holdings Inc. officials said at the September 2014 ground breaking ceremony. Crews are currently working on utility relocation and setting up for construction staging, which will set the stage for spring-time construction to begin at the site, Saenz said. The $450 million arena and accompanying $200 million entertainment district will occupy roughly 45 blocks of Detroit's Cass Corridor neighborhood. Though there aren't any big machines rolling around at the site, recent work included removing graffiti on numerous buildings in the 45-block area. Most notably, the vacant Park Avenue and Eddystone hotels were rid of graffiti. Sand lots have replaced the Temple Motel, which was demolished in May. The new arena, set between Detroit's Midtown and downtown areas, led city and state officials to justify the use of public money in helping to fund the $650 million project. Construction is paid for with a mix of $365.5 million in private investment and an estimated public investment of $284.5 million. The project is described as a "catalyst," which will propel further development in the city. Olympia Development of Michigan, the development arm of Ilitch Holdings, plans to build the entertainment district with four- and five-story mixed-use development properties at the same time the arena is being built. The project is aiming for completion for the 2017 NHL season. Red Wings Arena and Entertainment District renderings 28 Gallery: Red Wings Arena and Entertainment District renderings The 45-block entertainment district, "stitches together" surrounding assets into "charming, walkable, livable neighborhoods," Ilitch Holdings president and CEO Chris Ilitch has said. The recessed, bowl-shaped arena itself, built along Woodward Avenue between Sproat and Henry streets, will have its ancillary buildings surrounding it and detached, making them a part of the entertainment district. People will be able to access the area in and around the arena 365 days a year, except for during ticketed events. For now, crews are laying the groundwork for a the spring, Saenz said. "That stuff has got to be planned in advance" in order for bigger moves to go smoothly, he said. Ian Thibodeau is the entertainment and business reporter for MLive Detroit. He can be reached at [email protected], or follow him on Twitter.Photo by Adam Hunger-USA TODAY Sports Chances are, the Montreal Canadiens will find a way to extend or re-sign Alexander Radulov instead of letting him walk this summer as an unrestricted free agent. The relationship between the Russian star and the organization seems to be extremely positive, and his offence is not something the team can afford to lose. But things do get complicated for the Canadiens when you consider that Radulov is turning 31 years old on July 5, and as a UFA on a team that lacks star power, he has a lot of leverage. Radulov denied rumours that he had requested an eight-year contract in negotiations, but as Elliotte Friedman mentioned in his 30 Thoughts column, it's believable that his agent could have thrown that idea out there without informing him, as in-season negotiations rarely involve the player themselves. READ MORE: Mayhem in Philly: An Oral History of the Epic Senators-Flyers Brawl Further complicating matters is the fact that while Radulov started the season on fire, he hasn't exactly been blowing the doors off offensively despite usually looking dangerous. His per-82 game pace of 58 points is below Alex Galchenyuk's 63, putting him third on the team offensively. If that's what Radulov's true talent is, it needs to be factored into the equation with both him and Galchenyuk up for new contracts in the summer. Personal point production isn't everything, however, and what matters even more is how much offence a player is driving while on the ice. If a player rarely produces points but his team consistently outscores opponents while he's out there, odds are he's doing something passively to create that result. With that in mind, let's look at Radulov's rolling point production against the offence he helps create, and see if he's really as inconsistent as his season would have us believe. Chart by Andrew Berkshire. Photo by Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports Using Corsica Hockey's expected goals calculation (xGoals) which factors in shot type and approximate location, we can see that after a brief period where Radulov was way above expectations in the first 25 games of the season, he hasn't gotten the results he's deserved on the ice for most of the rest of the season, despite consistently hovering around three expected goals per hour, until recently. Similarly, Radulov's even strength point production was very strong for nearly the first 25 games this season (keeping in mind that each point on the graph accounts for that game and the previous nine), before experiencing three big droughts in the 25-35 game, 43-51 game, and the 59-65 game ranges. What's notable, though, is that during those drops in personal production, only in the last one did the expected goals drop, and there was only one severe dip in actual goals for, coming at the end of the first drought. The end result is that while Radulov is second on the Canadiens in on-ice goals for per 60 minutes played at even strength, he's just sixth in individual production, behind Brendan Gallagher, who is in the midst of his worst season. With most players his age, we can look at their careers to date and see how consistently they drive offence because single years aren't very predictive when we strictly look at goals. When it comes to Radulov, however, the last full season we have on him is 2007-08, which isn't much help. What we do know is that Radulov has only been credited with points on 60 percent of the goals he's been on the ice for at 5-vs-5, one of the lowest marks on the Canadiens. By contrast, his two most common linemates Max Pacioretty and Phillip Danault have earned points on 78.7 and 78.9 percent, respectively, of the goals they've been on the ice for. Does this mean that Radulov is more of a passenger at even strength and his linemates drive the bus? That isn't the story we get when we look at WOWY statistics to see how players do with and without each other. Chart by Andrew Berkshire. Photo by Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports Both players drop off without Radulov, while Radulov drops off without Pacioretty, but stays nearly identical without Danault. We know from previous seasons that Pacioretty is a huge driver of goals, so it makes sense that Radulov isn't quite as strong as he is. But he's close, and that means a lot. Over the last three seasons, Radulov's impact on goals for per 60 relative to teammates (+0.57) matches up pretty equally to the Canadiens' former top-three offensive producers in Galchenyuk +0.61, Pacioretty (+0.56), and Gallagher (+0.48). Obviously, at Radulov's age and with him holding the leverage, this possible extension from the Canadiens is going to be a risky bit of business, but for a player who truly changes things offensively and whose numbers haven't caught up to his actual on-ice impact yet, this is a risk worth taking for the Canadiens. Provided Montreal can find a way to keep the term to five years or less, extending Radulov will look excellent at nearly any salary demand he might have. The fact is, even if he drops off slightly next year, the odds are his personal production should actually increase.Charlie Sheen is engaged! The
the Olympics and the World Cup. To investigate their validity, News 8 began checking with police departments in other cities that have also hosted the Super Bowl.Phoenix hosted the big game three years ago. Police there told News 8 they received similar warnings about an increase in prostitution and prepared for it, but never uncovered any evidence of a spike in illegal sexual activity. “I think one of the things people automatically assume is that while you’ve got influential people in town, people with significant amounts of money and therefore a whole lot of prostitution is going to follow with that,” said Phoenix police spokesman Sgt. Tommy Thompson. “We did not notice an increase or anything out of the ordinary.”Tampa hosted the Super Bowl in 2009. A police spokeswoman there said officers there made 11 prostitution arrests during the entire week leading up to the game. And last year, Miami police told News 8 they arrested 14 for prostitution. Those figures are not uncommon for large cities during a seven-day period, experts said. Last year, Canada debunked similar hype about prostitutes around the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. British Columbia funded a study which concluded that “sex trafficking and mega-events are not linked.” A European group called The International Organization for Migration arrived at the same conclusion in Germany after rumors that 40,000 prostitutes would go to the 2006 World Cup. The estimations are “unfounded and unrealistic,” the IOM reported. Ernie Allen, director for The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, said he was misquoted last year when predicting 10,000 prostitutes would show up in Miami for Super Bowl XLIV. Allen said the Super Bowl likely doesn’t attract more sex traffickers than any other large event. What’s more, he also conceded there is no way to quantify the problem. Still, he and Graves both said the issue is under-recognized and under-reported. “Sometimes when numbers are very high, people think it’s hopeless and they may not even try to address the issue,” said Becky Sykes of the Dallas Women’s Foundation. The organization has commissioned a study to research Internet ads and escort services during February. It’s specifically looking for underage girls as prostitutes and hoping — for the first time — to see whether the Super Bowl really increases sex trafficking in the host city. Critics blame some women’s groups for the prostitution myth as they try to raise awareness without facts. No one disputes that trafficking is a serious and sickening problem, but whether the Super Bowl intensifies it is a prediction no one can yet prove. Dallas TV News show about super bowl sex slave myth: http://www.wfaa.com/sports/football/super-bowl/Super-Bowl-prostitution-prediction-has-no-proof–114983179.html Video only: http://www.wfaa.com/v/?i=114983179 Research report on sorting out the myths and facts about sex trafficking at sporting events: The Super Bowl Prostitute Myth: 100,000 Hookers Won’t Be Showing Up in Dallas By Pete Kotz: From the Dallas Observer newspaper published: January 27, 2011 The alarm bells reached peak decibel in November, when Dallas Police Sergeant Louis Felini told the The Dallas Morning News that between 50,000 and 100,000 prostitutes could descend on the metroplex for the Super Bowl. The call to outrage had sounded. His estimate was astonishing. At the higher figure, it meant that every man, woman and child holding a ticket would have their own personal hooker, from the vice presidential wing of FedEx to Little Timmy from Green Bay. And if you believed a study commissioned by the Dallas Women’s Foundation, the hordes would include 38,000 underage prostitutes. Doe-eyed beauties from the Heartland would be peddled like Jell-O shots at the Delta Phi soiree. Official Dallas would not be caught flat-footed. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott and the FBI pledged extra manpower to fight “human trafficking.” The Arlington Police Department put up billboards near Cowboys Stadium. They featured flashing photos of busted johns, warning visitors: We don’t take kindly to perverts like you, son. Even the Shapiro Law Firm leaped in. Noting that an estimated 40,000 hookers showed up in Dallas for the NBA All-Star game last year, it wanted to make sure that, should a hedge fund manager find himself ensnared in naked compromise, “our attorneys provide experienced defense for sex crimes, including the solicitation of a prostitute.” The city was gearing up for a massive invasion of skanks and sex fiends. It would be like Normandy, only with way more plastic surgery—the largest single gathering of freaks and pedophiles the world has ever seen. At least outside of a Vatican staff meeting. But if Dallas is like any other Super Bowl—or Olympics or World Cup, for that matter—today’s four-alarm panic will tinkle as softly as a servant’s bell by next week. All evidence says that America’s call girls will be at home, watching the game of TV, just like you and me. Judging by Super Bowls past, the mass migration of teenage sex slaves is nothing more than myth. Read between his very terse lines, and you can tell that Brian McCarthy isn’t happy. He’s a spokesman for the NFL. Every year he’s forced to hear from mopes like yours truly, wondering why his customers are adulterers and child molesters. The routine is the same in every Super Bowl city. The media beats the drum of impending invasion, warning that anywhere from 15,000 to 100,000 hookers will soon arrive. Politicians lather on their special sauce of manufactured outrage. Cops and prosecutors vow stings and beefed up manpower. By implication, the NFL’s wealthiest and most connected fans—captains of industry and senators from Utah—will be plotting a week of sexual rampage not seen since the Vikings sailed on Scotland. And they must be stopped. “This is urban legend that is pure pulp fiction,” the NFL’s McCarthy says. “I would refer you to your local law enforcement officials.” So that’s what we did. Meet police Sergeant Tommy Thompson of Phoenix, which hosted the 2008 Super Bowl. “We may have had certain precincts that were going gangbusters looking for prostitutes, but they were picking up your everyday street prostitutes,” Thompson says of his vice cops. “They didn’t notice any sort of glitch in the number of prostitution arrests leading up to the Super Bowl.” Conspicuously noted: He doesn’t recall a single arrest of an underage girl. Perhaps Phoenix was an anomaly. So let’s go to Tampa, host of Super Bowl 2009. Police spokeswoman Andrea Davis says her department ran special operations on the sex trade. They came up empty. “We didn’t see a huge influx in prostitutes coming into Tampa,” she says. “The arrests were not a lot higher. They were almost the same.” Now it could be that both departments are incompetent, mistaking tens of thousands of women in fishnet stockings for a very large synchronized swimming team. So let’s travel to Europe, where the hooker influx for the World Cup is routinely pegged at 40,000. If anyone’s going to break the record for the world’s largest orgy, it’s the Godless Eurotrash, right? Germany hosted the 2006 World Cup. U.S congressmen warned the promiscuous Krauts that fleshly opportunism would not be tolerated. So the government spent millions of euros to crush human trafficking. No one could say the Germans were perv enablers. But apparently 39,995 of the blasphemers had carburetor trouble in Prague and never showed. The final Cup tally for forced prostitution arrests: 5. German brothels couldn’t even report a surge in business. And a further study by the Swedish government ruled “the 40,000 estimate was unfounded and unrealistic.” There don’t appear to be solid figures for last summer’s South African Cup, but anecdotal evidence says the sex business was slow. The only concrete numbers we have: Museums showed record attendance. This isn’t to say that the sex trade isn’t alive and well. It is. Nor is it to imply there are no such thing as teen prostitutes. There are. The problem is that most of what we believe remains fixed in a blaxploitation film from 1973, where menacing pimps named Lester beat their weeping charges with diamond-encrusted canes. Ask Maggie McNeill. That’s not her real name. It’s the pen name she uses on her website, The Honest Courtesan, where she dispenses wisdom on all things hooker. She ran an escort service in New Orleans for six years, supplying ladies for the 2002 Super Bowl. As she sees it, almost all we believe about the industry is fallacy. “Pimps do exist,” she says, “but they’re a relatively rare phenomenon.” The vast majority of hookers are willing, independent contractors. Underage hookers are also “extremely rare,” McNeill says. Over the years, she fielded a few hundred applications from ladies of the eve. Only one didn’t pass a drivers license check. Sure, there are exceptions. But McNeill doesn’t think huge numbers of hookers are going anywhere. And they won’t be heading to Dallas for a very simple reason: Sporting events suck for the sex trade. The younger fans have already spent thousands on jacked-up hotel rates, airfare and scalped tickets, she says. They only have enough left to nurse Bud Lights and Jäger bombs. The executive caste may have money to burn, but most bring their families along. “What do they say to their wives?” McNeill asks. “‘Hey honey, I’m going to see a hooker now?'” As for McNeill’s experience during Super Bowl week in New Orleans: “I really saw no change whatsoever.” So how do these myths get started? Through good intentions, of course. There’s no way to quantify the number of hookers, since most women won’t admit to their profession. Public confession only brings an audit from the IRS or a visit from child welfare workers. That leaves the outside world to speculate—usually with stats only appreciated after eight beers near closing time. Professors pitch junk studies whereby every runaway girl is a potential prostitute. Advocacy groups take those numbers and fan them by the thousands, buffing them with lurid anecdotes of “sex slaves” and “victims of human trafficking.” The fervent simply can’t believe that isolated cases are just that: isolated. But it’s hard to kindle interest in the world’s oldest profession. So they latch onto the occasional news story or CNN special. After all, children in distress sell. “Underage girls make better victims, better poster children,” says McNeill, a former librarian with a master’s from LSU. “I’m 44. What kind of believable victim would I make?” The study by the Dallas Women’s Foundation shows how the numbers are baked. It hired a company to gauge the percentage of juvenile hookers in Dallas. Its scientific method: Look at online escort ads and guess the ages of the women pictured! Never mind that escort services often yank said photos from the Internet to put their most sultry visual forward. And never mind that such methodology wouldn’t pass muster at Mert’s Discount Community College & Small Engine Repair. The company still decreed that 38 percent of Dallas hookers were underage! (Disclosure: The Dallas Observer and Backpage are owned by the same parent company, Village Voice Media Holdings.) Not ones to miss 30 seconds of free air time, that’s when the politicians climb aboard. After all, what would you rather do? Be fitted for the role of child-rescuing hero at a congressional hearing or a press conference? Or sit down to the complex, painful task of addressing America’s age-old runaway problem? Of course, we in the media are equally culpable. We dutifully relay the fraud via our Patented Brand of Unquestioning Stenography, rarely bothering to check if it’s remotely plausible. And by this time, there’s no going back. The fraud must be upheld. Charities have raised money to help the innocents. Politicians have brayed and task forces have been appointed. Editors and news directors have ordered five-part series. No one wants to look like a moron. But the week after every Super Bowl, they all go quiet. Either the 100,000 hookers never showed, or they were in dastardly possession of super invisible powers. Maybe it will be different in Dallas, with its all-hands-on-deck vigilance. Perhaps next week’s dockets will be sagging with thousands of runaway middle-school volleyball stars. Perhaps the Shapiro Law Firm will be giving a bulk rate to the entire roster of the Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce. Perhaps. Super Bowl prostitution: 100,000 hookers didn’t show, but America’s latest political scam did. Pete Kotz: From the Dallas Observer newspaper published: March 03, 2011 Had elected officials done even the slightest research, they would have known it was myth. But this had little to do with protecting women and children. Think of it as a combination religious revival and political scam. Politicians, women’s groups, cops and child advocates were predicting that up to 100,000 hookers would be shipped into Dallas for the Super Bowl. It would be akin to the invasion of Normandy—with silicone and come-hither poses at no extra charge. Yet someone forgot to tell America’s prostitutes they had an appointment with destiny. The arrest numbers are now in. The hookers failed to show. It was folly from the outset, of course. To buy the hype, you had to believe that the NFL’s wealthiest fans stuffed their carry-on luggage with searing libidinal hunger. Though by day they pretended to be mercantile saints from the pages of the Wall Street Journal, they were actually marauding sex fiends. Their plot: Turn Hilton hot tubs into naked versions of the New York Stock Exchange. And if that wasn’t enough to scare the good citizens of Dallas, women’s groups slathered the plot with surplus outrage. Up to 38,000 of these hookers would be child sex slaves, according to a study by the Dallas Women’s Foundation. They’d presumably been kidnapped en masse while waiting in line at the mall Cinnabon, then shipped to Dallas for deflowering by venture capitalists and frozen-food barons. America’s human trafficking epidemic was coming to North Texas. The Super Bowl would be ground zero. Conveniently, the same people making the claims reserved the roles of hero for themselves. Worry not, good people of Dallas: They would repel the infidels at the city gates. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott puffed his chest and promised dozens of extra bodies. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Homeland Security linked arms with 13 state and local police agencies in a task force. Even the airline industry leaped in, training flight attendants to spot the indentured. Linda Smith, a former Washington congresswoman and founder of Shared Hope International, announced her date with gallantry in The Dallas Morning News. “Now that I know it, I have no choice but to stand and fight,” she said. “This is just brutal, brutal slavery of girls.” Deena Graves, executive director of the Christian group Traffick911, took it even further, framing the clash as nothing short of Jesus vs. Depravity. God Himself had naturally anointed her as His general. “We believe, without a doubt, that God gave us the Super Bowl this year to raise awareness of what’s happening with these kids,” she told the Morning News. But since they hadn’t bothered to do the research, they would be forced to clash swords with an imaginary foe. Such is the burden of the selfless crusader. From Germany to Miami, the same hysteria precedes every big sporting event, be it the Super Bowl, the World Cup, or the Olympics. The only difference is that Dallas, befitting its perch as buckle of the Bible Belt, jacked up the decibels. Before every big game, church bells ring of a massive hooker invasion. Incurious newspapers parrot the claims;a five-minute Google search being too much trouble. Then politicians and activists climb aboard. The recipe for civic panic is placed in the oven, set for baking to a charred husk. Yet when each event ends with just a handful of arrests, police admit the invasion was nothing more than myth. The panic whimpers away to seclusion, only to resurrect itself just in time for the next big show. Detectives from Dallas to Plano, Forth Worth to Irving saw no spikes in sex traffic or signs of the occupiers. “Everybody else is talking about special operations, the AG comes in talking about special operations, but this is what we do,” says Sergeant Byron Fassett, head of the Dallas PD’s human trafficking unit. “We didn’t have to do a special operation. We do special operations all the time, and this was one of them.” In other words, it was just another week of playing cat and mouse with the world’s oldest profession. Arlington, host to the game, unleashed extra manpower and bagged an impressive 59 arrests. But it found scant evidence of erotic hordes. Of the 100,000 supposedly Lone Star-bound hookers, Deputy Chief Jaime Ayala says, only 13 were found by his guys. Their busts largely involved rousting the local talent. ICE Spokesman Carl Rusnok says there were 105 prostitution arrests metro-wide. But what was billed as a bare-naked onslaught fell rather short. Just to reach three figures, ICE had to include 12 Class C misdemeanors—the legal equivalent of a speeding ticket. Rusnok hints at more nefarious busts for human trafficking, but he refuses to provide names, charges or anything else that would allow for verification. The 38,000 teen slaves also proved elusive. Police managed to find just two—and they were Texas-grown. Anthony Winn, a 35-year-old degenerate from Austin, had been pimping out a 20-year-old woman when he decided to peddle her 14-year-old sister as well. The trio showed up in Dallas for the big game. But the older sister objected to the selling of the younger one. So when Dallas police encountered them on the street, the women quickly ratted out Winn. In Grapevine, another local was busted for chauffeuring a 17-year-old hooker on her rounds. Meanwhile, church groups and activists were out en masse. But if they were truly aligned with God, He preferred they stick to generating headlines and hurling logs on the flames of panic. He apparently neglected to grant them the power of rescue. As far as anyone can tell, not one of their tips led to an arrest. Had anyone bothered to ask police in previous Super Bowl cities, they would have told you this would happen. There’s zero evidence that American hookers have ever traveled like Spanish armadas. As for widespread sex slavery, this too is a myth. The U.S. government has known it for years. Like most industrialized countries, the feds began worrying about human trafficking in the late ’90s, a fear born from the slavery problems of the Third World. At the time, evidence from police suggested it was an insidious, though relatively rare, crime. But that didn’t stop politicians and activists from declaring it a pandemic. Out of thin air, they began to trumpet that 50,000 people were being forcibly trafficked in America each year. The Clinton administration declared jihad. President George W. Bush dilated the war, creating 42 Justice Department task forces countrywide. But when you weld a fabricated enemy, meager scalp counts leave boasting a challenge. Just like the soldiers of pre-Super Bowl Dallas, they had braced themselves for imaginary strife. Six years into his presidency, Bush had burned through $150 million on the fray. But of the 300,000 supposed victims during that time, the Justice Department managed to find just 1,362. Less than half were actual sex slaves. An even smaller number were underage prostitutes. That’s because human trafficking, as defined by the government, isn’t solely about sex. It’s usually about forced labor. Think of the Chinese man made to work in a kitchen to reimburse a snakehead’s smuggling fee. Or the Mexican kid forced to toil on a Kansas farm. By the time anyone realized all that money was flowing for naught, no one was brave enough to tighten the spigot. In Washington, it’s far better to waste millions than give the appearance you don’t care about kids. Steve Wagner knows this. He worked for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, serving as director of the Human Trafficking Program under Bush. He threw millions of dollars at community groups to aid victims. Yet as he told the Washington Postin 2007, “Those funds were wasted….They were available to help victims. There weren’t any victims.” Ten years into the war, one might assume intellectual honesty would sand down the rhetoric. But the opposite is happening. The fight’s simply moved away from protecting women and children. It’s now a holy war for the sanctity of revenue streams. The church and women’s groups who profited from battle are loath to acknowledge they spent the past decade doing little more than polishing their guns. So forgive them for worrying. Recession has made donations harder to field. D.C.’s coming austerity means grants will be macheted. That’s left the nonprofit world in a panic. It isn’t easy to get donors and congressmen to slap down checks for the time-honored fight against prostitution, runaways and kids seeking the fascinating life of a crack head. So women’s and children’s groups simply decided to change their PR. Suddenly, prostitution was no longer about prostitution. It was all about sexual slavery and human trafficking. And they began blowing up their numbers with helium. But maybe Traffick911’s Deena Graves is right. Perhaps God has called her and others to fight demons unseen by the re st of us. It’s just that he hasn’t given them the power to find all those victims. He does work in mysterious ways, after all. –With Reporting by Patrick Michels The Super Bowl Prostitution Hoax Returns Indianapolis mobilizes for an epic battle with an urban legend. By Pete Kotz published: February 02, 2012 Indianapolis is bracing for war. It’s Super Bowl week, after all. Time for the Annual Invasion of the Hookers, which promises to be as harrowing as the Ottoman Empire’s advance on Crete in 1647, though with considerably more nudity. Yes, one of America’s great urban legends is again being trotted out just in time for kick-off: The notion that legions of out-of-town prostitutes descend on whichever city hosts America’s Big Game. This time around, it’s Indiana attorney general Greg Zoeller who’s milking the hysteria for political gain. Zoeller is riding the momentum of a hoax that’s reignited before every major sporting event, be it the Super Bowl, the World Cup, the Olympics or the NBA All-Star game. Alarming figures are pulled from the mist of imagination, where extra zeros apparently come free with every purchase. Anywhere from 10,000 to 100,000 hookers will be coming to town! Hide the women and children! And perhaps the more effeminate men as well! You know, just in case! It’s a myth that’s been playing to sell-out crowds for more than a decade. But there’s been trouble at the box office in recent years. No one gets too excited about garden-variety prostitution anymore. As a culture-war wedge, it’s so 1912. So promoters of the panic have changed their advertising. Instead of adult harlots, the siege now consists of underage girls. This year it’s Indianapolis that’s marshaling its defenses. Seven hundred cabbies have been trained to spot the victims of pimps. Nuns have been dispatched to hotels to lecture staff. Special soap — more than 16,000 bars, reports the Indiana Statesman — is being placed in hotel rooms, stamped with phrases like “Are You Witnessing Young Girls Being Prostituted?” In the event that the answer is yes, national hotline numbers are conveniently being stamped on bathroom walls. Not to be left out, the Indiana legislature rammed through an emergency bill to keep the state safe for the game. Sell a child under age 16 for sex in the Hoosier State, and you’re now looking at up to 50 years. The legislation passed unanimously in both houses. Not a single elected official questioned the need for the bill — or asked whether it might make more sense for the state to provide money for the treatment of actual victims of underage prostitution. In the words of the Muncie Free Press, lawmakers “managed to outlaw underage prostitution in Indiana just in time for the Super Bowl on Sunday.” Villains of America, be forewarned. “Our information is that it’s typical for an increase in demand for commercial sex at a big event,” says Abby Kuzma, director of consumer protection for Zoeller’s office. “Our information is that it’s all about the money. They are willing to go wherever the money is.” You don’t have the heart to tell her her information is wrong. Very wrong. Said Phoenix police Sergeant Tommy Thompson after the 2008 Super Bowl: “We may have had certain precincts that were going gangbusters looking for prostitutes, but they were picking up your everyday street prostitutes. They didn’t notice any sort of glitch in the number of prostitution arrests leading up to the Super Bowl.”Said Tampa police spokeswoman Andrea Davis after the 2009 Super Bowl: “We didn’t see a huge influx in prostitutes coming into Tampa. The arrests were not a lot higher. They were almost the same.”Last year’s panic came courtesy of Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott. Maybe he didn’t have access to Google, so he didn’t know any better. Or maybe — just maybe — he decided that a little false delirium was a small price to pay to see the two most glorious words in the English language — “Greg Abbott” — prominently featured in headlines for months before the Dallas Super Bowl. Abbott organized task forces with the FBI, ICE and Homeland Security. He raised an army of volunteers from religious and women’s groups. All were on deck to rescue the thousands of underage girls who’d be sold like ground chuck throughout Big D. Word was that 100,000 hookers could arrive — and that as many 38,000 would be underage. Even flight attendants were trained to spot trafficking victims — which shouldn’t have been difficult, since it would have taken 57 Boeing 747s to fly them all to town.As politicians and activists continued to crank up the fear factor, NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy had had enough. “This is urban legend that is pure pulp fiction,” he said in January 2011. “I would refer you to your local law enforcement officials.”Sure enough, when it was all over, cops had managed just 105 arrests metrowide, mostly by rousting the local talent. Twelve women faced penalties no greater than for speeding tickets. Only two arrests involved human trafficking. Cops in Germany, Canada and South Africa offered similar testimony following the World Cup and the Olympics. But these men and women who deal with prostitution every day aren’t the ones crying wolf in the first place. The hysteria most always comes from the professionals of manufactured outrage: politicians. The federal government now spends $80 million a year to combat human trafficking. Almost none of that money actually goes to offer help to trafficking victims. Instead, former president George W. Bush created task forces in 92 cities. Each only averages about two sex cases a year.That’s because, statistically speaking, most trafficking has nothing to do with sex. The vast majority involves forced labor, people indentured to pay off smuggling fees. Hence, the lion’s share of traffickers aren’t pimps, but New York restaurateurs, Kansas meatpackers, and large-scale ag companies from Florida to California. If cops wanted superior hunting, they’d do better to raid the U.S. Chamber of Commerce convention. But that would entail throwing down with the captains of industry, who just happen to own private militias of lawyers. Far easier to challenge the invisible pimps, where there’s no risk of getting nicks in your sword. That’s the path chosen by Zoeller. He’s not exactly a seasoned crime fighter or man of the street. He made his bones as an aide to Vice President Dan Quayle, then worked the Beltway Republican patronage system before returning to Indiana. He apparently doesn’t have Google access, either. Zoeller has been widely cited in the Indiana media for calling the Super Bowl the largest human trafficking event in the country. He championed the new law cracking down on the sexual sale of kids. He’s appeared at press conferences with Indianapolis Colts center Jeff Saturday, urging men to sign pledges foregoing the purchase of young girls. His office has trained more than 2,000 people to spot trafficking during the Super Bowl. But while his preparations for the onslaught have come with ostentatious flair, our hero hasn’t accomplished much on the ground. So far, the biggest hooker bust came in suburban Greenwood, where a hotel sting netted three arrests. One woman was from Texas. Detectives suspect she showed up for the Super Bowl. Still, one might think Zoeller’s den is festooned with the scalps of battle, since his hometown annually hosts one of the largest sporting events in the country, the Indianapolis 500. His office has also co-chaired one of Bush’s anti-trafficking task forces since 2005. But his point woman on trafficking, Abby Kuzma, can’t recall a single human-trafficking arrest at the Indy 500. Either racing fans — mostly poorer, country people — prefer to get amorous with Golden Corral hostesses, or America’s pimps have been calling in sick every year. Maybe this Super Bowl will be different. Maybe Zoeller’s army will finds legions of prostitutes writhing in the Hilton kiddie pool.For the sake of a lasting national panic, one can only hope.After all, with attorneys general, state legislators and soap-dispensing nuns all on the team, it sometimes seems pointless to cry foul. Even the NFL’s McCarthy seems resigned to the idea that America’s political class is simply too invested in the Super Bowl hooker myth to make any protest worthwhile.Despite the fact that he was dead right about last year’s game in Dallas, when asked for comment this year McCarthy offers only the following:”The National Football League supports strong human trafficking laws. Additionally, we work closely with federal, state and local law enforcement to insure that the Super Bowl is a safe environment for the host community and the fans who enjoy the game and the celebration.” Article link: http://www.dallasobserver.com/2012-02-02/news/the-super-bowl-prostitution-hoax-returns/ Sex Traffficking in Sports Events: Super Bowl 2011: According to the media hype There was supposed to be hundreds of thousands of under age child sex slaves kidnapped and forced to have sex with super bowl fans. At the Dallas Super Bowl 2011. WHAT HAPPENED TO ALL OF THEM???????????? It was all a big lie told by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, government officials, and various anti-prostitution groups: Traffick911, Not for Sale, Change-org, A Future Not A Past, Polaris Project, Salvation Army, Women’s Funding Network, and the Dallas Women’s Foundation, which are anti-prostitution groups that tell lies in order to get grant money from the government and charities to pay their high salaries, and get huge amounts of money into their organizations. As proved in the link below: Top FBI agent in Dallas (Robert Casey Jr.) sees no evidence of expected spike in child sex trafficking: “Among those preparations was an initiative to prevent an expected rise in sex trafficking and child prostitution surrounding the Super Bowl. But Robert Casey Jr., special agent in charge of the FBI’s Dallas office, said he saw no evidence that the increase would happen, nor that it did. “In my opinion, the Super Bowl does not create a spike in those crimes,” he said. “The discussion gets very vague and general. People mixed up child prostitution with the term human trafficking, which are different things, and then there is just plain old prostitution.” http://www.dallasnews.com/sports/super-bowl/local/20110302-top-fbi-agent-in-dallas-praises-super-bowl-security-effort-sees-no-evidence-of-expected-spike-in-child-sex-trafficking.ece This myth of thousands or millions of underage sex slaves tries to make every sports fan a sex criminal. No matter what the sport is, or in what country it is in. Brian McCarthy isn’t happy. He’s a spokesman for the NFL. Every year he’s forced to hear why his customers are adulterers and child molesters. Brian McCarthy says the sport/super bowl sex slave story is a urban legend, with no truth at all. The idea of people getting the wrong information and believing lies, is bad. No matter what the topic is. The Sex trafficking, slavery issue is one of the biggest lies being told today. It is amazing to me how people will believe such lies so easily. The media is to blame for this. I wonder why they feel such a need to report wrong stats, numbers and information about this topic without doing proper research. While this may happen in very rare limited situations, the media will say that millions of people are sex slaves without doing any real research on the topic. Only taking the word of special interest anti-prostitution groups which need to generate money in the form of huge government grants from taxpayers, and charities. These “non profit” group’s employees make huge salaries, therefore they need to lobby the government, and inflate and invent victims in order to get more money into their organizations. If you look into how many real kidnapped forced against their will sex slaves there are, and not just take the anti-prostitution groups word for it. You will be very surprised. Where are all the forced sex slaves? I would like to meet the millions of slaves and see for myself if they were kidnapped and forced against their will. These groups lobby the government in a big way, getting Politicians to truly believe their lies. This is an attempt to over inflate an issue in order to get more government money to these organizations. As a tax payer, voter, and resident I don’t want the government to mislead me. I would like to see a news organization do a full report on the lies, myths and exaggerated numbers being told about sex trafficking slaves. The articles about the super bowl sex slaves, has been proved wrong many times, but news organizations still report about it, as if it were fact. == World Cup 2006 == Politicians, religious and aid groups, still repeat the media story that 40,000 prostitutes were trafficked into Germany for the 2006 world cup – long after leaked police documents revealed there was no truth at all in the tale. A baseless claim of 25,000 trafficking victims is still being quoted, recently, for example, by the Salvation Army in written evidence to the home affairs select committee, in which they added: “Other studies done by media have suggested much higher numbers.” Which has been proven by the German police to be completely false. Yet people still talk about these false numbers as if it were fact. ==World Cup 2010 == Again using the made up number of 40,000 prostitutes trafficked: The behavior of fans in South Africa has run contrary to what was predicted prior to the start of the tournament after David Bayever told World Cup organizers in March it was feared that up to 40,000 extra prostitutes could converge in the host nation to meet the expected demand. Bayever, deputy chairperson of South Africa’s Central Drug Authority (CDA) that advises on drug abuse but also works with prostitutes, warned: “Forty-thousand new prostitutes. As if we do not have enough people of our own, we have to import them to ensure our visitors are entertained.” But the tournament in 2010, if anything, has seen the modern-day soccer fan attracted to art galleries and museums over brothels. A trend that has seen a drop in revenue across the board for the prostitution industry, which is illegal in South Africa. “Zobwa,” the chairperson of Sisonke — an action group representing around 70 street prostitutes in Johannesburg — said business had been down over the last month. “The World Cup has been devastating. We thought it was going to be a cash cow but it’s chased a lot of the business away. It’s been the worst month in my company’s history,” the owner and founder of one of Johannesburg’s most exclusive escort companies told CNN. In recent years, every time there has been a major international sporting event, a group of government officials, campaigning feminists, pliant journalists and NGOs have claimed that the movement of thousands of men to strange foreign countries where there will be lots of alcohol and horniness will result in the enslavement of women for the purposes of sexual pleasure. Obviously. And every time they have simply doubled the made-up scare figures from the last international sporting event, to make it look like this problem of sport/sex/slavery gets worse year on year. Yet each year it is proved false. This myth tries to make every sports fan a sex criminal. No matter what the sport is, or in what country it is in. These anti-prostitution groups need to in invent a victim that does not exist in order to get press attention. The 2010 sex trade scare Please be warned that a group of men are busy kidnapping girls from schools. They are specifically targeting schools with young girls ranging in age from nine and older. This group of men kidnaps these girls with the intention of assisting prostitution for the 2010 Soccer World Cup. Thus starts a warning doing the rounds of South African schools; a warning designed to connect the country’s greatest achievement (so far) of the 21st century with the vilest evil imaginable. It first emerged in South Africa at the beginning of 2007 and exposed as a hoax by police. And then, in April last year, it was reported in the Press for the first time, where it was immediately debunked. The Herald newspaper carried the story on 23 April 2007, headlined: Kidnap warnings to parents a hoax, police insist Derrick Spies, Safety and Security Reporter, wrote: TWO schools in Nelson Mandela Bay have warned parents that their children are at risk of being kidnapped and forced into the sex trade, after receiving warnings that syndicates were targeting children ahead of the 2010 soccer World Cup. But security experts have played down the risk, and the police have described as a hoax a fax that was sent to schools under a police letterhead warning of possible kidnappings. Letters addressed to parents have urged them to make their children aware of the dangers and be more vigilant, after the schools received an official police communication, warning of kidnapping syndicates targeting girls as young as nine to be enslaved and used to cater to the high demand for prostitution in 2010. The warnings have their roots in the run up to the 2006 World Cup finals in Germany, when the rumour surfaced that 400 000 women and children were set to
V., the married student who reported Searle in 2014. “I don’t even know if it ever went anywhere.” Tadabeauty / Flickr / Via Flickr: 96459418@N07 UC Berkeley Philosophy has a pervasive gender gap, and female philosophers have long said sexual harassment is one major factor that makes it difficult for women to succeed in the field. That’s why Kristina Gehrman wrote a letter to the then-chair of Berkeley’s philosophy department after what she called a “degrading” experience with Searle in 2004. “I am concerned with the need to raise awareness among the faculty about gender-related issues in general within our community, and with the need to develop some concrete department level practices to prevent and/or respond to specific experiences like mine in the future,” Gehrman wrote in the letter, which was signed by eight other female philosophy graduate students. Gehrman, then a graduate student in her twenties, met Searle at a department dinner for prospective students, she wrote in the letter, which was obtained by BuzzFeed News. Searle never asked her name, instead calling her “his girl,” she wrote. He invited her skiing in Tahoe and said he had taken an undergraduate female research assistant there before. He rubbed her foot with his under the table, she wrote, and when it was time for dessert, Searle insisted Gehrman share his plate. “It was so alienating that no one at Berkeley did anything to stop him." In the letter she sent to the chair a few weeks later, Gehrman called Searle’s actions “overly attentive and sexually suggestive in a way that was highly inappropriate.” “It seemed likely that if I showed offense, or refused to comply with Professor Searle’s overtures, I would risk hurting the department’s attempt to recruit prospective graduate students,” Gehrman wrote. “I was also concerned about the possible consequences of offending Professor Searle.” Afterward, Gehrman told BuzzFeed News, she met with three administrators, including one who still works for the OPHD. They told her Searle would undergo training but never followed up, she said. Eventually, Gehrman transferred to UCLA, in part because of the way UC Berkeley had treated her complaint. She even considered leaving philosophy completely. “It was so alienating that no one at Berkeley did anything to stop him,” said Gehrman, now a philosophy professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Searle’s attorney said the “footsie” accusation was “thoroughly investigated” and “rejected by the university,” although UC Berkeley declined to comment on the allegation or its response to it. Nine years later, a foreign exchange student who knew nothing about Gehrman’s letter told a graduate student about an unsettling experience she had with Searle. She was flattered when the legendary philosopher asked her to stop by his office shortly after meeting her for the first time, she wrote in an email to the graduate student. But instead of showing her his books, as he had offered, Searle “sprang” at her and tried to kiss her, she said. The graduate student reported the incident to the department on the woman’s behalf. In October 2013, the OPHD reached out to the woman, emails show. She told BuzzFeed News she wasn’t sure how the matter was resolved. Months later, in spring 2014, a former undergraduate student of Searle’s met with a philosophy professor who was the department’s “equity advisor,” a faculty member tasked with maintaining an inclusive environment. “When you’re a woman in an academically rigorous discipline, you don’t want to make waves." V. — referred to by an initial to protect her privacy — had twice applied to be Searle’s research assistant. On both occasions, she said, he focused on how her marital status could affect her job performance. The first time she applied, Searle asked if she had planned to have children soon. The second time, Searle again expressed concerns about hiring a married assistant, V. wrote in a document labeled “record of incident of grievance.” “I just worry that you won’t be as dedicated to the job,” she said Searle told her, even though she had received an A- in his class. V. insisted that she was a focused student who planned on going to graduate school for philosophy. But Searle dismissed her, she wrote, telling her he had to finish his lunch. The equity advisor told V. he would pass her anonymous statement on to the OPHD — emails from the time confirm the OPHD received it — and that she could make a formal complaint, with her name attached, if she wished. She didn’t hear anything after that, she said, and didn’t pursue the matter because she feared retaliation. “When you’re a woman in an academically rigorous discipline, you don’t want to make waves,” V. said. “I knew I would have suffered more harm than Searle ever would have.” John Martinez Pavigla / Flickr / Via Flickr: virtualsugar UC Berkeley houses the John Searle Center for Social Ontology. Both graduate and undergraduate students in the philosophy department said Searle made inappropriate comments in class and during meetings. “People thought of Searle as someone who says problematic things, but they didn’t take it seriously enough,” said Tulaja Thigale, who took his Philosophy of Mind class in 2014. She said when she went to Searle’s office hours, he mimicked an Indian accent. In 2016, an external review conducted by philosophy professors from other universities found that UC Berkeley’s top-ranked philosophy department was thriving, but it noted “concern about a small number of faculty members who tend to make insensitive remarks, particularly in undergraduate classes.” This concern included Searle, according to one graduate student who participated in the review. Once, for example, while teaching the concept of "visual attention," Searle said he liked to let his eyes wander around the room and settle on attractive young women. The department chair assured the review board that the faculty members in question had been confronted about their behavior. But graduate students told BuzzFeed News they felt brushed off whenever they reported Searle. “There was always this sense that the department was doing what they could, but were really hoping Searle would just retire and it would all go away,” said one who asked to remain anonymous, citing the precarity of her position. A graduate student who passed on V.’s complaint about Searle to the philosophy department in 2014 said she never heard from the OPHD until this week, when the department emailed to say it heard she “might have information regarding potential behavior that may be in violation of university policy.” “At the time, I assumed OPHD was handling the situation,” the graduate student said. “Now that I know about similar complaints, it's clear that they should have done more." Jackson Kernion, a graduate student in the philosophy department, said he understood the faculty was limited in scope and had incomplete information about Searle’s behavior. Still, he said, he felt “there could have been a more vigorous response, given the serious concerns raised by grad students" at both formal and informal meetings. "A number of Berkeley students had their first contact with academic philosophy by taking one of Searle's classes," Kernion said. "It shouldn't come as a surprise that women and minorities sitting in his classes came away with the impression that they were less than fully welcomed in the field.” “They can’t just say, ‘Oh, well maybe next year he’ll retire,’ and continue to put employees and students at risk.”"In grade 13...I was in the lead role in The Princess and the Pea and Greasers," Rob Ford proudly told a packed crowd during his opening statements at Wednesday night's mayoral arts debate hosted by the AGO. "It was pretty funny to see a 300 pound football player in leotards and tights." Ford's charm offensive fell on deaf ears, however, as he faced a hostile crowd throughout the evening. All candidates, except him, pledged to increase arts funding to $25 per capita by 2013. "I'd love to be able to promise it, but we're three billion dollars in debt," Ford said. "I'd love to come out and say 'Yes' but I can't sit here and promise something that I can't say for sure is going to happen." Ford suggested instead that city property be opened up as a venue for artists to display and sell their work, and private fundraising be the primary source for new arts investments. When questions from the audience were taken, Albert Schultz, artistic director of the Soulpepper Theatre Company, asked Ford directly: "What are the initiatives and programs you think will not only protect but support and enhance [the arts] industry?" "We must get the private sector to donate money to make up for the shortfall that we can't get through the city budget," Ford responded. And then he made his most unpopular remarks. "Not everyone supports funding the arts," he told the obviously art-conscious crowd. "We're $300 million behind in road repairs. Don't you think it's more important to have safe streets and roads fixed before funding stuff we can't even afford?" "You can have an arts dinner and have the private sector buy tickets and you can fundraise a ton of money. I've done it, trust me," Ford continued. The audience booed and hecklers started interrupting him. "It's really better to let him talk!" Rocco Rossi joked, receiving loud applause and laughter. But Ford shot back. "If we had the billion dollars that Mr. Smitherman squandered in his eHealth scandal, how many art programs would that fund?" George Smitherman, however, countered by calling for a "touring fund" to allow artists to act as ambassadors for Toronto at international events and a mayor's gala to promote the arts. He also suggested an "arts and business breakfasts series," which could encourage more private sector investments. The former provincial MPP also sparred bitterly with Joe Pantalone, getting into several nasty exchanges. Pantalone started by displaying a graph that showed Toronto's debt as low compared to other governments in Canada, making the point that Smitherman was exaggerating the extent of Toronto's financial problems. "When you made those promises to Manifesto about the implementation of the billboard tax, why didn't you fulfil them if you're all that?" Smitherman responded. "Had the province of Ontario not been a deadbeat parent to Toronto..." Pantalone started. "Now you're calling the city bankrupt. You just criticized me for doing that and now you're doing that," Smitherman said. Later Pantalone warned the audience that Smitherman planned to cut arts and culture funding. And when he began to speak of his experience at city council he took another jab at Smitherman. Being mayor isn't a "consolation prize for not becoming premier of Ontario," he said. The debate also included James Di Fiore, a fringe candidate who "has no illusions of winning" but decided to run to help increase youth engagement in the political process. He was chosen as a participant by an online poll at the ArtsVote website. He works as a journalist and arts organizer. Di Fiore spoke about the potential for profit in the arts and culture industry and about the benefits of corporate sponsorships for arts events in Toronto. "You can make money from the arts -- this seems so simplistic and easy for me to understand I don't understand why it's even debated as much as it is," he said. Wednesday's debate was more lively than usual. Sarah Thomson's decision to drop out of the race, election day coming closer, and new poll numbers likely contributed to the candidates' energy. The enthusiastic crowd that filled the AGO auditorium to the brim -- so much so that organizers were denying even journalists entry at the last moments before the debate -- also enlivened the event. There were no major surprises, except maybe Smitherman's announcement that he'll appear on So You Think You Can Dance Canada on election night, but the animated discussion was stimulating and clearly displayed the characters of the candidates, which is more than can be said for the majority of other debates I've taken in.This feature article ( 文章，published Jan 2008) from the Southern Metropolis Daily provides a candid, street-level view of the lives of African traders in China. I translate this article to provide some depth to the discussion of racism in China, as seen in this previous thread. In an era when China-Africa relations are making headlines in Western newspapers, it’s time to hear the story from a Chinese perspective. If the 20th century was defined by the American Dream, what can China bring to the world in the 21st century? In Guangzhou, a 10 square kilometer area centered around Hongqiao has been given the name “Chocolate City” by taxi drivers. Every day after noon, “Chocolate City” begins to turn lively. Tens of thousands of black people seem to erupt from the ground in groups of twos and threes. Carrying large black plastic bags or wearing backpacks, they look through the stalls along the street. The stalls are filled with “tail goods” (尾货, excess production that did not meet quality standards) from thousands of small factories throughout Guangdong: blue jeans, unbranded television sets, hand-assembled cell phones. In distant Africa, nearly 50 countries exploding with demand have opened their arms wide, and are rapidly digesting all of these consumer products not produced locally. Based on Chinese official statistics, during this period of China-Africa trade fever that started in 2003, the number of Africans headed to Guangzhou has been growing at annual rates of 30-40%. Enticed – “Go to China!” Clem quickly cuts through the flow of car traffic, like the fish you can never catch. He hesistated when he saw the Southern Metropolis reporter, but finally crossed the road using the pedestrian bridge nearby. He embarassedly stuck out his tongue, saying: “Sorry, I still don’t have the habit of waiting for traffic lights and crossing at pedestrian bridges.” When he’s warned that “Guangzhou’s public security isn’t very good, be careful with your backpack”, his eyes open wide with shock. “Are you joking? Public security here is the best!” 25 year old Clem comes from Nigeria. Before, he saw Lagos, the largest city in Nigeria, as heaven. But after he arrived in Guangzhou, he felt he truly stood at the gate to heaven; China is the true heaven. He couldn’t stop explaining to this reporter: many public buses in Lagos don’t have doors, so that during heavy traffic some passengers will hang outside the bus! The roads in Lagos basically don’t have any traffic lights, only on major intersections will here be two traffic police officers. Lagos doesn’t have so many passenger cars, instead, motorcycles imported from China dominate the streets… If he hadn’t come to China, Clem would have continued managing his auto parts store. He would be working with partners to resell tires, steering wheels, and seats imported from China at up to 10 times profit. Every time he went to pick up parts, he’d run into clothing store, leather store, jewelry store, or just convenience store bosses, all of them waiting together for packages from China. Every time they see a Chinese person walk-by wearing a suit and carrying a leather suitcase, someone would whistle. “Look at that, we buy all this cheap crap from their country, but they’re shipping away Nigeria’s valuable oil!” About five years ago, Chinese petrolem companies and businessmen poured into Africa. This led many locals to feel that China was grabbing their resources and rice bowls (jobs). And yet from tractors to toothpaste, everything was “Made in China”; this stimulated many of them into looking in China’s direction. Many of Clem’s friends encouraged him, “Go to China! Nigeria’s using petroleum to trade for foreign currency, and the Chinese are buying it to build heaven!” When he watched CCTV’s satellite broadcasts, Clem saw Chinese cities were filled with skyscrapers, wide boulevards, orderly traffic. And the most shocking, factories in the Pearl River Delta (Hong Kong/Shenzhen/Guangzhou) were as dense as an ant hive! And Nigeria, other than oil resources, seemed so difficient. Manufacturing industries were extremely backward, and 80% of every-day consumer goods were still being imported – this is in fact the situation in many African countries. In September of 2007, Clem’s father, working at a Nigerian embassy in Europe, was able to arrange a Chinese visa for him. His friends were envious. More and more Africans are patiently lining up in front of Chinese embassies in Africa, fighting for visas permitted under a limited quota. A guy who received his visa at the same time as Clem had paid a fee to a visa application service nine months ago. When he finally received the visa he had been waiting for, the guy who had been muttering and cursing under his breath finally calmed down; he fiercely kissed his passport. In October of 2007, Clem dragged a few large suitcases out of Guangzhou Baiyun airport. After trying three or four times, a cab finally stopped for him. He handed a piece of paper with a Chinese address to his driver, and didn’t say another word. Clem’s new home is a 10 square meter single room; another Nigerian had arranged it for him. The room has a single bed, a set of drawers, and a sofa. He shares the bathroom with three other African drivers. He opened the window, and then quickly closed it. No more than half a meter outside his window was another building. He quickly crossed himself, praying that he’d see some sunlight in the morning. The first impressions many Africans have of Guangzhou start in these local villages. A mutual divide – “Annoying, so annoying!” Many taxi drivers aren’t willing to take on “chocolate” customers. They don’t like the nose-irritating perfume, nor the constant bargaining on every trip. Some drivers will use excuses that “you’re too big, the car won’t fit you”, or “I don’t understand your foreign language”; but some don’t care, “driving anybody is just business.” Based on official statistics, since 2003, the number of Africans in Guangzhou has been growing at 30-40% annually. Based on a report in the Guangzhou Daily, there might already be 100,000 in the community. They come from Nigeria, Guinea, Cameroon, Liberia, and Mali. Amongst these, Africa’s most populous country Nigeria claims first place. They primarily live in village-districts in the city of Guangdong (like Dongpu, Dengfeng Jie, Yongping Jie). They do their business in a few large-scale China-Africa commerce malls. The stalls in these commerce malls don’t have much in terms of decoration; at most, there will be a black plastic model at the front door. Samples are piled up the ground, and hung up on the walls and placed in display cases. In one building, the warehouse and sales offices are one and the same. Stall owners pile their blue jeans on the walk-way itself. When it gets busy, you have to step over the piles of pants. These centers have accumulated basically all of the world’s top brands — Dolce and Gabbana blue jeans, Adidas shoes, Gucci high-heels, Louis Vuitton purses, Chanel purses, Armani underwear. Their prices are ridiculous: Dolce and Gabbana jeans are 20 RMB (3 USD), Gucci high-heels and purse together for 100 RMB (15 USD)… AP reporter Arnold previously lived in Africa for 10 years. He told a Southern Metropolis reporter that because Africa has almost no factories, most people don’t really distinguish counterfeits: “As long as the shoes have the Adidas stamp on it, that’s good enough. The key is it has to be cheap.” Cote, a clothes merchant from Liberia, is a frequent guest in these stores. Many of the Africans who’ve come to dig for gold in China are, like him, n the clothing business. They consume many of the out-of-fashion goods in China. A Chinese stall-owner said half-jokingly, “they don’t care about style, but it has to be flexible, and should wrap a woman’s thigh tightly, like a dumpling (zongzi).” According to a manager at one clothing mall, the total amount of commerce at their mall had reached more than 70 million RMB in 2007. While picking through clothes, Cote claimed that he had many Chinese friends here. To prove his point, he walked up, and pats the store-owner on his head. Or, he playfully kicks at the store-owner’s leg. He’ll loudly greet them, “Friend, how are you recently?” His “friends” don’t respond. Some pull out a cell phone and intentionally ignore him. Others impatiently wave at him, and say in a combination of Chinese and English: “if you’re not buying anything, then go… quickly GO!” It seems friendship only exists between the Africans. When he runs into a fellow clothes dealer, Cote trades fists and claps with them, and quickly chats in their native tongue. Not many travel alone like Cote, most are in groups of twos or threes. They walk all of the malls from afternoon until the evening. They fold up the plastic bags full of clothes, and use a rented car to haul it away. On one stall, Cote is told that the jeans he’s interested in are 20 RMB a pair. He fiercely throws the pants at the stall-owners head, angrily asking, “how it can be that expensive!?” He turns and goes. After the shocked stall-owner recovers, he stares at the back of the thick shoulders of the departing Cote. He opens his mouth, and then closes it, changing to a single phrase in Cantonese: “Crazy black guy!” (痴线黑佬) After 40 minutes, Cote finally decides to buy 500 pairs of women blue jeans. He asked that the store owner remove the packing material and label for every pair. “Most customers only care about a low cost. But me, I care more about shipping costs!” He explains to the reporter, even as he keeps an eye on the store owner working with the clothes. When he finds packing paper isn’t removed from a pair, he shoots up and rips it out, screaming: “I’m buying so much of your stuff, can I get some service please?” The store-owner rolls his eyes and mutters, “Annoying!”. This sort of unhappy encounter is seen in these Chinese-African trade malls every day. Sometimes, the police are called. A security guard in the mall says he really doesn’t understand it; how can some people be so poor, and yet still so outlandish! Talking about the customers they deal with every day, stall-owners often pout their lips. The ability of some black people to bargain for discounts annoys many Chinese businessmen. Some will order 200 pairs of pants, but then only purchase 10, insisting on the original price. Some, when they’re picking up their products, will reach down and grab another pair as he walks out the door. Many stall-owners are too lazy to learn English; they feel using a calculator to deal with the black people was good enough. One stall-owner says that if she could do business with white people, she’d definitely improve her English. Cote has stayed in China for 8 years, but he also doesn’t know a sentence of Chinese. “Why does that matter?” He loudly tells the reporter. His visa is only good for a month at a time, and just like a bird, he has to constantly fly between China and Africa. “I don’t care how you Chinese see us; we’re only here to make money, and then we’ll go home and build a home!” Boredom: “Guangzhou is still Guangzhou, Chocolate City is still Chocolate City” Clem doesn’t like to hear “criticisms” of China. Whenever he hears friends complaining about Chinese visas, or Chinese not being trust-worthy, Clem doesn’t say a word. The only thing that he agrees with is, it’s very difficult for Africans to make Chinese friends. He likes to walk outside this little kingdom. The Guangzhou outside these village-districts is like the one that he saw on TV. Every time he sits on the bus or subway, he lets his friends who speak better Chinese help him buy a ticket, as he stands on the side watching. When he sees the automated machine spit out the subway ticket, he always says softly, “Not that hard at all”. But when friends encourage him to give it a try, he sees the curious looks from all sides, and quickly slides away to the side. “After I’ve been here longer, after I learn Chinese, I will make Chinese friends”. Clem always comforts himself this way. He feels the problem is in language, and his shy nature. “I will try and change.” But every time Clem praises China without reservation, Williams will coldly interrupt him. “Once you stay longer, you’ll know. China isn’t just like what you’ve imagined; it’s not only a language problem!” 25 year old Williams is also Clem’s countrymen, a good friend always by his side, and a young man with excess energy. When he has free time, William turns on the stereo and dances to the rock music. He points at a reporter next to him, “I admit it, China is better than Nigeria in many ways. But in music, you can only copy us!” A customer walks in, and he quickly turns off the stereo, takes off his sunglasses, and goes to work. “I’m busy, don’t talk to me,” he points at the reporter. “But you can take a few more pictures of me, try a few different angles!” Williams came to China a year ago, and opened a hair salon in one of the malls. Everything in the salon, from wall paper to sofa to the customer’s chairs, are all the same color: bright red. His customers are all the same color: black. “Chinese salons don’t understand African hair styles, so they all come to my store.” He says boastfully. Although his “design” (of hair style) often just involves a total shave. “Africans especially trust, and depend on their fellow people; that’s why we call each other ‘brother’ and ‘sister’.” Mall management Chen Lianren told the reporter that every store opened by an African becomes a focal point, and attracts many of his fellow countrymen, increasing the traffic flow for other stores in the mall. For that reason, they lowered the rent for African tenants. Unlike the always migrating Cote, Williams and other Africans with an economic foundation all share a “Chinese Dream”. They hope that by struggling for 4-5 years, they will be able to open a trade company or service center, and make large profits from servicing the rapidly growing Chinese-African trade. Based on published research, more than 20,000 Africans are long-term residents in Guangzhou (more than six months). But just like Clem, the lives of many Africans never extends out of the 20 kilometer “Chocolate City”. Just about all African visitors can’t name a single tourist spot in Guangzhou, and can’t name many Chinese friends. They don’t open accounts with Chinese banks, and few purchase bus passes, even though it’s their primary mode of transportation. If all of the Africans in Guangzhou evapored overnight, they would leave almost no mark in “Chocolate City” or Guangzhou. “My daughter asked me what I saw in China.” A Nigerian getting his hair-cut said, “I answered, jeans and black people!” But Williams likes to interact with Chinese, and uses every opportunity to learn Chinese. Once, he chatted with a little Chinese girl, and had a picture taken of the two of them together. He developed the picture, and has kept it in his wallet ever since. He joined a local amateur African soccer team, and competes with local Chinese teams. “Interacting with Chinese people, it’s really complicated,” Williams said. On this point, most of the people in his circle of friends agree. Once, on a bus, he chatted with an university student for half an hour. Right before separating, they traded telephone numbers, and agreed to watch a ballgame together next week. But when he called that number the same night, it was an unused number. Another time, he was chatting with an old lady in front of a church. When he learned she had a grand-daughter, he asked, “Your grand-daughter must be beautiful! How old is she?” The old lady suddenly turned around in anger and left, saying, “Why are you asking so many questions?…” “I really didn’t mean anything by it, just wanted to practice my Chinese.” Williams shrugged his shoulders. “This time, after you’re done with the interview, will we still be friends?” He asked the reporter. Without waiting for an answer, he laughed drily, “Whatever.” Another method Williams uses to learn Chinese are TV shows and movies. But the more he watches, the more he feels he’s living in a foreign country. “I never knew Chinese women were tougher than the men. You can refuse to do housework, refuse to have kids, or have only one kid!” He called out to Clem, “You love China, but how much do you know about it? Did you know this? Can you accept it?” As if he forgot he denied he had chased Chinese girls before, he puts on an exaggerated expression for the reporter, “Luckily, I’ve never successfully dated a Chinese girl!” “Of course they can’t get a Chinese girl.” 23 year old Ms. Lee is both angry and amused as she talks about this topic. She feels “being normal friends with them is okay, but dating is too strange”. Besides, friends will mock you. From her point of view, many young Africans flirt with girls out of boredom, as a form of entertainment. As soon as they’re refused, they turn around and start expressing their love to someone else. When Cote was walking around the mall, he repeatedly asked the reporter, “How many boyfriends do you have?” “Just one? Why not get a few more?” Before separating, he graciously invited in a gentlemanly manner, “Will you have dinner with me? Come to where I live, I’ll make the best African food for you.” After being denied, he could only spread his hands, “Why are Chinese girls so hard to date?” After watching a Chinese TV series, Williams had some insight into the reason for his failure in love, “Maybe Chinese are shy, and prefer to take it slowly.” But his guess might also be a case of wishful thinking. Wang Jia, a girl working in the same mall, once screamed at a suitor who refused to take no for an answer: “Stay away from me, even if you wait 100 years, I won’t be your girlfriend!” On Christmas Eve, still-single Williams invited Clem to go bar-hopping, but was refused. The reserved boy who usually preserves peace and quiet instead pulled out a newly purchased phone card. He called his parents in the Nigeria capital of Abuja, “I like China, I really want to stay here as long as I possibly can! My New Year’s wish, would be starting a clothing company in Guangzhou!” Williams put on his jacket, and went through the door. At 1 AM, he came to Dafengche Bar. The heavy beat of rock music booming, and black brothers wearing Santa hats and held beers. They danced and laughed loudly together. The afternoon of Christmas Day, just sobering Williams gave the reporter a telephone call, “Remember how you said the place where I live is called Chocolate City? That’s too true! I’ve been here a year, and Chocolate City is still Chocolate City, and Guangzhou is still your Guangzhou.” Love – “I’m already very China!” Compared to the Africans who live in peasant-villages in the city, young Omar belongs to the minority that the Chinese people like. He lives in a small gated apartment community. His life had long moved passed the lonely phase, everything was already in his grasp. Although business was busy, Omar arrives at the Stone Chamber Church every every week. English mass is held from 3:30 until 4:50 every Sunday afternoon. The church capable of fitting more than two thousand people still can’t squeeze in all of the religious. Some late arriving Africans kneel quietly in the aisle. The sound of softly sung hymns, along with the sharp scent of perfume, circle in the space above the heads of the faithful. Religion and business are the two things that most closely bind Africans and Guangzhou. Catholicism and Islam are the two dominant religions. Every Friday is the holiest day of prayer for the Muslims, and African Muslims also stop their work. They congregate at the mosque across from Yuexiu Park; carefully they wash their head, hand, and feet, and kneel in the direction of the mosque, saying their prayers to the true Allah. After prayers are finished, Omar walks over to the adjacent hall, and joins a ceremony unique to African Catholics. A few hundred Africans clapped and danced to a religious music that only they can understand. With the dance finished, one person stood up, and called on everyone to raise their hands, close their eyes, their mouths muttered and gradually grew faster and faster; their faces showed a frantic expression. After Omar faithfully finishes the ceremony, he returns to his typical well-mannered attitude. Pulling out his cell phone, he uses fluent Chinese to tell his wife that the brothers are meeting for dinner that night, he won’t be returning for dinner. Amongst the Africans who’ve come to Guangzhou, Omar belongs to the small number who’ve received higher education. He even studied Chinese in university. He came to China from Nigeria three years ago, thinking that his advantage in language would allow him to quickly adjust to this new life. But he tried Beijing, no luck; moved to Shanghai, still no luck; continued onto Zhejiang, and still no luck. At the time, one of Omar’s countrymen in America tried to talk him into going to the United States. There, people of different skin colors live together, and no one can tell at a glance that he’s a foreigner. Finally, he ended up in Guangzhou and set down roots in Chocolate City. Guangzhou has the densest concentration of African businessmen in China. Areas and cities surrounding the area has thousands of factories that take tens of thousands of African orders, originating from Chocolate City, every day. To Omar, brothers and the factory are equally important. “When I got to Guangzhou, I finally realized why I could never stay in any other place, ” he said, “in Chocolate City, at least no one is coming over and lecture to me, ‘Hey, this is China!'” This is the attraction of Guangzhou. On Yongping Street, many black illegal immigrants live together in homes that rent for 100-200 RMB per month. They come out only at night, either selling physical labor by offering to carry goods, or sell drugs and other illegal activities. According to police in the area, starting in November of 2007, they had searched out a group of Africans in the country illegally. They were sent to Yunnan and deported. Omar’s life was all smooth sailing. After he had been in Guangzhou for a year, he opened a clothing store. Quickly, he built a reputation. Everyone knew that Boss Omar not only spoke fluent putonghua, the way he behaved and did business was also very solid. Omar’s store was almost always the last to close at night, including Christmas Eve. After the lights to the store are extinguished at 7 PM, he rushed home to spend the holiday with his wife. In his homeland of Nigeria, on Christmas Eve, the only thing working are the Christmas lights. But in China, both people and the Christmas lights remain as busy as always on Christmas Eve. His skinny wife comes from Shandong. She met Omar on business about a year ago. After they were married in 2007, Omar’s parents came to China to visit. They couldn’t stop compliment their son and his yellow-skinned wife, and even agreed to their daughter-in-law’s preference to delay having kids. In their building, there are four or five African bosses who, based on their talent, sincerity, and of course a certain level of economic foundation, won the love of Chinese women. Some have had kids; yellow skin and curly hair, they look just like Barbie dolls. Based on the understanding of the mall’s manager Jiang Ganglong, for an African to lay down roots and open a store, it typically takes around four years of hard work. The primary reason they’re successful, is because they “have integrity, do things the Chinese way.” The changes that marriage brought Omar go beyond becoming accustomed to a new way of celebrating Christmas Eve. He gradually left Chocolate City, and was accepted and welcomed by his wife’s family and friends. As the other stall-owners in the mall complained about the low quality of Africans, they always add a sentence, “but look at Omar, he’s not at all Africa!” “I’m already very China!” Omar laughs as he says this. Today, the man from male-chauvinist Africa has happily been infected by China’s specialty: “management by wife”. Friends are always teasing him that the first he does with every cent earned, is to hand it over to this wife. He’s not offended by this, and laughs along. Future – “I hope she has a Chinese brain” From the perspective of AP reporter Arnold, formerly stationed in Africa, the various collisions between Chinese and Africans are a necessary part of the “wearing in” process, between two peoples who’re only in the early stages of establishing contact. Chinese aren’t prejudiced in a racial sense, “compared to Americans, the amount of contact between Chinese and Africa is still very little, far too little for mutual understanding. So-called prejudice, is more analogous to the way city-dwellers with money view poor villagers who don’t understand manners.” Arnold feels that the primary difference between the way Africans are pursuing their “Chinese dream” and the way Chinese are seeking the “American dream” lies in that most Africans don’t really wish to integrate into China’s mainstream society, and become true Chinese citizens. The harsh conditions behind China’s emigration policy, as well as a drastically different culture, and the lack of religious tradition makes China unattractive to many Africans. They like to drink milk, but have no interest in living in a dairy farm. They prefer to squeeze the milk, and then bring it home with them. The boss of the #9 stall in Building B, Cisse, his “Chinese dream” is designed for his CBB (China-Born Baby). He raised up his less than one year old black baby, and excitedly said: “Look, she’s a Chinese girl!” Cisse and his black wife have
in 1974. The Post won a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage. Felt was convicted on unrelated conspiracy charges in 1980 and eventually pardoned by President Ronald Reagan before slipping into obscurity for the next quarter-century. He died in 2008 at age 95. Hide Caption 4 of 15 Photos: Notable leakers and whistle-blowers Mordechai Vanunu, who worked as a technician at Israel's nuclear research facility, leaked information to a British newspaper and led nuclear arms analysts to conclude that Israel possessed a stockpile of nuclear weapons. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied its weapons program. An Israeli court convicted Vanunu in 1986 after Israeli intelligence agents captured him in Italy. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison. Since his release in 2004, he has been arrested on a number of occasions for violating terms of his parole. Hide Caption 5 of 15 Photos: Notable leakers and whistle-blowers President Ronald Reagan addresses the media in 1987, months after the disclosure of the Iran-Contra affair. A secret operation carried out by an American military officer used proceeds from weapons sales to Iran to fund the anti-communist Contras in Nicaragua and attempted to secure the release of U.S. hostages held by Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon. Mehdi Hashemi, an officer of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, leaked evidence of the deal to a Lebanese newspaper in 1986. Reagan's closest aides maintain he did not fully know, and only reluctantly came to accept, the circumstances of the operation. Hide Caption 6 of 15 Photos: Notable leakers and whistle-blowers Tobacco industry executive Jeffrey Wigand issued a memo to his company in 1992 about his concerns regarding tobacco additives. He was fired in March 1993 and subsequently contacted by "60 Minutes" and persuaded to tell his story on CBS. He claimed that Brown & Williamson knowingly used additives that were carcinogenic and addictive and spent millions covering it up. He also testified in a landmark case in Mississippi that resulted in a $246 billion settlement from the tobacco industry. Wigand has received public recognition for his actions and continues to crusade against Big Tobacco. He was portrayed by Russell Crowe in the 1999 film " The Insider." Hide Caption 7 of 15 Photos: Notable leakers and whistle-blowers For 10 years, Frederic Whitehurst complained mostly in vain about practices at the FBI's world-renowned crime lab, where he worked. His efforts eventually led to a 1997 investigation that found lab agents produced inaccurate and scientifically flawed testimony in major cases, including the Oklahoma City and World Trade Center bombings. The Justice Department recommended major reforms but also criticized Whitehurst for "overstated and incendiary" allegations. He also faced disciplinary action for refusing to cooperate with an investigation into how some of his allegations were leaked to a magazine. After a yearlong paid suspension he left the bureau in 1998 with a settlement worth more than $1.16 million. Hide Caption 8 of 15 Photos: Notable leakers and whistle-blowers FBI whistle-blower Coleen Rowley accused the bureau of hindering efforts to investigate a suspected terrorist that could have disrupted plans for the September 11, 2001, terror attacks. In 2002 she fired off a 13-page letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller and flew to Washington to hand-deliver copies to two members of the Senate Intelligence Committee and meet with committee staffers. The letter accused the bureau of deliberately undermining requests to look into Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person convicted in the United States of playing a role in the attacks. She testified in front of Congress and the 9/11 Commission about the FBI's mishandling of information. Rowley was selected as one of Time magazine's People of the Year in 2002, along with whistle-blowers Sherron Watkins of Enron and Cynthia Cooper of WorldCom. Hide Caption 9 of 15 Photos: Notable leakers and whistle-blowers Sherron Watkins, a former vice president at Enron, sent an anonymous letter to founder Kenneth Lay in 2001 warning him the company had accounting irregularities. The memo eventually reached the public and she later testified before Congress about her concerns and the company's wrongdoings. More than 4,000 Enron employees lost their jobs, and many also lost their life savings, when the energy giant declared bankruptcy in 2001. Investors lost billions of dollars. An investigation in 2002 found that Enron executives reaped millions of dollars from off-the-books partnerships and violated basic rules of accounting and ethics. Many were sentenced to prison for their roles in the Enron scandal Hide Caption 10 of 15 Photos: Notable leakers and whistle-blowers Cynthia Cooper and her team of auditors uncovered massive fraud at WorldCom in 2002. They found that the long-distance telephone provider had used $3.8 billion in questionable accounting entries to inflate earnings over the past five quarters. By the end of 2003, the total fraud was estimated to be $11 billion. The company filed for bankruptcy protection and five executives ended up in prison. Cooper started her own consulting firm and told her story in the book "Extraordinary Circumstances: The Journey of a Corporate Whistleblower." Hide Caption 11 of 15 Photos: Notable leakers and whistle-blowers In 2003, federal air marshal Robert MacLean anonymously tipped off an MSNBC reporter that because of budget concerns, the TSA was temporarily suspending missions that would require marshals to stay in hotels just days after they were briefed about a new "potential plot" to hijack U.S. airliners. The news caused an immediate uproar on Capitol Hill and the TSA retreated, withdrawing the scheduling cuts before they went into effect. MacLean was later investigated and fired for the unauthorized disclosure of "sensitive security information." Hide Caption 12 of 15 Photos: Notable leakers and whistle-blowers Joe Darby is the whistle-blower behind the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal in Iraq. He says he asked Army Reserve Spc. Charles Graner Jr. for photos from their travels so he could share them with family. Instead, he was given photos of prisoner abuse. Darby eventually alerted the U.S. military command, triggering an investigation and global outrage when the scandal came to light in 2004. Graner was sentenced to 10 years in prison for his part in the abuse. He was released in 2011 after serving 6½ years of his sentence. The military and members of Darby's own family ostracized him, calling him a traitor. Eventually he and his wife had to enter protective custody. Hide Caption 13 of 15 Photos: Notable leakers and whistle-blowers The New York Times reported in 2005 that in the months after the September 11, 2001, attacks, President George W. Bush authorized the U.S. National Security Agency to eavesdrop without a court warrant on people in the United States, including American citizens, suspected of communicating with al Qaeda members overseas. The Bush administration staunchly defended the controversial surveillance program. Russ Tice, an NSA insider, came forward as one of the anonymous sources used by the Times. He said he was concerned about alleged abuses and a lack of oversight. Here, President Bush participates in a conversation about the Patriot Act in Buffalo, New York, in April 2004. Hide Caption 14 of 15 Photos: Notable leakers and whistle-blowers Army Pfc. Bradley Manning was convicted July 30 of stealing and disseminating 750,000 pages of classified documents and videos to WikiLeaks, and the counts against him included violations of the Espionage Act. He was found guilty of 20 of the 22 charges but acquitted of the most serious charge -- aiding the enemy. Manning is set to speak in his defense when he takes the stand during the sentencing phase of his court-martial on Wednesday, August 14. He could face up to 90 years in prison if the judge imposes the maximum sentence. Hide Caption 15 of 15 Wikileaks called the conviction of Manning "a dangerous precedent and an example of national security extremism." "It is a short sighted judgment that can not be tolerated and must be reversed," the group said in a statement released Tuesday. "It can never be that conveying true information to the public is 'espionage.'" Manning already has spent three years in custody and, while he's been behind bars, questions about whether his actions made him a traitor or a whistle-blower have been hotly debated. Authorities say he delivered three-quarters of a million pages of classified documents and videos to the secret-sharing site WikiLeaks, which has never confirmed the soldier was the source of its information. The material covered numerous aspects of U.S. military strategy in Iraq, gave what some called a ground view of events in the Afghanistan war and revealed the inner workings of U.S. State Department diplomacy in leaked cables. The verdict is "historic," said Elizabeth Goitein, a co-director of the non-partisan Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice. "The judge rejected the government's argument that Manning, by virtue of his training as an intelligence officer, must have known that the information he disclosed was likely to reach al Qaeda," Goitein said in a written statement. "But she also ruled that Manning had reason to believe his disclosures could harm the U.S., even if that was not his goal." Ben Wizner, director of the ACLU Speech, Privacy & Technology Project, issued a statement saying that "it seems clear that the government was seeking to intimidate anyone who might consider revealing valuable information" to the media in the future. "The government's pursuit of the 'aiding the enemy' charge was a serious overreach of the law, not least because there was no credible evidence of Manning's intent to harm the USA by releasing classified information to Wikileaks," said Widney Brown, senior director of international law and policy at Amnesty International. When he entered his guilty pleas on the lesser charges this year, Manning spent more than an hour in court reading a statement about why he had leaked the information. He said the information he passed on "upset" or "disturbed" him, but there was nothing he thought would harm the United States if it became public. Manning said that he thought the documents were old and that the situations they referred to had changed or ended. "I believed if the public was aware of the data, it would start a public debate of the wars," he said during his court-martial. He was "depressed about the situation there," meaning Iraq, where he was stationed as an intelligence analyst. On Tuesday, Lind, the judge, accepted only two of the guilty pleas he had made previously to lesser charges. Those two were possession of a video that was marked classified and that he exceeded authority by obtaining a State Department cable. Those two counts carry a maximum sentence of two years. Claiming responsibility The young soldier from a small town in Oklahoma said that he first tried to give the information to The Washington Post, but a reporter there didn't seem like she took him seriously. He left a voice mail for The New York Times and sent an e-mail to the newspaper but, he says, he didn't hear back. So, he said, he decided to give the information to WikiLeaks. At some point, according to a California hacker Adrian Lamo, who says he communicated via instant messaging with Manning, the soldier confessed to possessing sensitive documents. Shortly after alleged messages between Manning and Lamo were published in 2010, Lamo spoke to CNN. He said he turned Manning in to authorities. His reason? "... it seemed incomprehensible that someone could leak that massive amount of data and not have it endanger human life," Lamo said. "If I had acted for my own comfort and convenience and sat on my hands with that information, and I had endangered national security... I would have been the worst kind of coward." As Manning's court case dragged on, in December 2011 his defense argued that the military didn't heed warning signs that the soldier was falling apart mentally. A few months before Manning was arrested, Army command referred him to a psychologist for evaluation because he appeared to be "under considerable stress" and "did not appear to have any social support system and seemed hypersensitive to any criticism" and "was potentially a danger to himself and others." WikiLeaks, Assange and Manning Manning was arrested within months of a video that appeared on WikiLeaks in April 2010. The secrets-busting site called it "Collateral Murder." It appeared to be shot from a U.S. Apache helicopter as it fired on a group of people in Baghdad in 2007. A dozen people were killed; among them were a Reuters TV news cameraman and his driver. The video showed that Reuters' Saeed Chmagh survived an initial strafing by the helicopter, but apparently died when it opened fire again -- this time on people attempting to get him off the sidewalk where he lay and to move him into a van. The footage quickly made news, elevating what was once virtually unknown WikiLeaks to a globally recognized name. Later, a U.S. investigation into the attack found that the crew mistook the journalists' cameras for weapons while seeking out insurgents who had been firing at American troops in the area. But, according to court documents and testimony, by the time the world saw the video, Manning had already downloaded hundreds of thousands of classified documents and videos. Within months, the soldier had been accused of using his computer skills to commit what the government called treason. While Manning sat behind bars, WikiLeaks and its chief Julian Assange became household names. WikiLeaks published a trove of documents related to the Afghanistan war in 2010 and followed that with a headline-making document dump about the Iraq war and then another release of diplomatic messages by U.S. State Department diplomats. "We call those types of people that are willing to risk... being a martyr for all the rest of us, we call those people heroes," Assange has told CNN's Jake Tapper. "Bradley Manning is a hero." Assange described the case against Manning, specifically the aiding the enemy charge, as a serious attack against investigative journalism. "It will be the end, essentially, of national security journalism in the United States," he said on the eve of the verdict. Assange spoke from the Ecuadorean Embassy in London. He sought refuge there to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning over allegations of sex crimes. Assange has said he thinks the claims against him are Washington's way of getting him arrested so that he can be extradited to the United States to face charges. Manning's supporters from the start Manning has another well-known cheerleader -- Daniel Ellsberg, famous for leaking the Pentagon Papers to The New York Times, which published them in 1971. The documents showed that several presidents knew that the Vietnam War was an unwinnable quagmire and that the government had lied to Congress and the public about the progress of the conflict. Ellsberg told CNN that he views Manning as a "hero" and he shares a kinship with him. In fact, Ellsberg was so committed to making sure the world understood his support for the young soldier that he went to the White House in 2011 to be arrested while protesting. "I was that young man; I was Bradley Manning," he said. A YouTube video of Ellsberg talking about Manning and the case has been viewed 2,228 times. Ellsberg's voice has joined many across the country over the past three years. The Bradley Manning Support Network sprang up in 2010, made up of people from across the world, the vast majority united by the group's website. March and protest. Carrying signs and chanting "Free Bradley Manning," dozens of protesters marched Tuesday night from Dupont Circle Park in Washington to the White House in Manning's name. The Bradley Manning Support Network helped pay for Manning's attorney, David Coombs, and as of January, in the last count the group offers, there were 25,632 signatures on an online petition asking that all charges against Manning be dropped. Coombs tried to have charges dismissed, without success, and kept a blog throughout his representation of Manning. Several of those entries describe documents that Coombs filed alleging that Manning had been mistreated during his initial detainment at Quantico military prison in Virginia. He blogged that Manning was "forced to stand naked at parade rest where he was in view of multiple guards" and was "required to wear a heavy and restrictive suicide smock which irritated his skin and, on one occasion, almost choked him."Researchers have released what is possibly the most complex, time-lapse video of a functioning cell. The cell, taken from the kidney of an African green monkey, was analyzed with dyes, fluorescent proteins and a laser scanning microscope. The video shows the movement of fat droplets throughout the cell, and is color coded to indicate which oraganelles - the subunits of cells - are which. To make the video, the researchers tagged the cells' different organelles with proteins that glow different colors in light. They tracked 6 different organelles, which are color coded in the video: Lysosomes (cyan), mitochondria (green), endoplasmic reticulum (yellow), peroxisomes (red), Golgi apparatus (magenta) and Lipid (fat) droplets (blue). Each one of these organelles performs a specific function in the cell - for example, lysosomes and peroxisomes break down molecules, the endoplasmic reticulum, which manufactures proteins and other molecules, and the Golgi apparatus packages these molecules. The researchers, who published their study in the journal Nature, used a special microscope called a laser scanning confocal microscope which can reconstruct 3-D structures from sets of images obtained at different depth sections within a thick object. The researchers tracked 6 different organelles - the subunits of cells - which are color coded in the video: Lysosomes (cyan), mitochondria (green), endoplasmic reticulum (yellow), peroxisomes (red), Golgi apparatus (magenta) and Lipid (fat) droplets (blue) While other types of microscopes have been used to make videos of cells functioning, Dr Sarah Cohen, a researcher at the National Institutes of Health and a co-lead author of the study, told Gizmodo: 'This is the first time we’re doing this many compartments in live cells.' Dispersion analysis of each organelle in the cell. The endoplasmic reticulum (highlighted in yellow) dispersed the most within the cell, and lysosomes (highlighted in magenta) dispersed the least The video reveals how each organelle is distributed and dispersed throughout the cell. For example, the organelle that disperses the most within the cell is the endoplasmic reticulum, which is spread out throughout the cell like a mesh. According to Dr Sang-Hee Shim, a chemistry professor at Korea University who wrote a commentary about the research, the researchers' 'breakthrough opens up wide-ranging opportunities for exploring the molecular mechanisms that underpin the organelle community's dance.' However, there are some potential limitations to this 'breakthrough' method. Images of a kidney cell from an African green monkey. Different organelles were tagged with proteins that glow a specific color under light. Lysosomes were tracked with a cyan dye, mitochondria in green, the endoplasmic reticulum in yellow, peroxisomes in red, the Golgi apparatus in magenta and Lipid (fat) droplets in blue. Pictured right is an image of all these organelles together and color coded For example, too much time under the microscope can harm cells, and the resolution of this technique isn't as high as other more invasive methods, so it doesn't show finer details. Despite these drawbacks, this method will help scientists understand how cells work and how molecules move around inside of it, which could be useful for designing personalized medicines.The mayor of a rich Swiss municipality, which would rather pay $300,000 a year than allow 10 asylum seekers to live there, says the country should close its borders with barbed wire. A referendum on the country's asylum law is to take place in June. Last weekend, the municipality of Oberwil-Lieli in the canton of Aargau held a local referendum on a budget passed last November. The budget decided not to pay 290,000 Swiss francs (about $300,000) a year as a compensation for not hosting its quota of 10 asylum seekers. But the direct vote overturned the representatives' decision in a 579 to 525 vote. The wealthy municipality has some 2,100 residents. Read more The pay-off option has long existed for Swiss municipalities. But the price was hiked 11-fold last year as the country faced its share of the pan-European refugee crisis. A new budget is yet to be passed, but the mayor of the municipality, Andreas Glarner, claimed the result as a partial victory for his party. An MP for the right-wing conservative Swiss People's Policy (SVP), he shares its tough stance on asylum seekers. “Switzerland must close all of its green borders with barbed wire,” Glarner told national daily the Tages Anzeiger. SVP opposes a reform of the Swiss asylum legislation championed by Justice Minister Simonetta Sommaruga, a member of the Socialist Party. The reform, which was adopted last year by the parliament, would greatly speed up the country's ability to process asylum requests. Critics however say the amendment would be discriminating against Swiss citizens by offering refugees free legal help. The SVP also doesn't like the sharp rise of the country's capacity to host refugees proposed by the amendment, and the authority it gives to the federal government to expropriate canton property for the purpose of tackling asylum seekers. Read more The party gathered 65,000 signatures in favor of putting the issue on a national referendum, which is a common mechanism in Switzerland to exercise its brand of direct democracy. The country holds dozens of such referendums each year. Switzerland’s asylum law was first introduced in 1981 and has since been amended dozens of times. Many of them were due to SVP, which has been seeking a tougher approach to foreigner-related problems since the 1990s. Swiss left-wingers, on the other hand, have invoked Switzerland's humanitarian traditions to oppose many of SVP's proposals through referendums. The June vote reverses their roles, wrote Swissinfo, a news platform maintained by the public Swiss Broadcasting Corporation. SVP is no stranger to causing controversy while advocating its policies. Last year, it funded a poster campaign to promote their proposition for expelling foreign criminals, which featured images of a white sheep kicking a black one out of Switzerland. For the June vote the party decided not to go that way, possibly because the previous one failed to convince voters. Glarner himself used posters with slogans such as “Aarau or Ankara?” and “Baden or Baghdad?” featuring an image of a mosque in his 2008 campaign for the national parliament.Asha Raith Fadeit (Photo: Special to the Register) A 74-year-old baby sitter was arrested Monday for allegedly slapping the child she was watching after the child's mother said she couldn't pay the woman more money. Police arrived at the Oakridge apartment complex on Oakridge Drive just before 10 p.m., responding to an argument about child care. Asha Raith Fadeit of Des Moines was outside the building among several people who were yelling. Fadeit, speaking through a neighbor who translated, claimed the mother of the child she was watching ripped out the window of her apartment and assaulted her. But police didn't believe her story, according to a police report. The argument started after Fadeit confronted the mother about leaving her son alone for hours during the day. Because Fadeit was watching him, she wanted to be paid, Fadeit told police. But the mother said when she went to pick up her son at Fadeit's apartment on Monday, Fadeit wouldn't let him leave until the mother gave her more money. She wanted $50, the mother said, but the mother already paid her $40 and didn't have more, the report states. Fadeit wouldn't open the door of the apartment and the two started arguing through the window. The mother called to her son, asking him to run out of the door if it opened. But when the boy tried, Fadeit allegedly slapped the boy across the mouth. The boy ran once more at the door and successfully escaped. That's when Fadeit allegedly broke out the screen of the window and jumped outside to grab the boy by the coat. NEWSLETTERS Get the Breaking News Alert newsletter delivered to your inbox We're sorry, but something went wrong Alerts on breaking news delivered straight to your inbox. Please try again soon, or contact Customer Service at 1-877-424-0225. Delivery: Varies Invalid email address Thank you! You're almost signed up for Breaking News Alert Keep an eye out for an email to confirm your newsletter registration. More newsletters She grabbed the mother's arm, and police could see the mark that left. The boy also had a cut to his upper lip. After an investigating both sides of the story, police decided Fadeit's story didn't make sense. She was arrested for child endangerment causing serious injury and booked into the Polk County Jail. Fadeit has already been released on bond, however. Read or Share this story: http://dmreg.co/1WdUdUYIn his regular BBC Sport column on football tactics, Robbie Savage takes a look at Sunderland under Paolo Di Canio. Di Canio is rarely spotted sitting on the bench The Italian only succeeded Martin O'Neill four weeks ago but has succeeded in reinvigorating a team that was sliding towards the relegation zone. His passion has lifted the entire club, but what are his tactics when you look beyond his knee slides and animated touchline antics? Ahead of another vital weekend in the battle for survival at the bottom of the Premier League, Sunderland need to regroup after Monday's thrashing by fellow strugglers Aston Villa. Di Canio is definitely the man to get them motivated again before they face Stoke, but the Potters probably already know what tactics they can expect to face. What is the Di Canio effect? I was at Villa Park on Monday and, first things first, you have give credit to Villa for an outstanding performance. They looked nothing like relegation candidates and were a completely different team to the one I watched lose to Liverpool at the end of March. But as far as Sunderland are concerned, we saw how important energy is to their game plan under Di Canio, and also some of their limitations as a team. Tackling under Di Canio Opposition No. of tackles Success rate Stats provided by Opta Chelsea 23 91% Newcastle 22 86% Everton 20 80% Aston Villa 22 64% They stayed deep to try to stop Villa's front three from getting behind their defenders. Di Canio never stopped shouting at his players to go and close the ball down - even Black Cats striker Danny Graham was doing it as soon as Villa came past the halfway line. You clearly have to be very fit to be a Sunderland player under Di Canio, and that same high-tempo, pressing approach helped them beat Newcastle and Everton earlier in April. It did not work against Villa, but why? Christian Benteke was a constant problem for them but the biggest issue was that they did not have the same effectiveness with their tackling. In Di Canio's first three games in charge - against Everton, Newcastle and Chelsea - their success rate averaged more than 85%. Against Villa, it dropped to below 65%. The fact the game was beyond them by the end will have played its part, but they did not show the desire or defensive bite I expected to see under Di Canio. Black Cats look to break quickly When you compare Sunderland's attacking statistics under Di Canio to those under O'Neill, then it is O'Neill who fares better. In terms of average possession, number of passes, pass completion, number of crosses, cross completion and shots per game, O'Neill's numbers are higher. Sunderland 2012-13 Under O'Neill Under Di Canio Games 31 4 Average possession 44% 39% Average passes per game 360 283 Pass completion 77% 74% Average crosses per game 24 15 Cross completion 18% 14% Average shots per game* 8 7 % Shots on target 46% 43% % Goals to shots 13% 21% Goals per game 1.06 1.50 Tackles won 76% 82% * Excluding blocked shots Stats provided by Opta The amount of possession Sunderland have has actually decreased dramatically under Di Canio but it has not made any difference to their results. In fact, out of his four games in charge, they had the most possession against Villa and look what good it did them. The reason possession does not matter to Di Canio is because he has decided that he can get the best out of his squad by playing on the counter-attack. Possession under Di Canio Opposition Possession Stats provided by Opta Chelsea 38% Newcastle 34% Everton 36% Aston Villa 45% They are making fewer passes than they did under O'Neill, but breaking quicker. That also means moves often break down more quickly too, but for me he does not really have much choice but to play that way. Sunderland do not have a player in central midfield who can dictate play or link defence and attack. Craig Gardner is the nearest thing they have to that but his game is more about hustle and bustle. That means Sunderland struggle to break down teams when the opposition have time to organise themselves defensively. Sunderland attacks end in cul-de-sacs Di Canio uses a 4-4-2 with Adam Johnson on the right wing and Seb Larsson on the left so they can cut inside and deliver inswinging crosses. They are both dangerous players, and the full-backs behind them, Phil Bardsley and Danny Rose, also play a vital attacking role in overlapping outside them or cutting inside. Danny Graham has not scored in 10 games for Sunderland since his £5m move from Swansea But unfortunately for Sunderland, when the ball was played into the Villa box, Danny Graham was just not on the move quickly or often enough to get on the end of it It showed again how badly they miss their main striker Steven Fletcher, who is out injured for the rest of the season. At the other end, Benteke was showing what a difference it can make to have an effective centre-forward leading your line. Sunderland just do not have that at present. Staying up despite Sessegnon suspension? There was more bad news for Di Canio's attacking options when Sunderland failed in their attempt to overturn the red card that Stephane Sessegnon was shown against Villa. He is suspended for the rest of the season. Sessegnon has been one of their stars during an upturn in results under Di Canio, and has been outstanding while playing in the hole behind the main striker. Under O'Neill, he operated a lot more towards the right. Sunderland are going to have to cope without him but I still think they will survive. Di Canio may lack quality in some areas of his squad but he has already shown us he makes up for it with his motivation. They need one win from their last three games and I would back them 100% to get it. The picture at the bottom of the table is an interesting one. Newcastle and Norwich are both back in the frame now. Villa's performance and the boost in confidence they will have on the back of it will make a huge difference to their hopes. It is factors like that which come into play at this stage of the season and despite suffering such a heavy defeat, I do not see Sunderland suffering any sort of hangover with Di Canio in charge.Submitted on Sun, 04/01/2012 - 6:59pm By Ryan G Greetings IWW members, This is a call for union members to help out an IWW shop in Portland, OR, the Red & Black Cafe. Last evening, someone threw a brick through one of the cafe windows with a hate message attached. Our fellow workers at the cafe, which is collectively owned and operated (and an IWW closed shop) need financial assistance in order to get the window replaced as soon as possible. Please visit the cafe website at http://www.redandblackcafe.com/, where you can make a PayPal donation. Donations by check can be mailed to the cafe at 400 SE 12th Ave., Portland, OR 97214. This union shop, which is a long time gathering point for the IWW in Portland, has been subjected to several acts of vandalism this year from unknown individuals. The cafe is a gathering space for unionists, anti-capitalists, and the radical community at large in the Portland area. We could use your help! In solidarity, Ryan G. Portland IWW / IWW General Executive Board / Red&Black Cafe workerIn a close game, every play was important and every mistake, a killer. This game was no exception. Film review is going to be brutal and no one will be exempt. This game definitely had the look of a team that is still trying to come together. Defense Defense was not good in Week 1, but the offense and the Win helped cover it up. Exposed in Week 2 Falcons gameplan was excellent and had the young Raiders' defenders confused and outflanked often Reminiscent of the same issues that showed up in Pre Season against Green Bay and Tennessee Atlanta stalled drives seemed more like Falcons not executing rather than Raiders making plays. Matt Ryan had only 8 incompletions 26/34, 396 yards, 3 TDs, 1 int, 131.5 rating On the bright side, held Matt Ryan to under 400 yards passing. Julio Jones only targeted 5 times. Caught all 5 for 106 and 1 TD, most against Sean Smith Jones' TD looked like a coverage mixup with Smith and Nelson. Sean Smith 6'3" v Julio Jones 6'3" was a better physical (height) matchup, but Jones (even slowed up with a recovering ankle injury) is still fantastic Target distribution : WR : 19 TE : 13 RB : 12 Coverage busts often and at all levels. Linebackers, Safeties, CBs. Seemed like lots of man-to-man coverage (need A22 to know for sure) Falcons' TE trio of Tamme, Toilolo, Hooper combined for 10 rec, 180 yards, 1 TD Not just on the QB boots or underneath throws. Also on downfield throws on normal dropbacks Falcons' exposed the youth/inexperience/lack of cohesion on the defense by giving confusing reads to the defense. Lots of movement Often had OAK front 7 players moving the wrong way, stepping into poor leverage, or losing assignments Falcons' game plan and execution was excellent : Successfully execute the stretch play and force aggression to playside Then execute designed cutback run on stretch play-look to take advantage of aggression Then execute QB Boot on cutback/stretchplay-look to expose backside LB Took both Khalil and Bruce out of the game by scheme Falcons gameplan stressed the edge man (Mack or Bruce) and attacked him with Tight Ends and QB bootlegs, often leading to wide open plays. Khalil and Bruce each made a handful of plays here and there but were not a major factor This is likely the template that each opponent will use. One one drive in the first half, in the course of 6 plays, Falcons ran the same QB Boot throw to the TE at Khalil Mack every other play. Resulted in 3 completions for 37 yards and a frazzled Khalil Mack. Lots of misdirection, with TE and FBs running opposite ways in the backfield Lots of cutback runs attacking backside DE. Backside DE was often chasing the stretch play and left a huge backside gap Or Backside DE was getting washed hard inside Lots of successful runs at Denico, Stacy, Jihad. Saw Darius Latham get blown off the line by right side of the Falcons line on a couple of plays. 4th quarter, near End of Game, the key 3rd down was a coverage bust (looks like it was DJ Hayden who took the wrong man) 2 big batted passes that were completions, 1 of which was a TD QB Boot and then across-the-field throw. Twice. Once incomplete (bad throw) to a wide open receiver and then a huge completion. Felt like the Defense game-planned for the wrong offense Presumably Kyle Shannahan developed new game plan for the Raiders Defense looked like it was unprepared After Falcons' initial--and then on-going--success on run plays, Raiders' Defense looked like started trying to be too aggressive and after that was left chasing. Sometimes "trying too hard" can make things worse. Seems like players were not playing "Scheme Sound", meaning they were getting out of their assignments At least if the players are where they are supposed to be and doing what they are supposed to be doing, it gives the defense a chance. Hard to assess some aspects when big play is just a result of missed assignment Difficult to make too many adjustments on a newly formed defense (2nd year with several new players) because they have only practiced a few things. Brand new adjustments and keys make young players play even slower as they think more Growing Pains Major takeaway is a "young" defense with young players that is still coming together. Offense Running attack was effective, 25 rushes for 155 yards, 6.2 avg, and 1 TD. Running attack would have been even better if not for some penalties calling them back DeAndre 6 carries for 46 yards, 7.7 avg Latavius made some big plays and ran hard. 8 carries, 57 yards, 7.1 avg. Is this what having Fresh Legs will mean for Lats? Lots of checkdown passes 11 targets to TEs 10 targest to RBs but only 1 to DeAndre Washington and 1 to Jalen Richard The passes seemed mostly to the outside in the flat. Few (none?) into the middle of the field Derek Carr definitely looked downfield for some plays, but couldn't find anything (other than the Crabtree Pass Interference play) Seems like Falcons coverage was sinking on Cooper and Crabtree, forcing underneath throws and then rallying up for the tackles. This reminiscent of Denver's defensive approach A22 study needed, may show the Falcons' using outside bracket coverage. Would think that intermediate middle would be have been a target with Walford, Roberts, and the RBs Carr was rushing often, particularly when throwing short. His timing was off and he was hurrying his throws, often off his back foot or while falling backwards. Not a function of pressure, b
of Sharon Hibiscus syriacus Family: Malvaceae The Rose of Sharon is related to hollyhock, rose mallow and hibiscus. It is mentioned in the Bible ~Song of Songs 2:1~ Rose of Sharon, or ~Mugunghwa~ in Korean, grows throughout the Korean Peninsula and is the national flower of the Republic of Korea. It is the flower of the Korean people. In the late fifth century B.C. the three independent cities of the island of Rhodes, Lindos, Kamiros and Ialysos, united and founded a new capital city, also named Rhodes. The coins of the new capital depicted the island's main deity, the sun god Helios, on the obverse and a rose on the reverse.The coins of Rhodes had an interesting life in the Middle Ages. It was thought that the head of Helios was the head of Christ, that the rose was the rose of Sharon, and that the coins were the thirty pieces of silver paid to Judas. Rue Ruta graveolens L. Family: Rutaceae (citrus family) Common Names: ~Garden Rue~ ~ Herb of Grace~ ~Herb of Repentance~ Native to the Mediterranean region, the plant name can be traced back to Latin ruta and Greek rhyteé, but it is not related to English rue ~remorse~ The Latin species name, which rue shares with several other aromatic plants like celery or dill, means ~strongly smelling~ Latin gravis ~heavy~ and olens ~smell~ Known as Herb of Grace, because its branches were once used by Catholic priests to sprinkle holy water. Rue is mentioned as a culinary herb in the New Testament and was a very common spice in ancient Rome. It is a good drought tolerant plant and has attractive yellow flowers. Rue's fragrance is strong, aromatic and sweet. Rue is the national flower of Lithuania and is known as the Herb of Repentance. It has also been referred to as the plant of patience and endurance as one rue plant could live for hundreds of years. It symbolizes virginity and plays an important role in wedding ceremonies. The bride usually wears a wreath of rue. For centuries, it has been the custom for Lithuanians to carry rue seeds with them when migrating. It was also believed that the leaves could refresh the mouth, cure hysteria, gout, relieve pain and aid with bee stings and spider bites as well as being an aphrodisiac. Although rue, is quite bitter to taste, it has been used in salads. It has also been used as a flavoring in beer, fish sauces and omelets. In Italy it is used for flavouring brandy and liquors. Cabbage and some herbs such as sage and basil do not grow well with rue. Wives tales have been written about how rue planted beside sage can make it positively poisonous. Copyright © Pinkie D'Cruz 1998 Friday, January 16, 1998‘A Game of Thrones’ vs. ‘The Walking Dead’: TV’s Latest One-Two Genre Punch Geek shows have gotten more recognition in recent years than they ever did in the past. Once upon a time the height of genre television was the Star Trek franchise, which, while always intelligent and ambitious, was still shunted by society into that niche of fandom reserved for the obsessive and the dateless. Thankfully, with the success of shows like Lost, Battlestar Galactica, and True Blood (and we’ll just ignore the unjust deaths of shows like Firefly, Dollhouse, and The Sarah Connor Chronicles for the moment), genre television seems to have entered into a new golden age, much like comic book movies did ten years ago. Two of the most recent — and, it could be argued, most anticipated — such shows share a unique mission statement, despite their vastly differing subject matter. Both are adaptations of decidedly adult material, from mediums often given the short shrift in live-action television. Both will attempt to subvert genres that come heavily burdened with the preconceived notions of the common audience. And both feature a surprising pedigree of creators who are dedicated to their success. Those two upcoming shows are AMC’s The Walking Dead and HBO’s A Game Of Thrones. A Game Of Thrones Executive-produced and overseen by the author of the books upon which it is based, and boasting a star-studded cast of genre-favorite actors, HBO’s A Game Of Thrones prepares to step into dangerous new territory for serious, dramatic television: high-budget, epic fantasy. Owing more to shows like HBO’s Rome than to its campy cousins Hercules and Xena, A Game of Thrones weaves a tale of political intrigue, betrayal, and mystery against a backdrop of feuding noble families and warring countries in an imaginary world where seasons last years, and magic is lurking just around the corner. It will seek to satisfy not only the ingrained supplicants of the fantasy genre, but a far more fickle and jaded audience… Everyone Else. Based on the award-winning A Song of Ice and Fire novel series by George R.R. Martin, this heavily anticipated television adaptation has been in the works since HBO first obtained the rights in early 2007. Since then, the development process has been a careful and deliberate one. An award-winning international cast and crew was assembled for the pilot, and upon viewing it, nine more episodes were ordered by HBO. Recently, the first official images from the series, along with a 20-second teaser trailer, were released for public consumption, each of which displays a bleak, unforgiving tone, in keeping with Martin’s novels. All indications are that the show, which debuts in Spring of 2011, could deliver the strong dramatic kick in the ass that televised fantasy has needed and deserved for decades. The Walking Dead On the other side of the spectrum comes a show featuring a cast of almost entirely unknowns, but nurtured, produced, and, at least where the pilot is concerned, directed by one of the most respected and accomplished filmmakers of the past 20 years. Frank Darabont‘s career is littered with successful adaptations (and an apparent love of Stephen King). The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, and The Mist were all heartfelt, character-driven dramas, each critically acclaimed, and the latter, at least, a strong indication of what Darabont could accomplish with The Walking Dead. Robert Kirkman‘s award-winning zombie comic (drawn with horrific flair by Tony Moore and Charlie Adlard) is an apocalyptic tale that places more emphasis on the intrinsic human drama than straight-forward scares. The focus is always the characters and how they go about their lives with the ever-present danger of the undead lurking just beyond the panel. It’s the ongoing story of the human condition — how we survive as a society and as a species in unthinkable circumstances — and it’s about as perfect a marriage of creator and material as could be hoped for. AMC is a network that has blossomed in recent years with a growing catalogue of edgy, high quality drama (Breaking Bad, Mad Men), and it would appear they intend to push the envelope even farther with this series. How? Well… it’s an American TV show about a zombie apocalypse. Decaying human corpses will shamble across prime time television. Add to that the show’s comic book origins, and it will be no surprise if the cynical eyes get rolling and the preconceived notions start flowing. But, under the care of a brilliant filmmaker who understands the material, it’s a fair bet that this newest — and riskiest — addition to AMC’s roster will uphold the standard of quality we’ve come to expect. So there you have it: Geek shows for grown-ups. Will wonders never cease. Whichever floats your boat more in the end, it seems pretty apparent that the golden age of genre television isn’t quite over yet. The only question that remains now is… Which show has you more excited?President Obama appeared set to go after his political opponents on Tuesday during an Easter Prayer Breakfast, but he stopped himself before veering further off script. “On Easter, I do reflect on the fact that, as a Christian, I am supposed to love,” the president said during the breakfast at the White House. “And I have to say that, sometimes when I listen to other less-than-loving expressions by Christians, I get concerned.” ADVERTISEMENT Obama paused, then remarked “that’s a topic for another day,” sparking laughter from the audience gathered in the East Room. “I was about to veer off; I am pulling it back,” the president said, chuckling as he gathered himself. The president then continued with his speech. “Where there is injustice, we defend the oppressed,” he said. “Where there is disagreement, we treat each other with compassion and respect.”What better way to help your child transition from the warm days of summer to the adventures of a new school year than by packing a healthy lunch inspired by the affable Olaf and his pal Sven? Made with a white corn tortilla, this snowman sandwich is garnished with fresh veggies and complemented by pretzel “antlers.” For dessert, there are colorful fruit flowers reminiscent of the blossoms that delight Olaf during his dream of summer. The Disney Check makes it easier for kids and families to identify nutritious choices in stores, online, on-air, at live-event venues, and while on vacation at Walt Disney Parks & Resorts. Foods and recipes that feature the Disney Check meet The Walt Disney Company’s Nutrition Guidelines. Click here for more Disney Check recipes. Frozen Bento Box Prep 20 min Serves 1 Download PDF PinShareEmailTextPrint Ingredients Template Parchment paper Paper scissors 1 (6-inch) white corn tortilla 2 round pastry bag tips (3/4 and 3/8 inch) Kitchen scissors and knife 1 teaspoon low-fat whipped cream cheese Pinch of celery salt 1 medium black olive Toothpick 3 thin 2-inch celery curls 2-inch long tip of a small carrot (cut in half lengthwise to create a flat base) 2 regular-sized pretzels Flower-shaped cookie cutters (1-1 3/4 inches) Small slice of cantaloupe (1/2-inch thick) Small slice of watermelon (1/2-inch thick) Helpful Tip Cutting should be done by an adult. Directions Print out the template, and place the sheet atop a piece of parchment paper cut to the same size. Hold the printout and parchment paper together, and cut out the head and teeth shapes, snipping through both layers of paper at once. Use the parchment paper shapes to cut a sandwich top, a sandwich bottom, and teeth from the corn tortilla. Use the 3/4-inch wide pastry bag tip to cut eyeholes in the sandwich top, referring to the reference lines on the template for placement. Use the tip of a kitchen knife to cut the mouth lines and the line between the teeth. To assemble the sandwich, mix together the cream cheese and celery salt. Then spread the mixture on the sandwich bottom, making it a little thicker where the eyes will go, and reserving a tiny bit for attaching the facial features. Gently press the sandwich top in place. To complete the eyes, first slice the olive in half from top to bottom, and then use the 3/8-inch wide pastry bag tip to cut two “pupils” from one half. Position the pupils in the eye openings and gently press them down with the tip of a toothpick so the bottoms will stick to the cream cheese filling. Slice thin “eyebrow” strips from the remaining olive half and use a bit of cream cheese (applied with the toothpick) to stick them in place above the eyes. Next, tuck the top edge of the tortilla teeth under the upper lip so that the teeth rest on the lower lip. Use the toothpick to spread a little bit of cream cheese on the teeth if you like. For Olaf’s “hair,” tuck the bottoms of the celery curls between the sandwich layers at the top of Olaf’s head. For the nose, cut the carrot tip in half lengthwise to create a flat base. Then use more cream cheese to stick one of the halves in place atop the sandwich. To complement the sandwich, break the pretzels in half to loosely resemble Sven’s antlers. Finally, use the cookie cutters to cut several flower shapes from the melon slices. Cut out the centers with the 3/8-inch pastry bag tip, and fill them with contrasting melon circles cut out with the 3/4-inch pastry bag tip. (Note: making the circles slightly larger than the holes ensures that they will fit snuggly enough to stay in place.) Posted 3 years Ago Posted 3 years AgoWe’ve got a bunch of new mocks after last night’s first round of the 2017 NFL Draft. This one’s going to have a lot of momentum building once things get going. The hometown storyline is obviously going to tug. Productive rusher off the edge with a plus motor. I talked about the edge need in Matt Millers’ final 7-round mock yesterday. If we’re just going off of the roster and the need outlay, it’s in play. Jones tore his Achilles at UW’s pro day back in March. His recovery timetable has been reported as 4-6 months which would put him in line to play this year, though without the benefit of training camp or the preseason. Given the injury occurred after the combine, there is a question as to how his medical will check out. If it’s clean, his skill set is better than the 69th overall pick. If the medical pushes him down, like Alabama’s Reuben Foster falling to the San Francisco 49ers at #31, this will be considered by many a “steal” based on the quality of his game. Jared Goff needs weapons and Jones will be a go-to-guy. He was incredibly productive in college—he’s the FBS all time leader in receptions—and impressed scouts at every stop of the draft process. There’s a clear Jones/Smith-Schuster divide cleaving the pick right now. Will be interesting to see how people pick sides. #69.) Utah S Marcus Williams This was a position of need, even before T.J. McDonald signed a free agent deal with Miami. Everything’s a position of roster need save for QB and RB on the outlook. Williams would be a fine third rounder to hand off to Defensive Coordinator Wade Phillips. In Wade Phillips' 3-4 scheme, the Rams will be searching for an explosive edge rusher -- like Bowser. The list of options on the edge is longer than the wide receivers. If this is where the Rams are headed, the decision will be much tougher. What are you thinking? Worried that none of the mocks have the Rams nabbing Western Kentucky Hilltoppers OL Forrest Lamp? Settled on a WR? Comfortable with a pass rusher?Last year, Budweiser brought us hard-charging Clydesdales. The year before that, a cuddly puppy. But, with its 2017 Super Bowl ad, the brewery has plunged itself into the incendiary debate over immigration in America. In a minute-long commercial slated to air this Sunday during the fifty-first NFL championship, Budweiser tells the story of its co-founder, Adolphus Busch, who immigrated from Germany to the United States in 1857. Busch braves a perilous voyage and xenophobic abuse, driven to persevere by an ambition to make beer. Read more: It’s the Brady Bowl, until proven otherwise: Arthur “When nothing stops your dream,” reads the tagline. Article Continued Below “While it is set in the 1800s, it’s a story we believe will resonate with today’s entrepreneurial generation — those who continue to strive for their dreams,” said Budweiser vice-president Ricardo Marques in a press release. The ad, posted online Tuesday, has already gained attention for making a statement on immigration, just days after U.S. President Donald Trump enacted a temporary ban on immigrants from seven majority-Muslim countries. “It doesn’t matter how you look at it, there is a political tonality to this, because of the (current) environment,” said Alan Middleton, a marketing professor at York University’s Schulich School of Business. “This ad would have been made and shot back in the fall (but) Trump was pounding the campaign trail with, ‘I’m going to build walls and I’m going to keep Muslims out,’ so it was certainly in the air.” It’s a marked change from Budweiser’s past Super Bowl ads, which typically feature the company’s trademark team of draft horses and, in 2014 and 2015, tugged at viewers’ heartstrings with the addition of a Labrador retriever puppy. Screen images from Budweiser's 2017 Super Bowl ad, telling the immigrant story of one of its founders. ( Youtube/ Budweiser ) Screen images from Budweiser's 2017 Super Bowl ad, telling the immigrant story of one of its founders. ( Youtube/ Budweiser ) This is not, however, the first time Budweiser parent company Anheuser-Busch has commented, in some way, on U.S. politics. In 2016, the brewery temporarily changed the name of Budweiser to “America” in the run-up to the U.S. election. Article Continued Below The move was part of an Anheuser-Busch campaign titled, “America is in Your Hands,” which, according to a company statement, “reminds people from sea to shining sea to embrace the optimism upon which the country was first built.” It takes a “degree of courage” to air the immigration ad during the Super Bowl, but there’s little risk of Budweiser alienating its customer base, Middleton said. Despite the stereotype that Super Bowl audiences are blue collar Trump supporters, the game is viewed by a staggering number of Americans from many demographics. In 2016, the Super Bowl was watched in 54.3 million American homes, according to Nielsen. That’s over 70 per cent of all U.S. households watching television that evening. “And a lot of people will say, even with the immigrant story, ‘It’s those respectable Germans, not those Muslims.’” Shyon Baumann, a University of Toronto sociology professor, says the Budweiser ad, by portraying a European immigrant, can appeal to both sides of the immigration debate. “I would not argue that this ad positions the company as particularly progressive or taking a strong stand,” said Baumann, whose areas of expertise include media and marketing. “Instead, the ad is innocuous and self-serving, even though it might at first seem like it is making a provocative comment.” While the ad makes a statement about the potential of hardworking immigrants, it also tells a very specific type of immigrant story, about a white European, Baumann said. “In the current debates, historical European immigration is positioned as being part of what traditionally made America great,” said Baumann. “All of the controversy in the current debate relates to... non-European, non-white sources.” North of the border, Air Canada has produced an ad featuring Syrian refugees. Released Monday, the documentary-style video follows a real family of refugees flying from Quebec to British Columbia to reconnect with relatives. The video culminates in a teary-eyed reunion at the Victoria, B.C., airport. Like the Budweiser ad, it touches on current events, but the Air Canada video stands to be less controversial, says David Soberman, a marketing professor at U of T’s Rotman School of Management. “Obviously there’s a percentage of people in Canada who think (refugees) shouldn’t be welcomed, but the vast majority of people in Canada voted for the Conservatives, Liberals and NDP, and they all had a policy, to varying degrees of letting in Syrian refugees,” he said. The video is also an example of Air Canada hitching itself to the Canadian national identity, Soberman added. “It basically allows you to say something about yourself through the links your company has to the country,” he said. “Clearly one of the things that is distinguishing Canada from the U.S. is this welcoming of refugees.” Read more about:The boyfriend of a 36-year-old woman gunned down on the doorstep of her neighbour’s east Hamilton home has been arrested in what police are calling a “domestic-related homicide.” Natasha Thompson, a mother of two daughters 16 and 11, was pronounced dead en route to hospital Monday night after being shot multiple times at a Lang Street CityHousing Hamilton townhouse complex around 5:15 p.m., said Homicide Unit Det. Sgt. Peter Thom. Police allege Mark Joseph Champagne, 41, initially ran from the scene of the shooting, crossing through backyards, but later turned himself in to Toronto Police Service’s 41 Division without incident around 4:30 a.m. Tuesday. ( Facebook ) Police allege Mark Joseph Champagne, 41, initially ran from the scene, crossing through backyards, but later turned himself in to Toronto Police Service’s 41 Division without incident around 4:30 a.m. Tuesday. Read more: Neighbours describe hearing brazen shooting that left one woman dead in Hamilton The pair was heard arguing inside their townhouse unit 15 before the shooting. It’s alleged that argument spilled outside and Thompson was shot on a neighbouring doorstep at unit 17. Article Continued Below “The argument started in their own residence, she left and the argument continued outside,” Thom said. Police believe a handgun was used, but no weapon has been recovered. Thompson’s 16-year-old daughter was inside the home and heard the argument and gunshots, but did not witness the murder, Thom said. Her 11-year-old daughter was not home at the time. Both girls are with family, he added. Champagne is “known to police” but not for domestic violence against Thompson, Thom said. A flood of condolence messages have been posted on social media, where many remembered Thompson as a loving person and dedicated mother to two daughters. Thompson’s former partner and the father to her younger daughters was Phonesay (Pun) Chanthachack who was fatally shot by Hamilton police in 2012. She was outspoken in her call for answers in his death, repeatedly speaking with the Spectator about her loss and how she believed police failed her family. Article Continued Below Detectives believe Thompson and Champagne had been in a relationship since April and were living together. Police were executing search warrants at both Lang Street townhouse units Monday, with the possibility of expanding to a ground search for the murder weapon. It’s alleged Champagne fled westbound on Lang Street, then north on Reid Avenue North. He cut across Lewis Street, before last been spotted near the Ukrainian Catholic church on Melvin Avenue. Anyone with information or who may have security footage in the area are asked to contact police. Champagne was described by police as a 41-year-old man, who is not white, about 200 pounds, six-foot, with black hair that is shorter on the side and longer on the top. He often wears removable gold grills in his front teeth. After turning himself into Toronto police, Hamilton police transported him back to central station in Hamilton, where he was interviewed, before being transferred to court to be formally charged. He was expected to briefly appear in court Tuesday. Anyone with information is asked to contact Homicide Unit Det. Ross Johnson at 905-546-3827. To provide information anonymously call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.The twists and turns in the Silk Road case aren’t slowing down as Ross Ulbricht’s sentencing approaches. According to a letter filed Friday, the government claims that six people allegedly died of overdosing on drugs bought on the Silk Road. Two of their parents will be speaking at Ulbricht’s sentencing, which is currently scheduled for May 15, 2015. Because of this, Ulbricht’s defense is asking for his sentencing to be postponed for at least one month. In a letter on Friday, Joshua Dratel requested an adjournment of the sentencing, which is currently less than three weeks away. By Dratel’s logic, it shouldn't matter to the prosecution, since Ulbricht is in jail already awaiting sentencing, but it would give the defense time to prepare. The defense wants preparation time to respond to the government’s revelation on April 16 that there were “six alleged overdose deaths supposedly attributable to drugs purchased from vendors on the Silk Roads.” The parents of two of the alleged overdose victims will be speaking from 10-15 minutes each at the sentencing, according to a document filed by the prosecution on April 17. The government intends to use these deaths as part of the context for the sentencing and the victim impact assessment. Dratel says the information the defense has received about the six deaths is “woefully incomplete.” According to the letter, the defense hasn’t seen evidence that the drugs were purchased on the Silk Road or certain autopsy, toxicology, and psychiatric information for the six individuals. Additionally, Dratel asked for the identities and statements of the two parents who will be speaking at the sentencing in order to avoid being “blindsided.” While the government seems to planning to hammer home its argument that the Silk Road was a dangerous and illegal operation with Ulbricht at the helm with these parents’ testimonies, the defense plans to argue the opposite--that the Silk Road actually made drug use safer. In the letter, Dratel states that the Silk Road “reduced the dangers of substance abuse, and consciously and deliberately incorporated ‘harm reduction’ strategies.” The defense has been working with experts, according to the letter, and needs more time to bring those witnesses to testify in person in response to the government. Like in previous appeals for delays in the trial process, Dratel also highlights his busy schedule in the letter, including five sentencings in the month before Ulbricht appears back in court. Also, he says investigating the charges against two former federal agents charged with corruption in the Silk Road investigation took up much of his time. The evidence from these agents never surfaced during Ulbricht's trial in January because the investigation was ongoing. On March 30, two former members of the Baltimore Silk Road Task Force were charged with alleged money laundering and wire fraud for their actions during the Silk Road investigation. The alleged offenses included creating fake personas online, extorting Bitcoin from Ulbricht, and forging a subpoena for Venmo. The charges came three weeks after the defense had already filed a motion for a new trial, claiming that the government did not meet their requirement for timely disclosure. After being arrested in a San Francisco library in October 2013 for allegedly running the Silk Road, Ulbricht faced trial in January 2015. After three weeks of trial and 3.5 hours of jury deliberation, he was found guilty of seven charges connected to his role as the Dread Pirate Roberts. Since then, he's been in jail awaiting sentencing while his lawyers fought first for re-trial and now for delayed sentencing.North Korea has announced it will hold a conference of its ruling Workers' Party next week, for the first time since 1966, to elect its "supreme leadership body". The country has announced a "great revolutionary surge" as it prepares for a regime change which could see Mr Kim's son, Kim Jong-un, appointed as his successor. Ostensibly the conference will appoint new blood into the North Korean bureaucracy, but the rarity of the event has convinced experts that Mr Kim, 68, could use the event to unveil his third son as his successor. The elder Mr Kim travelled to China last month and may have sought China's rubber-stamp over the transfer of power. China remains North Korea's most important trading power and political ally. If Mr Kim does hand over power, North Korea will continue to enjoy the apparent contradiction of being a centrally-planned Communist state with a hereditary dynasty in charge. An announcement yesterday (tues) from the Korean Central News Agency, the mouthpiece of the government, said there would be a "new great revolutionary surge" and that all cadres in the country were "single-mindedly united" behind Kim Jong-il, whatever his decision may be. The regime is "now ready to go ahead with its move to designate Kim Jong-Un as successor", said Yang Moo-Jin of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul. "The son is expected to take a key party post but that will not be made public for a while," he added. The meeting had been delayed since the beginning of September, causing many observers to wonder whether the elder Kim was facing an internal challenge to his choice of successor. "It is possible that the North Korean elite is far less united than usually assumed, so some factions are seriously unhappy about the likely choice of successor or the expected composition of the new leadership," said Andrei Lankov, a professor at Seoul's Kookmin University. Other analysts noted that the delay could have been triggered by the need to plan and stage-manage the succession and instruct cadres, who have been stationed in Pyongyang for two weeks in expectation of the meeting, about their roles in the event. However, some observers note that the younger Kim, at 28, may not be ready to assume full control over North Korea and has not been groomed in the same way as his father. The younger Kim has instead been fast-tracked to leadership ever since his father suffered a stroke in 2008, leaving a question mark over his continuing rule. Another possible option would be for Kim Jong-il to pass power to his brother-in-law, Chang Song-taek, as a regent while his son built his own power base. A bureaucratic reshuffling in 2009 helped to promote Chang, and the forthcoming conference could see him given further roles. He is currently vice chairman of the National Defence Commission, a position considered second only to Kim Jong-il.Threatening to trigger a new—and possibly more devastating—nuclear disaster than the original or ongoing one at the Fukishima plant in Japan, a risky plan to remove fuel rods from a damaged reactor building could unleash an "unprecedented" level of radiation, according to experts, if things go wrong. According to reporting by Reuters, the radioactive material within the fuel rods slated for removal are equivalent to 14,000 times the amount released in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and the plan to move them "has never been attempted before on this scale." The 400 tons of highly irradiated spent fuel and other nuclear materials will be taken from the crippled building and moved to a safer location, but the manner of the operation should be put in serious doubt, say the experts. "They are going to have difficulty in removing a significant number of the rods," said Arnie Gundersen, a veteran U.S. nuclear engineer and director of Fairewinds Energy Education. The fuel rods are being stored in a cooling pool, but if a reaction begins, Gundersen expressed serious concern to Reuters about the company's ability to respond. "To jump to the conclusion that it is going to work just fine," said Gundersen, "is quite a leap of logic." SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT Help Keep Common Dreams Alive Our progressive news model only survives if those informed and inspired by this work support our efforts "There is a risk of an inadvertent criticality if the bundles are distorted and get too close to each other," Gundersen continued. "The problem with a fuel pool criticality is that you can't stop it. There are no control rods to control it," he said. "The spent fuel pool cooling system is designed only to remove decay heat, not heat from an ongoing nuclear reaction." Reuters also quoted from a recent independent report which stated, a "full release from the Unit-4 spent fuel pool, without any containment or control, could cause by far the most serious radiological disaster to date." The site's operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) has been mired in crisis ever since an earthquake and tsunami severely damaged the plant 2011. Most recently it was discovered that as much as 300 tons of "highly radioactive water" has been pouring into the Pacific Ocean on a daily basis from the plant, with no promising remedy offered by either the plant's owner TEPCO or the Japanese government. _______________________On a day in which the Thunder were without its top prospects, the team lost its first game of the Orlando Pro Summer League, falling to the Charlotte Hornets by a score of 95-81. Josh Huestis, Dakari Johnson, and Semaj Christon, who combined for 53 points in Monday’s win over New York, all sat out Tuesday for rest. Markel Brown, who had a breakout 20-point performance a day ago, left the team to join the Portland Trailblazers team at the Las Vegas Summer League. Neither team had its first round draft pick, as Terrance Ferguson remains unsigned for the Thunder and Malik Monk continues to be sidelined with an ankle injury for Charlotte. Of the players remaining, the two with the most realistic shot at a roster spot in the NBA are Daniel Hamilton and Vince Hunter. They carried the load with 15 and 16 points respectively, but in terms of translatable skills, neither blew away the Orlando evaluators. For Hamilton, the same refrain held true. Overdribbling on his way to the basket has lead to turnovers all week, and a reliance on the right hand to finish has caused difficult shots around the rim that have mostly missed, though in fairness you can’t discount how many hustle plays he’s made. One interesting development is how frequently he’s being used as a point guard, often even with other guards on the floor. He’s done so without turning the ball over, which is good, but he hasn’t exactly set the world on fire with his production in that role. He’s been more effective creating for others than for himself, so he may prefer to be evaluated as a point guard instead of a wing. With Hunter, he’s been everywhere on the court this week as the proverbial trash man. But creating his own opportunities isn’t his game, so his role will always be limited by opportunity. The real dilemma is whether an undersized forward with no outside shot has a place in today’s NBA. In the search for a backup point guard this week, today allowed more opportunity to see Dylan Ennis, Marcus Thornton, and Marcus Paige. Unfortunately, they all have their flaws. Thornton can’t take care of the ball, Paige is a defensive negative and a rebounding zero, and Ennis lacks the quickness to beat his man and get into the lane. Of the three, Ennis has looked the best, because of how hard he plays and his length on defense. He pitched in 13 points and hit four threes today, while Paige had 12 with a pair of threes. But sadly for Thunder fans, none have emerged as better options than Christon. The good news for the summer league team is that Huestis, Johnson, and Christon are expected to return to action when the Thunder take on the Mavericks tomorrow at Noon C.T.The fun (or agony, if you live in greater New York, Wisconsin, Oakland, or the Pacific Northwest) started after the late-window games kicked off on Sunday afternoon. In brief chronological order: 1. The Lions’ Calvin Johnson missed a vital onside kick that was right in his hands at Lambeau Field, putting Detroit’s first win in Wisconsin in a quarter-century in jeopardy. 2. Green Bay kicker Mason Crosby went shankapotamus on the field goal that would have prevented Detroit’s first win in Wisconsin in a quarter-century. Knuckleballed kick ended a six-hour fourth quarter. Final: Lions 18, Packers 16. 3. Peyton Manning passed Brett Favre for most career passing yards on a nondescript four-yard out route to Ronnie Hillman. The game was stopped. Manning gave the most uncomfortable waves to the crowd in NFL history. He knew what was coming, and it wasn’t good. 4. Eli Manning to Odell Beckham Jr. against the Patriots at MetLife Stadium, up the right seam for 87 yards. Touchdown. Longest touchdown pass against a Belichick-coached defense ever. 5. Peyton Manning’s nine drives on the worst day of his NFL career: Interception, three-and-out, three-and-out, interception, three-and-out, interception, three-and-out, three-and-out, interception. Yanked. Yes, Peyton Manning removed from a game; coach’s decision. Final: Chiefs 29, Broncos 13. 6. Adrian Peterson capped a 203-yard rushing day with an 80-yard gallop in Oakland. Final: Vikings 30, Raiders 14. • THE VIKINGS AGE IS UPON US: Andy Benoit breaks down just how the Vikings have taken over the NFC North 7. Fifth lead change of the day in New Jersey (because the Giants and Patriots have to play bizarro-world finishes worthy of Grisham climaxes: With a second to play, Stephen Gostkowski kicked a 54-yard field goal three inches inside the left upright. Final: Patriots 27, Giants 26. • THE DAY THE GIANTS PLAYED TO WIN: A brief oral history of classic 2007 Giants-Pats battle 8. In two fourth-quarter minutes, Seattle went from down eight to up four, thanks to two strip-sacks of Carson Palmer that turned into touchdowns. When Arizona got the ball back, it was so loud in CenturyLink Field that Palmer had to press his hands tightly over his ear holes so he might be able to hear coach Bruce Arians’ play calls. 9. Arizona did what great teams do. Palmer drove the Cards 83 and 80 yards for touchdowns that finished this one off. Final: Cardinals 39, Seahawks 32. 10. Bruce Arians, from the Cards’ team bus, about 1:15 a.m. on the East Coast: “To come up here to a place like this, and to play as well as we did early, to go up 19-0, and then to see it go down the sh----- so fast … I’ve never been so proud of a group of guys, to weather the kind of storm they weathered.” That was seven compelling hours of football right there. What does it mean? For one thing, the drama is dead in five of eight divisions. Five teams have a division lead of three games or more with seven weeks left. The Vikes (7-2) have passed the somnambulant Packers (6-3) atop the NFC North, while two divisions... well, someone’s got to win ’em. The NFC East is a combined 15-22, the AFC South a combined 12-23. All the flags bust up the flow of games, and the what-is-a-catch debate continues to vex every professional official and the amateur ones too (you, that is). But this morning, there are other things to worry about, and to celebrate. * * * Stephen Gostkowski's 54-yard game-winner extended his field-goal streak to 30. Al Bello/Getty Images Finally, the Patriots had time enough The last three times the Giants and Patriots met, New York took the lead with 35, 57 and 19 seconds left, and New England didn’t have time to come back. On Sunday, the Giants took
Vol 2 Nova Vol 1 and 2 Omega The Unknown Classic Penance: Relentless Punisher Presents: Barracuda MAX Punisher War Journal Vol 3 Spider-Man And Fantastic Four: Silver Rage Peter Parker, Spider-Man: Back In Black Spiderman: Saga Of The Sandman Squadron Supreme: Death Of A Universe Star Brand Classic Vol 1 Sub Mariner: Revolution Thunderbolts Vol 2 Wolverine Classic Vol 2 Wolverine First Class: The Rookie X-Factor Visionaries: Peter David Vol 1,2 and 3 X-Men First Class: Band Of Brothers, Mutant Mayhem and Tomorrow’s Brightest. About Rich Johnston Chief writer and founder of Bleeding Cool. Father of two. Comic book clairvoyant. Political cartoonist. (Last Updated ) Related Posts None foundThis 1970 Mercedes Benz 300SEL is a very faithful tribute to the AMG car that campaigned the 24 Hours of Spa in 1970. We have seen a couple of weak tributes over the years, but this one is much more impressive, with an engine capable of 500 horsepower that the seller claims cost 80,000 Euros to build. Flares and stance look right and the interior is nicely appointed. Find it here on Mobile.de in Rottenburg, Germany for 280,000 Euros. Special thanks to BaT reader Pat P. for this submission! Beyond the mechanicals, the wheels and flares are the most difficult to get right on these tributes. This one has all work done in metal according to the listing, and the shape of the arches and blend into the rear door looks right. The wheels look like multi-piece units and might vay slightly from those raced on in 1970, but the proportions look very good. Details like the recessed fuel filler and massive rear tires are what make this car stand apart. This one is said to be based on a genuine 6.3 car, and it is interesting to note that back in the day they decided that the LWB SEL platform was the best to race. We would have guessed they might have swapped the drivetrain into a lighter and shorter SE model. The interior is all new and looks terrific, which clean dash modifications, a small sport wheel, and Recaro buckets. The cage looks great as well, and the auto shifter is just like the one that was in the real AMG car. The engine features plenty of tricks thanks to a Bosch Motorsport management system. This car is totally absurd, but that is mostly the point. It would make an interesting vintage racer given that you would never find another on track. We’ve never heard conclusively what happented to the one genuine car that all these others imitate, but suspect it was lost or parted. This one makes a worthy replacement.by George Clifford At the end of the Reagan era, I found liberation theology attractive for four reasons: The then prevalent emphasis on self (remember the “me” generation) was increasingly disturbing and repugnant because it is the antithesis to Jesus’ teachings. My doctoral research on religious pluralism raised difficult, perhaps unanswerable, questions about the exclusive trustworthiness of any one religion’s scriptures. For example, given both a lack of scientific evidence and conflicting scriptural accounts about what happens at death (e.g., the faithful enter new and everlasting life, death is the end, life follows death which follows life in an endless cycle), one’s cultural heritage and personal biases arguably determine which, if any, scripture most persons accept as authoritative. Marx’s critique of religion as the opiate of the masses poignantly questions individual and institutional motives for claiming that religion benefits its adherents primarily after death. I learned that the world’s major religions speak with one voice regarding a key element of their basic aim of salvation, transformation, or liberation. However else a religion may unpack the term that describes its aim, at a minimum its aim includes improving the quality of life in the present. For Christians, paradigmatic examples of this motif are the exodus narrative’s theme of liberation and Jesus’ teachings and interactions with people that emphasized God’s acceptance of all (e.g., his interactions with women and sinners), God’s command to love everyone without exception, and Jesus’ healing of the sick and demon possessed. Concurrently, social changes during the last half century have subtly pushed Christianity to emphasize defining salvation in terms of ethics. With globalization came a growing awareness of the universality of the core ethical teachings of the world’s major religions, in contrast to their mutually exclusive theological or spiritual precepts. This commonality provides fertile soil for many varieties of liberation theology. Additionally, the apparent incompatibility of science and religion has led many people to abandon religious belief in favor of atheism, agnosticism, or being spiritual with no religious preference. Not only has this trend caused worship attendance to decrease, it has also eroded the certainty of religious belief among some of those who remain involved in a faith community. This latter group finds supporting programs that promote a more ethical and just world less theologically troubling than they do supporting programs that have a narrower theological or spiritual focus. Hence, Episcopal congregations and dioceses, as well as the national Church, invest more energy and resources in the Standing Rock protest, the Black Lives Matter movement, and other ethical causes than in evangelism. Even the Presiding Bishop’s appointment of a canon for evangelism and his plan to conduct a dozen revivals in 2017 reflect this shift. Both moves emphasize Jesus and his teachings as the reason for engaging in ethical action, largely ignoring the promises of eternal life central to prior generations’ evangelism efforts. Almost three decades later, I realize that the factors that drew me to liberation theology have had opposite effects on many of those who identify as evangelical Christians: Some self-identified evangelical Christians, instead of being repelled by an emphasis on self, have responded by adopting the “prosperity gospel,” i.e., obey God’s teachings and you will prosper materially. Unsurprisingly, Donald Trump seems to find the prosperity gospel attractive. For example, he invited one of its leading exponents, Paul White, to offer the invocation at his inauguration. Some self-identified evangelicals (and conservative Roman Catholics who generally prefer Popes John Paul II and Benedict to Pope Francis), like some adherents of all major religions, choose to live in a closed world that excludes disagreement and dissent. These individuals and their churches regard the Bible as the ultimate source of truth, the yardstick by which to judge the truth claims of everything else – science, history, other religions, etc. The slow decline in Southern Baptist numbers (as well as the decline in attendance at mass of non-immigrant US Roman Catholics) reflects this approach’s diminishing popularity. Yet other self-identified evangelicals (e.g., Joel Osteen) appear to have taken Marx’s critique of religion seriously, substituting self-help advice clothed in Christian language and stories for substantive teaching about orthodox Christian theological. Illustratively, Osteen oversaw his congregation’s use of media before becoming its pastor; he does not have a degree in theology, the Bible, or religion. Finally, and probably in spite of evangelical leaders’ best efforts, social trends are eroding the certainty with which evangelicals of all three types outlined above subscribe to their church’s belief system. One response has been defensive, denouncing opponents for purportedly attempting to marginalize or deny Christianity’s teachings if not its right to a voice in the public square. White supremacists, including those who see Trump as an ally, sometimes deploy this type of rhetoric, trying to bolster the appeal of their message. Another response has dynamics similar to those that draw people toward liberation theology. However, this time the dynamics result in campaigns that support the status quo. These campaigns directly or indirectly advocate oppressing or exploiting women, LGBQT persons, the poor, and other vulnerable individuals. North Carolina’s law requiring persons to use the public restroom provided for persons of the gender on their birth certificate, and proposed similar legislation in several other states exemplifies such campaigns, as do laws restricting access to birth control and abortion. This type of response diametrically conflicts with the message of liberation and love that constitute the common core of ethical teachings of the world’s major religions. Reflecting on the above typology, I acknowledge that I have written in terms of broad generalities and blithely ignore exceptions. Nevertheless, I am unable to discover much common ground between Christians drawn implicitly or explicitly to a type of liberation theology and Christians who self-identify as evangelical. This divide mirrors the increasing polarization that I observe and experience within the Christian tradition. The divide also mirrors the political and cultural polarities so apparent in last autumn’s presidential campaign. Sadly, what I do not see is how to bridge the divide, to reconcile the polarities. Perhaps our best option is to practice openness, non-judgmentally welcoming everyone, by living a faith that invites all to journey with the God who liberates, loves, and transforms death into life. George Clifford, a priest in the Diocese of Hawai’i, served as a Navy chaplain twenty-four years, has taught ethics and the philosophy of religion, and now blogs at Ethical Musings. Like ( 0 ) Dislike ( 1 )Republican Bruce Rauner spent a record $65.3 million — or nearly $36 a vote — to become Illinois' new governor, newly filed state records showed Thursday. In the last three months of 2014 alone, Rauner spent nearly $24 million, including nearly $22.8 million from Oct. 1 to Election Day on Nov. 4, according to the State Board of Elections filing. Rauner, who was inaugurated Monday as Illinois' 42nd governor, is a private equity investor who is perhaps the wealthiest person to run for the state's top job. He has estimated his wealth at more than $500 million. In making his first bid for public office, Rauner spent expansively on television ads, first to win the March 2014 GOP primary election and then during the general election against Democratic incumbent Pat Quinn. Rauner's advertising initially was aimed at burnishing a frugal image despite his financial success but turned sharply negative against Quinn throughout the fall campaign. In addition to TV ads, Rauner gave $4.4 million to the Illinois Republican Party during the closing weeks of the campaign, attempting to resuscitate a moribund political organization and create a get-out-the-vote operation. Overall, Rauner's campaign spent $65.3 million since it began in March 2013, and the Republican received more than 1.8 million votes in his general election victory compared with nearly 1.7 million votes for Quinn, who was seeking a second elected term. That translates to $35.83 per vote for Rauner. Quinn's paperwork had not been filed late Thursday, the deadline for candidates to file their latest campaign finance disclosure reports. The documents also showed Rauner raising more than $40 million the last three months of 2014, including $22 million from Oct. 1 to Election Day. Of that $22 million raised, Rauner accounted for nearly $13.5 million out of his own pocket. That amounted to nearly half the $27.6 million in personal funds Rauner contributed. Since winning election, Rauner has given his campaign fund an additional $10 million in personal funds and two wealthy allies, hedge fund CEO Ken Griffin and businessman Richard Uihlein, combined for another $10 million. The $20 million is aimed at helping promote Rauner's still-unstated agenda as governor and helping buttress Republican state lawmakers to support it. Rauner's campaign filed its paperwork hours after the new governor signed his third executive order since taking office, this time taking aim at workers who end up on the state payroll for political reasons. The state will publish a list of all such hires, including a worker's name, what agency they're employed by and their title. The list of political employees eventually will be posted at accountability.illinois.gov, with Rauner aides saying the administration will work to make the data available "in a timely fashion." The road to the inauguration of Bruce Rauner as Illinois' 42nd governor began Jan. 9, 2015, with visits to cities around the state. On Sunday, the Rauners visited the Lincoln Presidential Museum and attended a veterans job fair. Monday's inauguration day was full of pomp and circumstance. The move follows a Democratic patronage hiring scandal at the Illinois Department of Transportation in which the state's top ethics investigator found hundreds of people were hired into positions without having to go through strict personnel procedures. Many had ties to political power brokers. The problems started under now-imprisoned Democratic former Gov. Rod Blagojevich but accelerated under Gov. Pat Quinn, according to the state watchdog. The findings provided plenty of political cannon fire on the campaign trail for Rauner, who labeled Quinn a "phony reformer." A federal judge has since put a monitor in place to examine hiring at the agency. However, the additional disclosure requirements put in place by Rauner wouldn't address a key problem at the center of the hiring problems at IDOT: the improper classification of jobs. Under state rules, officials are allowed to consider political allegiance when hiring for higher-level policymaking positions. But at the transportation agency, many of the workers were wrongly labeled as holding policymaking positions even though most held lower-level jobs such as mowing grass, answering phones and planting trees. Rauner acknowledged that situation could go unaddressed under his latest order but said further changes could come. Also Thursday, Rauner's camp said the budget office will work with agency officials to create financial reserves during the last six months of the budget year that ends July 1. The budget Rauner inherited is expected to be hundreds of millions of dollars short. Tribune reporter Ray Long contributed. [email protected] [email protected] Northern Irish woman who bought pills over the internet to induce an abortion has been given a suspended prison sentence. The 21-year-old pleaded guilty to procuring her own abortion by using a poison, and of supplying a poison with intent to procure a miscarriage, and was given a three-month sentence suspended for one year. Her barrister told Belfast crown court on Monday that if his client had lived anywhere else in the UK, she would “not have found herself before the courts”. Northern Ireland is the only region of the UK where abortion is still illegal. Crown prosecutor Kate McKay said that on 20 July 2014 the Police Service of Northern Ireland were contacted by the woman’s housemates. The police were told that she had bought drugs online that had induced a miscarriage eight days earlier. PSNI officers sent to the rented accommodation in south Belfast found a male foetus inside a black bag in a household bin, the court was told. The court heard that the woman had told her housemates that she tried to travel to England for a termination but could not cover her costs. She had then been told by a clinic about mifepristone and misoprostol, two drugs available on the internet that would induce a miscarriage. The housemates were “taken back by the seemingly blase attitude” adopted by the woman, a crown lawyer told the court. The defence barrister said that at the time the woman was 19 and living with people she barely knew. His client felt “isolated and trapped … with no one to turn to” and resorted to “desperate measures”. The barrister said the woman had since had a baby with her partner and “was trying to put her life back together again”. The judge Mr Justice McFarland said the advice given to the woman about the pills had been delivered “without knowledge of her background, and details were perhaps inappropriate”. The British Pregnancy Advisory Service said the woman “is a victim of Northern Ireland’s draconian abortion laws and the refusal of politicians to act to protect the health of their constituents. A BPAS spokesperson added: “We call on all politicians to repeal these antiquated, Victorian laws and create an abortion framework fit for women in 2016. We deserve nothing less.” Under the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, anyone carrying out an abortion in Northern Ireland, except under some extremely limited circumstances, can be jailed for life. A number of other women in the region face prosecution for procuring pills from pro-choice organisations such as The Women on the Web or Womenhelp.org. • This article was amended on 6 April 2016. An earlier version said the jail sentence had been suspended for two years; that has been corrected to one year.There are estimates that over 360,000 people around Baltimore are food insecure, meaning they don’t know where their next meal is coming from. As Mike Schuh reports, a church picked up on an idea by the governor to help alleviate the problem. This year’s “Day To Serve” was on October 10th. Much of the 5 million pounds of food coming into the Maryland Food Bank arrives in large semis, so it’s not unusual to see one at the loading dock. But a semi that just arrived from Utah? That is a little more rare. But it came from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and was paid for by local church members. “So this is 40,000 pounds of food, it comes from donations from our members of our church and it’s packaged in Salt Lake, there’s a distribution center there, and the truck was loaded and packed up and driven out here to provide this donation,” says Elder Kevin Calderwood. In all, between the food and the shipping costs, $50,000 was donated. And while random things that come in from food drives and collections is always welcome, pallets and pallets of the same product — like peaches or pasta — help in a different way. “Well, we don’t have to sort it,” says Nancy Smith, of the Maryland Food Bank. “We know what we’re getting. This is… highly sought after food. Forty thousand pounds in one that is shrink wrapped of highly sought after food is like gold to us.” Church members collected the money as part of Governor Hogan’s Day of Service Initiative. His wife was at the food bank to say thanks. As the youngest of eight children, she remembers when food was scarce in her childhood. “In countryside, poor, and after Korean War, I know how much food is important for people,” says Yumi Hogan. “So this is a tremendous donation.” As large as the donation is, they say it will have all been distributed within a week. Follow @CBSBaltimore on Twitter and like WJZ-TV \| CBS Baltimore on FacebookImage copyright PA A new tax is needed to ensure the UK has a properly funded health and social care system, doctor and ex-Conservative health minister Dan Poulter has said. The Central Suffolk and North Ipswich MP told the Observer that difficulties in arranging social care for patients was having a major impact on hospitals. Raising National Insurance "offers one of the simplest ways forward", he said. The Department of Health said its plan to introduce a cap on care costs in England in 2020 had not changed. Mr Poulter stepped down from his Department of Health post last year and now works as an MP and a part-time doctor in the NHS. He told the Observer: "On the hospital wards I often see people who are medically fit to go home, but who are forced to stay in hospital because of difficulties arranging their social care package, or because of a lack of appropriate housing... "A long-term plan to ensure a properly funded and sustainable health and social care system is urgently required." 'Legitimate debate' The government's policy to limit care costs to £72,000 for the over-65s and younger adults with disabilities were delayed from last April after councils, which provide the facilities, wrote to ministers citing "enormous pressures". Image copyright PA Image caption Dr Poulter stood down as a health minister in 2015 But Dr Poulter, who had been charged with steering the plan through Parliament, suggested the flagship policy now has little chance of being implemented because of increasing costs. He said a "health and care tax - perhaps introduced through raising national insurance" would provide a guaranteed income stream and "allow a legitimate debate about what is an appropriate level of taxation required to ensure a sustainable funding settlement". A 1p in the pound hike in both employee and employer National Insurance contributions was used by Labour in its 2002 budget to pay for a £40bn rise in NHS spending over five years. Dr Poulter's comments come after it was revealed plans are being drawn up that could see cuts to NHS services across England to meet £22bn in efficiency savings by 2020-21. The Department of Health said it had protected the NHS in England by giving it an extra £10bn and any changes would involve reorganising local services to improve patient care. Addressing Mr Poulter's comments, a DoH spokeswoman said: "This government is committed to ensuring that those in old age can access care that is both affordable and dignified. "The position on the care cost cap hasn't changed. Last year, a new timetable was set out with the introduction of the cap in 2020 and we are now working with the insurance industry and others to make sure we can introduce these reforms." But Richard Murray, of the King's Fund think tank, said tackling the "growing crisis" in social care would be a key test of Prime Minister Theresa May's vow to lead a nation that works for everyone, not just the privileged. He said: "England remains one of the few major advanced countries that has not reformed the way it funds long-term care in response to the needs of an ageing population. "A frank and open debate is needed on how to fund health and social care on a sustainable basis into the future, recognising that a long-term strategy will exceed the lifetime of a single Parliament."Chinese travelers drawn to US because of US politics, survey finds Some international travelers are citing politics as a factor in whether to visit the U.S. this year, according to survey research by the tourism marketing agency Brand USA. The findings add to existing concerns about the tourism industry. Other new data shows that a slowdown in international arrivals to the U.S. began last spring and continued through August, likely due to the strong U.S. dollar and sluggish economies elsewhere. A survey for Brand USA asked travelers from 11 countries how the political climate influenced the likelihood of them visiting the U.S. in the next 12 months. Those saying the political climate made them less likely to visit increased from December to February among travelers from every country surveyed but China. Travelers from Mexico registered the most concern over political sentiment as a factor against visiting. Travelers from Canada, Germany, Australia, the United Kingdom and France registered moderate sensitivity over political sentiment. Travelers from India, Japan, Brazil and South Korea were the least sensitive to the U.S. political climate as a factor against visiting, but their likelihood of visiting also decreased over the three-month period, just less dramatically than the others. Chinese travelers were the only nationality in the survey who said the U.S. political climate made them more likely to visit. Brand USA surveys typically provide a multiple-choice list of factors influencing travel plans. Last summer, respondents began writing in issues related to politics as a factor. "So we created a discreet option for that and began to measure that,'' Brand USA economist Carroll Rheem said in an interview. When international travelers were asked in December and again in February "what if any impact the political climate has on their likelihood to visit the U.S.... over the course of time we saw an increase in that as a reason for people being discouraged from visiting the U.S.,'' she said.-APA U.K. man collapsed and died from a heart attack at his office Christmas party - after dancing to Gangnam Style. Eamonn Kilbride, 46, had been doing the energetic horse-riding style moves to Korean pop sensation Psy's hit song with his co-workers - but seconds later suddenly dropped to the floor. The tragedy occurred at an office party for the Thwaites brewery, in Blackburn, Lancashire, where Kilbride worked as an IT manager. His wife Julie was with him, celebrating her birthday, at the Whitehall Country Club in Darwen, Lancashire, when he began to complain of chest pains. She desperately tried to revive him with CPR. Paramedics who were on the scene five minutes later also tried to revive him, but he was pronounced dead as he arrived at Royal Blackburn Hospital shortly after 11:30 p.m. on Saturday. The family, who live in Burnley, said the coroner told them that he had suffered from acute heart failure. Julie paid tribute to a "loving husband" who she had been married to for 23 years. “I want people to know how he would help anybody whether it was a life-long friend, or someone he had just met," she said. “We were having a fantastic time at the Christmas party and Eamonn had just finished dancing to Gangnam Style," Julie said of the incident. "He was up on stage and entertaining everybody. “He said he had a bit of a pain and just collapsed." Julie continued: “Eamonn was such an intelligent man, he inspired our children and made sure they had a good education. He loved me dearly and would tell people all the time. I know he thought the world of us.” An initial investigation was launched into Kilbride’s death by police, but officers quickly established no suspicious circumstances. Click for more from The Sun.Previous research has shown that desktop 3D printers can emit large numbers of ultrafine particles (UFPs, particles less than 100 nm) and some hazardous volatile organic compounds (VOCs) during printing, although very few filament and 3D printer combinations have been tested to date. Here we quantify emissions of UFPs and speciated VOCs from five commercially available filament extrusion desktop 3D printers utilizing up to nine different filaments by controlled experiments in a test chamber. Median estimates of time-varying UFP emission rates ranged from ∼108 to ∼1011 min–1 across all tested combinations, varying primarily by filament material and, to a lesser extent, bed temperature. The individual VOCs emitted in the largest quantities included caprolactam from nylon-based and imitation wood and brick filaments (ranging from ∼2 to ∼180 μg/min), styrene from acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) and high-impact polystyrene (HIPS) filaments (ranging from ∼10 to ∼110 μg/min), and lactide from polylactic acid (PLA) filaments (ranging from ∼4 to ∼5 μg/min). Results from a screening analysis of potential exposure to these products in a typical small office environment suggest caution should be used when operating many of the printer and filament combinations in poorly ventilated spaces or without the aid of combined gas and particle filtration systems.Sheriff Laurie Smith explains exactly what happened Wednesday morning that lead to a massive manhunt in Cupertino and Sunnyvale. (Published Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2011) Updated: According to early reports, shortly after resuming the manhunt this morning, Santa Clara County sheriff's deputies report that multiple shots have been fired at the suspect, with the suspect killed near the 900 block of Lorne Way in the city of Santa Clara. An "officer assist" call was reported at 7:41 a.m. this morning, according to an emailed report from authorities. We have crews en route to the scene. ------------------------- Raw Video: Sunnyvale SWAT Swarms Neighborhood Police said a man walked into a meeting at his workplace in Cupertino at 4 a.m. Wednesday and opened fire. That sparked a massive manhunt that included a house to house search in Sunnyvale. (Published Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2011) As night fell in the South Bay on Wednesday, a man who opened fire on nine co-workers remained on the loose. Authorities will resume the search this morning at daybreak. At 7 p.m. Wednesday, Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith said the search would continue, but that the intense manhunt in Sunnyvale was wrapping up. She said SWAT officers had searched extensively near Homestead and Wolfe Roads but could not find the man they were looking for after a 12-hour effort. By 8 p.m. all roads were reopened and residents were allowed back into and out of their homes. The suspect has been identified as Shareef Allman, 47, San Jose. Smith said he was a disgruntled employee of a rock quarry who opened fire on coworkers early Wednesday. SWAT Swarms Sunnyvale Neighborhood Police said Allman walked into a routine safety meeting at 4:15 a.m. at Lehigh Permanente cement plant in Cupertino -- then left the meeting, returned carrying a handgun and an assault rifle and opened fire, according to Santa Clara County sheriff's deputies. Inside that meeting room, nine people were shot. Smith said in an earlier news conference that two people died at the scene and one was declared dead at the hospital. Smith said some of the other injuries were considered critical. She said about 15 people were in the meeting when the gunman opened fire. During her 7 p.m. news conference Smith identified the dead as: Manual Pinon, 51, of Newman, Calif. John Vallejos, 51, of San Jose Mark Munoz, 59, of San Jose The sheriff said the suspect left the scene of that workplace shooting in his car. Three hours later and five miles away, police said the suspect ditched his car near Homestead and Wolfe Road and attempted a carjacking in a nearby Hewlett-Packard parking lot. The sheriff said he shot the female driver in the leg there and took off on foot to a nearby neighborhood in Sunnyvale. The shooting victim is expected to fully recover. For the next several hours police swarmed the neighborhood across the street from the HP campus using SWAT a nd armored vehicles. The teams made a systematic house-to-house search. Reverse 911 calls went out to people who lived in the area telling them to stay inside the homes. Schools in the area were also on lockdown for the day and cancelled after-school activities sending students home and requiring their parents to pick them up in person. Santa Clara County issued a recorded warning to residents living in the area of the manhunt, as well (available here). Sheriff Smith said that authorities had recovered four weapons, but still considered Allman armed and dangerous. Her raw interview can be viewed at the top of this page. [Allman was a host for a San Jose cable channel, seen here interviewing Jesse Jackson.] Allman was one of 130 community producers at CreaTV. He is not an employee, according to a statement from CreaTV. A brother of two shooting victims -- one injured, one deceased -- told NBC Bay Area that his brothers were union leaders. He blamed tense labor-relations at the quarry for the shooting. Police also swarmed Stonegate apartments in San Jose. That is where Allman lived with his teenage daughter, who neighbors said just graduated from high school. Police sealed off the door to their unit. Neighbor Paulette O'Conner told NBC Bay Area's Marianne Favro that Allman was disgruntled with his work over a recent shift change. Favro said while she was in the complex a car that was parked in the spot assigned to Allman's unit suffered a flat tire while backing out of the space. Favro said the car had a spike strip, or rat trap, placed under its tire. It was not clear if police had placed it there or it was there prior to the police's arrival. People who identified themselves as longtime friends of Allman were shocked to hear that the gunman they heard about on the news was their friend. They pleaded with him to give himself up and told him to think of his daughter. One man named Mitchell Julien said something horrible must have happened for Allman to snap. His raw interview is below. Authorities set up two phone lines in connection to the shootings.SAN DIEGO (CBSLA.com) — A Whittier couple has been arrested trying to enter Mexico with the body of a 2-year-old child in a duffel bag, police said Wednesday. Johnny Lewis Hartley, 39, and Mercy Mary Becerra, 43, were arrested by Mexican authorities Tuesday after being denied entry into Mexico. According to police, the pair tried to cross the border, but when they were stopped by Mexican Customs agents, Becerra fled and left Hartley with the duffel bag. An X-ray of the bag revealed a body inside, and further examination determined that it was a 2-year-old girl, police said. Becerra was later taken into custody by Mexican authorities, and both were turned over the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. San Diego police homicide detectives, after interviewing the couple, determined the incident that may have led to the child’s death may have occurred in Whittier, according to officials. Investigators do not believe the suspects are the child’s parents. CBS2’s Amy Johnson said authorities did not say how the three were linked. She spoke to former neighbors who were shocked the couple could be accused of such a horrific thing. “I can’t believe that., it’s just really sad,” said Henry Munoz. “That someone could do that.” He said the couple lived in apartment 3 with a number of children. Two twins, a couple of older ones. Four were in their teens.” “There were a lot of kids there,” he said, “they had like eight kids. Both Hartley and Becerra were both booked on one count of murder and child cruelty leading to death. San Diego police Lt. Ray Valentin declined to say whether the girl’s body bore any signs of injuries. San Diego and Whittier police detectives are working together on the case.Venezuela has unveiled six new bills set to go into circulation next week. Central Bank President Nelson Merentes said Tuesday the new higher-denomination bills would make commercial transactions easier in the country with the world's highest inflation. The six new bills ranging from 500 to 20,000 Bolivars will begin circulating on Dec. 15. Triple-digit inflation and a currency meltdown have left the country's largest note worth just around 2 U.S. cents on the black market. Currently the largest-denominated bill is 100 bolivars, not even enough to buy a hard candy at a street kiosk. Some had speculated that the new bills might feature late socialist President Hugo Chavez, or other nods to left-wing causes. But they instead portray the same historical figures and national heritage as existing bills.Well, I did say I had a Doctor Whooves image, didn't I? I was originally going to draw ponified versions of the Third Doctor and Jo, but it occurred to me that Katy Manning ponified would probably look rather like Derpy anyway! XD MLP:FiM owned by Hasbro Doctor Who owned by the BBC Based on a scene from Doctor Who story "Terror of the Autons", first broadcast in 1971, it is best remembered for its portrayal of how death could strike from simple household items, such as an inflatable chair, a troll doll & plastic daffodils. Unfortunately, despite being a having a good storyline (Bar the Autons being reduced to the role of soldiers) too much reliance on the then brand new CSO system (Ye Olde Green Screen techniques for those who have never heard of it) caused some of the visuals to look rather flawed.Key points There is a polio outbreak in Somalia. CDC recommends that all travelers to Somalia be vaccinated fully against polio. Before traveling to Somalia, adults who completed their routine polio vaccine series as children should receive a single, lifetime adult booster dose of polio vaccine. The current outbreak in Somalia is caused by vaccine-derived poliovirus, a sign of low polio vaccine coverage in the country. What is polio? Polio is a crippling and potentially deadly disease that affects the nervous system. It is spread by lack of good hand washing practices and contact with tiny amounts of feces (poop) of an infected person. It is also spread by drinking water or eating food that is contaminated with infected feces. Most people with polio do not feel sick. Some people have only minor symptoms, such as fever, tiredness, nausea, headache, nasal congestion, sore throat, cough, stiffness in the neck and back, and pain in the arms and legs. In rare cases, polio infection causes permanent loss of muscle function (paralysis). Polio can be fatal if the muscles used for breathing are paralyzed or if there is an infection of the brain. What is vaccine-derived polio? The oral polio vaccine (made from a weakened strain of the poliovirus) is given as drops in the mouth to protect against polio. This vaccine has been extremely effective in wiping out polio in developing countries, when most of the population gets vaccinated. In areas where there are low rates of vaccination against polio and sanitation is poor, the weakened vaccine virus can spread from person to person. Over time, as the virus spreads, it can regain its ability to cause disease in people who are not vaccinated. Polio caused by a vaccine strain is called vaccine-derived polio. Vaccine-derived polio cannot spread in the United States because the U.S has high vaccination rates against polio and the oral polio vaccine is not used here. What is the current situation? A polio outbreak has been reported in Mogadishu and the Hiran and Middle Shabelle regions of Somalia. This outbreak is caused by vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV), a sign of low oral polio vaccine coverage in the country. What can travelers do to prevent polio? Get the polio vaccine. CDC recommends that all travelers to Somalia be vaccinated fully against polio. In addition, adults who have been fully vaccinated should receive a single lifetime booster dose of polio vaccine. Even if you were vaccinated as a child or have been sick with polio before, you may need a booster dose to make sure you are protected. See the Polio Vaccine Information Statement (VIS) for more information. If you will be in Somalia for more than 4 weeks, the Somalia government may require you to show proof of polio vaccination before you leave the country. To meet this requirement, you should get the polio vaccine between 4 weeks and 12 months before you leave Somalia. Talk to your doctor about whether this requirement applies to you. Clinician Information For travelers going to countries with circulating VDPV who have completed their routine polio vaccine series but who have not already received an adult booster dose, CDC recommends administering a single lifetime inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV) booster dose (more information). Travelers who will be in Somalia for more than 4 weeks may need an additional booster if the most recent dose of polio vaccine (completion of routine series or adult booster) was administered more than 12 months before the date of departure from Somalia. See the Vaccine section in Chapter 3, Poliomyelitis, CDC Health Information for International Travel, for specific vaccination details. Additional Information Traveler InformationAs a Software Engineer I'm always keeping
oolaid drinkers in Denial for years. I have to say I haven’t heard it that much likely. So maybe it’s dying out except for a few stragglers who are still using it. I just toss it off because it is really desperate gutter tactics by those who refuse to see the reality. It reminds me of the Michael Savage rabid regressives who are still to this day throwing out the red-baiting and “commie” comments and the pinko stuff. I’m still called all that by those rabid regressive haters. To me the “Repug operative” drivel is really no different than that outdated stuff. It seems that anyone who disagrees with some people is somehow a "Repug operative." LOL. And there's absolutely nothing I can do about that if that's what they think. That's their problem. People will think what they want. I continue to speak my mind. Some people just don't like reading the content. Well, there's a solution to that: Don't read my comments. You're not required to. Skip on by it. That's what the scroll function is for. As for your "We get it." statement. You can only speak for yourself whatever you claim to "get" or erroneous, fictitious and ridiculous fantasies/judgments that you've dreamed up in your head about others with whom you disagree. I would never be so presumptuous as to speak for everyone here. COMMENT #25 [Permalink] ... Erma said on 6/9/2008 @ 2:40 pm PT... Hmmmmmmmm... I was giving more thought to this "Repug Operative" nonsense after I posted earlier. Isn't it interesting (actually hypocritical) that the person who referred to me as a "Repug Operative" has made these statements: When Teddy Kennedy is one of the few who had the moral fiber to vote against the illegal war, after all the bullshit triangulation that has happened, after these Democratic sell-outs mostly do squat to make it a better world, I can't see how anyone can argue the Demopcratic Party is more progressive than it used to be. Harry Reid? Diane Feinstein? She is an asshole whose husband has ties to the Death Industry. I guess it's all right when that person says it, but not when I say it. Because I have said all of that since 2000. I can't stand war-profiteer Dianne Feinstein. And the Dems have enabled GWB/Cheney/Rove et al every step of the way with their "yes" votes, their complicity and their silence and by taking "impeachment off the table" despite illegal spying, torture, USAPATRIOT Act, 2 illegal wars/occupations. None of it matters to the Dems despite their purely symbolic words of "opposition" on occasion for merely theatre and show before the TV cameras to try and fool their gullible supporters. (The Dems know that most of their supporters will vote for them regardless of how they act/vote because their supporters---just like Repug supporters---are programmed to do so and because the politician has a D behind their name. That's the only requirement.) Then the Dems turn around and once again enable Bush/Cheney/Rove. It seems to me that the Dems in congress have been and are the "Repug Operatives," if anyone is, since the Dems are in power" and some people are too thick to see that the Dems have been and are the "Repug Operatives" (to use that term thrown at me). I'm not in power. Yes, I've said all that the quoted person above wrote. How, then, is that person any different than what they called me a "Repug Operative" because that person I quoted above says the same things I have about the useless politicians. I just take it a little bit farther, where the other person refuses to do. The people who use this "Repug Operative" propaganda on other people remind me of fundamentalist "christians" that I've dealt with in the past. They want no or little criticism of their church, their beliefs or their minister. And anyone who does speak a word of criticism is "doing the work of the devil" (rather than possibly trying to improve the church?...rather than stay with the status quo!). Then carry that over to politics and the equivalent would be a "Repug Operative." Interesting the duplicity of some people. COMMENT #26 [Permalink] ... Agent 99 said on 6/9/2008 @ 2:46 pm PT... Not that it matters much for purposes of discussion, but her name is spelled "Dianne Feinstein", curse her. COMMENT #27 [Permalink] ... socrates said on 6/9/2008 @ 5:57 pm PT... Erma #25 Isn't it interesting (actually hypocritical) that the person who referred to me as a "Repug Operative" has made these statements: Where'd I write that? Maybe you are one, seeing how you lie. Don't worry about the scroll button. It is put into good use with your broken record. COMMENT #28 [Permalink] ... socrates said on 6/9/2008 @ 5:59 pm PT... The Dems are not in power. Some people never heard of the veto or the supreme court. You keep plugging away trying to make sure the Democratic Party doesn't get that much needed power. COMMENT #29 [Permalink] ... socrates said on 6/9/2008 @ 6:02 pm PT... The few years referred to your posts on this specific blog. That astroturf smell is strong. COMMENT #30 [Permalink] ... Erma said on 6/9/2008 @ 9:29 pm PT... Socrates #28 wrote: "The Dems are not in power." If I had known that was where you're coming from and that was going to be your response, I would never have even wasted my time with you. Goodbye. COMMENT #31 [Permalink] ... socrates said on 6/10/2008 @ 5:55 am PT...This is the latest guest post from Adam Fletcher and Paul Hawkins, collectively known as both The Hipstery and “those two guys who should really get real jobs”… As Tech Open Air rolls into Berlin next month with the theme of ‘Retro-Futurism,’ a whole assortment of movers, shakers, visionaries, and – errr – us, will be pointing out and laughing at the lovable, naive ideas that the people of yesteryear had about the future – ie our now. While we all like nothing more than mocking the absence of robot servants and flying cars in our lives, we also know that the people of the future are probably looking back at us from some conference in which they’ll get together (virtually) to watch (via retina display) people (AI-infused humanoids) sharpening their satirical pencils (digital) in front of presentations (PowerPoint – that shit’s immortal) about all the dumb stuff that we, the people of 2013, believed would happen. Just as Henry Ford once said, “If you asked people what they wanted, they’d have said faster horses.” So the inventor of 2031’s revolutionary, world-changing Wazzock Technology™ will say, “If you’d asked people what they wanted, they’d have said faster internet.” He’ll be lying in an anti-gravity hammock in space, and laughing at that weird phase in human history when we still used the internet and petrol. He’ll cackle in front of a delightfully retro poster of Google Glass, just like we cackle now when someone reminds us that we used to check cinema times by pointing a plastic thing with buttons at our televisions, while our confused grandmothers watched on, saying stuff like, “Oh, marvellous, when I was your age we had to get our cinema times by riding a Penny Farthing to the village sundial and putting a leech on it.” So, why are we so bad at predicting the future? Well, let’s look at the last twenty years. We’ve witnessed as much technological transformation and innovation as in the previous two thousand years combined. That change is interesting, because it’s also built on top of something called the Law of Accelerated Returns. Our inability to comprehend “accelerated returns” is the main reason we’re so bad at future-gazing. Try telling a farmer in the 1800s that one day he’d own a huge machine that could do the work of a hundred men, fuelled only by black liquid dinosaur. Then try telling the same farmer it would only be a fraction of that time again, before he was ploughing his huge machine over vegetables he’d designed himself on a computer. THEN try telling that same farmer that in just a few more years, he’ll have to get a job in Tech Support because everyone just downloads and 3D-prints Soylent. Accelerated Returns dictate that not only are things changing ever-quicker, the time between those significant changes is also reducing. In short: more change, more often. It’s a term coined by Ray Kurzweil: “We won’t experience 100 years of progress in the 21st century – it will be more like 20,000 years of progress (at today’s rate). The ‘returns’, such as chip speed and cost-effectiveness, also increase exponentially. There’s even exponential growth in the rate of exponential growth.” The fact that we know things are going to be so radically different is interesting. The result should be that when someone asks us to predict the future, we know we’re so unqualified to speak that we reply with something like, “I don’t know, I’ll know even less in four minutes time, and by tomorrow you might as well ask an abandoned road-side chair.” Yet, it sometimes seems that the knowledge of all the great unknown in front of us tries to tempt us towards two, distinct camps of weird certainty: idealism and cynicism. Idealists vs Cynics Idealists tend to see our generation as the children of infinite potential. That we are uniquely different to any generation that came previously, because we’re all connected like never before. They sign petitions, buy Bitcoins, take courses on Udemy, and share optimistic infographics with their Facebook friends. Their homepage is set permanently to TEDTalks. They’ve just joined The Zeitgeist Movement. They believe everything is going to be “exponential” and “nano” and “crowd-sourced” in the future, and have set their Inner Worldview Dial permanently to ‘Blind Optimism.’ Their arguments mostly boil down to the wide, sweeping belief that everything’s going to be fine “because… TECHNOLOGY!” On the other hand, there’s the cynics. They mostly sit in dark rooms, smoking roll-ups, and watching documentaries about global warming, super volcanoes, 9/11, population growth, peak oil, the Zionist global conspiracy to enslave all humanity by putting mind-control chemicals in Coca-Cola. Their second favourite movie is Children of Men, though they thought it was “a bit too cheerful.” Their first favourite movie is 1600-hours long, and just consists of ice caps melting in real time. Cynics understand intuitively all of the world’s resources, natural processes, and the economic forces that interact with society, and have set their Inner Worldview Dial accordingly to ‘Who cares? Just give up.’ Once we’re in these camps – or even show a passing affinity to one of them – tech’s wider algorithms, filter bubbles, and recommendation engines whirl into gear and drag us further into those corners; suggesting us people, products and services aligned to our new worldview. This makes it a little harder for us to stumble upon and become exposed to opposing, yet equally rational viewpoints. It all goes either black or white. After all, It’s hard not to think like this. We’ve seen a lifetime of sci-fi movies promising us either a magical, technological utopia, or a million flavours of self-caused apocalypse. Our religions and our politics and our news media all deal with extremely binary systems of classification: they thrive on – and purposefully perpetuate –narratives of Good and Evil. The ramifications of one belief system If you genuinely believe that all of humanity is doomed in fifty years, it’s hard not to let it affect your entire attitude towards life and the future. Why live sustainably? Why recycle? Why have children? Why pursue science? Why try? Why not close down any avenue of personal exploration that doesn’t involve napping, drinking, or eating handfuls of cake in the bath? Why not treat the whole earth and its resources like you’re one last seagull amongst many, preying on a bag of dropped seaside chips, just trying to get some for yourself before they’re all gone forever? Believing everyone and everything you’ve ever known is swirling unstoppably into a toilet of nothingness isn’t the most motivating worldview for a Monday morning. On the other hand, if you believe technology will solve all of humanity’s problems, you’ve just extended the sell-by-date of civilisation to the borders of the infinite. Why worry at all? Why change? Why adapt? Maybe we can just stumble blindly forwards on whatever dumb path we’re on now, and let the scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs of tomorrow pick up our mess when the profit incentive catches up. It’s like the ultimate secular religion – if we believe we will somehow overcome all of our problems, the ‘Will They, Wont They’ uncertainty of humanity’s survival is gone. Instead, the only uncertainty remaining in the future is, how will we transfer our thoughts and feelings into readable information? Who will invent the technology that uploads that readable information into a single cloud of consciousness? And which Fortune 500 company will patent God Technology™ first, which we can then use to initiate the Big Bang, thus, creating ourselves, and sealing the infinite loop of time and space that we call reality. Ahem. Sorry, got a bit deep there… What’s important is that the outcome of following either of these two worldviews blindly is roughly the same: a divorcing from responsibility. Yet, because we know from the past that we’ll probably be horribly, horribly wrong about the future, relaxing our sense of responsibility even a little in the shaping of it is both incredibly naive and incredibly dangerous. We’re neither inherently fucked, nor inherently safe. We’re neither doomed, nor blessed. The universe is not loving, or cruel – just casually indifferent. The future will probably be much more like today than we would like to admit: somehow stranded in the middle of good intentions and bad results. With some people trying, some people failing, and most people hoping to do better. Where exactly it all ends us, of course, will depend on us. We’re as active participants as anybody else – in shaping it, guiding it, defining it. We should just try to remember how bad we’ve been at predicting the future in the past, and how much space that gives us to create a better one. Image credits: featured image – flickr user x-ray delta one Google Glass – flickr user tedeytan farming – flickr user Jon McL optimist – flickr user Camdiluv cynic – flickr user nosha recycling – flickr user epsos.de sky – flickr user Jhong Dizon \| Photography For related posts, check out: Fake it ‘til you make it – 10 of the most dangerous pieces of startup advice Love, muesli and Nigeria – how the internet changed everything “Us” – A practical pep talk on our unique cosmic awesomenessQuarterback Kenny Hill’s celebration gesture in the end zone was part of his religious belief, TCU coach Gary Patterson said, and something he would have liked to have known about before the game. “If he wants to do something like that, he just needs to let me know. That way I can do a better job of backing him up,” Patterson said Monday during the Big 12 coaches conference call with reporters. “We’ve learned a lesson.” Hill made a gesture with his right hand, bringing it from his left shoulder near his throat and down across his chest, after a 5-yard touchdown run to put TCU ahead late in Saturday’s game against Arkansas. The celebration was sign language for rising kings, a TCU spokesman said. The celebration drew an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, assessed on the kickoff, and Arkansas used the short field to tie the game and then win in two overtimes 41-38. Sign Up and Save Get six months of free digital access to the Star-Telegram It’s one of those things where it’s too bad it happened. We all need to learn from it, try not to do it again. TCU coach Gary Patterson on the celebration penalty assesssed on Kenny Hill Patterson said the Southeastern Conference crew wouldn’t have picked up the flag had Patterson told them it was a religious gesture, but that he could have advised the officials before the game. He also said he and Hill could have talked about whether to make the gesture. He said Hill did it after a previous score, as well. “LT used to just hand the ball,” Patterson said, referencing LaDainian Tomlinson, TCU’s all-time touchdown leader. “Act like we’ve been there. That’s been a TCU tradition forever, if you watch our guys. It’s one of those things where it’s too bad it happened. We all need to learn from it, try not to do it again.” Patterson said he and Hill talked before he came to TCU that he would draw extra scrutiny. He said Hill has not disappointed him. “To be honest, he’s been unbelievable,” Patterson said. “I haven’t had any problems with how he’s acted and done things or anything. He’s been unbelievable, and every week, he just keeps getting better as a leader.” SHARE COPY LINK The Frogs soon realized, 'This wasn't the guy they were talking about at A&M.' Turpin honored The Big 12 selected KaVontae Turpin of TCU as its Special Teams Player of the Week. Turpin had 69 return yards, including a career-long 64-yard kickoff return to put TCU in position for a potential game-winning field goal against Arkansas.We all know the Double Down burger. Here it is. The burger consists of a Zinger patty, some bacon, cheese, rounded up with another patty. Advertisement Mystery burger A few days ago, on Aug. 14, KFC came out with this special announcement. People were understandably excited. With some mocking the obviousness of the silhouette. Well shucks to them, because KFC just unveiled their burger, and no one probably expected it. Everyone steam However, KFC in Singapore proceeded to unveil the Double Steamed Chicken burger. With this caption. “A new way to enjoy an all-time favourite: two steamed chicken fillets, filled with sauerkraut coleslaw, spicy pickled cucumber and sambal honey sauce! Keep an eye out for it…” People were not pleased with this turn of events. Is it fake? Here are the three reasons why it might be a publicity stunt. 1. It’s gross (Sauerkraut) 2. It’s Kentucky FRIED Chicken, not Kentucky STEAMED Chicken. (KFC, not KSC.) 3. They ended off the post with an ellipsis, which is inherently suspicious. We will update this article when it turns out this is fake. Here are some equally interesting but totally unrelated stories: Ways to make the government listen to you How to not ruin your holiday when signing up for tour packages Who looks after our ailing seniors outside of general hospitals? Images from KFCMedia playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Animal sentience: Social media reaction to fake news claims Michael Gove has hit out at the way social media "corrupts and distorts" political reporting and decision making following a row about animal welfare. The environment secretary said attacks on MPs over a vote on EU laws on animal "sentience" were "absolutely wrong". The Commons vote sparked protests and social media campaign backed by high-profile figures such as Ben Fogle. The explorer has apologised for posting "misleading threads" but defended sharing details on "important stories". Last week MPs voted not to incorporate part of an EU treaty recognising that animals could feel emotion and pain into the EU Withdrawal Bill. Green Party co-leader Caroline Lucas had tabled the amendment to the EU bill, which would have transferred the EU protocol on animal sentience - the ability to experience feelings - into domestic law. But ministers argued that the recognition of animals' sentience already existed in UK law and MPs rejected the amendment. 'Raw and authentic' Mr Gove told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "On social media there was a suggestion that somehow the MPs had voted against the principle that animals are sentient beings, that did not happen, that is absolutely wrong." "There is an unhappy tendency now for people to believe that the raw and authentic voice of what's shared on social media is more reliable than what is said in Hansard or on the BBC. Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Michael Gove says the government has made a commitment to animal welfare UK law 'to recognise animal feelings' "More than that there is a particular concern somehow, a belief somehow that outside the European Union our democratic institutions can't do better than we did in the EU. We've got to challenge both those points." He said Parliament was "an effective and vigorous institution which can ensure protection for human rights and animal rights". Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Veterinary bodies want existing references to animal sentience in law made more explicit "We've also got to stand up against the way in which social media corrupts and distorts both reporting and decision making... It's important that all of us do that and that some of us who shared some of these messages on social media have been generous enough to acknowledge... that they may have unwittingly passed these messages on." Among others who shared material posted by campaign groups which criticised MPs were the comedian Sue Perkins and Countdown host Rachel Riley. Mr Fogle said he accepted the government's arguments but insisted it was not only up to social media users to spread inaccurate reports, pointing out that a number of established newspapers published stories based on the same information. Mr Gove said there would not be a "gap" in animal welfare provisions as a result of the vote, once the UK left the EU, because the UK would "ensure we have stronger protection written into law". He argued that the EU legislation was "poorly designed" and said there was "no way in which animal protection can be diminished in any way, in any shape, or in any form". But Ms Lucas said the government had been "backpedalling" since the vote: "What I was told in the chamber was that they had no need to take any account of my amendment because this principle of animal sentience was already recognised in UK law in the Animal Welfare Act of 2006. "Now that is patently untrue, wrong and I am very glad in the last 24 hours Michael Gove and others have been rapidly backpedalling and admitting that that's not true." And David Cameron's ex-director of communications suggested Mr Gove reflect on the impact of social media during the EU referendum - in which he was a passionate Leave campaigner. British Veterinary Association senior vice president Gudrun Ravetz told the BBC that there was a "significant difference" between the Article 13 EU protocol, which put a duty on the state to pay full regard to animal welfare when formulating and implementing policies, and the UK legislation, the 2006 Animal Welfare Act, which put the duty on the owner. The first was "explicit" about "animal sentience", the latter was only "implicit about sentience of animals and vertebrates". "That is a very important principle, we have the duty of animal welfare for the owner and keeper under the Animal Welfare Act, and that will continue but what we want to see is that duty to the state," she added. Mr Gove was a relatively late convert to social media, only joining Twitter in June 2016 after he was sacked as a minister by Theresa May. But he has continued to tweet since rejoining the cabinet this summer. Hansard is the name given to the daily verbatim transcripts of parliamentary debates in Westminster, which have been officially printed since 1909 and are available online too.In mid-November last year, I woke up to the sound of my inbox suddenly being flooded with new messages. I have things set to alert me whenever PayPal, Wells Fargo, or iTunes emails me because I know that means that money is either being given to me or taken away. To my surprise, what I discovered that morning was incredibly concerning, and would result in what could be the most frustrating customer experience of my life. I’m going to state here that this situation is very personal, and my experiences may not reflect the interaction millions of customers of both PayPal and Apple enjoy with these two companies. Unfortunately, this is a story of how the policies of these two companies may result in a downward spiral that can turn a loyal customer into an unsatisfied one. Day 1: The Fraud That flood of email I received came from two parties. iTunes was letting me know that purchases had been made inside of an app called iMobster. PayPal, on the other hand, was confirming these purchases and making me aware that it was drawing the funds out of my secondary payment method as I had recently depleted my PayPal account in a withdrawal. These purchases kept coming in, one after another, until the total added up to roughly $470.00. Each transaction was handled separately, causing PayPal to withdraw funds 11 separate times. By the time I had changed my password in iTunes, I was out a small fortune. Roughly half of these transactions were covered by PayPal, and the other half covered by my bank. This means that I had a case of fraud extending form iTunes to two separate financial institutions, one being my primary bank account. I tried to reach iTunes customer service only to discover that iTunes has no over-the-phone customer service. In order to receive support from iTunes, you have to file a request online and wait for a response. As far as I was concerned, someone had hacked my iTunes account, and I needed help right away. I asked my wife to try to find some number for Apple to report fraud, intending to come back to this after calling my financial institutions in hopes of stopping the stream of money before it left me completely broke. I then called PayPal and told it to stop sending money to iTunes, reporting the incident as fraud. The PayPal representative I spoke to was very courteous and helpful, though he couldn’t confirm whether or not I would experience the dreaded PayPal account freeze as a result. After all, all of my income comes to me via PayPal. A claim was made, and I moved on to my next financial institution, Wells Fargo. Calling Wells Fargo to report fraud is easy. It has a line set up and I reached someone right away. I told the representative there that I had reported the claim through PayPal, but wanted it noted that the charges made on my account that day were fraudulent in nature. The representative appeared to understand, and helped me make record of the incident. Then, I managed to get ahold of someone at Apple through its Mac support line. As the owner of a MacBook Pro, iMac, two iPads, three iPhones, two iPod touches, and an iPod Classic, I assumed that I was in the right place. Thankfully, the representative there was able to help me file a claim. I informed the representative that I had filed a claim with both financial institutions, indicating that one had flooded over into another. This may have been my mistake, as I later found out. Three Days Later Three days later, my money was returned by PayPal and I received a message that the claims I had submitted were handled. No freeze was put on my account, and everything looked pretty good. Granted, PayPal only refunded the amount that was originally on my PayPal account, stating my financial institution had to file claim for the money it took from Wells Fargo. This is understandable, so I thought nothing of it. Wells Fargo returned my money that day, too. Everything looked handled and I never experienced a moment of downtime between the initial fraudulent purchases and my refund. Three Months Later Three months later, in February, I received a series of email messages from PayPal stating that my account is “limited” until I change my password, confirm my credit card (having removed my primary account from PayPal and replaced it with a MasterCard), and receive a phone call from PayPal. I followed all of these steps, and the account was unfrozen after two days. It wasn’t that dramatic an issue, and I understood the reasoning behind it. Surprisingly, it took that long for Wells Fargo to file its fraud claim with PayPal. I suppose that’s the bank’s policy, but it seemed like an awfully long time to wait and reach out to another party regarding possible fraud. I was further shocked to discover that my Apple ID was disabled. This meant I couldn’t update already-purchased apps from the Apple and iTunes App Stores, register OS X Lion or any new equipment purchases, or anything else that required me to log in to my Apple ID. When you test and write about software for a living, this can be a very concerning occurrence. I spent over an hour on the phone with Mac support (remember, iTunes doesn’t have a customer support line) to have my account re enabled. This call was followed by an apology from the supervisor I was on the line with, stating iTunes recognized the issue was four months old, and everything was fine now. Awesome, I thought. Wells Fargo sent me a letter that day stating all claims were resolved, and the refund I had received 90 days prior could now be considered permanent. I thought everything was over with. Boy, was I wrong. One Week Later: The Second Account Freezing Seven days later, my account was frozen again by PayPal. This freezing was due to the same batch of claims resulting from the same fraud I had reported almost four months ago. I went through the reactivation steps again with PayPal, and everything was put right again within the hour. My Apple ID was also frozen (again), and this time I received some startling news from the supervisor at Mac support via the chat she had with iTunes support (which was apparently being very pushy with her for having bothered them). She told me that if I reactivate my account now, and iTunes freezes it again, I’ll never regain access under any circumstances. That means that by using my Apple ID, I could risk losing access to my software purchases, licenses, and OS X Lion. Yes, I could lose everything I had spent my hard earned money on, having to start over from scratch with the hardware I still had in-hand. I’d have to buy Mac OS X Lion again, Final Cut Pro, Compressor, hundreds of dollars in iOS apps, and hundreds more in Mac software. To say the least, I’m discouraged. The situation I currently find myself in is rather strange. Not only do I have to wait for a mandatory 30 days for PayPal to respond to Wells Fargo (its policy, apparently), but I risk losing all of my software during that time. I opted to have it hold off on reactivating my Apple ID, leaving me (and my wife) without the ability to update our software, register new devices, or enjoy any of the benefits of iCloud. Final Thoughts I understand PayPal and Apple having the policies they have, though this experience has left me with a bad taste in my mouth for both companies. Their policies don’t allow for legitimate claims to be filed without risking access to items and services purchased by loyal customers. The problem with iTunes account hacks is that they are too common. My sister-in-law, and several members of the LockerGnome team, have had the same happen to them. Yet, this policy punishes honest users that fall victim to a security flaw that shouldn’t exist. Yes, I’m a victim. Someone, somewhere, stole $470 from me. By filing a claim, which I’m legally entitled to do, I risk losing thousands more in software that I legally purchased. My livelihood depends on being able to use and review software, and that livelihood is at risk right now unless I volunteer to sit out for what could be well over a month while PayPal, Apple, and Wells Fargo agree that what happened was wrong and needs to be fixed. This is my story; what is yours? Have PayPal and/or Apple’s policies regarding fraud ever had an impact on you in a negative way? I’ll do my best to keep you updated as to what happens when the matter finally resolves. For now, I can only hope that I don’t need to update my software. UPDATE: February 29, 2012 After this article was published, I received a call from Apple. The representative that called stated that this post had brought the situation to the company’s attention, and that the repeated disabling was an automatic result of PayPal having submitted the reports multiple times. She went on to clarify that in the event that the policy regarding three account deactivations and permanent loss of purchases is intended to combat abusers of the chargeback system and that if anyone does get denied access to their account for filing legitimate claims, they are able to protest the ban via iTunes support. There was an acknowledgement of the fact that iTunes has no phone service, and while the online submission system may appear cold and automated, there are hundreds of support reps reading each and every message as it comes in. At this point, I’m still awaiting PayPal to finish its four-month inquiry into the fraudulent charges. I received a call from a representative today, but was unable to answer. Whomever called me from PayPal left no message and, upon returning the call, no representative had any notes or indication that a call had been made. I can only hope the call was a confirmation that the matter was nearing resolution. For the time being, the situation appears to be heading towards a smooth resolution, and my Apple purchases (all 240+ of them) are safe. Thanks to Apple for addressing the matter and restoring my faith in the brand. UPDATE: March 1, 2012 I received another call from PayPal this morning. The agent was quick to recognize that the blog post had brought the situation to their attention before clarifying the situation that took place on their side of the ping pong match that had been taking place over the past several months. He let me know that he was personally overseeing the completion of the process, assuring me that my account was indeed in good standing and would remain so throughout. The limitations placed on my account previously were automatically applied by their internal system as Wells Fargo, my primary banking institution, filed their claims with PayPal. The situation was further confused by some back-and-forth with iTunes. He went on to inform me that members of the management team were going to work with Apple to make sure situations like these are avoided in the future. Perhaps this is the one truly good result to come from this muddled mess. Both PayPal and Apple were asked whether or not something like this could really be resolved if the victim (I use that term loosely) didn’t have a blog of their own to state their case to. As this situation has apparently reached some higher office with both of these companies, I was assured that actions are taking place internally to prevent this type of situation from occurring to others in the future. I pointed both parties to the comments at the bottom of this blog post. I’m not alone, and this situation is not as uncommon as you might believe. Spoofing (their words, not mine) takes place with iTunes accounts often, and it is a serious problem for everyone involved. Apple loses money having to spend manhours tracking down these cases, customers pay fraud reporting fees (in my case, Wells Fargo charged me $35), and PayPal has to deal with the PR nightmare that is outspoken bloggers such as myself. I spent ten years working in customer service for AT&T, Apple, local government, and even Sears. Throughout my entire experience, I’ve learned that front-line agents are often pushed between a rock and a hard place. They have to deal with false claims and dishonest customers every day. When an honest case does come along, it’s hard to avoid being jaded to the situation, and the general response is to recite the canned statements you have to give 100 times per day. Being in customer service sucks, and being on the front lines of this effort is more difficult than it sounds. In this case, an Apple rep in Canada was pressed for information she couldn’t provide because iTunes support for them is only available via chat in increments of about two minutes. Anything more than that and the reps receive some pushback from the often overwhelmed employees. This inability to communicate with iTunes support directly meant the case couldn’t be properly relayed, and made for a difficult experience. On PayPal’s side, they have to deal with countless cases of fraud every day. PayPal is a big company, and to handle what possibly amounts to millions of transactions every day through eBay and other online sales platforms, dishonesty from customers can be a major problem. The reps are given a set of expectations to follow, and in order to protect the company, they are often as strict as they are broad. Was I a victim of PayPal or Apple? No. I was the victim of some spoofer that wanted to make a quick buck by selling in-game currency or items. What followed was a mess brought on by a difficult case, confusing policies, and a general lack of communication on the part of everyone involved. If I can hope for anything to come out of my own personal struggles, it’s that no one reading this has to go through it again. If PayPal and Apple are good on their word, your support of this article and amazing outreach may quite possibly help make that happen. Thank you for reading this, sharing your stories, and spreading the word.Guzman Y Gomez TOOWOOMBA'S first Guzman Y Gomez restaurant opens this week and will celebrate with a free burrito day. The Mexican taqueria opens on Thursday near the intersection Ruthven and Alderley Sts in South Toowoomba. The store will give away free burritos and burrito bowls between 11am - 8pm. Guzman Y Gomez founder Steven Marks said the restaurant would be "pumping out" burritos and burrito bowls every 5-8 seconds. ARRIBA ARRIBA, MEXICAN RESTAURANT COMES TO TOOWOOMBA "So don't worry if there are queues as you won't be waiting long," he said. The opening of the restaurant will also be celebrated with moustache painting, free guacamole and corn chips and a traditional mariachi band. Guzman Y Gomez's first Australian store opened in 2006. The record for the most free burritos given away at any restaurant was 6361 at Robina.Trump was right: Only 23 per cent of Flemish feel safe in Brussels Migrant riots, street fights and terror attacks: Brussels surely isn’t the place
kept the same close captioning by the National Captioning Institute when it was seen in Canada on CBC. John Ritter voiced Clifford in all episodes. This was originally done by Brent Titcomb in the 1988 direct-to-video series. Ritter's schedule dictated the production of Clifford the Big Red Dog[citation needed]. By the time the last of the 68 half-hour episodes and the subsequent film Clifford's Really Big Movie were completed, Ritter was back on ABC's prime time schedule, starring in 8 Simple Rules. Ritter's death on September 11, 2003 came less than a week before PBS debuted Clifford's Puppy Days. While no new Clifford episodes have been released since Ritter's death, voice actors for the main characters have reprised some of their roles for the Ready to Learn PBS Kids PSAs. Clifford's Really Big Movie serves as the series finale due to Ritter's death, as no new episodes were made to continue from where it left off. However, Clifford's Puppy Days still continued to air until its cancellation in 2006. On May 16, 2018, Scholastic announced a reboot of the series and is scheduled for a late 2019 premiere concurrently on PBS Kids and Amazon Prime.[5] Overview [ edit ] Two 15-minute stories made up each half-hour episode. Usually one story featured Clifford and his canine friends, Cleo and T-Bone among them; the other story would focus on Clifford's owner Emily Elizabeth and her friends. During scenes focusing on the dogs' perspective, human speech would replace barking to show the storyline from the dogs' point of view. Episodes [ edit ] Season Episodes Originally aired First aired Last aired 1 40 September 4, 2000 ( ) December 5, 2001 ( 2001-12-05 ) 2 25 May 16, 2002 ( ) February 25, 2003 ( 2003-02-25 ) Characters [ edit ] Dogs [ edit ] Humans [ edit ] Production [ edit ] The series was produced by Mike Young Productions and Scholastic Studios. Setting [ edit ] Birdwell Island Series Clifford the Big Red Dog Type Island First appearance "My Best Friend" Last appearance Clifford's Really Big Movie The TV series takes place in the fictional island of Birdwell Island, where Clifford lives. The name is inspired by Norman Bridwell, the author of the books, but the letters I and R are switched. It is based on Martha's Vineyard, where Bridwell lived.[9] Emily Elizabeth used to live in an apartment in New York City, but she moved away with her parents and Clifford to Birdwell Island because her mother told her that a small apartment is no place for a big dog like Clifford. Format [ edit ] The series has at least 5 segments in the show, which are: Theme Song 1st Story - The opening theme is followed by the first central story, which is about the dogs, and a problem they face. Storytime with Speckle - Between the first and second story, Emily Elizabeth reads Clifford the Speckle Story, a small 60 seconds (approximately) time filler about a fictional dog (Speckle), and his animal friends. 2nd Story - This is followed by another central story, about Emily Elizabeth and her friends. Clifford's Big Ideas - Before the credits, another 30-second short takes place called Clifford's Big Ideas. The short is basically an animation of an etiquette, a proverb, or basic truth such as "Play Fair", "Help Others", etc., with narration by Emily Elizabeth. This segment was cut-out on PBS Kids Channel airings. On UK airings, only one story is shown with either the Storytime with Speckle or the Clifford's Big Ideas segments at the end, shortening the show to only about 15 Minutes. International broadcast [ edit ] Clifford the Big Red Dog was shown on BBC One and Tiny Pop in United Kingdom. It also aired in Canada on CBC and in Latin America on Discovery Kids. 2019 reboot [ edit ] A reboot was announced on May 16, 2018 by Scholastic, and will premiere in late 2019.[5] Scholastic, Brown Bag Films and 100 Chickens Productions will produce the series.[10] In other media [ edit ] In 1988, before the television series, six direct-to-video episodes based on the Clifford the Big Red Dog children's book series by Norman Bridwell, were released on videocassette by Family Home Entertainment, The Scholastic Learning Library, Nelvana, Wang Film Productions Co., Ltd., and Mendelson-Melendez Productions. The animation for direct-to-video series, came from the Peanuts cartoon team of Lee Mendelson and Bill Melendez, giving them a look similar to the Peanuts cartoons, in contrast to the later television series which was animated by Mike Young Productions. Brent Titcomb voiced Clifford in the videos, and Alyson Court voiced Emily Elizabeth. Film [ edit ] In 2004, Warner Bros. Pictures distributed a feature-length animated film based on the show titled Clifford's Really Big Movie. It was about Clifford, Cleo and T-Bone joining an animal show to win a lifetime supply of dog food to provide for Clifford. This was John Ritter's last film as he died on September 11, 2003, after completing voice work for the film. The film was dedicated to his memory.[citation needed] The movie also stars Wayne Brady as Shackleford the Ferret, Judge Reinhold as Amazing Larry, John Goodman as George Wolfsbottom, and Jenna Elfman as Dorothy the Cow. The film also serves as the series finale. Video Games [ edit ] Original series [ edit ] Clifford's Reading Clifford's Thinking Adventures Modern series [ edit ] Clifford's Learning Activities Clifford's Musical Memory Games Clifford's Phonics Clifford's Big Puzzle Game (A Wendy's Kids' Meal DVD game, available for a limited time only) References [ edit ]Leading experts on the use of medical drugs in capital punishment have accused death penalty states of conducting a “failed experiment” with new drug combinations following a recent run of drawn-out executions in which prisoners have shown signs of distress on the gurney. Some of the country's most prominent authorities on the science of lethal injections have begun publicly to question the use of the sedative midazolam. In particular, doubts are growing about its use in combination with the painkiller hydromorphone. A concoction of the two drugs was used in this week's execution in Arizona of a convicted double-murderer, Joseph Wood, which took nearly two hours to complete. It was also used in the earlier judicial killing in Ohio of Dennis McGuire, convicted of rape and murder, who gasped for air over the course of 26 minutes. “There have been two executions using midazolam and hydromorphone, and both have led to problems. That indicates that it's possible that the combination doesn't work. These are failed experiments with this drug combination,” said David Waisel, associate professor of anaesthesia at Harvard medical school who has acted as an expert defence witness in many capital cases. “Given the two recent events it seems irresponsible to continue trying this combination.” Mark Heath, a Columbia University anaesthesiologist in New York, and also a lethal injection expert, pointed out that of the 12 executions in which midazolam has been deployed, “four did not really go as you'd expect or want”. He said: "The common theme is that in all of them the prisoner seems to go to sleep but keeps moving or breathing for long after you'd expect that to happen.” He added that the use of midazolam was “at this point clearly a failed experiment”. The experts' warnings add to pressure on the death penalty states that are wrestling with the fallout of recent botched or prolonged executions, most recently that of Wood on Wednesday. Eyewitnesses reported that the prisoner gasped for more than an hour, like “a fish on shore gulping for air”. John McCain, the Arizona senator, said the procedure had been “bollocks-upped” and said it was tantamount to torture – a charge all the more potent because McCain was a victim of torture in Vietnam. The department of justice is investigating the way executions are carried out. President Obama ordered the review in the wake of the lethal injection of Clayton Lockett in Oklahoma in April, which also involved midazolam, in which he writhed and groaned on the gurney for 43 minutes. It took so long for Wood to die on Wednesday that his lawyers even tried, one hour into the procedure, to persuade a judge to order it be stopped and Wood resuscitated. The transcript of the phone conversation between Wood's lawyer, a federal judge and Arizona state officials revealed both the primitive medical set-up inside the death chamber and the ignorance of officials about basic medical matters. Jeffrey Zick, a lawyer with the Arizona attorney general's office, told Judge Neil Wake that “Mr Wood is effectively brain dead.” Asked by the judge whether the prisoner had probes attached to his head to prove that he was brain dead, Zick said no, but insisted that a medically trained individual had observed Wood to be in that condition. But Waisel, the Harvard professor, told the Guardian that someone who is brain dead will stop breathing unless kept alive on a ventilator. “There is no way anyone could ever look at someone and make that kind of diagnosis. He was still breathing, so he was not brain dead. This is an example where they threw out a term that has a precise medical definition, but they didn't know what it means.” Other independent experts agreed. “If you are taking breaths, you are not brain dead. Period,” said Dr Chitra Venkat, clinical associate professor of neurology and neurological sciences at Stanford University. “That is not compatible with brain death, at all. In fact, it is not compatible with any form of death.” Vikrat said that lethal injection is not compatible with declaring someone brain dead because the drug cocktail used in the process is not meant to cause brain death. The drugs used in Arizona are intended to stop someone from breathing, while drugs used in other states are directed at ending cardiac functions. “To declare somebody brain dead really, you have to go through all these steps and all these checklists to say: 'yes this person has some irreversible, catastrophic structural damage to the brain,' which this person didn’t have," she said. "So you have to have that. You should not be under any influence of heavy sedative drugs, as this person was.” Brain stem activity and brain death are mutually exclusive, said Dr Robert D Stevens, associate professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. “Gasping is really just a variance of breathing, and breathing is mediated specifically via the brain stem,” Stevens said. “Any type of breathing, gasping, whatever it is, immediately indicates that the patient is not brain dead.” Underlining much of the controversy that has engulfed the death penalty in recent months is the shroud of secrecy that many states have thrown around the drugs they use in lethal injections. States, including Arizona, are refusing to divulge who manufactured the drugs in the hope of keeping supply lines open amid a worldwide blockade of the chemicals being sold to corrections departments. In the case of Arizona, it indicated that its supplies of midazolam and hydromorphone were approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) but it produced no evidence to that effect. The state also refused to disclose the medical or other qualifications of its execution team. Lawyers acting on behalf of condemned prisoners have protested that the secrecy exposes the men to potential cruel and unusual punishment – a violation of the eighth amendment of the US constitution. The courts, including the US supreme court, have dismissed the argument so far, but now medical experts are also warning about potentially dire consequences. “We don't know where the drugs came from, their quality, or whether they were produced in an FDA-approved manufacturing site. That means we don't know the quality or concentration of the drugs, and that could cause the problems we saw in Arizona,” Waisel said. Waisel expresses no view on whether or not America should practise the death penalty. But he told the Guardian: “If we are going to have the death penalty – one of the most solemn things the state can do – then it has to be done perfectly. If states cannot do it perfectly, then they should not do it.”A congressman once admitted to me that he and his colleagues know a lot of things, generally speaking, but their knowledge only “extends about one inch deep.” In other words, the briefings provided by staffers and in committees is intended to touch only on what is important to know to look well informed in front of the C-SPAN cameras without any unnecessary depth that would only create confusion. And the information provided must generally conform to what the congressmen already believe to be true and want to hear so no one will be embarrassed. That such ignorance would be particularly notable in the realm of foreign policy should surprise no one because congressmen as a group are no longer very well educated. Few speak foreign languages and no one any longer studies the history or culture of any country but the United States, and sometimes not even that. Some Congressmen nevertheless boast about all the countries they have visited to “fact find.” They fail to recognize how they travel in a bubble, whisked to foreign lands via military aircraft on the virtually worthless congressional delegations known as CODELS. On these trips, spouses go shopping while American legislators are briefed by the ambassador’s staff and the CIA station, both of which, for budget reasons, are more interested in demonstrating what a wonderful job they are doing rather than explaining the complexity of the local situation. And that is followed by the obligatory visit to listen to the local head of state lie about how everything is going just fine in his country. Given the reality of garbage in, garbage out, it is no wonder that buffoons like Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham are lauded as foreign-policy experts in the Republican Party. It’s called setting the bar really low. For a Congress intent on appearing to be doing something while doing nothing, one of the worst time wasters is the committee hearing, where the senators and congressmen call in “experts” to explain to them why a certain policy is either worthwhile or useless. Of course, it usually doesn’t exactly play out that way, as the committee generally wants to hear testimony that supports its preconceptions about whatever is being discussed, so it only invites those to the party who will say what it wants to hear. Advertisement To cite only one of many examples of Congress’s unwillingness to listen to any opinion that might challenge the establishment view, a February 16 hearing by the House Foreign Affairs Committee entitled “Iran on Notice” featured four “experts,” all of whom were hostile to Iran and advocates of “solutions” ranging from actively encouraging regime change to using military force. No one knowledgeable enough to explain Iran’s behavior and/or offer non-confrontational approaches was invited or asked to participate. I have been closely following some recent hearings that relate to Russia, most particularly the Senate Judiciary session that was supposed to look into the issue of registry under the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938 for Russian agents. The hearing, which started on July 26, and was extended to the following day, was entitled “Oversight of the Foreign Agents Registration Act and Attempts to Influence U.S. Elections: Lessons Learned from Current and Prior Administrations.” The first day’s session included statements by three Justice Department and FBI officials regarding how the FARA legislation is enforced and how presumed violations of it are investigated. There were some specific comments and questions from individual senators regarding Russian and Saudi government attempts to influence opinion in the United States, but little in the way of drama. The second day was for additional “expert testimony.” It consisted of billionaire hedge-fund director William Browder, who read a prepared statement and then responded to questions. (Video of the statement and the following discussion are available here, with Browder beginning at minute 24.) Browder, who clearly has his own agenda to debunk a film made last year attacking him and a narrative about a former employee Sergei Magnitsky that he has been promoting, was embraced by the senators, who should have known better. Veteran award-winning journalist Robert Parry describes what took place: “…last week, Senate Judiciary Committee members sat in rapt attention as hedge-fund operator William Browder wowed them with a reprise of his Magnitsky tale and suggested that people who have challenged the narrative and those who dared air the documentary one time at Washington’s Newseum last year should be prosecuted for violating the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA).” Not even one senator challenged William Browder’s sometimes extraordinary claims about Russia’s government in general and its President Vladimir Putin in particular, including that Putin is the richest man in the world due to all the money that he has stolen. As Browder appears to be seeking to use FARA to punish those who have criticized him or even watched a movie about him based on the assumption that they must be Russian agents, he might well be regarded as not exactly a disinterested source providing objective information about Russia and its government. American-born British citizen Browder has been the principal promoter of a narrative about Russian government malfeasance relating to his former employee Sergei Magnitsky, who, Browder claims, was a courageous whistleblower who was falsely arrested after exposing corruption and eventually died in a Moscow prison after being tortured. Browder’s energetic promotion of the Magnitsky story has poisoned relations with Moscow and led to the passage of the Magnitsky Act by Congress in 2012. Russia rightly has seen the legislation, which includes sanctions on some officials, as unwarranted interference in the operation of its judicial system. Browder astutely portrays himself as a human-rights campaigner dedicated to promoting the legacy of Magnitsky, but his own biography is inevitably much more complicated than that. The grandson of Earl Browder, the former general secretary of the American Communist Party, William Browder studied economics at the University of Chicago, and obtained an MBA from Stanford. From the beginning, Browder concentrated on Eastern Europe, which was beginning to open up to the west. In 1989 he took a position at highly respected Boston Consulting Group dealing with reviving failing Polish socialist enterprises. He then worked as an Eastern Europe analyst for Robert Maxwell, the unsavory British press magnate and Mossad spy, before joining the Russia team at Wall Street’s Salomon Brothers in 1992. He left Salomon in 1996 and partnered with Edmond Safra, the controversial Lebanese-Brazilian-Jewish banker who died under mysterious circumstances in a fire in 1999, to set up Hermitage Capital Management Fund. [Editor’s Note: After this article was published the family of Edmond Safra contacted TAC an asked that the following statement be included for the record: The tragic death of Edmond J. Safra in 1999 was caused by criminal arson. The crime of setting the fire was legally established in Monaco court in 2002 after Mr. Safra’s nurse, Ted Maher, admitted to setting the fire. He was found guilty and was sentenced to ten years in prison.] Hermitage is registered in tax havens Guernsey and the Cayman Islands. It is a hedge fund that was focused on “investing” in Russia, taking advantage initially of the loans-for-shares scheme under Boris Yeltsin, and then continuing to profit greatly during the early years of Vladimir Putin’s ascendancy. By 2005 Hermitage was the largest foreign investor in Russia. Browder had renounced his U.S. citizenship in 1997 and became a British citizen apparently to avoid American taxes, which are levied on worldwide income. In his book, Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder and One Man’s Fight for Justice, he depicts himself as an honest and honorable Western businessman attempting to function in a corrupt Russian business world. That may or may not be true, but the loans-for-shares scheme that made him his initial fortune has been correctly characterized as the epitome of corruption, an arrangement whereby foreign “investors” worked with local oligarchs to strip the former Soviet economy of its assets paying pennies on each dollar of value. Along the way, Browder was reportedly involved in making false representations on official documents and bribery. As a consequence of what came to be known as the Magnitsky scandal, Browder was eventually charged by the Russian authorities for fraud and tax evasion. He was banned from reentering Russia in 2005, even before Magnitsky died, and began to withdraw his assets from the country. Three companies controlled by Hermitage were eventually seized by the authorities, though it is not clear if any of their assets remained in Russia. Browder himself was convicted of tax evasion in absentia in 2013 and sentenced to nine years in prison. Browder has assiduously, and mostly successfully, made his case that he and Magnitsky have been the victims of Russian corruption both during and since that time, though there have been credible skeptics, including Israel Shamir, who have dissected the sordid side to his rise to power and wealth. Browder has reportedly used political contributions and threats of lawsuits filed by his battery of lawyers to popularize and sell his tale to leading American politicians like Senators John McCain and Ben Cardin, ex-Senator Joe Lieberman, as well as to a number of European parliamentarians and media outlets. But there is, inevitably, another side to the story, something quite different, which documentary filmmaker Andrei Nekrasov, an outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, presented to the viewer in his film The Magnitsky Act: Behind the Scenes. The film has only been shown publicly once, at the Newseum in Washington on June 13, 2016—a viewing that I attended, and that proceeded in spite of threats from Browder and attempted disruption by his supporters. Browder has characteristically used lawsuits and threats of still more legal action to intimidate numerous television stations in Europe and prevent additional showings. Nekrasov discovered what he believed to be holes in the narrative about Magnitsky that had been carefully constructed and nurtured by Browder. He provides documents and also an interview with Magnitsky’s mother maintaining that there is no clear evidence that he was beaten or tortured and that he died instead due to the failure to provide him with medicine while in prison or treatment shortly after he had a heart attack. A subsequent investigation ordered by then Russian President Dimitri Medvedev in 2011 confirmed that Magnitsky had not received medical treatment, contributing to this death, but could not demonstrate that he had been beaten even though there was suspicion that that might have been the case. Nekrasov also claimed that much of the case against the Russian authorities is derived from English language translations of relevant documents provided by Browder himself. The actual documents sometimes say something quite different, including that Magnitsky is consistently referred to as an accountant, which he was, not as a lawyer, which he wasn’t. Browder calls him a lawyer because it better fits into his preferred narrative. Magnitsky the accountant appears in the document of his deposition which was apparently part of a criminal investigation of possible tax fraud, meaning that he was no whistleblower and was instead a suspected criminal. Other discrepancies are cited by Nekrasov, who concludes that there was indeed a huge fraud related to Russian taxes but that it was not carried out by corrupt officials. Instead, it was deliberately ordered and engineered by Browder with Magnitsky, the accountant, personally developing and implementing the scheme used to carry out the deception. To be sure, Browder and his international legal team have presented documents in the case that contradict much of what Nekrasov has presented in his film. It might be that Browder and Magnitsky have been the victims of a corrupt and venal state, but it just might be the other way around. Having a highly politicized Congress and a vengeful Browder lining up against a conveniently unpopular Russian government just might suggest that one is hearing a narrative that peddles lies as much as it tells the truth. The Senate just might consider looking more deeply into Browder’s business activities while in Russia before jumping to conclusions and bringing him in as an “expert” on anything. He should not be given a free pass because he is saying things about Russia and Putin that fit neatly into a Washington establishment profile and make Senators smile and nod their heads. As soon as folks named McCain, Cardin and Lieberman jump on a cause, it should be time to step back a bit and reflect on what the consequences of proposed action might be. One might also ask why anyone who has a great deal to gain by having a certain narrative accepted should be completely and unquestionably trusted, the venerable Cui bono? standard. And then there is a certain evasiveness on the part of Browder, who notably makes outrageous claims about the Russians but does not do so under oath, where he might be subject to legal consequences for perjury. The film shows him huffing and puffing to explain himself at times and he has avoided being served with subpoenas on allegations connected to the Magnitsky fraud that are making their way through American courts. In one case, he can be seen on YouTube running away from a server, somewhat unusual behavior if he has nothing to hide. So, if you wonder why the United States Congress makes such bad decisions, it just might be due to the kind of information that it gets when it travels the world and holds hearings. Inviting a man who has renounced his U.S. citizenship to avoid paying taxes, who likely engaged in questionable business practices, and who very definitely has his own agenda, which includes vilifying the Kremlin, is hardly the way to go if one truly wants to understand Russia, particularly as no one participated in the hearing to rebut his claims. And if fining American citizens or forcing them to register as enemy agents because they may have supported or gone to see a movie is reflective of that gentleman’s mindset, there is even more good reason to reject the snake oil that he might be selling. Philip Giraldi, a former CIA officer, is executive director of the Council for the National Interest.Dan Daigle Buck: 191-Inch State Record Jeff Brown - The fact that the 2012 season produced a new Massachusetts state archery record is not exactly surprising, given that this is the third year in a row that the Northeast Big Buck Club has recorded a new record for the Bay State's archers. By all indications, the trophy bowhunting in this state is getting better every year, and we can expect records to be broken (or at least challenged) every season for the foreseeable future. But there is almost always more to the story behind a great buck — more than just records and scores. There is "the story behind the story," that unique sequence of events that weaves a tapestry of opportunities, successes, failures and relationships that define the best of our hunting experiences. The story of Dan Daigle's 2012 Massachusetts archery record is certainly a case in point. Hunter Profile: Dan Daigle At 50 years old, Daigle is an avid and very experienced deer hunter who has been chasing whitetails for much of his hunting career. Almost all of Daigle's 30-plus deer have been taken in central Massachusetts. Daigle's first buck hit the ground in 1995, and it was worth the wait — a fantastic 140-inch 8-pointer taken with a shotgun. By 2009, Daigle was a serious deer hunter with years of experience, finely honed scouting and hunting skills and access to some outstanding properties. That year, Daigle killed another great Worcester County buck with his shotgun — an 11-pointer that would mark the beginning of our story of the new state-record archery buck for this state. Sadly, Daigle's brother, Dave, passed away in 2007. Daigle lost not only a brother but also a hunting partner. His sister-in-law gave Daigle many of Dave's hunting possessions, including his shotgun and many of his hunting accessories. Daigle could not bring himself to use any of the equipment until 2009, when he took out Dave's shotgun for the firearms season. While hunting from the ground on one of his favorite properties, Daigle shot the great 11-pointer mentioned earlier. It was his best buck to-date, and it was not lost on him that he shot the buck with Dave's shotgun. That deer, and that hunt, carried a deep meaning for Daigle. When he recovered the buck, he realized that the great deer had led him to a fantastic hunting spot. While not far from where he generally hunted, this was a perfect funnel in one of those areas that just "spoke to him." It was a place that inspired confidence from the first moment he laid eyes on it. Daigle hunted the funnel from the ground during the 2010 gun season and felt so confident about the spot that he hung a stand there for the 2011 season, from which he killed a doe and spotted a 6-pointer. Although Daigle had hunted the area several times since 2009 without seeing a big buck and had yet to catch a big buck there on his trail camera, the spot had such good sign and inspired so much confidence that he planned to hunt there again in 2012. And, of course, it held the memory of the buck he had killed with his brother's shotgun. As far as Daigle was concerned, this was "the stand." The 2012 Season Daigle's 2012 archery season could not have started better. While hunting a different property in Worcester County, he arrowed a very nice 175-pound 9-pointer on October 25. It was his biggest buck to date with a bow. As thrilled as he was, Daigle could not wait to get back into the woods and was especially looking forward to hunting "the stand" for the first time that season. But he had to wait for the wind to be right. The first time he hunted "the stand" in 2012, he did not see any deer, but he did see a bobcat with a red squirrel in its mouth — just another sign that this place was special. The second time Daigle hunted the stand he was rewarded with a great opportunity at another big 9-pointer. He missed it cleanly and, as you might imagine, he was very disappointed. However, that miss turned out to be a fortunate and very important event, because in Massachusetts you can only kill two bucks per season. Had he connected on the 9-pointer, Daigle would have been tagged out. Instead, he was more focused than ever and more confident than ever about "the stand." The Day of The Hunt: November 14, 2012 Daigle worked the morning of November 14, but he had planned to hunt that afternoon with his friend, Craig Bacon. Bacon and Daigle had been good friends for years, and he had started hunting with Craig after Dave died. Daigle checked the wind and knew it was perfect for "the stand." He sent Bacon a text message early in the day and the duo planned to meet there. He left work a half-hour early, went home, showered and met Bacon. They went into the hunting spot together, but Bacon decided to sit in another stand 300 yards away. On the way to his stand Daigle pulled out a bottle of Code Blue dominant buck scent that Dave had purchased before he passed away. For sentimental reasons, Daigle used it on a drag rag as he headed to his stand, then hung it near a mock scrape he had made a few weeks earlier. Daigle was finally settled at 3:25 p.m. and texted Bacon to let him know. Someone on a farm about 500 yards away was running a chain saw, so Daigle sat quietly until about 3:45 p.m., when the noise stopped. After that, he did a series of bleats mixed with a few grunts. At 4:10 p.m., Daigle bleated and grunted again, and as he stuck the grunt tube in his jacket, he heard a loud snap. At first, it seemed too loud to be a deer walking. Then Daigle realized it was a deer raking some trees with his antlers! Daigle's heartbeat accelerated as he was now sure he heard a deer walking. His eyes followed the noise, and sure enough he saw a flicker of brown moving through the woods towards some hemlocks. Daigle removed his bow from the hook as his eyes spotted what appeared to be a rack moving through the trees about 45 yards away. With his heart pounding, Daigle watched the buck emerge about 30 yards away at the edge of a small natural clearing. A giant buck had stopped there and was looking down towards Dan's scrape dripper and scent rag. He was close enough for a shot but was quartering towards Daigle. Although he knew the buck was huge, Daigle kept his eyes off the rack and focused on a spot behind his shoulder, praying the big buck would turn and present a shot. Simultaneously, he scanned ahead of the deer, looking for a good shooting lane. The buck stepped forward and then brought his back leg up and scratched under his chin at about 25 yards. That's when Daigle drew. He thought he had a perfect opening, but there was a small branch half way between him and the buck. He had to hold the draw and wait for the deer to move again. After what seemed like an eternity, the deer took another step. Daigle mouth-bleated and the buck stopped at 21 yards. He let an arrow fly. Daigle saw the lighted nock penetrate just behind the front leg, and the buck whirled and kicked. He bounded once, and on the second bound Daigle got a clear view of the rack from directly behind and realized how huge this buck was! The wounded monster retreated exactly how he had arrived. Daigle heard branches snapping, then a loud single crash. He listened as the buck thrashed momentarily, and then the woods went silent. Daigle assumed the buck was down, but he did not know for sure. His body shaking and his mind racing with adrenaline, Daigle hung his bow back up on the hook and sat down in disbelief. "The stand" had lived up to his expectations. At that moment, Daigle thought that he might have just killed a 160-class buck. Was he ever wrong'¦ The Recovery Daigle immediately called Bacon, exclaiming that he had "shot a corker!" Bacon is an experienced hunter, and, upon hearing the excitement in Daigle's voice, instructed him not to get down from his stand yet. But Daigle was so fired up that he told Craig he had to get down before he fell out the tree! He promised to wait for Bacon at the base of the tree. Of course, he did not! Once down he packed everything up quietly and, while the fading light still provided some help, he tried to find his arrow. After looking in the wrong spot, he put on his headlamp. He re-aligned with the stand and finally found some hair and small spots of blood. He started looking for the arrow but could not find it. Daigle marked the shot area with flagging tape and waited for Bacon. Once he arrived, Bacon found the arrow about 20 feet away, soaked with blood. They immediately assumed the arrow must have hit the opposite leg on exit and popped out when the buck kicked. When Bacon looked closely at the blood-covered arrow, he nodded knowingly and said; "You killed this deer!" Bacon is an excellent deer tracker, and had helped Daigle with a tough tracking job on the buck he killed earlier in the year. Bacon knew (and so did Daigle) that the smartest thing to do was back out quietly and come back in an hour. Daigle, of course, was sure the buck was dead and could not be convinced to leave. Despite the obvious risk, they pressed on. About 15 yards from the shot site, Bacon noticed a broken pine branch. In another 10-15 yards, the blood trail still consisted of drops and splashes. Then, after 40 yards on the trail, Bacon again tried to convince Daigle that they should back out. Daigle told Bacon he knew he made a heart shot and did not want to leave. At first, Daigle grudgingly agreed to sit down and wait for an hour, but after just a few minutes, he could wait no longer, and the two men decided to slowly and carefully take up the trail. They came into some low laurel where Daigle found a bunch of blood on the laurel. They went to the end of the laurel and there, 25 yards ahead, Daigle spotted the buck lying down, with the giant rack sticking up. They found him! After composing themselves, the two men took some photos, tagged the deer, phoned their friend Keith, and got a four-wheeler to haul the big buck out. The next morning, they checked the buck in and it officially weighed in at 201 pounds. Later, as friends gathered and savored the moment, Bacon said to Daigle, "I wish your brother could be here, and I'm so proud to be part of this with you." Daigle remembers thinking to himself that Dave was a big part of this, even if he was only with them in spirit. Summary The 16-point Daigle buck, scored by Boone & Crockett measurer Lonnie Desmarias, grossed a whopping 197 0/8 inches gross and netted 191 0/8 inches as a non-typical, breaking the existing Massachusetts state record by seven inches, according to the Northeast Big Buck Club records. biggest-bucks-of-2012 Editor's Note: For more information about the Northeast Big Buck Club, or to purchase their latest record book with more than 10,000 of the Northeast's best bucks, visit bigbuckclub.com or call (508) 752-8762.TORONTO -- To get a sense for the significance of the Seattle Sounders' first MLS Cup championship, consider the collective mental state of their opponent ahead of this weekend's rematch. Prior to last December, the Sounders had been tagged as perennial playoff underachievers. The consistent regular-season success, huge crowds they attracted to CenturyLink Field and U.S. Open Cups were all well and good, but without a league title, those accomplishments had begun to ring hollow. The club needed a championship to validate all the rest. Those are sentiments Toronto FC can identify with as it seeks its own inaugural MLS Cup on Saturday at BMO Field (4 p.m. ET, ESPN/WatchESPN). TFC is on the brink of the greatest single season and first treble in MLS history, having already lifted the Supporters' Shield and Canadian Cup trophies; yet it also knows that without one more win, all those previous victories will be looked upon differently. Expectation
newspaper for many reasons: to be entertained, to be outraged, perhaps even for news and opinion. But it would probably be fair to assume that in order to be a potent tool for political influence, trust is important. It's equally possible that the shrill advocacy of political self interest that the Murdoch tabloids have indulged in through the course of this campaign is actually undermining the quality of the relationship they enjoy with their audiences. And sagging trust must surely show eventually in sales, a point at which, it's safe to predict, the tabloids might be tempted to soften their polemic. It is a conventional wisdom of our times that people are increasingly disengaged from the day to day of our politics. Having a newspaper shout its advocacy down their throats might not be a winning tactic in the war for circulation. Not that circulation is the be all and end all. Niche Murdoch publications like The Australian are proof that commercial failure can be indulged if there is a pay-off through the daily capacity to shape the news agenda. There's little doubt that The Australian - trust factor 31 per cent and with a readership that challenges the routine definitions of "mass media" - punches well above the weight of its slim circulation in agenda-tilting influence. It may well be that through the course of this campaign both the Government and its sympathisers have given the News Corp campaign more credit than is in all likelihood due. Papers that few people trust screaming political invective at the top of their lungs might not be a determining political influence. For one thing, it's just the sort of top-down 'father knows best' approach to publishing that is the very essence of dinosaur media... a sense of the audience relationship that is unchanged from the comfortable one-way street of 20th century journalism and one that is quickly being overwhelmed by the new age of interactivity, diversity and quick response. All of which is to say that while pushing a heated and emphatic political line might be an institutional habit and act of faith for the Murdoch empire, it's a leap of the imagination that flatters the waning impact of newspapers to say that it could actually determine the outcome of an election. It may suit the "evil empire" prejudices of the anti-Murdoch left to argue that case, as much as it might flatter the vanity of Murdoch and his minions, but the assumption that the shouted demands of a tabloid newspaper can steer a voting public that is either spoilt for media choice or actively disengaged from federal politics seems fanciful. That disengagement seems to be a more telling factor than any other. The same sense of near universal "whatever" that has enabled a campaign marked by persistent "truthiness" and misrepresentation suggests that politicians these days need to present little more than consistent insistence to convince the voting public. In any event, 65 per cent of us take the slightly defeated position that either party will do or say anything to win our favour. In an atmosphere so poisoned by that kind of jaded electoral ennui, what the Daily Telegraph has to say on the matter is neither here nor there, and far from our biggest political problem. Jonathan Green is the presenter of Sunday Extra on Radio National and a former editor of The Drum. View his full profile here. Topics: print-media, journalism, media, federal-elections(Reuters) - U.S. stocks fell on Thursday, hit by nervousness ahead of Friday’s jobs report and lingering uncertainty over a Greece aid deal with creditors. Declining oil and gold prices also weighed on energy and materials shares, which led declines in the benchmark S&P 500. Data showed the labor market tightening, with first-time applications for unemployment aid down last week and the number of people on benefit rolls hitting the lowest level since 2000, suggesting the Federal Reserve will remain on track to raise interest rates later this year. The data came ahead of Friday’s key U.S. jobs report, expected to show a 225,000 gain in non-farm payrolls, according to a Reuters estimate. “The concern is tomorrow and the jobs number, that is where all the focus is,” said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment officer of Solaris Group in Bedford Hills, New York. “Probably the concern (is) that it is going to be a good number.” Some investors think stronger jobs numbers could increase chances the Fed might raise rates sooner rather than later. Adding to investor concerns, Greece delayed a debt payment to the International Monetary Fund due on Friday and German Chancellor Angela Merkel said talks on a cash-for-reforms deal were still far from an agreement. The Dow Jones industrial average.DJI fell 170.69 points, or 0.94 percent, to 17,905.58, the S&P 500.SPX lost 18.23 points, or 0.86 percent, to 2,095.84 and the Nasdaq Composite.IXIC dropped 40.11 points, or 0.79 percent, to 5,059.13. Investors also digested the International Monetary Fund’s comment urging the Fed not to raise rates until there are clear signs of a pickup in wages and inflation. In a bearish sign, the S&P 500 closed below its 50-day moving average, a key technical indicator. The S&P materials index.SPLRCM fell 1.3 percent, while the energy index.SPNY declined 1.2 percent. Oil prices eased for a second day ahead of an OPEC decision which could keep the market oversupplied. Shares of chemical maker LyondellBasell Industries (LYB.N) lost 3.2 percent at $99.48, leading declines in the materials sector. Delta Air Lines Inc (DAL.N) dipped 0.7 percent to $42.92 after it said its operating profit margin this quarter could be lower than it expected, with airlines hit by weaker U.S. demand. Shares of American Airlines (AAL.O) dropped 2.2 percent to $42.17. On the plus side, Five Below (FIVE.O) shares jumped 7.6 percent to $37.77 after the teen merchandise retailer increased its full-year forecast. After the bell, shares of Zumiez (ZUMZ.O) dropped 8.4 percent to $27.25 as it estimated current-quarter profit and revenue below analysts’ expectations. A screen displays stock charts while a trader works at his post on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange, May 30, 2013. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid During the session, declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by 2,374 to 677, for a 3.51-to-1 ratio; on the Nasdaq, 1,994 issues fell and 769 advanced for a 2.59-to-1 ratio favoring decliners. The S&P 500 posted four new 52-week highs and six new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 83 new highs and 32 new lows. About 6.3 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, slightly above the 6.2 billion average for the last five sessions, according to BATS Global Markets.Mr Juncker said that fighting fraud and tax avoidance and evasion are among his Commission’s top ten priorities. "We need to move towards tax harmonization. The internal market is incomplete in the area of corporate taxation", he told MEPs in his opening remarks. He also pointed to the difficulties of aligning all EU member states - which have a veto on tax issues - but cited the example of the harmonized systems used to collect Value Added Tax (VAT) and excise duties to show that a common approach is not impossible. Council committee on taxation? Mr Juncker suggested that the Council should establish a committee on taxation, like that on financial and economic issues. Such a committee should build on the work of the current Code of Conduct Group in the Council and report to ministers. "We should also convince our partners in the G20 group to better adjust our systems. But we should also be prepared to go ahead without them", he added. Asked about his past role as Luxembourg’s finance minister, Mr Juncker said that he had never stated a position on individual rules set by the Luxembourg tax authorities. "Of course I met with companies like Commerzbank, but I never talked about tax issues with them", he said. Mr Juncker was clearly not pleased by MEPs’ continuous references to "’Luxleaks’: Tax rulings are common practice in many member states. It should instead be ‘EUleaks’", he said. Level playing field Burkhard Balz (EPP, DE) asked what he should tell the Small and Medium Sized firms that ask him why they have to meet all their tax obligations whereas big multinationals pay almost none. Mr Juncker replied that the Commission was working for greater tax equality. "First of all, we need to move forward on a common corporate tax base”, he said. Transparency Rapporteur Elisa Ferreira (S&D, PT) said that the committee’s fact-finding work had taught her that eroding other countries’ tax bases is common practice in the EU. She insisted that member states are overly secretive when it comes to tax agreements. The Tax Rulings Committee’s co-rapporteur, Michael Theurer agreed that discussion among member states needs to be more open: "Which countries encourage companies to relocate? Which countries are blocking possible solutions? And why can we not get access to key documents?", he asked. Sven Giegold (Greens, DE) said that the proceedings of the Council’s Code of Conduct group needed to be more transparent: "We want to know who blocked decisions", he insisted. He added that if this committee was not in a position to fulfil its mandate, then an inquiry committee (with greater investigative powers), should be established instead. Whistle blowers Bernd Lucke (ECR, DE) said that whenever a company relocates within in the EU, a check should be done to ascertain whether it has been promised tax benefits in its new host country. GUE's Fabio de Massi (DE) insisted whistle blowers, like Antoine Deltour, should receive better protection, instead of being prosecuted. Mr Juncker agreed, but said this would require a European approach. What’s cooking? Commissioner Pierre Moscovici explained that he - like Mr Juncker - favours a common consolidated corporate tax base, but that this requires a step-by-step approach: "We should start with a common base and in a second phase we might try for consolidation, so as to combine the possible with the desirable", he told MEPs. On the possibility of introducing mandatory country-by-country reporting for multinational companies, Mr Moscovici said he wanted to see the results of a public consultation and an impact study first. He was more reticent about the possibility of sharing more tax-related information with Parliament: "There are limits to what we can transfer", he said..Home Daily News Leader of sovereign citizens group gets 18-year… Criminal Justice Leader of sovereign citizens group gets 18-year sentence for tax crimes An Alabama man accused of teaching seminars on how to use phony bonds to avoid paying taxes has been sentenced to 18 years in prison. James Timothy Turner, also known as Tim Turner, was convicted in March on charges that included conspiracy to defraud the United States and attempting to pay taxes with false financial instruments, according to AL.com, a Justice Department press release and an article by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Turner was president of the largest sovereign citizen group in the country, according to the SPLC. Turner traveled the country in 2008 and 2009, teaching seminars on how to avoid paying taxes, mortgages and other debt by creating phony bonds, prosecutors say. He also taught others how to file retaliatory liens against government officials who interfered with the processing of the fake bonds, according to the Justice Department. The government says the FBI began investigating Turner after he and three other “guardian elders” sent demands to the governors of every state order in March 2010 ordering them to resign so they could be replaced by a sovereign leader. Those who didn’t resign would be removed, the demands said. Turner’s group, the Republic for the united States of America (RuSA) has been working to build a shadow government that would take over if the federal government collapses, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.Below are pictures of an interesting looking Videotex terminal with an Elenco AgVision front label but could easily be mistaken for a Tandy Color Computer. The bottom reveals a TRS-80 Videotex Terminal label with a model number that is not familiar. This is the AgVision Videotex terminal in a striking blue painted case. This terminal was used in the agriculture industry by farmers who would be connected to Videotex services to access farming information and services. This terminal is reported to be the father of the CoCo computer as it developed from a terminal to a full blown computer, since much of the logic is already there. It differs from a Coco in that it does not have all of the ports or even a cartridge port since this was a dedicated device. Pictures are below.The Washington Nationals have activated star pitcher Stephen Strasburg from the disabled list. He will start Sunday afternoon for the Nats vs the Indians. Strasburg has missed the last couple weeks with a latissimus muscle strain. Before the injury, Strasburg has been his usual dominant self this season with 73 strikeouts in 74 1/3 innings this year. He also has a 2.54 ERA and 1.06 WHIP through 12 starts. Unfortunately a lack of run support has led to Strasburg having a 3-5 record on the year. Last season Strasburg went 15-6, with 197 strikeouts in 159 1/3 innings, pitched, a 3.16 ERA, and a 1.15 WHIP as the Nationals ran away with the division. He was shut down for the end of the year and playoffs though as the Nationals wanted him on an innings limit just one year after Tommy John Surgery. The decision was controversial, to say the least. Strasburg has been rehabbing by throwing a 56 pitch simulated game on Tuesday, and a bullpen session on Thursday. Following his strong performances, and lack of discomfort in the two sessions he was cleared by doctors and trainers to return to the lineup. “It gives me a little more comfort feeling,” Nationals Manager Johnson said. “[Rookie call-up] Nathan Karns pitched pretty good for a youngster but you can’t hardly replace a Detwiler or a Strasburg.” The Nationals have also been without starter Ross Detwiler, who has also been on the disabled list. He is expected to return and start on Thursday, giving the Nationals their complete 5 man unit, back and healthy. The Nationals are 34-33 on the season and sit in 2nd place in the NL East. They sit 5.5 games behind the Atlanta Braves in the division, and 5.5 games behind the Pittsburgh Pirates in the Wild Card Standings. A return to form from their ace Strasburg would be a welcome addition as they attempt to gain ground in the playoff chase. Even though its only June, a team never wants to fall too far behind its rivals. Thanks for reading. Feel free to leave your comments below, and don’t forget to follow our baseball department on Twitter @Nvincelli, @tiltman1975 and @lastwordmark. You can also the site while you are at it – @lastwordonsport. Interested in writing for LastWordOnSports? If so, check out our “Join Our Team” page to find out how. Photo Credit: 2ND & MissChatter, Wiki Commons, CCI got trapped smelling the dry leaves of this puer tea for a full minute. The smell was quite deep and fragrant, a mix of tobacco and apricots. The fresh tobacco smell is common in raw puer tea, but to have a smell of apricots was a treat. The leaves appeared quite small, which I later read on the Yunnan Sourcing website (where the tea can be purchased) was: Due to the high altitude most of the tea trees in this area are a naturally occurring hybrid of large and small leaf (sinensis and var. assamica) After I pulled my nose out of the bag, I did a quick rinse of the tea. The gaiwan smelled slightly sweet and floral. The first steeping was calm and smooth, while still showing signs of youth. The smell coming off of the leaves was creamy. The second steeping brought out a lot of vibrancy that was not present in the first cup. The flowers became more pronounced, and a pleasant kuwei (desirable bitterness) began to emerge. The further steeps had a lovely crescendo of kuwei, that built up steep after steep, peaking around steep number nine. My throat was thoroughly coated in bitter goodness by this point. Unfortunately, the session was a victim of my busy schedule. But, had I been able to continue, the Wu Liang puer tea would have obliged far into the teens. The leaves, although small, look quite healthy. There were some slightly burned leaves (pictured below) in the sample that I had, but the flavor of ‘burn’ (see: tastes like burning) or smoke did not show up in the soup. For such a young raw puer tea, it is both pleasant and strong. Usually, if a young puer tea is too pleasant, I worry whether it lacks potential to age well. The Wu Liang Shan tea left me with no such worry. It has plenty of strength and staying power and is a bargain, at $23 for a 400g cake.Longtime UFC Lightweight contender, Melvin Guillard, was released from the UFC earlier this week after a nine year run inside the organization. Guillard most recently fought at UFC Fight Night 37 in London, losing to former training partner, Michael Johnson by unanimous decision. Guillard was criticized by both Johnson and Dana White for refusing to engage during the fight. It was certainly an off performance from Guillard, who usually is one of the most exciting fighters in the world. Guillard was on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Hour yesterday to discuss being cut by the UFC, and his reaction may surprise you: I was happy. I gave the UFC nine years. I gave them a good nine years. Honestly I gave them one bad performance, which was the London fight (against Johnson). I had two busted ribs, a busted hand in the first round, but I didn’t make any excuses in the fight. I stayed in there, I fought. I could’ve been like most fighters and just threw in the towel when I got up off the seat, but I was fighting injured. I didn’t expect to get released. I just expected (UFC matchmaker) Joe (Silva) to do the normal thing he does and sit me down for like six months, and make me ask him for a fight. But I ended up getting released, and for me, honestly, I thought it was the best thing that could happen to me right now at this point in my career. Now I can go move on with my life. I can go sign with another company, another company is going to pay me, probably, way more than I was making in the UFC. And at that point now, I have a chance to make some decent money in my career. It seems that Guillard is on his way to either the World Series of Fighting or Bellator. First reports are stating that Bellator is not interested, so we will see what happens with Guillard in the future. FanSided will keep you up to date when any new information is made available.Pool of Radiance Curse of the Azure Bonds Hillsfar Secret of the Silver Blades Pools of Darkness Gateway to the Savage Frontier Treasures of the Savage Frontier Forgotten Realms Unlimited Adventures An assorted collection of the “Pool of Radiance” and “Savage Frontier” Forgotten Realms titles A wide variety of monsters to slay, quests to complete and regions to save Assemble a party of the world’s finest Clerics, Warriors, Thieves and more, and bring them with you through their respective storylines Immerse yourself in the depth and richness of Dungeons & Dragons campaigns and the Forgotten Realms Universe The Forgotten Realm Archives - Collection Two brings a healthy mix of “Gold Box” and nostalgia goodness to your PC, along with a combination of adventure builders, turn-based and real-time role-playing gameplay. Composed of RPG classics that premiered the Forgotten Realms to video gamers, The Forgotten Realm Archives - Collection Two contains the following titles: Pool of Radiance, Curse of the Azure Bonds, Hillsfar, Secret of the Silver Blades, Pools of Darkness, Gateway to the Savage Frontier, Treasures of the Savage Frontier, Forgotten Realms Unlimited Adventures.Located on the northern shore of the Moonsea, the fabled city of Phlan has been overrun by monsters led by a mysterious leader. Your quest: uncover the identity of this evil force and rid Phlan of its scourge, restoring the city to its former glory. Along the way, you hope to find the legendary Pool of Radiance, said to glow with its own mystical power. Does it really give tremendous strength to the warrior who bathes in its magic waters? Or is that just an elfin myth? Before you meet the challenges ahead, you must create your characters and choose their races and battle skills. Then, set off on your glorious quest to drive out the monsters and let civilization reign once more!After you saved the entire city of Phlan and located the Pool of Radiance, a simple trip to Tilverton should have been as easy as a noon-day stroll. But it wasn’t… Ambushed, captured and knocked unconscious, you awake with no idea who attacked you or how you arrived in Tilverton. You only know that five azure-blue symbols are imprinted under the skin of your right arm. The mystical power of the azure symbols ensnares your will like metal bonds! And when the bonds glow, you must do as they command, No magic can dispel them, no prayers can remove them. Your only hope: search the world for members of the alliance who created the bonds and regain control of your own destiny. Only then can you be free of the Curse of the Azure Bonds.Every visit to Hillsfar is a different, exhilarating experience. Explore the city, meet its colorful denizens on the streets or in pubs and discover a quest. Your quest will keep you constantly on the move. Fight in the arena against raging minotaurs, ill-tempered orcs or insulted swordsmen. Enter different buildings and utilize your maze-running and lock-picking skills. Archery and equestrian events may also be part of your overall quest. Think and move fast - these mini-games happen in real-time. For adventure, there is no place like Hillsfar.The frigid valleys of the Dragonspine Mountains echo with the desperate plea of terrified miners: "Heroes of the Forgotten Realms, save us from evil!" Unwittingly digging in unhallowed ground, they have disturbed an ancient vault and released its terrible content. Scores of horrific creatures now infest the mine shaft -- and threaten to escape into the world above! You and your heroes must find the way to contain this scourge. All hope depends upon your ability to unravel the age-old mysteries surrounding this vile infestation.The Final Challenge. The Ultimate Enemy. First there was Pool of Radiance. Next came Curse of the Azure Bonds. Then followed Secret of the Silver Blades. Now, the epic has come full circle - Pools of Darkness takes you back to the Moonsea region for the final battle against the ultimate enemy. Prepare yourself for the biggest adventure yet as you are propelled into alternate dimensions on an enormous quest. And, it boasts a fully evolved version of the award-winning game system used throughout the series. Transfer your characters from Secret of the Silver Blades with levels, money and items intact, or create new characters! Either way, you’re in for some high-level action! Battle monsters never before encountered. Cast powerful new spells. Achieve character levels above the 25th level!Enter the foreboding lands of an area never before explored in a computer fantasy RPG: the Savage Frontier! Sail the Trackless Sea; conquer the heights of the Lost Peaks; brave the ruins of Ascore, guardian of the Great Desert; visit magical Silvermoon - and much, much more! Your quest: halt the murderous conspiracy of dark invaders from afar. Your only hope is to uncover the ancient mystical items of power to destroy the malignant invasion! Gateway to the Savage Frontier is based on an enhanced version of the award-winning game system used in Pool of Radiance, Curse of the Azure Bonds and Secret of the Silver Blades. Now you get the freedom to make the story happen the way you want! Plus, an all-new wilderness style adds new exploration and excitement to outdoor adventure! How can you resist? The Savage Frontier awaits!The explosive sequel to Gateway to the Savage Frontier is here to put your will and discipline to the test. You mission is truly daunting: save the Savage Frontier from a cataclysmic war, free Llorkh from its evil captors, and regain a powerful magical item lost since ancient times! This big, bold adventure will leave you reeling! The award-winning game system used throughout SSI’s famous gold-box series continues to evolve - new features abound! Movement and combat are now subject to the unpredictable effects of weather. Players can now interact with NPCs - the can even have romances! Plus, in some situations, combat reinforcement can give you extra help just when you need it most. And with the Savage Frontier teetering on the brink of all-out war, you can be sure that this feature will be put to good use! Transfer your characters from Gateway to the Savage Frontier or create new 5th level ones. You’ll find much more to explore - and the freedom to explore it the way you want - as the Heroes of Ascore attempt the impossible yet again!Have you ever wanted to break the chains and design your own AD&D adventure scenarios? Well, this is your chance to do it in the incredible Forgotten Realms universe. Build maps with the easy-to-use grid screen and link them with teleporters, doorways and stairwells. Choose your characters from the massive bank of 112 monsters and multiple non-player characters. Design the dungeons of your dreams and test them as you go with a point-and-click interface that makes errors gone forever. Test your mettle by playing a pre-created scenario, “The Heirs to Skull Crag” with four separate quests to solve. Should you choose, you can even modify this ready-to-go adventure. With all these tools at your fingertips, the possibilities are endless.Each Forgotten Realms classic brings its own unique flare and adventure for you to enjoy, ranging from turn-based to real-time combat, a wide variety of locations to explore, various classes and races to recruit to your party, treasure to loot, and quests and secrets to complete and uncover.Libya bans glorification of Gaddafi Posted Libya's ruling National Transitional Council has criminalised the glorification of slain leader Moamar Gaddafi and his regime. The ruling body has introduced a raft of new laws ahead of elections in June, the first since Gaddafi was deposed last year. "Praising or glorifying Moamar Gaddafi, his regime, his ideas or his sons... is punishable by a prison sentence," a judicial official says the law reads. "If those news reports, rumours or propaganda cause any damage to the state the penalty will be life in prison. "In conditions of war, there is a prison sentence for any person who spreads information and rumours which disrupt military preparations for the defence of the country, spread terror or weaken the citizens' morale." According to the law, Libya is still in a state of war after the 2011 conflict which pitted Gaddafi loyalists against NATO-backed rebel forces. Other laws also governing the transition stipulate prison sentences for anyone who "attacks the February 17 revolution, denigrates Islam, the authority of the state or its institutions" and the confiscation of all property and funds belonging to figures of the previous regime. Meanwhile, the wording of laws dropping a ban against parties based on religion, tribe or ethnicity - which irked Islamist parties - has also been released. "This point has been dropped and so any party or political organisation will follow the law as it is now," Salwa Al-Dgheily, a member of the NTC judicial council, said. Eighty of the 200 seats will go to political parties, with the rest reserved for independent candidates. Political analysts say the Muslim Brotherhood is likely to emerge as Libya's most organised political force and influential players in the oil-exporting state where Islamists, like all dissidents, were harshly suppressed during Gaddafi's 42-year dictatorial rule. The NTC has indicated the country will be run in accordance with Sharia, though the exact place of Islamic law in the legal system will be settled only once a new constitution is written after elections. AFP/Reuters Topics: law-crime-and-justice, unrest-conflict-and-war, government-and-politics, world-politics, libyan-arab-jamahiriyaApril 16, 1970: Kansas City's Lou Piniella is thrown out at every base This article was written by Mike Huber Have you ever heard of making four outs in a baserunning cycle? On April 16, 1970, the Kansas City Royals played the Milwaukee Brewers in the Royals’ first road game of the campaign, before an announced crowd of 7,110 (including 974 Ladies’ Day fans).1 The season was just a few games old, and neither team was off to a good start. (The Royals were in their second year as an expansion franchise, and the Brewers were in their first, having replaced the ill-fated Seattle Pilots. On this day, the “distinguished performances”2 of veteran Kansas City pitcher Moe Drabowsky and rising offensive star Lou Piniella paced the Royals to an 8-6 victory over the Brewers. The 34-year-old Drabowsky, who had pitched for the Milwaukee Braves in 1961, was a force in the Kansas City bullpen. The Royals’ left fielder, Piniella, had won Rookie of the Year honors in 1969, and after only five games in 1970 he was batting.389 and had an OPS of.984. He had a good day at the plate this day, but his baserunning made history in a negative way, being thrown out or picked off at every base, a “cycle” of sorts. In the top of the first, Piniella reached on an error by Brewers third baseman Max Alvis, loading the bases with two outs. (Ed Kirkpatrick and Amos Otis had walked.) Luis Alcaraz followed Piniella with a double to left field. Kirkpatrick and Otis scored easily, but Brewers outfielder Danny Walton threw to shortstop Ted Kubiak, who relayed a strike to catcher Jerry McNertney and Piniella was gunned down at the plate for the third out of the inning. The Royals led 2-0. In the second inning, the Brewers’ Wayne Comer reached on a two-base error by right fielder Pat Kelly and scored on a single by Alvis, cutting the Kansas City lead to 2-1. In the Kansas City third, Kelly singled, stole second, and went to third on a single by Kirkpatrick. Kelly scored on Otis’s single. Bob Oliver struck out, then Piniella drove a pitch 415 feet into the left-field bleachers,3 driving in three runs. It was his first home run of the season. The Royals now led 6-1. Milwaukee’s Steve Hovley drove in Tommy Harper with a double in the bottom of the third, but Kansas City came right back against reliever John Gelnar in the fourth on a two-run single by Otis. In the bottom of the inning, Greg Goossen hit a home run, and at the end of four innings, the Royals led 8-3. Piniella’s next at-bat came in the fifth inning, and he hit a leadoff single to right. The next batter, Luis Alcaraz, grounded back to the third Brewers pitcher, George Lauzerique, who threw to second, forcing Piniella. Brewers catcher Jerry McNertney drew a two-out walk in the bottom of the fifth and Danny Walton followed with his fourth home run of the early season, cutting Kansas City’s lead to 8-5. In the top of the seventh inning, Piniella singled to left field with one out. Alcaraz followed with a single to right field, moving Piniella to third. With Royals shortstop Jackie Hernandez batting, Piniella was picked off by McNertney, who fired to third baseman Max Alvis for the tag. In the home half, Milwaukee got a run when Hovley singled to right field, went to second on a wild pitch by reliever Roger Nelson, advanced to third on a fly ball by McNertney, and scored on a single by Danny Walton. Drabowsky relieved Nelson, and after walking pinch-hitter Russ Snyder, he retired the last seven Brewers batters he faced to earn his first save of the season. Piniella came up to bat once more, in the top of the ninth. With Bob Oliver on first (hit by pitch) and no outs, Piniella grounded to second baseman Tommy Harper, who threw him out at first. Thus the Kansas City outfielder had been thrown out at every base in this game. But the Royals held on to beat the Brewers, 8-6. Despite its oddity – he was the first player to be thrown out at each base in a game – Piniella’s baserunning drew little attention. Neither the Milwaukee Journal4 nor the Kansas City Star5 mentioned it. The game lasted 3 hours and 5 minutes, and there were four errors committed in this contest, all by Milwaukee. Piniella had hit a home run and two singles, and he raised his batting average to.435 and his OPS to 1.157. He went 3-for-5 with one run scored and three runs batted in. In his last 20 at-bats, he had 10 hits. Teammate Amos Otis was 2-for-4 with three RBIs. Pat Kelly, Luis Alcaraz, and Ellie Rodriguez added two hit each. Kansas City had 11 singles among its 13 hits. Bill Butler pitched five innings for the win and Lew Krausse took the loss for Milwaukee, lasting only three innings. The next season, on August 3, 1971 (a Kansas City 7-5 loss to Oakland), Piniella made three outs on the bases. He was thrown out in the fourth and eighth innings trying to stretch a double into a triple. In the fifth inning he singled and went to second on an outfielder’s throw to the plate. The next batter singled, and Piniella was thrown out at the plate trying to score. Sweet Lou had gone 4-for-4 in the game but had made three base-running outs in that game. The only at-bat in which he was not thrown out running was his first, when he singled to left with two outs and was stranded when Chuck Harrison struck out. Sources In addition to the sources mentioned in the notes, the author consulted baseball-reference.com and retrosheet.org. Notes 1 “Drabowsky Back as Foe, Helps Royals Halt Brewers,” Milwaukee Journal, April 17, 1970. 3 “Royals’ Lead Holds Up,” Kansas City Star, April 17, 1970. 4 Milwaukee Journal.The RCMP has settled a lawsuit and apologized for making what they describe as improper comments about a West Vancouver woman accused and later acquitted of human smuggling. Police spokesman Supt. Sean Sullivan says the RCMP recognize that public statements made against Mumtaz Ladha over the course of the criminal investigation were improper and they apologize unreservedly. Ladha settled a lawsuit nearly three weeks ago against the Mounties for negligent investigation and defamation. In a statement released by her lawyer, Ladha says she sees the RCMP’s apology as the end of a “terrible saga” and she looks forward to resuming her normal life with her reputation fully restored. Ladha was accused in 2011 of human trafficking and human smuggling after she brought a young Tanzanian woman to Canada to work in her multimillion-dollar West Vancouver home. Ladha also settled a lawsuit against B.C.’s civil forfeiture office last year, accusing it of relying on the RCMP’s misleading investigation to file a “negligent and malicious claim” on the family’s home, worth about $3 million at the time.His chauffeur-driven black Toyota Sienna was held up in Montreal traffic, which slows to a crawl come April, when orange cones seem to spring from the ground. But Nicolas Marceau looks perfectly relaxed as he takes a seat at the sunlit corner table of Laloux, dropping his canvas laptop bag unceremoniously on the bistro's hardwood floor. As the Finance Minister of Quebec, the country's most indebted province per capita, Mr. Marceau has a tremendous weight on his shoulders. And yet, as his Canadian counterparts were losing sleep over tough budget decisions, he was reaching something close to cruise-control. The road hasn't been easy. The past nine months have been rocked by a series of controversies and flip-flops that have come to characterize, in the eyes of many, Pauline Marois's minority Parti Québécois government. Story continues below advertisement Ms. Marois tactically got the budget out of the way right after the election, at a time when no opposition party wanted to defeat the new government and return to campaign buses. But for Mr. Marceau, who feared government spending would spin out of control as the PQ settled into power after nine years of Liberal rule, it was a way of tackling Quebec's fiscal problems head on – not putting them off until later. "Governments always find good ideas to spend money on," he says with an ironic smile. Reconciling the PQ's electoral promises with the province's fiscal reality turned out to be a baptism by fire for Mr. Marceau. Freshly sworn in, he was forced to renege on the party's cornerstone campaign promise to scrap the health tax, when it became clear the province could ill afford to lose $1-billion in annual revenue, without resorting to dramatic measures such as retroactive taxes. This rabbit-in-the-hat proposal created an uproar, ruining the PQ's political honeymoon. Mr. Marceau now rationalizes the decision, calling it a minority government's compromise. "My understanding of the mandate that was given to us is that we can do a certain amount of things, but we can't act as we wish, irrespective of what Quebeckers think," he says. "By compromising on what we campaigned on, we are being respectful of our
doctors, who get bigger bonuses for prescribing expensive drugs. Price “opposing changes to the fee-for-service payment structure is favorable to physicians and doesn’t necessarily favor good care or outcomes,” said Dr. Manik Chhabra, an internal medicine physician and researcher at the University of Pennsylvania. Trump is in favor of having Medicare bargain with pharmaceutical companies for lower drug prices. But Price said in 2007 that he opposes giving Medicare the ability to bargain with drug companies for reduced prices, calling it “a solution in search of a problem,” according to a New York Times article. Republicans have defended Price’s investments. “I’m the chairman of the Ethics Committee,” said Sen. Johnny Isakson according to the Atlanta-Journal Constitution. “Nobody knows the law, the STOCK Act, better than I do. Tom … has done a great job and has made no ethics violations.” Price’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee is on Wednesday. Contact us at [email protected] November 1950, when North Korean forces had the US military on the run, President Truman held an infamous press conference during which he threatened to declare nuclear war. After a bland statement and several minutes of to and fro over diplomatic issues, one journalist asked whether the US was about to use its nuclear weapons. Truman stated not only that an attack was under active consideration but also that “the military commander in the field” would decide whether to hit military or civilian targets. He did not rule out attacking targets in China, either. Calamity ensued. Support for the intervention in Korea ebbed away – among the US’s allies, at the UN and among the electorate. The event became a textbook example of how not to do nuclear diplomacy – one followed until August 2017, when President Trump made his “ fire and fury ” threats against Pyongyang. Now, in the aftermath of Kim Jong-un’s sixth nuclear test, it looks increasingly as though Trump is determined to create another debacle. He has attacked South Korea for appeasement and threatened to scrap its trade deal with the US; he has threatened China with sanctions and warned that he may use nuclear weapons. International co-operation over the North Korea crisis is waning as I write. For a section of the US right, nuclear war has always been thinkable. The tradition goes back to the eyewitness report on Hiroshima by diplomat Paul Nitze in 1945. Nitze was struck by the fact that people fairly close to the impact survived, that the trains were running within 48 hours, and that the number of dead and injured was similar to those in Allied raids on Berlin and Dresden. Though Nitze would become, at the end of his life, a supporter of unilateral disarmament, he spent much of his career trying to inject the ideas of thinkability and winability into US nuclear strategy. Only if you can conceive of fighting, surviving and winning a nuclear war, Nitze believed, can you deter it. This is, effectively, what Trump and a group of recently sidelined strategists also believe. Throughout his life, Trump has been obsessed with nukes. In 1984, he claimed that he could single-handedly force Russia to accept a nuclear truce, telling a reporter : “It would take an hour and a half to learn everything there is to learn about missiles... I think I know most of it anyway.” In 1990, he told Playboy : “I’ve always thought about the issue of nuclear war; it’s a very important element in my thought process,” adding that the assumptions behind the US’s long tradition of non-use were “bullshit”. Related Michael Cohen to call Donald Trump a ‘racist, conman and cheat’ US House of Representatives votes to revoke Trump's emergency Ex-campaign staffer accuses Donald Trump of sexual misconduct But the point about the US’s nuclear hawks – from the Truman era to George HW Bush – was that they did not use nuclear weapons. Nitze, for example, repeatedly and courageously tried to engineer strategic agreements to reduce nuclear stockpiles, even while applying military and economic pressure on Russia. Even the most aggressive hawks understood that they had stewardship of an international system. When that system became “unipolar”, after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, their delusions of absolute global power quenched the US right’s thirst for nuclear annihilation. Infantry soldiers kicking in the doors of villagers was what absolute power meant; parading ballistic missiles was for weaklings. Now, however, the US is the weakling. Trump’s decision to throw his toys out of the pram with Seoul is a perfect demonstration of that. The South Korean president, Moon Jae-in, swept to power in May after millions of protesters forced the impeachment of his rightwing predecessor, Park Geun-hye. He has promised to repeal national security laws used to repress the left, promoted reconciliation with North Korea, called repeatedly for Seoul to pursue a more independent foreign policy from Washington and opposed – initially, at least – the deployment of US missile defence systems. If you are going to use North Korea to wage a proxy conflict with China – which former Trump strategist Steve Bannon admitted openly – it is best to ensure that your ally in that conflict is led by a hawk. But the US could not. First, because South Korea’s shaky democracy is functioning better than the US’s and allowed the removal of Park for alleged crimes much less serious than actions of which Trump has been accused. Second, because the people of South Korea understand that China is the emergent hegemonic force in the Pacific. The unipolar world is being replaced with a chaotic system in which China and Russia are creating weak local polarities. Working out whose polar attraction will shape your region in the 21st century is not hard if you live on the Korean peninsula. These global facts are what guide the hands restraining Trump. Suppose Kim fires a nuclear-armed missile at Guam or Japan, then the US hits two or three military targets in North Korea with nuclear bombs and sinks Pyongyang’s navy. A short, conventional war follows, destroying Seoul and most of North Korea. A shocked China accepts it has miscalculated badly and does nothing in response. That is probably the least destructive possible outcome of what would be the first nuclear attack since 1945. But what would it teach Russia and China? Practically, it would teach them that nuclear weapons can be used with successful geopolitical outcomes. Morally, it would teach them that nuclear annihilation is OK. In a world where the US’s power is declining, the onus is on everyone – above all, the mature democracies of western Europe – to push for the creation of a multipolar system underpinned by treaties that explicitly de-link trade from geopolitics. The danger facing us is not only the end of the nuclear taboo, it is also that irrational acts by Kim and Trump could destroy any possibility of a multipolar world system emerging via agreement. Bannon, who was kicked out of the White House by the cabal of ex-generals trying to restrain Trump, labels his opponents “ rational accommodationists ”. But, faced with the rapid emergence of China into the global power system, accommodation is rational. Accommodation does not mean you stop criticising other state’s actions or you stop supporting democracy campaigners in countries such as China and North Korea. It does not mean withdrawing conventional forces unilaterally. It means talking. Paul Mason is a journalist and commentatorThere's a reason "lightning" is so often a modifier for fast; you can barely see it even if you're staring at the right place at the right time. But if you're looking at the right place at the right time with a camera that can capture 11,000 frames per second, you're going to see an incredible show. This awesome footage was part of National Geographic’s Naked Science – Lightning Chasers back in 2011, but it's as relevant—and crazy to watch—as it's ever been. And as far as we can tell, it's still the most detailed footage of a lightning strike ever. Advertisement Scored with some knowledge-dropping by lightning physicist Vladislav Mazur and meteorologist Tom Warner, this clip is one righteous primer on a beautiful and dangerous natural phenomenon. [Petapixel]Have you purchased a video and you're told to make the gaff card yourself? Or have you dreamed up your OWN effect, but have had no way to make it reality? Wonder Cutter to the rescue!! This is a great utility kit for cardicians! With Wonder Cutter, you will be able to make gaff cards very quickly and precisely. Recent magic tricks often involve DIY card gimmicks. In most cases, this is because the creator wants the customer to be able to make their own gimmick in their favorite card design or be able to rebuild the gimmick if it becomes damaged. However, this also involves precision measurement and precision cuts to make a complete gimmick. This can be a tough job for customers to make. To make this process easier, we introduce Wonder Cutter. Wonder Cutter will help you make vertical/horizontal half cut cards, short cards, corner cuts, mercury fold cards, flap cards, color changing cards, shim cards, etc. With this kit, you will never have to buy corner short decks! A very practical kit to help make gaff cards so much easier! What you get: - Online video explanation (basic handling) - Wonder Cutter Kit (card base, card dividers, paper cutter, carrying case)HA note: The author’s name has been changed to ensure anonymity. “Ralph” is a pseudonym. I was raised in a family where homeschooling wasn’t just the preferred method of education, but the only right one. Homeschooling was a way of life or a lifestyle if you will and everything revolved around my parents’ opinion of what God’s will was. Other than AYSO soccer, I had no social contact outside of church, family, and the homeschool umbrella group until I went to community college. This was when I discovered that I was socially retarded (yes that’s a technical term). The religious sheltering of my childhood was only made more extreme and miserable by the international homeschool conglomerate cult ATI (Advanced Training Institute) aka IBLP (Institute of Basic Life Principles) run by ‘his eminence’ Bill Gothard. I won’t go into too many details of how involved my family was with this group or how many times we went to the IBLP seminars or the national conference in Knoxville Tennessee. But even at a young age I can remember wondering what the point was of all the putting on of shows, the mass gatherings, and the ridiculous dress code which looks nearly identical to that of the Mormons. Besides the endless hypocrisy of Mr. Gothard’s teachings, the suppression of children’s natural instinct to ask questions of things that don’t make sense, and the plain and simply false teachings that go against recorded history and scientific fact — the most damaging moment of my experience with this group and quite possibly of my childhood (ironic that at the age of 20 both my parents and I still considered me a child) was when I attended the ALERT Academy. ALERT stands for Air Land Emergency Resource Team, but is really nothing more than a glorified boy scout troop; often referred to by some as ‘Gothard’s boy scouts’. The main point they tried to drive home to their ‘trainees’ (typically 16-18 years old) was that no matter what adversity or difficulty you are facing, either physical, mental, or spiritual, all you need to do is cry out to God and he will get you through it. The way they taught us to do this with the physical aspect was by hiking with 60-80 pound back packs at nothing short of a speed-walk pace which often turned into a jog for miles on end without ever disclosing how far or long we were going. Again, I won’t go into too many details but the ‘physical training’ done at ALERT made Basic Combat Training feel like a summer camp when I joined the Army years later. During this abusive level of physical training I ended up spraining my back which caused horrible pain during these hikes, but as I was told, “just ask God to make the pain go away and you will make it through.” Needless to say this was not a satisfactory answer to me and I ‘developed an attitude’ according to the leadership there. I eventually was kicked out with them citing a ‘prideful spirit’ as the root cause of my problems. This explanation is truly only scratching the surface of my experience at ALERT, but I don’t really want to turn this into an book. A few years later I found myself thinking that being a youth pastor might be a good path for me to take. So I attended a Christian college to begin studying for this purpose. However it didn’t take long from being out of my parents immediate control and having even a tiny taste of independence and freedom to begin rethinking everything I had ever been taught. Of course this did not happen without some outside influence. After years of hearing my mother rail against psychology as nothing but excuses and philosophy as a way of opening your mind to Satan, I decided to take some classes and ended up majoring in both. She was partially right about something, philosophy does open your mind, but not to an imaginary evil gremlin whose ultimate goal is to enslave humanity. It simply opens the mind to new ideas and not being close minded. To this day my parents curse my philosophy professor for ‘leading me astray’. Some may say I’m just another typical example of how the devil can take possesion of people through exposure to worldly things. The truth is if you shelter your kids from ‘the real world’ they are going to wonder what you are keeping from them and many will run at the first chance they get. If philosophy, being the love of knowledge by definition, is so evil, then what are you saying by telling people to stay away from it? I’m pretty sure there is a word to describe the rejection of knowledge; it is called ignorance. After years of rebuilding my beliefs and life I have come to clarity. I realize my parents were raising children, and while this is typically what people say, I believe the mentality of child rearing needs to change. Stop ‘raising children’, start raising responsible and educated adults who will not only be beneficial to society, but understand how to be a part of it.Since the term fake news entered the national lexicon, the advertising world has grappled with its role in inadvertently fueling the spread online of made-up stories about controversial topics. Then came 20th Century Fox’s latest movie promotion tactic, for which it created fake news sites with plausible names like The Houston Leader and The Salt Lake City Guardian and populated them with partisan headlines involving Lady Gaga, President Trump, vaccinations and mental health. Many of the articles on the sites, which were apparently produced in collaboration with a fake news creator the company declined to identify, were shared by people on Facebook who apparently did not know they were part of a stunt meant to publicize the film “A Cure for Wellness.” Marketers have long been known to twist the truth to serve their interests, but many in the industry thought 20th Century Fox and Regency Enterprises, a producer of the film, had crossed a line. The film studio apologized for the strategy on Thursday.Back in 1988, an amazing movie featuring human interaction with animated characters was released. It was called “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” and it signaled a shift in my childhood perspective on animated characters. As a child who had gone through a phase of adamant refusal to watch anything that wasn’t animated, “Roger Rabbit” was my first real exposure to an acknowledgement of animated characters in a live-action world. And it was fascinating. The ‘Toons were like another race of linguistically developed, perhaps further evolved humanoid creatures that these people lived alongside with little consequence. (Unless a ‘Toon killed your brother.) But they were still cartoons. They weren’t flesh and blood people, they were Ink ‘n’ Paint. So, my beef with the influx of 3D animation/live action movies is this: Are we supposed to think these characters are real now? Seriously? When we see characters like Garfield, Marmaduke, the Chipmunks, Yogi Bear, etc. interacting with humans, animated to look like they were born of this world, organic, living creatures that look freakishly unlike other animals of their species (is Yogi an av-er-age bear in this world, or is an average bear an average bear? or is Yogi the only one like that? WHY? What happened?), how is it that the humans with whom they interact don’t question it? It’s bad enough that so many action movies that use excessive CGI are practically cartoons themselves. (Like this, this, and this.) It’s cool-looking, but it’s so blatantly fake. We’re watching actors reacting to nothing, and we wonder why so many of these movies suck. (Okay, “Avatar” doesn’t suck. But it’s a cartoon.) I’ve taken acting classes, and acting is reacting. To actual things that are really happening to you. Actors reacting to a ball on a pole are not acting – they’re playing make-believe. With sticks. (Fact: Bob Hoskins actually rehearsed on-set with Charles Fleischer, the voice of Roger Rabbit, who wore a bunny suit. I swear, I remember seeing this. I really hope I’m right.) Okay, science fiction is a good exception. And there is certainly good CGI that serves the story, making the impossible come to life. But cartoons are cartoons. Either make the entire thing a cartoon and stop asking people to believe that cartoons are real, or acknowledge that cartoons are not real. Look at a movie like “Enchanted,” which started out as a typical Disney animated movie and then turned into real life. And then it was weird to people that Amy Adams kept acting like she was animated. They didn’t make Patrick Dempsey pretend to be in love with a drawing. And they didn’t make him instantly accept that he had to be in love with a cartoon character. Good job, Disney. Well played. All or nothing. This was the right way to do this. But this is nonsense. You might as well make this movie: Or this one, since no one liked the first “Popeye” movie attempt: Is this what you want to happen, America? Dave Coulier, would this paycheck really be worth it? Maybe I’m being an overlogical downer about this. Sure, it’s easy money for actors and producers because of “the children,” and maybe I need to lighten up about things that are meant to be silly, mindless entertainment. And it’s not as if I’m being forced to see these movies. But if I see them try to make a live action/CGI “Oliver & Company,” I officially give up on life. Some things are just…sacred. And they’ve already made “Cats & Dogs” – twice – and that’s a whole other problem. Or maybe chainsawsuit has it right:An armed California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) officer escorts an incarcerated man at San Quentin State Prison's death row on August 15, 2016 in San Quentin, California. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) Using restorative justice techniques as an alternative to prison has a surprising group of supporters: victims of violence As a society, we fail to humanize perpetrators of violent crime. We fail to separate the person from the act. This article was produced in partnership with Foreign Policy in Focus. Donald Trump wants you to believe that the country is consumed by violent crime. He claimed earlier this year, “The murder rate in our country is the highest it's been in 47 years, right?” This summer, Attorney General Jeff Sessions echoed the claim that the United States is in the middle of a crime wave, in order to justify harsh policing and incarceration practices. Both claims are deeply misleading: The violent crime rate peaked in 1991. Despite a few small blips year to year, its overall trajectory has been unmistakably downward ever since. However, violent crime remains a major driver of the U.S. mass incarceration crisis. The United States incarcerates a total of 2.3 million people, with more than 4.5 million more on probation or parole. At the state level—which hosts more than half of the national prison population—most are serving time for violent offenses. Violent crime is defined as offenses that involve force or threat of force. The definitions differ state by state, and the term itself has a lot of complexities, but at a federal level this category is generally composed of four kinds of charges: murder and non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault. Our incarceration rate per capita is far higher than any other country in the world, and it's not doing much to curb violent crime charges. More than 70 percent of incarcerated adults held on violent convictions are later arrested again. However, it’s going to take more than calling out the administration on its misguided rhetoric to fix our broken carceral system. It’s going to take radically shifting the way we think about violence and public safety. Humanizing Perpetrators As a society, we fail to humanize perpetrators of violent crime. We fail to separate the person from the act. We fail to look at acts of violence as products of other structural and generational violence—like racism, poverty, mental illness and addiction. For instance, black people make up 13 percent of the total U.S. population but 40 percent of the prison population, and people sentenced to prison have pre-incarceration incomes 41 percent lower than their peers on the outside. At least half of state prisoners with a past or current violent conviction have a mental illness, and nearly two thirds of people incarcerated in prisons and jails suffer substance abuse issues. Yet sentencing guidelines often emphasize taking revenge on the already marginalized, instead of giving them a chance to take accountability for their actions—so they never get a true chance at rehabilitation. As a result, we continue to reinforce disparities in incarceration and cycles of violence. But we also perpetuate harm for survivors. After Janet Connors’ 19-year-old son Joel was murdered during a brutal home invasion in Boston, she explained in the Julie Mallozi documentary Circle Up, she found that the conventional penal system was only furthering her trauma. So instead, Connors asked two of the men convicted of her son’s murder to participate in a restorative justice process with her. Restorative justice is a community-based justice process that engages those involved in an incident—including survivors and perpetrators—in collaborative decision making in order to restore the harm committed. In her talks with the two men, Connors was given the space to express the impact her son’s murder had had on her. The two men were able to appreciate the extent of the harm they’d caused, understand what events in their own lives had led up to the incident, and slowly earn Connors’ forgiveness. Now Connors works to bring restorative justice to schools as an alternative to suspension and reaches out to other survivors through the Homicide Support Services Program. “I believe there are a couple of layers to forgiveness,” Connors told the Humankind radio show. “There’s one with no strings attached. That’s more about spiritual freeing of self. One that makes sure that vengeance doesn’t eat you up, or turn your heart to stone.” Then, she added, there’s “a more practical layer.” To offenders, she says: “You’re coming back out into our community. If you keep doing dirt, then you’re hurting our community again. And for me, you might as well kill my son all over again.… [G]iving you forgiveness … has some accountability, and that I expect you to lead a good life.” Connors has found healing and freedom through accountability and forgiveness. Both of her son’s murderers have had a successful re-entry into society and have not re-offended. Centering Survivors I recently heard Danielle Sered speak about this revolutionary approach to violence. Sered is a survivor of violent crime and the founder and director of Common Justice, a groundbreaking project through the Vera Institute of Justice, a national research and policy organization that works to improve our country’s justice system. Sered’s organization receives referrals from the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office and diverts adults convicted of violent felonies away from the prison system using restorative justice practices. But the program isn't only appealing to people facing time behind bars: Sered has found that when she contacts survivors of violent crime and offers them an alternative to incarceration, the vast majority opt for the restorative justice approach. Sered finds this surprising result entirely logical. To her, the belief that the criminal justice system is built on—that victims want to see their offenders incarcerated—is baseless. “People know that the best result that that system can deliver if they engage in it is the incarceration of the person who hurt them,” she says. “They don’t believe that that will deliver them the safety and justice they deserve.” In fact, she observes, “the vast majority of people who survive violence … prefer nothing to everything we have on offer.” That's because many crime victims live in places where they can see the failing system firsthand. “There is no one who it is harder to persuade that incarceration produces safety than those who live in neighborhoods where incarceration is prevalent,” Sered explains. Restorative justice, on the other hand, boasts high rates of survivor satisfaction and has been found to reduce recidivism, ultimately increasing public safety. Radical Belief A restorative justice approach insists that we can't truly provide for public safety without rehumanizing the people who commit violent acts. It maintains that we must believe in their ability to be more than the worst act they’ve ever committed. It asserts that we have to believe in their ability to truly face the harm they’ve caused, while recognizing that most are victims of violence themselves. Yet a restorative approach such as Sered’s prioritizes survivors' needs as well, and works towards truly reducing violence. If we're serious about ending violence—and mass incarceration—we need to expand our ideas about who's deserving of empathy, and radically rethink our approach to violent crime. Brave survivors like Connors and Sered make a forceful case that we can do that by betting on people’s humanity, not more jail cells.Ikechi Anya believes Paul Lambert played a key role in his development as a footballer. Anya is now a full Scotland international, and he has told the Watford Observer that Lambert is to thank for his rise to prominence, having released him as a player from Wycombe Wanderers. The Watford star said: “Paul Lambert said it wasn’t really a thing about ability, he just thought I wasn’t mentally strong enough at that time and he said sometimes you need to take a step backwards to go two steps forward. It seems that maybe he was right because without being released from Wycombe then you never know what might have happened.” Anya, 27, was released from Wycombe in 2007, having been the youngest player ever to play for the League Two club under Tony Adams, and he soon headed into non-league football. However, his career was of little promise, and he signed for the Glenn Hoddle Academy in 2007 and remained there until 2010, when he headed to Northampton, and then on to Sevilla, Celta Vigo and Granada in La Liga. It was with Granada where he earned his big break, having been loaned to sister-side Watford in 2012. He excelled in the Championship, and signed a long-term deal, and he is currently part of the side who are fighting to win promotion to the Premier League this season. His form with Watford earned him a call-up to the senior Scotland squad, and he is now a fan favourite for both the Tartan Army and the Hornets fans, as well as a personal favourite of Scotland manager Gordon Strachan. If Paul Lambert had never released him from Wycombe, Anya’s career may never have properly kick-started and reached its current level, and he could be in the Premier League next season - whilst Lambert will be watching on enviously having lost his job at Villa a few weeks ago.A North Korean fighter jet crashed Wednesday on what appeared to be an illicit flight deep inside China, South Korean and Chinese news agencies reported. The South’s Yonhap news agency, reporting from the major northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang, said the pilot, the only person on board the plane, was killed in what intelligence sources believe was an attempt to defect to Russia. A house reportedly was destroyed in the crash but no one on the ground was injured. Photographs of the crash site clearly show the North Korean red star symbol on the fuselage beneath the tail section. South Korean defense officials believe the plane was a MiG21, a fairly advanced model. The North Korean Air Force has about 700 planes, ranging from MiG15s used in the Korean War to late-model MiG23s and a few MiG27s. The former Soviet Union provided most of the planes before the collapse of Soviet rule 20 years ago. China’s Xinhua news agency confirmed the plane had gone down in the district of Fushun in Liaoning Province, about 120 miles north of a North Korean air base at Uiju near the Yalu River border. Security officials reportedly swarmed to the crash scene and blockaded the area but not before locals photographed the wreckage and spread the pictures on the Internet. The plane took off from Uiju, according to South Korean radar images. South Korean defense officials said the plane was a MiG21, not an early model MiG15 used as a trainer, based on information picked up by monitoring equipment they said is able not only to track the plane but also to identify the model. Analysts believe the plane may have been bound for Russia and flown off course, but the reason for the flight or the crash remains shrouded in mystery. The inexperience of the pilot, or fuel shortage though, may have been a factor. Bolstering that theory, analysts say North Korean pilots often lack adequate training due to scant fuel available to fly as many hours as needed to hone their skills. “Most of their planes are out of date,” says Kim Tae-woo, senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses. ”They fly very much less than our South Korean planes. They have a fuel problem and lack spare parts.” The only advantage the North Koreans may have, says Mr. Kim, is in sheer numbers. South Korea has about 500 planes, spearheaded by about 60 F-15s and many more F-16s. The difference, he says, is “we have well trained pilots, and we have fuel.” While citizen defections are becoming increasingly common and North Korean soldiers have defected from time to time into China due to food shortages, pilot defections are extremely rare. Three North Korean pilots have defected to South Korea, but there is no record of a North Korean pilot defecting to Russia. The pilot in this case may have believed that he could quickly overfly China, which would automatically have returned him to certain execution in North Korea. The last time a North Korean pilot reportedly defected was in May 1996, when he flew a MiG19 to the South Korean air base at Suwon, south of Seoul. A North Korean pilot took advantage of a training exercise in February 1983 to fly a MiG19 to another base near Seoul. And a pilot flew a MiG15 to South Korea in September 1953, just two months after the end of the Korean War.Life has a way of constantly reminding you that ‘You don’t know until you do something‘. Similarly, you can’t really understand a wine region until you visit it. Take Avignon, the stunning, walled medieval city near the Châteauneuf du Pape vineyard, which has served as a cultural center for the Southern Rhône ever since popes and antipopes made it their home during the Whack-A-Mole-like papal succession crisis (ca. 1350). There are no decorative flower pots in Avignon strewn over window ledges. There are no signs of life; no shoes, laundry or rugs set out. There is nothing at all, really, on display outside of the tightly closed windows of Avignon. That’s because for 150 days each year, Avignon is a wind tunnel. A surreal test chamber for residents — so many fleshy vessels woefully undesigned for its brutal, drying forces. Like me, you may have heard about the mistral, and imagined it was some gentle breeze which helped vines stay cool. Ha! This is what we really mean when we say mistral: You don’t have to be atop Mount Ventoux for the winds to reach up to 80 mph. When pressed, locals typically confess ‘I’ve lived here my entire life, and I’ve never really grown used to the mistral.’ It doesn’t take long to see why. It inevitably begs the question: ‘Why the hell did anyone erect a town here?’ Indeed, why did the Romans deem fit to set up shop, when they knew damn well about the mistral — Emperor Augustus built a temple in its honor! Seneca notes locals’ reverence for the mistral: When [the mistral] makes their buildings shake, the local inhabitants nevertheless give thanks in the belief that they owe to it the healthfulness of their climate. —Seneca, Natural Questions, 5.17.5 It’s hard to fall asleep when the mistral is battering your home at night, but clearly local inhabitants were aware that the violent winds helped stave off any number of undesired weather phenomena. As I struggled to sleep in Avignon, I thought: how many classic moments in horror films — wherein a suspicious sound in a dark home arouses fearful curiosity — are rendered null and void for those who live with the mistral? The mistral doesn’t simply affect Mount Ventoux or Avignon; it blows down from the north and affects the entire Provençal wine region directly around the Rhône river. Everything from Côte Rôtie in Ampuis all the way down to your eastern Languedoc wines (think Pic Saint Loup, Costières de Nîmes), Châteauneufs, Côtes du Rhônes, any region with Provence in its name, Bandol — all are inextricably linked to this intense, drying wind. Architectural coping strategies involve orienting your buildings’ entries to the south, building belltowers out of a cast-iron frame to allow the wind to pass around the bell, and, most importantly for wine, planting cypresses and poplars around vineyards to act as barriers to protect against erosion, or planting vine rows parallel to the wind — but even this has its limits. Just how is the mistral critical to the vines? On some level, it’s their best friend. First, it blows cloud cover away at a startling speed, and UV exposure is increased. Second, temperatures are normalized by a steady flow of cool air — both freezes and extreme heat are diminished by the mistral. And finally, mold and rot cannot prey on vines when lingering moisture is blown away. So how does it work? What causes this absurdly powerful mistral wind? Inexplicable magic. No matter how many times I reread explanations, they don’t seem to make sense. Something to do with high pressure systems meeting low pressure systems, generating a cyclone of air; and all of it emanating from water bodies much further north. Which leaves any number of questions. Apparently, the winds gain force as they move south towards the Mediterranean coast; the winds of the Northern Rhône aren’t nearly as strong as those in Avignon, nor those further south in Provence. On an experiential level, it seems to come from mountain. While you’re visiting the region, a force stronger than you compels you to take photos of nearby Mount Ventoux. I must have a hundred photos of Mount Ventoux. Before you know it, you’re a helpless participant in mountain worship … perhaps early stages of wind worship, with construction of a temple dedicated to wind not far off. To all New World wine-producing regions that would seek to mimic Southern French varietal blends, my first line of questioning is now: ‘Ok … but do you have a mistral?’ The other invisible force which is shaping Southern French wine has no name. Exactly how do we explain rising alcohol levels in the region? While locals characterize the wines as “warming”, a great deal are straight up hot. Averages have shot up from 13 to 14% ABV; this is the new normal. Is it increased hydric stress, via drier seasons, caused by global warming? Or perhaps changing winemaking styles dictated by entirely human factors? Studies conducted in wine growing regions all over the world systematically point to human rather than environmental causes. Neal Rosenthal in Reflections of a Wine Merchant (2008) formulates an interesting hypothesis: inflation during the 70’s and 80’s drove up interest rates and suddenly made it impossible for wine merchants or importers to borrow money. It became necessary to sell young wine immediately; and very gradually — thanks in part also to a changing aesthetic in the world of wine criticism — super-ripe, fruit-forward, alcoholic wines became the norm. Yet even if interest rates are down to zero in our current economy, we’re still locked on this path of higher ABV, plusher, fruitier wines. I must confess: I do not care for the vast majority of Grenache-based wines. On some level, Grenache is not unlike a surly trucker, whose handshake leaves you wringing your hand in pain, without the slightest semblance of an ‘inside’ voice. A grape that renders wines which are hot and loud, or, which, conversely, if made in a vin de garde style, often feature such drying tannins that they bring to mind accidentally swallowed bits of a cigarette. It is only once these wines age into a calmer, more soft-spoken and silky place, or perhaps when their ripeness and heat are kept in check by a handful of eminently skillful winemakers in unique terroirs, that my palate is really buzzing with joy. Were I to sing my love of Château de Beaucastel or Château Rayas at this point, I would merit a swift kick in the nuts, as everyone knows that these iconic producers craft exceptionally ageworthy wines of lightness and character. I’ll never forget how I scoffed upon seeing a sommelier at Adour pair langoustines with the 2006 Rayas Fonsalette — how on earth could he pair something so delicate with surly Grenache? — and then had my mind blown with my first taste of disarmingly delicate Rayas Grenache. The Grenache-based wine that I would like to sing praises of is not a Châteauneuf, but instead a Gigondas, from an equally iconic domaine that somehow still feels under the radar. The Faraud sisters have been making unbelievable wines of character for decades, as traditionally as can be; and the fact that their domaine is nestled in the adorable, tiny hilltop town of Gigondas, next to the Dentelles de Montmirail, overlooking the Gigondas vineyard, seems eminently fitting: to my mind,
use a html5 video capable browser to watch videos. This video has an invalid file format. 00:00:00 YouTube Auto HD High Low Auto Report a problem Sorry, but you can't access this content! Please enter your date of birth to view this video By clicking 'enter', you agree to Giant Bomb's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy enter When that Quick Look finished, The Starship Damrey joined a pile of games I had every intention of returning to, even if I knew, in my heart of hearts, it would never happen. But I kept reading and hearing about Attack of the Friday Monsters!, and finally decided to see what Level 5 was up to. Guys and gals, make your way to the eShop immediately. Level 5 is getting weird and wild. Attack of the Friday Monsters! joins a growing trend of games looking to draw emotional resonance from the seemingly mundane. So many games dwell on saving the world and/or universe, unfathomable situations we can barely begin to imagine, let alone empathize within. Gone Home, the first game from The Fullbright Company, looks for this in a creepy but otherwise seemingly ordinary house from 1995. The Novelist explores the small decisions, such as choosing to spend time with your son at the beach or working on your book, and unintended consequences. Attack of the Friday Monsters! concerns itself with the naivety of childhood, albeit set against the rather fantastic backdrop of a world having come to grips with kaiju-like creatures stomping around every Friday evening. (There’s more to it than that, but I don’t want to spoil.) You spend much of your time in Attack of the Friday Monsters! balancing your relationships with other super young kids. Isn’t that at the crux of the problem, though? It’s not that we’re tired of ambitious scope and extravagance, but so many games have done a poor job at establishing a relatable world with empathetic characters. The focus on characterization is why people are so passionate about BioWare’s games. Although Attack of the Friday Monsters! begins with a familiar premise, that premise isn’t immediately exploited to push the character into preposterous situations. Sohta is the 10-year-old at the heart of the game, and his family has just recently moved to a suburb of Tokyo to start a clothes cleaning business. Sohta’s father is clumsy and not particularly good at his job, and it’s clear he feels as though he’s disappointed his son with his choice of career. Washing clothes is not something Sohta can brag about at school, and the townsfolk whose clothes don’t come out perfect pick on poor Sohta. Much of the game is spent exploring a very tiny area over and over again, talking with characters, making new friends, collecting card pieces that are used in an entertaining variation of rock-paper-scissors, and trying to find the secret of Sohta’s new town. What he learns is heartwarming and not the least bit epic, underscored by the game's fascination about how children perceive reality compared to adults. And, gosh, it’s just charming and beautiful and you want to hug it from start to finish. There’s nothing else quite like it, and the description of “life simulation” I’ve seen attached to it is alarmingly appropriate. Some of us use games to escape from our own lives, but the lives we decide to escape to are, sadly, limited. Reveling in the normalness of others can be riveting, too. The Starship Damrey is, tonally, way over here, completely the other side of the spectrum. It’s a horror game, albeit one with a limited amount of actual horror to speak of. It’s more about a creepy tone, sense of dread, and culling atmosphere from the terror of isolation. It’s more than that, though. When The Starship Damrey boots up, it comes with an appropriate warning: “This game contains no tutorials or explanations. Part of the experience is to discover things yourself.” There's a whole lotta dead bodies in The Starship Damrey. Weird, right? Right off the bat, before anything actually happens, prior to the appearance of a single polygon, The Starship Darmey has communicated its most essential quality, a message that immediately put me on high alert. The Starship Damrey, both the ship and the game, wants to invite you aboard and poke around. It puts trust in the player, rather than holding their hand. You awake inside an isolation chamber, try to reboot an operating system, and take control of a robot on a deserted spaceship, which probably means something went very wrong. Flicking off the light inside your chamber produces a distressing message about “Lucy,” but the chamber won’t open, and it’s time to guide this robot around and see what’s what. The game remains true to its word, and explains very little about itself. You can complete the whole thing in about 90 minutes, and it’d probably take less time if you don’t concern yourself with the game’s sole, optional collectible. It delivers some simple puzzles and a few effective jump scares along the way, and its minimalism keeps you on edge during the whole session. It becomes clear pretty early on that The Starship Damrey is gearing up for a singular revelation, and the payoff is extraordinary. I worry to say much more for fear of giving you too many ideas, but implore you to stick around through the whole credits sequence. I haven’t yet tried the third game in Guild 02, Inafune’s Bugs vs. Tanks, but given the pleasant strangeness of Attack of the Friday Monsters! and The Starship Damrey, I’m inclined to check it out. Let me know if you’ve played it, but in the meantime, these two come highly recommended for a lazy afternoon of gaming.The first continent-wide survey of its type has spotted a worrying trend on the glaciers of Antarctica: meltwater streams that are far more widespread than previously thought, suggesting the frozen continent is even more vulnerable to future temperature rises than predicted. While a lot of the drainage channels that have been spotted aren't new, the new footage recording during the survey has scientists concerned about how far they stretch, and how soon they might send Antarctica's ice shelves crashing into the ocean. The research, by a team from The Earth Institute at Columbia University, carries on the work of measuring the Antarctica melt streams that began in the early 20th century. Now though, we have the technology to build up a much more comprehensive picture of where these streams are flowing. Unfortunately, the picture isn't a particularly pretty one. "This is not in the future – this is widespread now, and has been for decades," says one of the researchers, glaciologist Jonathan Kingslake. "I think most polar scientists have considered water moving across the surface of Antarctica to be extremely rare. But we found a lot of it, over very large areas." In total, nearly 700 seasonal ponds and channels streams were found, with some streams as long as 121 kilometres (75 miles). Meanwhile meltwater channels have been spotted as close as 604 kilometres (375 miles) to the South Pole, some 1,300 metres (4,300 feet) above sea level – places where it was thought it was impossible to have running water. You can see a 122-metre-wide (400-foot-wide) waterfall draining off the Nansen Ice Shelf into the ocean in the video below: Many of the newly mapped channels start in mountains that poke between glaciers, or in areas where winds have whipped the snow covering off bluish ice. As these areas are darker, less sunlight is reflected, and melting increases, with streams washing away even more snow. This meltwater usually refreezes in winter, and it's thought this process isn't contributing much to Antarctica's ice loss just yet. The concern is that if the continent continues to get warmer, the whole cycle speeds up. "This study tells us there's already a lot more melting going on than we thought," adds one of the team, polar scientist Robin Bell. "When you turn up the temperature, it's only going to increase." Each red 'X' represents a separate drainage point. Credit: Columbia University Another concern is the ice shelves that ring Antarctica and protect its glaciers from floating out to the sea and warmer ocean currents: running liquid could help to fracture these shelves, through heat and pressure, leaving the continent more exposed. Nothing is clear-cut yet though, and researchers spotted another meltwater stream channel on the Nansen ice shelf that they think might be helping to keep it together, by efficiently removing water from the shelf out to the ocean. Scientists are also studying Greenland for clues as to how these streams might develop and affect sea level rises – between 2011 and 2014, about 70 percent of the 269 billion tons of ice and snow lost by Greenland to the oceans was due to meltwater. The positive news is that we now have information data than ever before about what's happening with meltwater in Antarctica, and that should help us understand more about how the ice could shift in the future. Because meltwater streams were thought to be relatively rare in Antarctica before this, they haven't been extensively studied in the past, according to glaciologist Douglas MacAyeal from the University of Chicago, who wasn't involved in the study. Now, that's changing. "We're working hard to figure out if this stuff is relevant to sea-level predictions," he says. Two studies on the research have been published in Nature.Huawei is set to unveil its flagship phone for the second half of the year — the Mate 9 — at an event in Munich, Germany on November 3. But according to two people familiar with the manufacturer’s plans, the company will actually show off two distinct body styles for the device that day, including one with a curved display. Known internally by the New York-themed codenames Manhattan (pictured top row, above) and Long Island (pictured bottom row, above), the latter model features the dual-edge curved display, à la Samsung’s Edge-branded handsets (as well as its beleaguered Galaxy Note7 phablet). Long Island will boast the most premium specifications, and while neither person delved into a full feature-by-feature comparison, the device was said to offer a QHD resolution (compared to Manhattan’s FHD) in order to support Android’s Daydream VR capabilities. However, sales of Long Island may be restricted to Huawei’s native China. Manhattan will see a global release, including the United States. Furthermore, one of the people noted that the leaked renders of Manhattan currently circulating in various hues are slightly inaccurate in their depictions of the front of the device. That person claimed the render below more accurately represents its final appearance. Component specs that have already leaked out for Mate 9 are accurate, according to one of the people. Those include a 64-bit, eight-core HiSilicon Kirin 960 system-on-a-chip at the heart of the device, a 5.9-inch screen, and various memory configurations, which top out at 6GB of RAM and 256GB storage capacity. The main camera, meanwhile, has been tipped as a dual-lens, dual-sensor Leica design — similar to the company’s first-half flagship, the Huawei P9 — but with the lenses and sensors both set to see improvements at f/2.0 and 20 megapixels, respectively.Universal Medicine (UM) is 'a socially harmful cult' founded by Serge Benhayon,[34][35][36] a former bankrupt[4] tennis coach from Maroubra who has no medical qualifications.[9][37][3] It sells "Esoteric healing"[38][39] products, music, publications, workshops and courses. None of the healing modalities is evidence based or has been proven effective by scientific research.[37][15] Uruguayan-born[40] Benhayon founded the group in 1999 after receiving what he described as an "energetic impress" whilst on the toilet.[10][29] A NSW Supreme Court jury found it was substantially true to say that he leads a "socially harmful cult", "intentionally indecently touched" clients and "is a charlatan who makes fraudulent medical claims".[34][41][42] The organisation is principally located in Goonellabah and Wollongbar, near Lismore NSW, Australia. Its UK headquarters is known as "The Lighthouse" and is situated in Tytherington, near Frome, Somerset, England.[25] The signature treatments practised and taught by Universal Medicine are "esoteric[43] breast massage," "esoteric healing," "ovarian readings,"[44][45] "chakra-puncture," "esoteric connective tissue therapy" and "esoteric ovary massage."[7][3] All treatments were devised by Serge Benhayon[37] who has claimed the business grosses at least AUD$2 million a year from courses and retreats.[9][10] The followers of its doctrine,[46] "The Way of the Livingness", are known collectively as "The Student Body". "The Teachings" are classified into meditation, self-care, nutrition, exercise, music, reincarnation, psychological wellbeing and the esoteric, and are supported by audio, books, and online lectures. Serge Benhayon reportedly calls himself "the descended master"[47] and followers call him the "new Messiah"[40] and believe he "was the one sent from (the mythical kingdom of) Shambhala to awaken us all".[48] While Benhayon has denied engaging in unethical practices,[49] significant evidence to the contrary has been documented. Context of claims [ edit ] I know more than any scientist in my inner heart... I know everything about the universe and how it works. I can answer any question about any mystery in the world, any mystery in the universe. Serge Benhayon's message for the "New Era", January 1, 2012[1] Esoteric healing beliefs are based on the occult teachings of early 20th century theosophist Alice A. Bailey.[1][50] Serge Benhayon has claimed to be the reincarnation of Leonardo da Vinci[1][29] and Pythagoras[51] as well as Alice A. Bailey, Imhotep and Saint Peter. He has written that Leonardo da Vinci is a "Claimed Son of God"[10] and teaches that he is connected energetically to an ancient lineage of "living wisdom", and more "High Initiates" and Claimed Sons of God will reincarnate "over and over again until each and every single human is united as one, by their true light". Benhayon also claims that his daughter, Simone, a swimming teacher and director of Universal Medicine UK, is the reincarnation of Winston Churchill.[1][32] Serge Benhayon devised Universal Medicine's healing practices based on the belief that disease is caused by energetic disharmony resulting from ill choices made in this and previous lifetimes. Benhayon teaches that there are two types of energy: prana (प्राण, prāṇa; Sanskrit for life force) and fire.[1] Most forms of established wisdom, knowledge and belief, as well as most music and certain foods are believed to contain prana, which he regards as evil.[52] Prana is to be rejected or cleared to be replaced with "fiery energy" which emanates from the "Atmic womb of God". Universal Medicine healing modalities and products, including teas, herbal elixirs, creams and laminated healing symbol postcards, aim to clear prana.[1][3] Benhayon teaches that people who abuse their authority, such as dictators and corrupt politicians, are reincarnated as children with disabilities[53] "as are Down syndrome, as are spastic,(sic) or any other disabled child"[6] and claims disabilities such as Autism and Down syndrome are karma for past life sins. He has also controversially stated on many occasions that sexual abuse, including that towards children, is karma from past lives and the universe attempting to stop a person from continuing to make non-loving choices.[10] He also teaches that illness is caused by the possession of the body by evil spirits, and is reported to have told a terminally ill patient that an evil spirit had entered her liver and kidneys,[1] also if these entities are of a sexual nature then they can invade a father's body and whilst he sleeps at night leave his body and rape his daughters.[25] On race he writes that skin color evolution was a conscious choice and that Asians chose yellow skin, "yellow signifies the intellect" and the "pursuit of a lighter complexion arose when Black (sic) became erroneously identified with the Darkness (sic)."[10] He taught his followers that if their children misspent their inheritance, or if they set conditions on their donations to UM, their "kidney energy" could be harmed in the next life.[54] During a sermon in September 2017 Benhayon boasted he could orgasm "as a hermaphrodite" (sic), claiming he had the extraordinary ability to climax as a woman and ejaculate as a man simultaneously.[55][13] Universal Medicine and The Way of the Livingness has followers in Australia, the UK, North America and Europe.[1] Critics have characterised it as a cult,[9][3][56][57] which has left a "trail of broken families".[9] An ex-partner of a Universal Medicine supporter complained that Benhayon "controlled every aspect of our lives".[47] Benhayon, who is reportedly referred to as a "fifth degree initiate" and "The One",[3] rejects these claims[57][46] and according to the Chilling Effects website and other sources he has used legal threats to attempt to have cult allegations, including those within media reports, removed from Google search indexes.[58][59] The group's devotees and practitioners reportedly inundate media organisations who publish stories about UM[7] with angry letters and written complaints[33][10][60] and denounce those in the media who critique them as "irresponsible journalists".[12] Officially UM denies it is a cult, but when Australian Doctor questioned Amelia Stephens, a public advocate of UM and a Brisbane doctor, she replied "This depends on what your definition of a cult is."[13][11] Followers claim to be members of UM, which they assert is "like a religion" but Benhayon contradicted this saying he ran a business with clients and that there is "no group and no members".[46] Benhayon's doctrine "The Way of the Livingness" is one which he currently operates under his Universal Medicine business[61] and is a 'form of theosophy'. It was denied charitable status in the UK in 2011 as it did not meet the criteria of a genuine religion[62][63] and is not registered as a religion in Australia.[24] Helena Blavatsky, the founder of the 19th century theosophy that Benhayon's doctrine is based on insists that is not a religion.[64] Prominent members of UM and Benhayon family members were also involved in the Lismore Chamber of Commerce in NSW,[65] and prior to this were board members on the Byron Bay and Ballina Chambers of Commerce.[23] Prominent UM advocates have also run for Liberal and National Party preselection.[22] Critics say Universal Medicine places unreasonable pressure on followers to adhere to a severely restricted diet and to avoid most exercise for fear those things might "infect their spiritual alignment" and lead to poor health.[7] After reviewing a diet chart from Universal Medicine, the Professor of Public Health at the University of Wollongong and former president of the Public Health Association of Australia Heather Yeatman said it was “a public health issue” when children were placed on such restrictive diets: “If a child is not having dairy or cereals they are likely to be low in energy intake and there could be the risk of stunting if children are not getting enough energy. It is critically important there is a balanced diet, especially at the weaning stage because it can impact overall growth and cognitive development. It’s a public health issue.” This came after the report of a baby of UM member parents was hospitalised due to diet-related illness.[66][25] Followers are reportedly told health problems result from wrongdoings in their past lives.[67] Cult Counselling Australia director Raphael Aron said his organisation had a researcher working full time on Universal Medicine after counselling former clients who were concerned about its influence on their children.[38] Aron said CCA had also counselled breakaway followers, who were still "battling" to withdraw emotionally from the group[9] and that: UM seems to be "exercising a level of mind control to the point where people submit to whatever this fellow seems to be offering, to their detriment... What he’s doing is potentially very dangerous."[7] Benhayon denies he or the group interfere in "the students" personal lives but detractors say relationships become impossible when everything from music to sex must be "Serge-approved".[48] Cult expert David Millikan was quoted as saying “[Mr Benhayon] knows what they should read, what they should wear, what they should eat, how they should exercise, what sort of sexual life they should have and so they end up in this closed world."[68] The NSW Supreme Court found the statements that Benhayon "is sexually manipulative of his cult followers" and "engages in bizarre sexual manipulation to make money for his business" to be true imputations.[69] Treatments and practices [ edit ] Universal Medicine markets practitioner training and accreditation through its Esoteric Practitioners Association Pty Ltd; however, the training and qualifications are not recognised and "esoteric practitioners" are not accredited.[37][70] Members of the association are charged an annual fee.[19] Clients have been reported to spend tens of thousands of Australian dollars on Universal Medicine products and services.[9][71] Benhayon's "esoteric connective tissue therapy" is said to improve the patient's energy flow by "allowing the pulse of the lymphatic system to symbiotically correspond with the body's own ensheathing web". Prof. John Dwyer describes the existence of a lymphatic pulse as "utter nonsense".[3] Universal Medicine also provides counselling services to parents, body-awareness education workshops to young women[72] as well as cardiosacral pulse and craniosacral readings.[7] In November 2014 Universal Medicine's treatments were highlighted in a NSW Parliamentary Inquiry report by the Health Care Complaints Committee which states: "While there is little anecdotal evidence to suggest actual harm caused by these treatments, concerns were raised that patients may forgo seeking proper medical advice and care. Two patients who were undergoing therapies at Universal Medicine were independently diagnosed with cancer and bronchiectasis respectively, and required proper medical intervention in order to be properly treated."[37] Universal Medicine lobbied the local NSW MP for Ballina Don Page to have these unfavourable comments removed from the Parliamentary Inquiry Report.[10] Controversy surrounds referrals for esoteric treatments by some doctors,[3][73] a situation that medical regulators say is difficult to address.[1][9][74] During the inquiry Don Page MP said these type of referrals "would give most people considerable concern."[75] Universal Medicine's registered allied health practitioners allegedly encourage followers to seek GP referral for Medicare treatment plans to pay for sessions. A former patient who received treatment from a UM physiotherapist under a Medicare plan reported the "Universal physio claimed her health was improving from 'craniosacral pulse' therapy", however, "her GP ordered tests that found she had cancer." The patient was reportedly told by Universal Medicine that "doctors will make you sicker than you already are".[67] Another patient was told by a thoracic physician and student of UM that conventional HRT was harmful and "deep-seated grief is a major driving factor in lung disease".[76][19] Professor Dwyer stated that it was "highly reprehensible" that medical professionals registered on a "promise to practise evidence-based medicine" were engaged in promoting "cultish behaviour".[13] Serge Benhayon has responded to such accusations with assertions UM does not "interfere with medicine... We do not hold ourselves above medicine. We are super pro medicine."[7] Sydney paediatrician and "Baby Doc" author, Howard Chilton, has endorsed Benhayon as a "teacher of enormous integrity". Chilton has given talks at the company's women's health forums but claims his support for UM is a personal matter unrelated to evidence-based practice. Chilton's daughter Isabella is married to Benhayon's son Curtis.[10] UM associated thoracic surgeon Sam Kim, who has praised Benhayon's esoteric breast massage,[20] states UM is a reputable healing organisation, not a cult,[16] and Benhayon supporter, Bangalow ophthalmologist Anne Malatt, says the "core tenet of Serge's teachings is energetic integrity" and "when put into practice on a daily basis, they work."[1][3] Sydney rheumatologist and UM advocate Maxine Szramka claims to have observed UM student’s chronic pain being permanently cured adding UM's esoteric healing practices lead to miracles every day.[21] Her endorsement has now been deleted from the UM website.[22][77] UM practices an unproven technique on women called "Deeper Femaleness" claiming it is "great for rape recovery". It involves the "hands-on esoteric healing" of a woman’s abdomen and pubic area and manipulation of the woman's pubic bone. UM publications show the therapy is performed by men.[6][78][25] The treatments have been characterised as "sleazy" with one ex-patient comparing her experience to being subjected to a "grooming exercise".[44] UM has responded by taking the ex-patient to the Supreme Court of NSW alleging defamation.[79] The jury found it was substantially true to say "Serge Benhayon makes bogus healing claims", "is engaged in a healing fraud that harms people" and "to his knowledge had engaged in dishonest healing practices".[69] Benhayon confirmed the group held a "book burning"[80] near Mullumbimby in 2009. Others reported it as "just like the ritual burning of books in Nazi Germany", where Benhayon's students were invited to throw their books onto the pyre. Most books burnt were on Chinese medicine, kinesiology, acupuncture, homeopathy and other alternative healing modalities, all of which Benhayon had decreed "prana"[1] which he considers "evil".[52] Serge Benhayon confirms revenue from Universal Medicine provides a living for the whole of the extended Benhayon family. In 2016, he had a taxable income of more than $188,000, and his wife, Miranda, $176,000. Approximately $50,000 of his income came from the Universal Family Trust, which also distributed $129,593 to his daughter Natalie, approximately $100,000 to his son Michael, $59,812 to his son Curtis and a further $34,890 to Curtis's wife Isabella. A further $400,000 went to another company. Benhayon's ex-wife Deborah Benhayon receives a salary as the chief financial officer for UM.[4] Real estate to the value of $5.5 million has been linked to the group, including a $1.75 million property in Brisbane, and a hall valued at $2.3 million.[45] Benhayon insists women should not play sport, stating: "You’ve become involved with sport, which women should never be, because the right ovary becomes more powerful than the left. They’re ready to have a child but the vaginal walls as thick as, and they’re not a woman energetically, even though they have breasts, vagina, uterus and so forth."[25] Esoteric breast massage [ edit ] Esoteric breast massage, stated by the group to be administered only by women,[3] has been reportedly promoted to "cure or prevent breast cancer"[81][82][80] by rekindling femaleness.[32] This was described as "irresponsible, dangerous and misleading" by Matthew Lam, research director of Breakthrough Breast Cancer.[33] NSW Cancer Council CEO Dr Andrew Penman said there was no medical evidence massage could prevent breast cancer. Esoteric breast massage claims have also been dismissed by Breast Cancer Network Australia (BCNA).[81] A former esoteric breast massage patient reported Universal Medicine staff told her it would prevent breast cancer by "clearing… all of men’s negative energy" accumulated over her lifetime. She recalled it as "the most horrible thing I’ve ever had in my entire life."[7] Esoteric breast massage also claims "to heal many issues such as painful periods, polycystic ovaries, endometriosis, bloating/water retention, and pre-menstrual and menopausal symptoms".[39][74] Such claims have been described as "ludicrous" by University of NSW Emeritus Professor of Medicine, John Dwyer.[74] According to changes recorded in the web archive, those claims were erased from the esoteric breast massage website coinciding with the onset of media scrutiny in July 2012, along with assertions such as: "The breasts are emanators of a quality of DIVINE TRUTH that begins at the heart. The heart in connection to the pubic bone chakra, which is aligned to the ovaries, brings the emanation of nurturing out for all to have."[83] When questioned on what aspect of health is addressed by esoteric breast massage in September 2012, Serge Benhayon stated: "Disconnection to their bodies".[38] UM also holds a "breast cancer care retreat" at the cost of $60 per head.[54] A 2018 poll in the Medical Journal of Australia found that 94% of respondents agreed that doctors who promote "remedies" such as "esoteric breast massage" should be investigated.[14] Regulatory and other issues [ edit ] Accusations of misconduct against Universal Medicine have drawn attention from the regulatory bodies, Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency[84][82] and the TGA.[56][85] The NSW Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing investigated claims of breach of Australian charitable fundraising laws by the charity the "College of Universal Medicine" and referred these to the police.[39][86] Prior to the TGA investigation and their withdrawal from sale UM’s herbal remedies were erroneously said to "promote fire in the lungs and therefore help to dispel any dampness in the lungs" and were "good for dealing with hardening of the connective tissue especially around the chest and arms and also hardening of the vascular system".[87] Benhayon's daughter Simone is one of the Trustees of The Sound Foundation in the UK, a second related charitable organisation that Universal Medicine called one of its "two main world headquarters".[32] The Sound Foundation was the subject of a 2013 complaint to the Charity Commission for England and Wales which found extensive irregularities and resulted in the charity being given a mandatory compliance plan.[88] It also attracted attention from a National Health Service Forum who distanced itself from the group.[89] Benhayon is the father of four children, all who hold positions within the organisation. Universal Medicine is reported to have received a portion of AUD$709,493 federal funds to provide six public lectures and "counselling services to parents" under a Commonwealth grant scheme applied for by the YWCA. The Australian Government refused to fully release documents explaining how the funds were used, saying "YWCA raised objections… including that the information does not accurately reflect YWCA’s activities" and could "have an adverse effect on the YWCA by affecting its relationships with other entities and its reputation".[72] In 2016, twenty Universal Medicine adherents joined the Australian doctors' reform lobby group, the HPARA, en-masse causing turmoil and a split in the organisation. HPARA chair Dr John Stokes said the UM adherents, who "initially... all seemed quite impressive and normal," unexpectedly began turning up to meetings and attempted to take over the organisation's social media accounts and board of directors without declaring their UM connections. "Some of them behaved in ways that made me feel quite uncomfortable, where they would come into my personal space," he recalled. Dr Stokes said there were concerns of reprisals and potential legal threats from the UM group, and that he and others expressed concern at HPARA being associated with the cult, but is now confident that no member with links to UM remains in the HPARA.[17] An investigation by ABC News in April 2018 revealed that The University of Queensland was investigating conflicts of interest of three of its faculty who were "acolytes" advocating for Universal Medicine. Video allegedly shows four researchers, two of whom are doctors, publicly advocating UM practices. Two more of the nine are presenters for the College of Universal Medicine. Professor John Dywer stated that: "[They] have let the university down badly in their fervour for promoting the benefits of Universal Medicine's approach to treatments, which have no basis in science, couldn't possibly be effective, and really represent a pre-scientific approach to how the body works and interacts with God and the universe". After receiving a 12-page letter from a third-party whistleblower The Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR) raised "serious concerns" as to the conflict of interest of the authors of the UM related articles it published. The editorial director stated that: "the omission of this conflict of interest, which appears to be highly significant in this case, is a clear violation of our policies"[13][14] and suggested both articles published in the JMIR should be retracted. JMIR was also "very concerned" when it was revealed that the "original results paper contained large statistical errors inflating the effect sizes" and concluded "the proposed and executed research does not provide any evidence that any Universal Medicine modalities are effective in making people healthier". When the original peer-reviewers of the papers were made aware of the extensive conflicts of interest, they stated they would not have accepted the manuscripts had they been aware of this fact upon submission.[15] In November 2018 Universal Medicine was compelled to cancel all their event and hire bookings with Ballina Shire Council, including the Girl to Woman Festival, only days prior to the festival being debated in council chambers. UM took this action after 1,000 people had signed a petition to have the Girl to Woman event barred from Lennox Head Cultural Centre,[90] and also to avoid becoming embroiled in a council policy motion that adopted child-protection measures for future events and hiring "where the Council believes that provision of the service would pose a potential for child abuse". Council's amended policies concerning hiring and the tightening of child-protection measures (not mentioning UM or the girl festival) were adopted, but not before UM had publicly criticised council's actions and long-term UM student and advocate Rebecca Asquith (Baldwin)[23][29] appeared at the council meeting on behalf of the festival urging councillors to oppose the motion.[91][92][93][94] Council representatives said that UM education events were used as recruitment gateways, urged people to stay away from joining the group and said UM was not wanted in the area.[95] Subsequent to this, NSW Minister for Health, Brad Hazzard, issued a directive for NSW Health to halt all dealings with Universal Medicine after UM-linked individuals and businesses were found to be involved in the annual Positive Adolescent Sexual Health (PASH) conference. The youth health initiative is backed by the NSW Department of Health and aimed at teens aged 15 years and up. Northern NSW Local Health District chief executive Wayne Jones said that UM members would be removed from the project and NSW Health would: "immediately review engagement and risks of health service involvement with Universal Medicine and discontinue any further association".[96][27] Lismore MP Thomas George (Nationals) and ALP candidates for Lismore and Ballina, Janelle Saffin and Asren Pugh, supported the directive by the Health Minister.[28] A few days earlier Ms Saffin and ALP candidate for Page Patrick Deegan had called for an inquiry into UM to ensure that no government resources go toward any organisation regarded as a 'cult', and that government departments and agencies do not endorse, encourage or support the involvement of children and young people in any such organisation. Ms Saffin said: "An inquiry [into UM] would be opportunity to clear the air and to restore faith in our local institutions". "It has taken the courage of whistle-blowers and the determination of journalists to expose the predatory practices of Universal Medicine."[97][91] Also in November 2018 the NSW child protection agency, Family and Community Services (FACS), issued a staff directive that "no child be referred to Universal Medicine" after at least one UM aligned child protection worker was found to be incorporating UM teachings and events in the care plans of two children overseen by the department. Documents released showed an acting manager and child protection case worker endorsed the girl's involvement with UM activities including the Girl to Woman Festival and Kids in Connection. Care plans instructed that the girl "needs to be supported to maintain her connection with the teachings of Universal Medicine" and that she have "internet access to access readings and meditations from the universal medicine website". After the rogue care plans became public FACS responded that they had "referred the matter to the Office of the Children's Guardian" and "the information in the (Benhayon v Rockett) Supreme Court judgment is known to FACS and staff are taking appropriate action to ensure it has no impact on children known to FACS." UM practitioners were also reported to have attended Lismore FACS staff meetings to conduct relaxation workshops.[98][30] Australian medical authorities and Dr Samuel Kim [ edit ] Following an investigation by the NSW Medical Council in 2017 a Universal Medicine advocate and affiliated doctor, Samuel Tae-Kyu Kim, was reprimanded for referring a patient for esoteric lung massage and chakra puncture:[99] "knowing there was insufficient evidence for their efficacy as treatments for Patient A’s lung condition." The physician, whose clinic is located in the Universal Medicine Clinic in Goonellabah,[18] claimed chakra puncture is an "internationally recognised therapy", however only practised by Universal Medicine. The Council heard evidence from a Senior Specialst and thoracic physician, who stated: Universal Medicine "affects an attitude which conventional medicine abandoned in the 19th century and this heightens the need to clearly distinguish for patients the difference between conventional medicine and Universal Medicine. Particularly as it is unclear, given it is a relatively new organisation, how Universal Medicine’s training programs are accredited."[18] The HCCC alleged Dr Samuel Kim had withheld conventional therapy[73] and the investigation focused on his referrals to his now wife Jasna Jugovic (esoteric lung massage) and three "Universal Medicine practitioners" Neil Ringe (chakra puncture), Serge Benhayon (spiritual healing) and Michael Serafin (non-medically trained pharmacist).[20] The investigating committee found Kim to lack
right now. View Sample Sign Up Now Corfman said the encounter with Moore affected her relationships with men. “It took away a lot of the specialness out of interactions with men,” she said. “It took some trust away.” Corfman added that she “didn’t deserve to have a 32-year-old man prey upon” her. “It took years for me to regain a sense of confidence in myself, and I felt guilty. I felt like I was the one that was to blame,” she said. Moore, she alleged, took her to his house, where he “proceeded to seduce her” and removed most of her clothes while she was on blankets he had laid out on his living room floor. He left the room and came back wearing only his “white underwear” and began touching her, Corfman alleged. “He touched me over my clothing, what was left of it, and he tried to get me to touch him as well,” she said. Corfman said she resisted and Moore took her home. Corfman said she had told friends and family members about what happened, but her story only went public this month when the Post sought her out. Since then, at least eight other women have come forward with similar allegations against Moore. Moore has denied all allegations against him. Corfman said coming forward was “courageous” and has brought her a sense of emotional relief — although it has cost her financially because she took a leave of absence from work. She said her decision to speak out publicly was not political but “personal.” “It’s very close to my heart,” she said. “I feel like a weight’s been lifted.” Contact us at [email protected] face a tougher life in Russia as the country’s National Security Council adopts a string of restrictive counter-migration measures. In a meeting on Thursday, President Vladimir Putin requested leaders of his top law-enforcement authorities to «strengthen operational and preventive activities in fighting crime elements among immigrants». He also underlined that control measures on the state border will be enhanced. «We will step up protection of the state border in areas where there is a danger migrant influx», Putin said, a transcript from the meeting reads. «All possible «windows», all loopholes must be effectively sealed off», he stressed. According to the president, lessons must be learnt from the refugee and migrant crisis in Europe. The refugee flow to Europe from the Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan and other regions has resulted in a hike in radicalism and terrorism recruitment, he argues. «We need to make thorough analysis of this situation […] and conduct subsequent policy adjustments with regard to existing and potential threats». A total of 30 people attended the meeting, among them top government ministers, leaders of the presidential administration, as well as the FSB and the Foreign Intelligence Service. ADVERTISEMENT According to newspaper Vedomosti, among upcoming government measures might be the abolishment of the country’s Federal Migration Service and transfer of its responsibilities to the FSB and the Interior Ministry. Thursday’s national security meeting comes after Putin in a collegium of the FSB on 29th February stated that «monitoring of the refugee flows coming into Russia or transiting onwards to European countries would be tightened». That appears to be what put a stop to the migration flows from Murmansk Oblast to northern Finland. In his meeting with Putin last week, Finnish President Sauli Niinistö expressed major content with the Russian measures. «Finland is very content that you have taken our requests into consideration», Niinistö said. As previously reported, the Russian and Finnish presidents agreed to introduce «temporary limitations» on the border-crossing points of Salla and Lotta, the two northernmost checkpoints between the countries. Those restrictions include the closure of the border for all third-country citizens for the next six months, including for nationals from other EU countries.Ralf Bohle, founder of Ralf Bohle GmbH and the tire brand Schwalbe, passed away Sunday, 25 April, in Bergneustadt, Germany at the age of 75. In his five decades as an entrepreneur, Ralf Bohle wore many hats: as a bicycle spokesman, he campaigned for the bicycle as a means of transport. As an Asia manufacturing expert, he established lifelong business partnerships. As the founder of the Schwalbe brand, he innovated. In running Schwalbe gave his employees a secure workplace that was said to be like a family. “Everything that constitutes the Bohle Group with the Schwalbe brand today exists due to his efforts, his ideas and his vision,” said Bohle’s son, Frank, who manages Schwalbe’s board of directors in a press-release. The premature death of Ralf Bohle’s own father in 1955 forced him to take over the family business at just twenty-years-old. The Bohle family had produced low-cost transport bicycles and accompanying parts since 1906. Under the leadership of Ralf Bohle, the company began exporting his family’s German bicycles, parts and motorcycles all over the world. German manufacturing by his company would succumb to the market in 1976, but Bohle had anticipated a shift to Asia. He had already established a partnership with an Asian family who manufactured bicycle tires in South Korea. This served as the birth of the Schwalbe tire brand. From 1973 onwards, he promoted his partnership with two family-owned companies in spite of the vast distance that separates them. The German side of the business focused on development, marketing and distribution, while his Korean partners handled production. In 1999, Bohle invited his son, Frank and son-in-law, Holger Jahn, to join Schwalbe’s board of directors. Starting in 2002 the three have shared the management of the brand. Frank Bohle serves as the director of the Board and responsible for marketing and distribution, son-in-law Holger Jahn is responsible for development and technology. Andreas Grothe handles the brand’s finance. “You have not only led the way for your employees but, through your kind, down-to-earth and wise manner, you have created a great role model for us,” said Jürgen Krischke, Schwalbe’s personnel manager, expressing a final farewell on behalf of Schwalbe employees. “We could always rely on your willingness to listen and to help. You are and remain our boss – a very special type of boss.”Obamacare head Marilyn Tavenner told a top press official to delete an e-mail related to HealthCare.gov during the botched launch, according to documents released Friday. House Republicans are seeking emails from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services officials to discover exactly how Obamacare and HealthCare.gov’s rollout went so wrong. But it turns out that last October, Tavenner directly told CMS’s communications director, Julie Bataille, to delete an email chain with White House officials about HealthCare.gov and contractor Serco. “Please delete this email-but please see if we can work on call script,” Tavenner wrote to Bataille, upon receiving an email chain which discussed talking points on getting through the then-nonfunctional Obamacare website and the efforts of Obamacare contractor Serco. The House Energy and Commerce Committee wrote to Tavenner Friday asking why Tavenner directed Bataille to delete the emails and whether she had directed any HHS or CMS staff to delete any other communications or documents about HealthCare.gov. “This contradicts the letter sent to the National Archives, which explained that your practice was to instruct subordinates to retain copies of e-mails,” the committee wrote to Tavenner, requesting to discuss the issue as soon as possible. CMS admitted last week in a letter to the National Archives and Records Administration that Tavenner did not follow the administration’s policy on keeping copies of emails and that some communications sought by Congress were likely missing. (RELATED: Obama Official Deleted Obamacare Emails Sought By Congress) “To keep an orderly email box and to stay within the agency’s email system capacity limits, the Administrator generally copied or forwarded emails to immediate staff for retention and retrieval, and did not maintain her own copies,” CMS’ letter read. “Right on cue, when the going gets tough, the Obama administration proclaims it can’t find the documents,” said committee chairman Rep. Fred Upton. “And now we know that when HealthCare.gov was crashing, those in charge were hitting the delete button behind the scenes.” Follow Sarah on Twitter Join the conversation on The Daily Caller Read more stories from The Daily Caller Washington Post Reporter: Black People Don't Work At Politico TMZ Claims To Leak iPhone 6 Photos Cat Survives Nine-Story Fall From Manhattan Patio Obamacare Chief Ordered Official To Delete HealthCare.gov Emails Big Apple Bans Boogie Boards On Beaches Because Of Bad SwimmersI constantly mumble about wall decorations. I talk about art, wallpapers and colors but quite frankly a wall sticker is most probably the easiest, cheapest and safest way to decorate them in an instant. I'll explain myself thoroughly but, before that, I'd like to meet you to I talk about art, wallpapers and colors but quite frankly a wall sticker is most probably the easiest, cheapest and safest way to decorate them in an instant. 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Find My Paradissi onAlthough she was born as Norma Jean Baker, she was buried as Marilyn Monroe. And although her final resting place was intended to be modest and private, the power of her popularity continues to draw fans and fellow celebrities alike, even after her—and their—demise. After dying of a drug overdose in what was an apparent suicide on August 5, 1962, Marilyn Monroe was interred three days later at Westwood Village Memorial Cemetery. The funeral arrangements were handled by Joe DiMaggio, whose famous romance with Monroe (which ended in divorce after a brief marriage in 1954) had reportedly been rekindled shortly before her death. Feeling some resentment toward the entertainment industry for Monroe’s demise, DiMaggio had no interest in making the funeral a Hollywood affair. Westwood was, at a the time, a quiet, out-of-the-way cemetery chosen because it was also the final resting place of Monroe’s childhood guardian, Grace Goddard, and her surrogate mother Ana Lower. The private service was restricted to a small group of the star’s closest friends and associates. Ironically, thanks to the presence of Marilyn Monroe’s grave, Westwood has been a popular place for celebrity burials ever since. Other famous grave sites in the cemetery include those of Dean Martin, Jack Lemmon, Rodney Dangerfield, Roy Orbison, Frank Zappa, Truman Capote, Ray Bradbury, and Billy Wilder, to name but a few. It is also the final resting place of Hugh Hefner, who bought the tomb next to Monroe’s in 1992 so that he could spend eternity alongside Playboy’s first Playmate. Marilyn Monroe’s earthly remains are interred in crypt number 24 in the Corridor of Memories, a complex of above-ground crypts on the west side of the cemetery. For 20 years after her death, DiMaggio had red roses delivered to her simple grave three times a week. Today, it is regularly adorned with flowers, cards, letters, and other mementos left by the regular visitors it attracts. Memorial services are held annually on June 1 (her birthday) and August 5 (the date of her death). Monroe’s crypt is easily distinguishable from the others in the wall thanks to the discoloration caused by lipstick marks frequently left by fans.We already knew that classic DC Comics villain KGBeast would appear in Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, but it finally looks we can identify the actor providing that thick Russian accent. New reports suggest that actor Callan Mulvey will play KGBeast in Warner Bros.’ upcoming film. But Mulvey’s KG Beast wouldn’t be the same spandexed super-killer that he is in the comics. Instead, Mulvey would merely play Beast’s alter ego, Anatoli Knyazev, as Lex Luthor’s loyal muscle. According to Heroic Hollywood, Knyazev would keep tabs on the DC Universe’s various metahumans and feed information back to Luthor. Mulvey’s prior credits include 300: Rise of an Empire, Zero Dark Thirty, and a brief scene in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Do you think Callan Mulvey would make a decent KG Beast? Say “Dah,” or “Nyet” in the comments!It's been overshadowed by other extreme weather events recently, but the extreme drought that plagued the U.S. this summer continues. In fact, according to the Drought Monitor, conditions have worsened slightly across the country. The extreme drought is likely to extend through February and could be the most extreme weather event in the U.S. this year, which is saying a lot in a year that saw a superstorm flood large swaths of New York City and knock out power to millions of people. Beyond the millions of dollars in lost agricultural yield, the extreme drought threatens the Ogallala Aquifer, the single most important water source in the High Plains regions. A commentator on Climate Progress pointed out that the areas that are suffering from the most severe drought overlap with the Aquifer. As shown below, the overlap is substantial. SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT Help Keep Common Dreams Alive Our progressive news model only survives if those informed and inspired by this work support our efforts This means that the groundwater supply for large swaths of Nebraska, Kansas, and Texas are at risk. But, extreme drought isn’t the only thing that is threatening the Ogallala. As we pointed out earlier, if the Keystone XL pipeline is built, it will cross the Aquifer and based on past performance, an oil spill is all but guaranteed in the area. The threat of pipeline spills poisoning the water supply is so great that the Republican governor of Nebraska wrote to the Obama Administration to ask them to deny the pipeline’s permit. While the full pipeline permit was denied earlier this year, the Administration backed building the southern portion of the pipeline and construction began on it in August. Given that the northern section is already built—and has already spilled 20,000 gallons of oil-- it’s obvious that construction on the southern portion virtually guarantees that the full pipeline will be built. This move does nothing to bring us closer to energy independence and sets us far back in the fight against climate change. There is no guarantee that any oil brought down through the pipeline will stay in the U.S. Plus, tar sands mining is notoriously destructive and ramping up oil production does nothing to bring us closer to a new energy future. The threat of spills from the pipeline, combined with the continued extreme drought, does not bode well for the future of the Ogallala or the future of groundwater supplies for millions of people.CCTV purporting to show the deadly Brussels Airport explosions appears to be fake. The footage resembles a video of the moment a bomb attack took place at Domodedovo Airport in Russia in 2011. But the clip, which shows people walking before they duck and flee following an explosion, has been widely shared on social media since the Brussels blasts took place on Tuesday morning. Follow live updates here Witnesses said two explosions were heard inside the departure hall of Brussels Airport shortly after 8am. VRT news agency apologised on Twitter for the CCTV footage being fake. Shortly after the airport explosion in Brussels, a blast was also heard at Maalbeek Metro station. Local media is reporting that at least 13 people have been killed and 35 have been severely injured. All flights at the airport have been cancelled and arriving planes have been diverted. Belgium’s terror alert level has been raised to maximum. The blasts come four days after Salah Abdeslam, one of the suspects of November Paris terror attacks, was arrested in Brussels. In 2011, at least 35 people were killed and more than 100 were injured after a bomb attack at the Moscow airport. The suicide bomber was identified as a 20-year-old from the North Caucasus. Read More http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/brussels-explosions-video-purporting-to-show-zaventem-airport-blast-was-shot-in-2011-a6945501.htmlBHP Billiton has reported a record full year loss of $US6.39 billion ($A8.29 billion) as heavy writedowns and significantly weaker commodities prices hurt its bottom line. Underlying profit for the year to June 30 was down 81 per cent from a year ago to $US1.22 billion, as lower commodity prices cut $US10.7 billion in earnings, the company said. The results were slightly better than analyst expectations of a $US7 billion net loss and underlying profit of around $US1 billion. “The last 12 months have been challenging for both BHP Billiton and the resources industry,” chief executive Andrew Mackenzie said. “While commodity prices are expected to remain low and volatile in the short to medium term, we are confident in the long-term outlook for our commodities, particularly oil and copper.” Camera Icon Lower commodity prices, such as iron ore, cut BHP’s earnings by $US10.7 billion. Picture: News Corp Australia The slide comes on the back of a massive $US7.2 billion writedown in the value of its US shale assets in January, after oil prices slid to their lowest level in more than a decade. The company will also make a provision of up to $US1.3 billion related to the costs of the Samarco mine dam disaster in Brazil, which killed at least 19 people and polluted a major river valley. BHP said unit cash costs across the group declined 16 per cent. It expects to deliver another US$1.8 billion through productivity gains in the current financial year. BHP declared a final dividend of 14 US cents a share, down from 62 US cents a year ago, but in line with its new dividend policy of paying a minimum 50 per cent of underlying profit. Ahead of the results announcement, BHP shares in Australian trading closed nine cents, or 0.45 per cent higher, at $20.25 each. BHP’S WORST ANNUAL RESULTS — Net loss of $US6.39b, vs $US1.91b profit — Underlying earnings down 81pct to $US1.22b — Full year dividend down 76pct to 30 US cents per shareSlaven Bilic wants to succeed Harry Redknapp if he leaves Tottenham to become the next England manager. Keen: Bilic is eyeing the Spurs job (Picture: REXMAILPIX) The Croatia coach was at White Hart Lane on Sunday to run the rule over Luka Modric ahead of the European Championship finals in Poland and Ukraine this summer. And he revealed before Spursâ 3-1 win over Swansea: âI would be very interested in being the Tottenham manager, they are a major club with a bright future. âBut [Spurs chairman] Daniel Levy needs to be convinced I am the man for the job.â If Spurs appointed former West Ham and Everton centre-half Bilic as their new boss it would be a major boost in their battle to keep Modric at White Hart Lane. The midfielder has been linked with summer bids from Manchester City, Manchester United and Chelsea but Bilic said: âEveryone knows huge clubs are interested in Luka but what I told him is that he should not forget how big Tottenham are.â Spurs are set to offer Modric a bumper new contract at the end of the season if they qualify for next termâs Champions League.Yahoo said it will cut 15% of its workforce, or around 1,600 jobs, and the flagging Internet company officially put itself on the block by announcing that it is exploring “strategic alternatives.” The company made the announcements in reporting financial results for the fourth quarter of 2015 that beat analyst projections for top-line revenue — although net revenue declined 15% year over year. Yahoo posted quarterly revenue of $1.27 billion (versus $1.18 billion in the year-earlier period) and adjusted earnings per share of 13 cents (compared with 30 cents). Wall Street had expected revenue of $1.19 billion and EPS of 13 cents, per Thomson Reuters. “This is a strong plan calling for bold shifts in products and in resources,” CEO Marissa Mayer said in a statement. “The plan announced today builds from that achievement and will dramatically brighten our future and improve our competitiveness, and attractiveness to users, advertisers and partners.” For consumer products, Yahoo will focus on three platforms globally: Search, with an emphasis on mobile search; Mail; and Tumblr. It will pare down to four vertical segments — News, Sports, Finance and Lifestyle — in “growth markets” like the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Germany, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Related Verizon Media’s New Yahoo Play App Is a Mobile Pop Culture Quiz Show With Rewards (EXCLUSIVE) Verizon Media Laying Off 800 Employees, or 7% of Staff in AOL and Yahoo Group As part of its cost-cutting measures, Yahoo said it plans to reduce its workforce by roughly 15% and shut down five offices (in Dubai, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Madrid and Milan). The company said it expects most of the restructuring changes will take place in Q1. By the end of 2016, the company expects to have approximately 9,000 employees and fewer than 1,000 contractors — a workforce 42% smaller than it was in 2012, when Mayer took the CEO job. The cuts will result in savings in short term operating expense of $400 million annually, according to the company. “Yahoo does not take this decision lightly and will make every effort to handle the process with thoughtfulness, transparency and compassion,” the company said. Potential suitors for Yahoo’s Internet businesses include Verizon Communications, which acquired AOL for $4.4 billion last year. Others, including News Corp and private-equity firm TPG Capital, have expressed an interest in Yahoo’s assets as well, the Wall Street Journal reported citing anonymous sources. Yahoo chairman Maynard Webb said in a statement that “in addition to continuing work on the reverse spin, which we’ve discussed previously, we will engage on qualified strategic proposals.” In December, Yahoo abandoned plans to spin off its stake in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group and announced that it would instead do a reverse spinoff of its other assets, putting those businesses into a separate, publicly traded company. Mayer has been under mounting pressure from investors, including most notably Starboard Value, to sell or spin off Yahoo’s legacy businesses. Starboard also has called for the board to install a new management team citing Yahoo’s deteriorating financial performance under Mayer, a former top exec at Google. For the fourth quarter of 2015, Yahoo took a $4.46 billion “goodwill impairment charge,” saying the company concluded that the carrying value of U.S., Canada, Europe, Latin America and Tumblr reporting units “exceeded their respective estimated fair values.” That included a $230 million charge for Tumblr, which Yahoo bought in 2013 for $1.1 billion. With the goodwill charge, Yahoo swung to a net loss of $4.44 billion in the quarter, or $4.70 per share, versus net income of $166 million for Q4 2014. Yahoo’s steps to streamline operations have included shutting down Yahoo Screen, the video service that was the home to licensed programming and originals including the sixth season of “Community” from Sony Pictures Television. On Tuesday Yahoo said that in 2016 it will consolidate some digital magazines under one of its four core verticals (news, sports, finance and lifestyle) and will shut others down. The company also will exit its Games and Smart TV businesses, “which have not met growth expectations,” Yahoo said. In addition, Yahoo is exploring the divestiture of “non-strategic assets” such as non-strategic patents and real estate. Through the end of 2016, the company estimates those efforts could generate between $1 billion and $3 billion in cash. Yahoo’s Q4 2015 net search revenue (subtracting traffic acquisition costs) was $381 million, a decline of 18%. Net display advertising revenue was $472 million, up 2% from the year prior, as traffic-acquisition costs nearly doubled to $130 million. The company touted growth of its “Mavens” businesses (mobile, video, native and social), which generated $472 million in revenue for the fourth quarter of 2015, a year-over-year increase of 26%. Yahoo projects Mavens growing to $1.8 billion this year, up from $1.66 billion in 2015. Mayer, in her prepared remarks on the company’s call with investors, took time to complain about news reports alleging Yahoo spends lavishly on perks and parties for employees, including the claims that it has paid $450 million on free food over four years and $7 million for a holiday party. Mayer said those figures were off by a factor of “more than three.” Yahoo’s outlook for 2016 was below Wall Street expectations. For the first quarter of 2016, the company expects revenue to be $1.05 billion to $1.09 billion, with an adjusted operating loss of $30 million to $50 million, CFO Ken Goldman said on the call. The company is forecasting full-year 2016 revenue of $4.4 billion to $4.6 billion (versus $4.97 billion in 2015) and adjusted operating income of $150 million to $250 million. Excluding traffic-acquisition costs, Yahoo expects revenue of $3.4 billion to $3.5 billion for 2016 (down 15%-17% from $4.1 billion in 2015). In a regulatory filing Tuesday, Yahoo disclosed that Charles Schwab, chairman of the Charles Schwab Corp., resigned from the company’s board effective Feb. 2 “due to his other professional commitments and demands on his time.” He was named to Yahoo’s board in April 2014 and was seen as a Mayer ally. Activist investor Starboard has previously said it plans to nominate a slate of new directors prior to the March 26 proxy-filing deadline.Cold. That was the first feeling North registered when she woke up. She couldn’t remember going to sleep but she couldn’t remember anything for that matter. Dizziness was the second thing she became aware of, the world was spinning slowly and made her unwilling to open her eyes. She tried to raise her head but she was barely able to tense her muscles, let alone using them for any movement. She decided to lay down for a moment longer and try to gather some thoughts. Her whole body felt numb and she couldn’t find strength to move any of her limbs but managed to shift her head slightly and touch the surface she was currently lying on with her cheek. It was chill and rough and she deducted that it is why she feels so cold, it must be some kind of a stone floor or maybe some damp dirt that surrounded her house. It took her a moment to realize that she feels the wetness of the floor as well but it did nothing to shed some light on her current situation or place she was in. Hoping that opening her eyes could bring some answers she tried to raise her eyelids. It felt as if she was lifting some heavy weights that had been attached to her lashes but with great effort she managed to peak through a thin gap she created. It was dark but not pitch black dark, everything was grey and out of focus. The moment she started to make out some shapes out of the grey mass, everything went black and she passed out.Cold. Wet. Dark. This time when she came to her senses she had more information about her position. She was able to open her eyes and grey mass that previously welcomed her now turned into a more or less defined combination of floor and walls. Being able to lift her head slightly she adjusted her point of view and everything fell into its place, floor was underneath her and walls surrounded her. Dizziness was slowly coming back at her so she decided to save her strength and think some more. She tried to remember how had she ended up in this dungeon, she had a memory of visiting it on several occasions but not recently and surely not today...or was it yesterday? New thought struck her, for how long exactly has she been lying on this cold and wet floor? She couldn’t feel any hunger so it was an indication that it was a day at the most, but on the other side she still could not feel much besides the cold, wetness and exhaustion. She tried to move her legs but nothing happened. She tried to move her wings and an electrifying, hot and sharp bolt of pain went through her whole body not leaving a single nerve untouched. The sensation was enough to knock her out, her head falling to the floor with a loud smacking sound.Pain. The third time she came around she could feel and what she felt was enormous pain. Originating in her wings and radiating along her body all the way to the tips of her hooves. She took a look at the floor she was lying on and realized that it was wet because of the blood that formed a large puddle beneath her. Combined with the pain and dizziness she had no doubt it was her own blood. Looking at it terrified her, there was so much of it she was astonished she was still alive. And as it was going to turn out, not for much longer. Now she could remember going to the dungeon not too far from her house, hidden in the woods with no visible trace of its existence above the ground level. She remembered the reason she came here, the same reason she came here every time. Relief. Justification. Release. Justice. Punishment. She remembered that but it didn’t explain the amount of blood it produced or the paralysing pain she felt coming from her wings. She slowly turned her head and took a look at them. Her heart skipped a bit at the sight of devastated, torn and bloody limbs that used to be her wings. Bones sticking out, skin and flesh ripped apart and blood covering her back unlocked the last piece of memory, the moment when she snapped during her ritual, when she started to mutilate herself beyond salvage, when she decided to cross the point of no return. Her heartbeat increased its pace, pumping whatever blood was left in her and supplying her mind with oxygen necessary for thinking and putting events in order. At the same time she noticed how that blood is flowing out of her, she must have ruptured major vessels in the process. Slowly her memories fell in place and she had a full picture of what she had done and why. Her vision was going darker, pain was giving way to numbness as she remembered writing something on the wall with her blood but could no longer tell what was it about. She no longer cared. She was tired and wanted to have some rest, some peace of mind. She closed her eyes and let her head fall towards the cold floor not caring if it was going to hurt her. Not caring about anything. After all, this world is only bleeding flies.___________Music: Soulfallen - This world is bleeding flies I just felt like killing something and the first thing that came to my mind was my emotionally dearranged OC, North Wind. I kinda like how she looks with blood covering her body.By Cassandra Garrison and Caroline Stauffer MIAMI/RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - A U.S. Olympic swimmer has accused his team mate, Ryan Lochte, of playing a key role in an incident that has tainted South America's first Games, saying he tore a poster off a wall and argued with armed security guards at a Rio gas station. In his first account of last week's incident, the youngest of the four swimmers involved, Gunnar Bentz, 20, said the guards confronted them after they had urinated behind some bushes and Lochte tore a metal-framed advertising poster from a wall. It is the first time any of Lochte's companions has spoken publicly of the 32-year-old's role in the incident, and it contradicts Lochte, one of America's most decorated swimmers, who told U.S. television that he and his team mates were robbed at gunpoint. Brazilian police have denounced Lochte's account as a fabrication designed to cover up for the group's bad behavior after a night spent partying until dawn, prompting apologies from both Lochte and the U.S. Olympic Committee this week. Bentz said he, Lochte and two other swimmers - all gold medalists at the Rio Games - had been in a taxi when they stopped at the gas station to use the bathroom, contradicting Lochte's initial account of being pulled over by gunmen posing as police. "There was no restroom inside, so we foolishly relieved ourselves on the backside of the building behind some bushes," Bentz said in a statement issued via the University of Georgia, where he attends college. "I am unsure why, but while we were in that area, Ryan pulled to the ground a framed metal advertisement that was loosely anchored to the brick wall." Armed security guards then challenged the swimmers and one of them drew a gun and demanded they sit down, but Lochte then stood up and yelled at one of the guards, Bentz said, adding that he and team mate Jack Conger had tried to restrain him. "After Jack and I both tugged at him in an attempt to get him to sit back down, Ryan and the security guards had a heated verbal exchange, but no physical contact was made," Bentz said. 'THE UGLY AMERICAN' The U.S. Olympic team has sought to draw a line under the scandal which has embarrassed the host city and angered ordinary Brazilians who jeered Bentz and Conger, calling them "liars" and "fakes" as they made their way out of Brazil on Thursday. Bentz, who said he never gave a false account to police, and Conger arrived in Miami on Friday on an American Airlines flight. They sat in curtained-off seats for much of the journey. The fourth member of the group, Jimmy Feigen, was set to leave the country on Friday night after agreeing with a judge to donate $11,000 to a sporting charity, a condition of police returning his passport. Lochte returned to the United States on Monday, a day after the incident and before police denounced his version. In his apology, Lochte said he should have been more careful and candid in his account but it had been traumatic to have a man point a gun at him in a foreign country and demand money. "I want to apologize for my behavior of last weekend," Lochte said as a social media storm gathered over him at home and in Brazil. He did not say why he embellished details of the encounter, nor why the act of vandalism occurred. "Regardless of the behavior of anyone else that night, I should have been much more responsible in how I handled myself and for that I am sorry to my team mates, my fans, my fellow competitors, my sponsors and the hosts of this great event." U.S. tabloid press dubbed him "The Ugly American" and "The Lochte Mess Monster", turning on the once-beloved champion and saying his behavior fed the worst stereotypes of Americans abroad. The incident followed a series of muggings and armed robberies of high-profile athletes and visitors in Rio, including two government ministers - security scares that detracted from the image Games organizers hoped to portray. The International Olympic Committee said on Friday it had set up a disciplinary commission to investigate the incident and could sanction the swimmers if they considered their behavior violated the Olympic charter in some way. The U.S. Olympic Committee and USA Swimming have said they will consider whether to take action against the swimmers. Lochte has said that he hopes to represent the United States at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. (Additional reporting by Rodrigo Viga, Paulo Prada, Caio Saad, Brad Brooks, Brad Haynes and Liana B. Baker; Writing by Daniel Flynn; Editing by Alison Williams, Mark Bendeich and Mark Lamport-Stokes)Known to drop constant collaborations and receive support from the likes of New York Giant Victor Cruz and many others, KITH is set for another installment in time for the fall with a lookbook featuring Nate Carty. The newest collection has been dubbed the Pinnacle Program, in reference to the quality in material being used in the Classics Collection. The program brings back its LaGuardia Collection with its short-sleeve, long-sleeve, and new henley alongside its latest pieces that are being welcomed such as the Herkimer Bomber, Frayed Thompson Crew and Terry Mercer III Pant. You can also expect quality upgrades from KITH’s popular pieces such as its frayed hoodie, lexington hoodie and bowery sweat. Adding finishing touches to complete the Pinnacle Program, the Astor MA-1 jacket will be brought back from the previous season in navy, black and army. You can look forward to the KITH Classics Pinnacle Program to release on October 9 at both KITH Manhattan and Brooklyn as well as online.Sen. Bernie Sanders Bernard (Bernie) SandersSenate Dems seek to
as a big screen version of Katherine Applegate’s best-selling children’s book “Crenshaw.” However, the Patty Hearst film is expected to be his next project. According to the Hearst logline, the film “traces the audacious, kaleidoscopic and psychologically twisted story of a true-life Alice in Wonderland.” It will follow Hearst’s capture and two-year detainment by the Symbionese Liberation Army in the mid 1970’s, as well as her transition from hostage to warrior. The kidnapped heiress captured the world’s attention when she was caught on tape participating in armed bank robberies. Her arrest and trial sparked a media frenzy. Related Josh Lucas Joins James Mangold's Untitled Ford vs. Ferrari Film (EXCLUSIVE) ‘Star Wars:’ A Boba Fett Movie Is in the Works Mangold’s been in demand since “Logan” became a commercial hit, grossing $616.8 million globally. It was also hailed by critics for its blood-drenched, character driven re-imagining of the superhero genre. Fox is aggressively pushing the film for awards consideration. Mangold’s other credits include “Walk the Line,” “Girl Interrupted,” and “The Wolverine.” Fanning is one of the movie business’s top rising stars, having appeared in “20th Century Women,” “The Beguiled,” and “The Neon Demon.” Her upcoming credits include “Mary Shelley” and “I Think We’re Alone Now.” Mangold is represented by WME and Management 360. Fanning is represented by WME and Echo Lake Entertainment.As I said yesterday, I had no opinion on Jamie Kompon being hired as an assistant. I got a little nervous when seeing the long, previous relationship with Quenneville. But again, a Cup shouldn't hinge on your assistant coach. The buck stops with the head coach. But I thought I'd do a little more than that and get the insight of someone who had dealt with Kompon as an assistant. And any chance I get to talk with our buddies over at The Royal Half.com, I'm going to take. What they told me will probably not make your pork loin sandwich taste any better today: I've never seen an Assistant Coach as much maligned as Jamie Kompon was by Kings fans. His main priority was the Power Play.. which besides that playoff series against the Canucks in 2010… has been awful. Now, I'm of the belief that at the end of the day, the Head Coach is just as responsible for any deficiencies with the PP as the Assistants are… but try telling that to the fans that have been screaming for Kompon's job for the last few seasons. When Darry Sutter took over, the first thing he did was bring in Bernie Nicholls in a "consulting" role for the Power Play. It didn't help much, but it was fun watching Kompon sit quietly while Nicholls took over practices. Kompon was pretty much a lame duck since February. He's a weird looking dude with a skinny head that skates really weird…. up and down and always has his knees bent like he's sitting in a chair. It's like he went to a hockey school and never changed his stride ever since. Good God, does that sound familiar. As my compatriot Matt McClure said, it looks like Q has hired his own personal Bob Babich. In fact, he's got two of them now, and I'm kind of worried we'll be treated to the site of two assistants staring blankly out at two dysfunctional special teams. Or we will through December until Stan gets his wish and cans their ass. At least that's my theory. Whatever's going on here, something is amiss, and I'm kind of tired of writing about that about the Hawks front office. There's my theory that Stan wanted to either fire Q after last season or at least let him talk to Montreal and let him leave and was rebuffed, and now he's just going to let Q hang himself on his own rope with his own assistants and no excuses. Don't for a second start complaining about the roster, because there's enough on it right now to have a dynamic power play and gather 101 points without its captain for six weeks and being pretty mismanaged. Should it happen again in the beginning of the season, you better believe axes are going to get wielded. If that's a word. They've already axed one assistant, and you don't get to do it a second time. The other possibility is that with the 2010 triumph, Quenneville has ingratiated himself so deeply with McDonough and Rocky that he's untouchable. However, it's looking more and more like Sid Barrett in his current state could have guided that squad to a win, and Quenneville's lofty regular season win total but one Final appearance would seem to suggest that even more. Whenever this season begins, there's going to be some good watchin' to be had.Buy Photo Tony Shook, 29 of Greene, left, Casey Yerkes, 23, of Lisbon, center, and Keyton Johnson, 19 of Greene, right, help to sandbag around downtown Greene on Thursday, Sept. 22, 2016. (Photo: Brian Powers/The Register)Buy Photo Flooding forced residents from their homes in the northeast Iowa towns of Greene and Clarksville on Thursday as the Shell Rock River jumped its banks following heavy storms that dumped up to 9 inches of rain in some areas. Further downstream, residents in Cedar Falls, Waterloo and Cedar Rapids are preparing for the worst flooding to hit those cities since 2008, when Cedar River flooding dislocated more than 18,000 people in Cedar Rapids and caused more than $2 billion in damage to the city. UPDATED FLOOD COVERAGE: The Cedar River is expected to crest at 24.1 feet in Cedar Rapids early Tuesday morning. That's 12 feet above flood stage and second only to the record 31.12-foot crest eight years ago. “If you own property in the affected area, you need to begin flood mitigation efforts, whatever those efforts may be for your individual building or home. It could be relocation, it could be moving to higher ground or it could be simply sandbags,” Cedar Rapids Mayor Ron Corbett said at a news conference Thursday afternoon. “The city is taking this event very seriously, and we’re putting in plans today. Citizens, property owners need to do the same. “We have four days to get ready, and now is the time to start." CLOSE Mark Nelson describes growing up in Greene, IA, and why he drove from Marion to help out some friends who were taking on water. Brian Powers/The Register Water will reach the downtown core, the NewBo district and the Czech Village and Time Check neighborhoods if levels actually hit 24 feet, city officials said. Public Works crews were out Thursday plugging sewers, preparing pumps and identifying areas to sandbag. Pre-emptive road closures are expected Saturday. City Manager Jeff Pomeranz called the event “potentially significant.” Officials warned residents to stay alert and prepare to evacuate if needed. The city is expected to make decisions about whether to evacuate low-lying areas Sunday morning. “While no one knows exactly what is going to happen, we believe that communication and caution, preparation and response is absolutely critical in an event such as is being predicted,” Pomeranz said. The city plans a 10 a.m. news conference every day through Tuesday to provide updates on its preparation plans. Updates also will be posted on the city’s website. Upstream, the Cedar River upstream at Cedar Falls and Waterloo is expected to crest at its second-highest levels ever during the weekend. The National Weather Service expects it to crest 9½ feet above flood stage in Cedar Falls on Saturday afternoon, barring no more rain. The river crested 14.1 feet above flood stage in 2008. It could reach 22 feet by Saturday night in Waterloo. That's 9 feet above flood stage. The Cedar River reached 27 feet in Waterloo eight years ago. Those projections could change as more rain was expected Thursday night in northeast Iowa. The National Weather Service was predicting half an inch to an inch of rain overnight, with the potential for localized rainfall reaching up to 4 inches. "We're not expecting quite the amount we saw last night, but still the potential for significant rainfall," according to the weather briefing. 0:00 \| 0:23 This is a 360° video experience. Use your mouse or the arrow keys on your keyboard to see the entire 360° view. VR STORIES Put Yourself Inside the Story 360 Video is not supported in this browser. Please use Google Chrome, Firefox, or Microsoft Edge. Like this 360° experience? You may also like: x Embed AutoPlay Watch as Iowans come together to help with sandbagging efforts in Greene, Iowa, on Thursday, Sept. 22, 2016. Brian Powers/The Register Black Hawk County Emergency Management Coordinator Lorie Glover said the river is already out of its banks at some spots in Waterloo. Many areas along the floodplain were part of a buyout following the 2008 flood, and other homes in the area have been elevated, she said. The levee system in Waterloo can hold water levels up to 30 feet, she said. Storm sewers there will close when the Cedar River reaches 17 feet, and some bridges will close at 24 feet. The river was at 10 feet at 6 p.m. Thursday, a full 3 feet below flood levels. Emergency personnel are preparing to address flooding by moving pumps and testing gates. They are in constant communication with law enforcement, non-profit agencies such as the American Red Cross and local hospitals, Glover said. She asked residents to be alert and prepare for evacuation if needed. Flooding is not expected farther south in Iowa City and Coralville — two communities that suffered extensive damage in 2008. Dee Goldman, the Army Corps of Engineers' operations project manager at Coralville Lake, said engineers are releasing water from the dam at the maximum level of 6,000 cubic feet per second to mitigate moderate flooding in Marengo. The river downstream of the dam should remain within its banks, Goldman said. The Army Corps plans to reduce output from the dam to 1,000 cubic feet per second Tuesday as floodwaters make their way south along the Cedar River to avoid worse flooding to the south, where the Cedar River meets the Iowa River at Columbus Junction. Flooding upstream About 50 miles upstream, law enforcement reported widespread flooding across Butler and Bremer counties, with several county roads closed because of high water. Butler County Sheriff Jason Johnson said emergency personnel rescued residents from six homes overnight Thursday in Greene, a town of about 1,100 on the Shell Rock River. Residents from about 80 homes were moved to higher ground during the day, he said. Some city streets were covered with up to 2 feet of water and at least two homes had to be reached by boat, Johnson said. The river was expected to crest at 20 feet Thursday night, a mark below 2008 levels. Flooding on 2nd Street in Greene, IA. Businesses in the downtown have been evacuated and some houses. @DMRegisterpic.twitter.com/uIAxU4xx4e — Charly Haley (@charlyhaley) September 22, 2016 No injuries were reported, Johnson said. "Everyone is in good shape," he said. "A lot of them have been through this before, and they've been making preparations all night." Gov. Terry Branstad verbally declared a disaster proclamation for Butler, Chickasaw and Floyd counties. Additional counties are expected to be added to a formal proclamation in the days ahead, according to a news release from the governor's office. "We anticipate extensive flooding along the Cedar River eventually affecting Cedar Rapids," Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds said in the release. The state has provided 30,000 sandbags and deployed eight water pumps to affected counties. Volunteers and emergency responders started flood operations in Greene on Wednesday night, said Jeff Stirling, a volunteer with the local ambulance service. He and many others had been working overnight to fill sandbags and help protect their community, he told a reporter Thursday afternoon. Residents stopped by the site where Stirling was working to pick up sandbags for their homes. Walls of sandbags also were built on East Traer Street, near Second Street and First Street. Marilyn Wahlgren, who lives on North Grove Street, took sandbags to her house even though it’s on high ground. She said her basement flooded, because water from the heavy rains had saturated the soil around the home she has owned for 25 years. Volunteers and emergency responders sandbagging in Greene, IA to protect businesses from flooding. @DMRegisterpic.twitter.com/8gguszrOqa — Charly Haley (@charlyhaley) September 22, 2016 Mark Nelson, of Marion, traveled to his hometown of Greene to help with the sandbag operations. “You've got to save your hometown,” he said. “I was raised here. My children and grandchildren still come here to visit their grandmother and great-grandmother, and I just want to make sure that it's here for another 100 years. That's what we do. We just get together as a community." The North Butler school district canceled classes Thursday and Friday. The high school is being used as an emergency shelter. Cedar Rapids Xavier planned to let students out of school at 11 a.m. Friday to help with sandbagging efforts there. The National Weather Service said the Greene fire department reported 7½ inches of rain just before 11 p.m. Wednesday. The service also said a tornado reported to have touched down briefly 4 miles west of Greene had not been confirmed. Travel into Greene was restricted to local traffic only. Operations were hampered by people coming to town to observe the flooding, Johnson said. Anyone who wishes to volunteer in the future can call 319-267-9968. They will be put on a list and contacted as needed, he said. In Mason City, where residents were evacuated from two apartment complexes, more than 2½ inches of rain fell over 12 hours. The Winnebago River was expected to crest 4 feet above flood stage at 14.2 feet early Friday morning, depending on rainfall upstream and in the area. Mason City authorities asked residents in low-lying areas to plan for evacuations and move their vehicles to higher ground. The National Weather Service also reported flooding in Hawkeye, Charles City and Lansing, where mudslides were bringing trees on to highways. Charles City received about 4.8 inches of rain, and one measuring station south of Nora Springs recorded 9.36 inches, the service said. — The Associated Press contributed to this report. Volunteers and emergency responders work sandbagging to protect downtown businesses in Greene, IA. @DMRegisterpic.twitter.com/qHOoFg53FV — Charly Haley (@charlyhaley) September 22, 2016 Cedar and Shell Rock river forecasts Shell Rock: Shell Rock River expected to crest at 18.1 feet by 1 p.m. Friday. Record is 20.36 in 2008. Cedar Falls: Cedar River expected to crest at 97.5 feet by 1 p.m. Saturday. Record is 102.10 feet in 2008. Waterloo: Cedar River expected to crest at 22 feet by 7 p.m. Saturday. Record is 27.01 feet in 2008. Cedar Rapids: Cedar River expected to crest at 24.1 feet by 1 a.m. Tuesday. Record is 31.12 feet in 2008. National Weather Service river forecasts as of 7 p.m. Thursday. Crest levels and times subject to change. Visit water.weather.gov for up-to-date forecasts. One injured in accident A pedestrian who was trying to direct traffic around flood waters in Rockwell was struck by an oncoming vehicle. The Cerro Gordo County Sheriff's Office reports 34-year-old Mark Nel of Nora Springs was taken to the hospital with injuries. The driver, 70-year-old Merlyn Tramel of Rockwell, was cited for unsafe approach to a stationary vehicle resulting in injury. Read or Share this story: http://dmreg.co/2cZmjASTelevision advertisements for e-cigarettes may be enticing current and even former tobacco smokers to reach for another cigarette. That is the finding by researchers Erin K. Maloney, Ph.D. and Joseph N. Cappella, Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication, as reported in the journal Health Communication (online, March 2015). The researchers studied more than 800 daily, intermittent, and former smokers who watched e-cigarette advertising, and who then took a survey to determine smoking urges, intentions, and behaviors. Using a standard test to measure the urge to smoke a cigarette, people who smoke tobacco cigarettes daily and who watched e-cigarette advertisements with someone inhaling or holding an e-cigarette (aka vaping) showed a greater urge to smoke than regular smokers who did not see the vaping. Former smokers who watched e-cigarette advertisements with vaping had less confidence that they could refrain from smoking tobacco cigarettes than former smokers seeing e-cigarette ads without vaping. The findings are significant, considering that tobacco advertising on television went up in smoke over four decades ago by way of a federal ban. Moreover, e-cigarette advertising is stoked by big tobacco companies. Estimates peg e-cigarette ad spending at more than $1 billion this year. That number is expected to grow at a 50 percent rate over the next four years. "We know that exposure to smoking cues such as visual depictions of cigarettes, ashtrays, matches, lighters, and smoke heightens smokers' urge to smoke a cigarette, and decreases former smokers' confidence in their ability to refrain from smoking a cigarette," said Dr. Maloney. "Because many e-cigarette brands that have a budget to advertise on television are visually similar to tobacco cigarettes, we wanted to see if similar effects can be attributed to e-cigarette advertising." Maloney and Cappella pulled together more than a dozen e-cigarette advertisements via searches of Google, YouTube, and e-cigarette web sites. They set up three conditions for the participants -- watching the advertisements, watching the advertisements with only the audio (the visuals were replaced by scrolling text of the advertisement), or simply answering a series of unrelated media use questions that took approximately the same amount of time it would take to view the advertisements. Participants were "daily," "intermittent," or "former" smokers. Maloney and Cappella observed a trend that more daily smokers who viewed ads with vaping smoked a tobacco cigarette during the experiment than daily smokers who viewed ads without vaping and daily smokers who did not view ads. Over 35 percent of the daily smokers in the condition that showed vaping reported having a tobacco cigarette during the study versus 22 percent of daily smokers who saw ads without vaping, and about 23 percent of daily smokers who did not see any advertising. "Given the sophistication of cigarette marketing in the past and the exponential increase in advertising dollars allotted to e-cigarette promotion in the past year, it should be expected that advertisements for these products created by big tobacco companies will maximize smoking cues in their advertisements, and if not regulated, individuals will be exposed to much more e-cigarette advertising on a daily basis," Maloney and Cappella wrote. The editor of Health Communication, Teresa Thompson, Ph.D., University of Dayton, commented, "These findings are especially relevant to ongoing health and policy discussions, as they indicate that it is not just the health impact of e-cigs and vaping themselves that must be considered. The interrelationship between tobacco smoking and media representations of the 'e' versions examined in this study make clear that portrayal of actions that just look like smoking has an effect on viewers who smoke or used to smoke."There is, however, large support for same-sex civil unions and domestic partnerships. Poll: Utah split on gay marriage Utah is split down the middle on the question of same-sex marriage, indicating a sharp decline in support for the state’s 2004 constitutional ban, according to a new poll. A Salt Lake Tribune poll by SurveyUSA shows that Utahns are evenly split on the issue with 48 percent in favor of legalizing gay marriage and 48 percent against it. This marks a massive shift in opinion in the strongly conservative state, where 66 percent of voters who participated in the 2004 election approved of the constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriages in Utah. Story Continued Below According to the survey, 36 percent of Utah adults have changed their views of same-sex marriage over time, further complicating an already-tricky legal battle in the state. ( Also on POLITICO: Oklahoma judge: Gay marriage law unconstitutional) These numbers come after a federal district judge overturned the gay marriage ban on Dec. 20, calling the law unconstitutional and choosing not to stay the decision. On Jan. 6, the Supreme Court ordered a halt on new marriages between same-sex couples while the judge’s decision is appealed, but not before 1300 same-sex couples filed for marriage licenses. While Utah Gov. Gary Herbert’s administration says it will not recognize the marriages that took place during that time, last week the Obama administration issued a statement that the Department of Justice would recognize them, granting federal benefits to those couples even as the courts battle over whether the the ban was constitutional or not. While state residents are split on the specific question of gay marriage, there is, however, overwhelming support for same-sex civil unions and domestic partnerships; 72 percent of those surveyed said they believe same-sex couples should be able to form civil unions, while only 25 percent said they should not. ( Also on POLITICO: John Kerry hits Nigeria gay marriage law) The survey of 600 Utah adults was conducted Jan. 10 to 13 and has a margin of error of between plus-or-minus 3.7 percentage points and plus-or-minus 4.1 percentage points.Exponential growth Take a sheet of paper of the ordinary variety - letter size for the Americans, A4 for the rest of the world - and fold it into half. Fold it a second time, and a third time. It's about as thick as your finger nail. Continue folding if you can. At 7 folds it is as thick as a notebook. If you would have been able to fold it 10 times, it would be as thick as the width of your hand. Unfortunately, it isn't possible to do so more than about 12 times. Try it for yourself. At seventeen folds it would be taller than your average house. Three more folds and that sheet of paper is a quarter way up the Sears tower. Ten more folds and it has crossed the outer limits of the atmosphere. Another twenty and it has reached the sun from the earth. At sixty folds it has the diameter of the solar system. At 100 folds it has the radius of the universe. "Preposterous!", you exclaim. That is what I thought till I started calculating the thickness myself. If you do not want to pull out your trusty calculator here is a table that contains what I have described above. n 2n km (0.110*-6 2n) Comment 0 1 0.1 x 10-6 1 2 0.2 x 10-6 2 4 0.4 x 10-6 3 8 0.8 x 10-6 finger nail thickness 4 16 1.6 x 10-6 5 32 3.2 x 10-6 6 64 6.4 x 10-6 7 128 12.8 x 10-6 thickness of a notebook 8 256 25.6 x 10-6 9 512 51.2 x 10-6 10 1024 0.1 x 10-3 width of a hand (incl. thumb) 11 2048 0.2 x 10-3 12 4096 0.4 x 10-3 0.4m height of a stool 13 8192 0.8 x 10-3 14 16384 1.6 x 10-3 1.6m: an average person's height (yeah, a short guy) 15 32768 3.3 x 10-3 16 65536 6.6 x 10-3 17 131072 13.1 x 10-3 13m height of a two story house 18 262144 26.2 x 10-3 19 524288 52.4 x 10-3 20 1048576 104.9 x 10-3 quarter of the Sears tower (440m)............... 25 33554432 3.4 x 100 past the Matterhorn 30 1073741824 107.4 x 100 outer limits of the atmosphere 35 34359738368 3.4 x 103 40 1099511627776 109.9 x 103 45 35184372088832 3.5 x 106 50 1125899906842624 112.5 x 106 ~ distance to the sun (95 million miles) 55 36028797018963968 3.6 x 109 60 1152921504606846976 115.3 x 109 size of the solar system? 65 36893488147419103232 3.7 x 1012 one-third of a light year 70 1180591620717411303424 118.1 x 1012 11 light years 75 37778931862957161709568 3.8 x 1015 377 light years 80 1208925819614629174706176 120.9 x 1015 12,000 light years 85 38685626227668133590597632 3.9 x 1018 4x the diameter of our galaxy 90 1237940039285380274899124224 123.8 x 1018 12 million light years 95 39614081257132168796771975168 4.0 x 1021 100 1267650600228229401496703205376 126.8 x 1021 (12 billion light years) approx. radius of the known universe? Note: A sheet of paper is about 0.1 mm thick. I use the common 80gm/m2 variety. I have represented the exponentiation operator with **. The idea for this article and, indeed, the paper-folding analogy came from an issue of the Economist. According to Ozgur Ince it was in the 15 July 1995 issue and was titled The End of the Line. I cannot link to that article as the online archive at the Economist only goes back to 1997. If anyone detects a factual mistake in the table, please contact me with the correction. It is possible that I have got some numbers wrong while typing this in. This table should convince anyone about the rapidity of exponential growth. Yes, the example I have taken does double at every step; usual growth is just a few percentage points but the core idea is the same. Hand-made noodles The following is an extract from Philip & Phylis Morrison's book "The Ring of Truth" (Vintage Books ISBN 0-679-72130-4). A fascinating advance in that direction - to be sure, without atoms at all in mind- has long been practiced in the high art of the professional Chinese chef. We dropped in on such a virtuoso splitter of matter. Chef Mark kneaded high-gluten white flour carefully along with the other ingredients of noodle dough in correct proportions: three cups of flour, half as much water, one-quarter teaspoon each of salt and baking soda. He vigorously swung and stretched the lump of dough out into a heavy single strand the length of his full two-arm span. Then he folded that long thick strand in half, and pulled the dough out again into its original length, so that two thinner strands now passed from one hand to the other. Repeat, repeat, repeat... Chef Mark : "Hello, everybody. I am the chef of the Dragon House in Wildwood, New Jersey. Today I will make the kind of noodles called so. Make the dough strong and smooth, keep the dough smooth and strong, and you will have noodles on the table." Fold one time: the dough becomes two noodles. Two times, and it becomes four noodles. Three, four times...ten, eleven, now twelve doublings, or four thousand and ninety-six noodles. Wow! Almost five feet long, they are called dragon's beard noodles -very fine, like a human hair. In two minutes, Chef Mark had drawn out four miles of fine noodles. (They were really two or three times as thick as human hair.) Legendary chefs of the past have gone to thirteen doublings, while experienced home noodle makers can complete eight or ten. But consider that if Chef Mark had continued the doubling, it would take only thirty-five more steps of doubling, six minutes' work, before he would have reached what we know as atomic size. Of course, the actual procedure would fail long before that idealized atomic limit is reached. The tantalizing nature of the doubling process is that the subdivision is so rapid. Some forty-six doublings would make noodles of true atomic fineness, in principle. But note that such an incredible feat would produce not a mere few miles of dragon's beard, but noodles long enough to stretch to Pluto and beyond! Doubling rice grains The following story I heard as a kid while growing up in India. I do not know the original source of the legend nor if it is reproduced here as I heard it then. So consume it with an appropriate pinch of salt. Once upon a time, long ago there was a king who ruled a prosperous land. Poverty was unknown there and every person was gainfully employed. Hence the sight of a beggar making his way along Main Street caused quite a stir in the capital of the land. The king demanded to see this strange man. When brought to him the beggar revealed that he indeed did not have any possessions nor any money for the purchase of food. The king magnanimously offered all-you-can-eat meals for the rest of the week and clean clothes so that the beggar could continue his journey to the next land. Surprisingly, the beggar declined the royal offer and asked for a modest favor. The king demanded to know what the wish was. The beggar humbly requested a grain of rice for the first day, two on the second, four on the third day and so on - doubling the previous days contribution. The king looked through the window at the overflowing granaries and almost accepted it when his grand vizier, remembering something that he had learnt in Elements of Numbers (Math 201 at the local University) advised his highness that he should reconsider. To calculate the implication of the wish he pulled out a dusty abacus to perform exponential calculations. He fumbled with it for a while but could not express the magnitude of the numbers involved because he ran out of beads. The king getting impatient with his vizier on such a simple wish from a poor man, officially granted the beggar the wish. Little did he know that he had sounded the death knell of his reign. The next day the beggar came to claim his grain of rice. The townsfolk laughed at the beggar and said that he should have taken the king's kind offer for a full meal instead of the measly grain of rice. On the second day he was back for the two grains. A week later, he brought a teaspoon for the 128 grains that was due to him. In two weeks it was a non-negligible amount of half a kilo. At the end of the month it had grown to a whopping 35 tons. A few days later the king had to declare bankruptcy. That is how long it was needed to bring down the kingdom. For the pedantic ones I assumed that a grain of rice weighs 0.033 grams. By the way, I used whole rice and hence your mileage might vary. I have heard of a variation of this story from China where the beggar requested a grain for the first square on a chess board, two for the second square and so on for each square. The king would be bankrupt long before the beggar got to the sixty-fourth square on the chess board.LOS ANGELES — Victors are said to write history. But in California, history is being written by a committee that is at the center of a raging debate over how to tell the story of South Asia as it tries to update textbooks and revise curriculums for Grades 6 and 7. The dispute centers on whether the region that includes modern-day India, Pakistan and Nepal should be referred to as India or as South Asia, to represent the plurality of cultures there — particularly because India was not a nation-state until 1947. It also touches on how the culture of the region is portrayed, including women’s role in society and the vestiges of the caste system. It might seem somewhat arcane. But it has prompted petition drives, as well as a #DontEraseIndia social media campaign and a battle of opinion pieces. When the committee met earlier this spring, dozens of students turned out at the State Capitol, some in tears, earnestly telling the educators that anything other than India would amount to erasing their heritage.Yesterday, an exciting partnership was created that would enable the creation of the largest Bitcoin marketplace to date – BitDazzle. The collaboration between Cashie Commerce and Coinbase will make it possible for any small business to maintain an online marketplace, while reaching an exponentially growing population of Bitcoin users. The breakthrough means big things for the online marketplace. How Bitdazzle works:BitDazzle works the same as any online marketplace. When you visit the site, the consumer will unveil a vast marketplace of digital and physical goods. Consumers search products and complete transactions within a simple to use interface. What sets BitDazzle apart from the competition is the breadth of products available within the online marketplace. Completing any transaction takes minutes and shoppers can choose to pay via Bitcoin, through using Coinbase, or through PayPal and credit card.You don’t have Bitcoins?Simply sign up for an account on Coinbase directly from BitDazzle and from there you are just minutes away from completing your transaction!BitDazzle has created an equally simple experience for merchants. In order to list your products you must “open a store.” A seller will complete a short form and be able to list their products for free immediately. Want to sell your products on your website? Through BitDazzle’s partnerships, every merchant can also sign up through Cashie Commerce and create an online shopping cart to post on their personal website, Facebook, and mobile device.BitDazzle has a vast amount of benefits for merchants and consumers around the world. The partnership with Coinbase and Cashie Commerce enables merchants to sell anything, whether it is a physical or digital good. Through your Cashie account you can manage multiple stores from anywhere in the world. Most importantly, we provide the tools to help you refine and develop your business and increase your sales.A Breakthrough for BitcoinThe recent unveiling of BitDazzle, along with the partnership with key industry leaders will increase worldwide adoption of Bitcoin. Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, stated;"There’s no denying that the breadth of products available for purchase using Bitcoin has been geared toward an early-adopting customer. We're excited our two companies are working together to expand the pool of merchants that transact with Bitcoin. BitDazzle signifies a shift in the landscape wherein Bitcoin goes mainstream."BitDazzle will launch with more than 100,000 products available for purchase using your hard-earned Bitcoins. Additionally, the company will be partnering with non-profits, making it possible for the philanthropically inclined to donate using Bitcoin to causes such as Children With Hair Loss.BitDazzle is a giant leap forward in the Bitcoin community. The coming months will show us just how much of an impact it will make.Madrid, Spain (CNN) -- An African man who claimed he could double your money simply by applying a magic potion to currency notes has been arrested at a Madrid bar where the Ecuadorean owner nearly fell victim to the ploy, Spanish national police said on Thursday. Police arrived in time to catch the suspected thief, from Cameroon, with 1,120 euros ($1,556) that had been handed over by the bar owner. The suspect, 28, alleged he had run out of magic potion and would need to go home to get some more, a police statement and spokesman said. "It was a very unpleasant surprise," bar owner Cesar Tepan told CNN. He told police the suspect had come to the bar a week earlier claiming he could double currency notes by applying a magic potion, the police statement said. Taking a chance, the owner provided a 20 euro note (nearly $28), and the suspect mixed it with various white papers, applied a brown liquid and white power, and mixed it up with cotton. Presto, and there were soon three 20 euro notes visible, the owner told police. "He returned my 20," said Tepan, who's lived 16 years in Spain and has owned the bar in central Madrid for 11 years. When the suspect came back last Saturday, the owner provided 1,120 euros in various currency notes, after the owner and the suspect agreed on how to split up the proceeds from the doubled money, the police said. The suspect put the bills in an envelope and sealed it with tape. Then he applied the alleged magic potion, repeating this various times, but finally told the bar owner he had run out of the magic potion and would need to go home and get more. But he promised to leave the sealed envelope at the bar. That's when an argument ensued and someone, possibly the owner or a client, called the police, a police spokesman said. "I realized he was trying to take the money," Tepan told CNN. A neighbor called the police and Tepan's adult son arrived and locked the door to the street, with the suspect inside the bar. "He became nervous," Tepan said, adding he was determined not to let the suspect leave until the 1,120 euros had been returned. The police arrived and opened the sealed envelope but found only white papers inside. Then they searched the suspect, and found the 1,120 euros hidden in his clothing, the police statement said.A few years ago, I worked at a very big international company. I was doing R&D in the user interaction field and I had very friendly colleagues: the dream job. At some point, I had what looked like a good idea: make our user’s life
with one single buyer. This is far from a done deal; no potential buyers were cited nor was any timetable given. But given how difficult it is to make money as an Android device manufacturer, it's not terribly surprising to hear that HTC is figuring out alternatives to just staying the course. That said, HTC has gotten some of its smartphone mojo back in the last few years, at least from a product quality point of view. Both 2016's HTC 10 and this year's U11 are the best phones the company has produced in years and the first that we could really recommend without reservation. HTC also was the manufacturer behind Google's first Pixel phones, a contract that lends the brand some credibility. But good hardware doesn't lead to success -- HTC just isn't a household name in the way that Samsung and Apple are, and thus it's been hard for the company to reverse its fortunes. How selling the Vive business -- arguably the only part of HTC that's truly hitting on all cylinders -- would help HTC in the long run remains to be seen. (Besides the cash infusion that would come with that, of course.) We're probably getting ahead of ourselves with all the speculation, as even Bloomberg says nothing may come of this. But it's definitely worth keeping an eye out to see what'll happen to the first Android smartphone manufacturer in the coming months.The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution: No lessons learned By Clare Hurley and Fred Mazelis 9 October 2015 Valuable footage combined with deeply flawed and sometimes vacuous commentary add up in the case of The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution to a film that provides an incomplete and misleading account of a vital period in the history of social struggles in the US. Filmmaker Stanley Nelson is known for documentaries such as Freedom Summer (2014), Freedom Riders (2011), Jonestown: The Life & Death of People’s Temple (2006) and The Murder of Emmett Till (2003). For his latest venture he has obtained and utilized newsreel and other video accounts covering the short and turbulent existence of the Black Panther Party. Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution Much of this is riveting and raises important issues, but the talking heads, including many of the surviving leaders of the Panthers, set the tone and draw very shallow conclusions. They falsely imply that the Panthers in some way represented a revolutionary alternative. Today, older and wiser, they suggest that history proves it is necessary to work “within the system.” They are wrong on both counts. The Panthers, founded by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, were responding to pervasive police brutality and deepening poverty in heavily African-American Oakland, California, when they were founded in 1966. Nelson’s film highlights their black nationalist rhetoric and ability to attract media coverage. Basing themselves on the legal right to carry loaded weapons as long as they were openly displayed, the Panthers developed a paramilitary style, patrolling city streets on the lookout for police misconduct. However, there is not nearly enough political and social context provided along with this footage. The Panthers struck a chord among black youth for definite historical reasons. The postwar capitalist boom had left out tens of millions of workers and the poor, and the poverty rate remained stubbornly high through the 1960s. African-Americans were disproportionately affected, as they still are today. The Great Migration from the American South had brought millions of workers to the industrial north, where some were able to obtain jobs in the auto factories and steel mills. The legislative gains and reforms won in the struggle against Jim Crow in the South revealed all the more starkly, as Martin Luther King, Jr. himself acknowledged, the profound issues of class exploitation and inequality throughout the country. The Northern ghettoes exploded in rage beginning in 1964. These were the conditions under which the Panthers attracted support from many thousands of black youth. The movement spread like wildfire around the country, and its leaders were totally unprepared for the massive influx of members that began in earnest by 1967. The Panthers’ membership reportedly reached a peak of 10,000 by the end of the decade, with its newspaper achieving a circulation of some 250,000. Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution The new members, many of whom were politically raw and untrained, also included numerous police and FBI informants. The political disorientation, the uncritical enthusiasm, is echoed today in the generally superficial presentation of this history by filmmaker Nelson. He interviews ex-Panther leader Ericka Huggins, for instance, who declares, “We were a phenomenon!” As the documentary shows, the Panthers advanced a program that was a mixture of black nationalism and Maoism. Amidst the growing movement against the Vietnam War, they also attracted sympathy from thousands of student protesters, many of them white, who identified with the struggle against racism and opposed the attempt to frame up Panther leaders. Many of these students, however, were either ignorant of or hostile to the movement of the working class. Among the strongest parts of the film is the depiction of the murderous state repression that played a significant role in destroying the Black Panther Party (BPP). While they were far from representing a genuine revolutionary threat, the capitalist state recognized the danger in any movement that attracted the support and sympathy of masses of youth, students and unemployed. This was a period of growing political awareness among broader sections of workers and youth, and not only among African-Americans. Police murder squads were unleashed against the Panthers. The FBI set out, using its notorious Cointelpro program, to stir up divisions within the leadership, a task made easier by the Panthers’ political confusion and petty bourgeois adventurism. The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) was particularly infamous for its activities, and some of the retired cops involved are shown in the film bragging about their exploits. It was during this period that coordinated police raids took place against every significant Black Panther office around the country. Shootouts and mass arrests were used to instill fear into Panther supporters. FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, in one of the film’s most revealing moments, is shown explaining that, “justice is incidental to law and order.” Perhaps the most infamous crime was the state killing of Chicago Panthers leader Fred Hampton. Hampton, Illinois chairman of the BPP, was considered especially dangerous because he hinted at the need for unity across racial lines. The film shows him at a meeting declaring, “We’re going to fight racism not with racism, but we’re going to fight with solidarity.” FBI informant William O’Neal, shown in video footage some two decades after the murder, when he confessed his role, provided keys and floor plans to Hampton’s apartment. The Panther leader, only 21 years old, was shot to death in his bed by the police on December 4, 1969. The ferocity of the raid left the walls riddled with bullets, only one of which had been discharged by the Panthers, and that one accidentally by someone on guard when the police shot him. The residue of Hampton’s blood streaming down the steps of the apartment building brought hundreds of mourners to the site over the next few days. Huey Newton Attorney Dennis Cunningham described the scene as a “shoot-in,” not a shootout. He explains in the documentary that the police death squad was under the direction of Chicago mayor Richard Daley, but the crime was set up by the FBI. O’Neal received a $300 bonus for his work. The murder of Hampton, a direct victim of police and FBI terror and conspiracy, followed on the assassinations of Malcolm X in 1965 and Martin Luther King in 1968, all efforts to suppress opposition to the existing order. The combination of ruthless repression and the Panthers’ own political bankruptcy led to a rapid decline of the BPP beginning in the early 1970s. Much attention in the film is focused on the bitter break between Huey Newton and Panther leader Eldridge Cleaver. Newton, along with Bobby Seale, initiated the Panthers’ Free Breakfast Program. Cleaver, who had fled into exile in 1968, first to Cuba and then Algeria, met with various bourgeois nationalist figures and was identified with racial rhetoric and fraudulent “Third World” revolutionary phraseology. Former leaders of the Panthers such as Kathleen Cleaver and Elaine Brown, interviewed at some length, speak of the personal failings and “mistakes” of 40 years ago. Left out of this is the fact that the Free Breakfast Program and Cleaver’s reactionary nationalism were two sides of the same coin. Whatever tactical and bitter personal divisions existed among them, all of these leaders were hostile to the working class, black as well as white. “Power to the people” and similar slogans substituted vague populism and nationalist demagogy for the struggle to unite the working class against capitalism. By the early 1970s, the Panthers were already embarking on an electoral strategy, and Bobby Seale ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Oakland as a Democrat in 1973. Newton became increasingly erratic. He was to die in a drug raid in Oakland in 1989. Cleaver returned to the US in 1975 and declared himself a born-again Christian, later becoming a supporter of Ronald Reagan and a fanatical anti-communist. Seale, the only one of these three who is still alive, declined to be interviewed for the film. There is little attempt in the documentary to make sense of this history, which is both tragic and sometimes sordid. It cannot be understood apart from broader historical developments. While the Panthers’ leadership must be held politically accountable for their record, their difficulties also have to be placed within the context of the international influence of Stalinism and Castroism, the criminal role of the unions in keeping the US working class tied to the Democratic Party, and the role of the petty bourgeois radicals, including the ex-Trotskyist Socialist Workers Party, in keeping the massive anti-war movement sealed off from the working class as a whole. The whole middle-class protest movement collapsed ignominiously amid this confusion. Some of the middle-aged and older ex-Panthers in this documentary sound very much like their fellow ex-protesters and ex-radicals, who have repudiated their youthful illusions and have now become supporters of bourgeois politicians like Barack Obama and Bernie Sanders. These middle class and pseudo-left layers are among those drawing parallels between the Panthers and the Black Lives Matter protests of today. They seek to channel the justified anger at police killings and violence back into the Democratic Party or into forms of race-based identity politics. Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.Matt Chahda will make his Virgin Australia Supercars Championship debut this year after landing the second seat at Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport. The former Dunlop Series regular joins the Melbourne team a day after 16-year-old Alex Rullo was confirmed at LDM, becoming the youngest full-time Supercars pilot in history. Rullo was granted special dispensation and given a provisional licence after failing to meet the age and points criteria for the Superlicense. Chahda’s appointment is also shrouded in controversy with the 23-year-old, like Rullo, also failing to meet the criteria of the newly introduced CAMS Superlicense to qualify for a spot on the Supercars grid. Speedcafe.com is awaiting confirmation from CAMS that Chahda has been granted special dispensation. The Albury driver falls short of the required minimum of 13 points accrued over a five-year period, one of the key conditions of the Superlicense. As it stands he has five points having finished third overall in state-level Formula Ford and fourth in the 2014 Kumho V8 Touring Car Series. Last year he finished 20th in the Dunlop Series but was disqualified from the Sandown round after triggering a multi-car pile up at the start of the second race. Chahda will make his Supercars race debut at the Clipsal 500 opener on the Adelaide streets from March 2-5.Until recently, an earnest public debate in London on the state of the global economy might have attracted an audience of a couple of dozen: some enthusiasts with an ideological axe to grind and a few elderly citizens looking for somewhere to keep warm. I half expected a similar turnout when I volunteered to debate the subject last week with John Micklethwait, editor of the Economist, under the chairmanship of the BBC’s Evan Davis. But 800 people turned up at the Royal Geographical Society in Kensington, and paid an entry fee. Such events are growing and attracting big numbers. There is an extraordinary mobilisation taking place, the biggest since the Iraq War. But the mood is very different: anxious rather than angry; curious rather than committed; interested rather than ideological. In the event, there was not much debate. We agreed on the deadly threat of economic nationalism as a response to the crisis and that, for all the greed, follies and instability of capitalism, there is not a viable alternative system. There has been an enormous response to the stories which appeared in the Guardian and the Sunday Times earlier this month, based on information passed to me by a whistleblower, who alleges extensive, systematic tax dodging by the leading banks, Barclays in particular. When the banks are queuing up at the Treasury rattling their begging bowls and looking for taxpayers’ cash or guarantees, it is simply inexcusable to be devoting huge human resources to outwitting the UK tax authorities. The head of Barclays’s tax division is reportedly on £40m a year and he “saves” for the bank (ie, avoids) vastly more in UK tax. Occasionally, critics ask: “What is wrong with dodging taxes, provided it doesn’t involve breaking the criminal law? We all seek to minimise our tax bills, don’t we?” Leaving aside the large grey area where legal avoidance and illegal evasion overlap, there is a basic ethical point: don’t businesses and individuals have a duty to the society whose domicile and public services they use? And when they want British government money or guarantees, the problem is a “no-brainer”. The issue is not just for Britain. Last week I hosted a meeting in the Commons for the campaigning group Global Witness, which has just produced an impressive report documenting the ways in which some of the world’s leading banks are complicit in helping several of the nastiest dictators loot their economies and line their pockets using offshore tax havens. The G20 must get to grips with tax-havens abuses. But much can and should be done at UK level to make companies and rich individuals pay their dues. In midweek I met a group of schoolboys from Hampton School in my constituency to deliver a petition to No 10. The pupils have compiled a remarkably eloquent collection of writings on the Rwandan genocide and the petition is to raise awareness of that horrific event in 1994. It would be too easy to let the memories fade. As we went in to Downing Street, delegates from a G20 preparatory meeting were coming out. I couldn’t help but feel that the solidarity and humanity shown by the boys provided a sounder foundation for a future international order than the G20 communiqué being prepared in advance by the official “sherpas”. Friday is set aside for constituency duties. I have to get my head around a set of alternative proposals for a derelict site on the Twickenham riverside, one of those neuralgic planning issues which, in this case, has led to paralysis for more than a quarter of a century. Then I was trying to help resolve a parking issue which has created bitterness between a world-beating, hi-tech small company and local residents whose cars are trapped in narrow streets when deliveries are made. And then, a very long weekly advice surgery with around 20, mainly complex, problems: asylum-seekers from Palestine, Kosovo and the Congo; a Child Support Agency case; a cowboy-builder problem; a man who thinks I am a free tax accountant; a disputed house benefit claim; a homeless man who lives in a garage; a couple driven mad by a wild young man next door, when he is not in prison; a neighbouring borough’s cemetery charges; an equity release “rip-off”; an elderly, disabled man fined for parking in a bus lane while collecting medication. Nothing – not performing at PMQs, not interviews with Jeremy Paxman – is quite as emotionally draining as the weekly surgery. The weekend is a tour of mid-Wales: a 400-mile round trip in support of three of my parliamentary colleagues. Each has assembled large groups of activists and meetings with local business people who tell me about the fight against recession as seen from the front line. There are some positive stories, but the basic message is the same – from Brecon to Cardigan and Aberystwyth to Newtown: shops closing; bloody-minded banks; the burden of business rates; bring back the lost manufacturing. Somewhat punch-drunk after my sixth speech and Q&A, I recover thanks to a long walk in the spring sun with my wife Rachel among the daffodils in a park in Montgomeryshire; and get ready to face the motorway again. Vince Cable is MP for Twickenham and the Liberal Democrat shadow chancellorAmid the ongoing demonetization debates, a critical missing ingredient is that of state capacity. Would things have been much different if demonetization was planned out in detail and then executed? We would be inclined to argue to the contrary and claim that the Indian State currently does not have the capacity to execute such a project involving national mobilization on a sustained basis without serious deficiencies and failings. In other words, planning would not have made enough gains on execution efficiency to offset the loss from leakage of information. In our just-released report on India’s economic growth prospects, we outline a comprehensive framework for analysing India’s less-discussed state capacity failings and suggest a set of measures to address them. Broadly, state-capability failure manifests itself in two ways: implementation deficit, and decision-making paralysis. Factors contributing to implementation deficit are familiar. They are rampant corruption, badly managed public facilities, poor quality of public-service delivery, and pervasive failures in the bidding and management of various types of contracts. Decision paralysis is a consequence of debilitating, but less-discussed, institutional power shifts of recent years. These trends include the actions of judges, anti-corruption investigators and vigilance agencies, auditors, and right to information administrators. By shrinking the space available for public servants, including political representatives, they have induced decision paralysis. The prescriptions on overcoming implementation deficit are well known. These include reforms to procurements and personnel deployments, extensive use of information technology applications and data analytics, performance-management measures, decentralization of functions to promote accountability and recruitments to bridge acute deficiencies, especially in important regulatory positions. Addressing decision paralysis requires action at multiple levels. First, it would help to pass the proposed amendments pending in Parliament to Section 13(1)(d)(iii) of the Prevention of Corruption Act that introduces means to implicate officials for “criminal misconduct". Second, since the Right to Information Act, 2005 has reached its 10-year anniversary, this may be a good time to review its implementation. Exempting communications related to deliberative processes in the government, which are exempted even in the US Freedom of Information Act, must be considered. Third, a committee should examine the methods and processes used by auditors and investigative agencies. Auditors should confine to their constitutional mandate of examining whether public money has been spent in accordance with prevailing rules and whether due process has been followed in decision making. They should refrain from passing judgement on the merits of departmental decisions or policies. The UK’s National Audit Office, for example, specifically refrains from commenting on the “merits of the policy". Performance and policy audits should be done by independent and professionally competent third-party agencies, not by auditors. Fourth, investigative processes have to be reformed by equipping investigators with professional expertise in scrutinizing cases involving financial and other domain knowledge complexities. Once it is established that the decision has been made by a competent authority following due process, investigations should cease. Both investigators and auditors would do well to bear in mind the principle that their findings should clearly distinguish between genuine errors and mala fide actions. Fifth, reforms to restrain judicial overreach and snowballing litigation are both urgent and important. It is a worry if imagined riots by the highest court in the land become a basis for its intervention into an executive decision. One intervention could be to gradually phase out tribunals and replace them with sectoral benches in the higher courts. Principles and rules that limit the range of a judge’s individual discretion and draw the line between judicial activism and judicial excess, especially on the issue of entertaining public interest litigation need to be laid down. Perhaps, a committee of ex-judges appointed by the Supreme Court itself is best positioned to do that. The Supreme Court should then require that all courts across the country—itself included—follow those guidelines. The struggle with effective implementation of demonetization is a cautionary tale for the other major project involving similar mobilization, the rollout of the goods and services tax. Indeed, one of the consequences of the demonetization exercise is the spotlight it has shone on the difficulty of sustained mobilization of the state machinery on a nationwide basis at short notice. The short-term economic costs and hardships that have arisen out of the sudden and massive demonetization will have been worth it, if hurdles to enhancement to state capability begin to be addressed too. Importantly, its adversarial attitude towards economic offenders will be acceptable only if the State augments its attitude and capacity to accommodate genuine economic aspirations and activity. (This column is based on the authors’ joint work, “Can India Grow?" published by Carnegie India Ceip.org/2g3EFlN) Comments are welcome at [email protected] Floyd, Published: 03 July 2013 Hits: 5854 Here is my latest column for the print edition of Counterpunch. Shamming into Syria When I saw the news on June 13 that Bill Clinton had joined with John McCain in blasting Obama's "inaction" on Syria and calling for direct U.S. military intervention in the conflict, I knew we would soon hear the other shoe dropping. And lo, just hours later, pat it came, with that reliable old house organ of the power structure, the New York Times, portentously reporting that “intelligence” had “confirmed” the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government -- the flashing "red line" that Obama had declared would be the trigger for more American intervention. One day later, the New York Times reported that the White House will now supply the rebels with arms -- yet another loose, uncontrollable flood of weaponry washing through the most volatile region on earth, guaranteeing more death, more ruin, more terrorism, more needless suffering not only on the Syrian killing grounds, but far beyond as well -- exactly as we saw in the Libyan intervention. And no doubt the Sunni militants in Iraq -- currently killing dozens of people weekly in the sectarian hell created by the American invasion -- will love the U.S. ordnance they'll soon be getting from their al Qaeda allies in the forefront of the Syrian rebel campaign. The move by Clinton, the progressive’s beloved “Big Dawg,” move was obviously part of a sham operation to "force" poor, peace-loving Obama into significantly ramping up American military involvement in Syria. (And the sight of this self-infatuated gasbag -- with the blood of half a million sanction-murdered Iraqi children on his hands – now demanding more bloodshed for innocent people was truly sickening. Especially the "reasoning" he gave for urging action, despite that fact that intervention is opposed by 85 percent of the American people: if Obama failed to help kill more people in Syria, Clinton said, he would end up "looking like a wuss." Yes, that really is the level of intellect that drives policy at the highest reaches of the American power structure. Yes, they really are juvenile neurotics with third-rate minds obsessed with their illusory "manhood," which can apparently be expressed only by the large-scale slaughter of human beings and military domination of the whole earth. Christ Jesus, boys -- ain't you ever heard of Viagra? Bob Dole can get it for you wholesale. You really don't have to kill people just to get it up.) For months, Obama has been playing this rope-a-dope game, stringing along both the rabid interventionists and the remaining "progressives" who still believe, against all evidence, in the president's good intentions. But now the time has come to up the ante. Why? One reason -- noted by the Times -- is the fact that the Syrian rebels are clearly in danger of losing, despite the best efforts of close American allies like the woman-hating, head-chopping, extremism-abetting religious tyrants in Saudi Arabia to keep the bloodshed going. Indeed, as As'ad AbuKhailil points out, the Saudi and Qatari gun-runners and paymasters of the predominantly Sunni rebels in Syria are increasingly using the conflict to foment a genocidal fury against Shiites and related sects across the Middle East. As in Iraq, Western intervention is fuelling a spiral of uncontrollable sectarian violence at a level unseen in the region for centuries, AbuKhalil notes. And American warmongers love to see Muslims killing each other, especially if it opens up new opportunities for war profiteering and oil deals, as in Libya and now in Syria. For example, just one day before the intelligence apparat “confirmed” chemical weapon use by Syria, the administration eased export restrictions to “help facilitate oil sales from rebel-controlled areas,” Reuters reports. One of life’s little coincidences, I reckon. Equally coincidental, no doubt, is the fact that this intelligence “finding” comes just as Team Obama is reeling from revelations of the Orwell-surpassing cyber-panopticon it has imposed on the entire populace. What better distraction from domestic skullduggery than the ever-reliable foreign threat: “Look over yonder -- WMDs!” Time to rally round the flag – and fill airtime and newsprint with endless blather and Pentagon propaganda about the noble humanitarian “surge” against Syria. This is a momentous move -- however juvenile and shallow and irredeemably stupid its perpetrators may be. Syria is not Iraq, Libya or Afghanistan, isolated regimes on the outskirts of the Middle East. It is in the very center of the powder keg. And it has powerful allies in Russia and Iran. Expanding the civil war there could draw those countries more directly into the conflict, as well as Israel, Iraq, Lebanon, even Turkey. The risk of a wider regional war -- even a world war -- is very real. This is the reality we are now entering. It's not just blasts of point-scoring partisan rhetoric ricocheting around Capitol Hill, cable news and Twitter. There is a real world out there beyond the various screens that transfix us all, sealing us in an abstract, virtual space of light and pixels. Real people will die from this decision, and from the ludicrous, sinister games played by the stunted power-seekers on every side of the increasingly savage conflict.Introduction I’m an ex senior marketing specialist of a large company operating in e-sports, I’ve seen some shit and I’m writing this blog because I want to straight out some manipulated facts about CS, organizations, pro players and fan bases. Obviously I will not present any hard evidence because those consist exclusively of legal documents and correspondence between companies & pro players. It would never get shared on purpose because that could be a subject to lawsuits etc. Everything that I write in this blog will be based on educated guesses, experience and conversations with other people in the business. If you’re one of those persons that can’t draw conclusion from common sense and needs to get abducted to believe in UFO than you should stop reading here. Sponsors & Organizations– the core of competitive sport. Now that I’m done with introduction I have to make sure that you’re familiar with some basic facts so you can understand my main points. Lets start with organizations in e-sports – why they exist, how they make profit, how they pay pro players etc. When you’re a pro player you should concentrate purely on training, strats, counter-strats and winning events. Buying plane tickets, cooperation with sponsors, negotiating deals with them, booking hotels, taxis is something you won’t have time for if you want to be successful. It also takes skill and experience in the business to negotiate good deals. That’s why there are organizations to take care for that stuff. Tier 1 organizations in e-sports make a profit of tens of thousands of dollars each month while tier 3 can make as little as thousands. The amount of money they make is a big factor of whether they hire full-time or part-time rosters. Smaller organizations don’t pay their players anything at all. They just buy their tickets, pay for hotels, sometimes they give them free gear etc. Some organizations even take a chunk of roster’s money won from tournaments.The MOST important thing for each organization is their brand. The stronger it is the better deals, better sponsors, and better profit from merchandise it gets. Obviously certain sponsors don’t want to cooperate with other ones. Competition is an important thing in the business. For example, there is no way you’d see Nvidia and Radeon or Intel and AMD sponsor the same organization. It’s pretty obvious. Due to their importance they have the biggest impact on organizations, players etc. Conflict of interest comes when one of the players in a roster IS IN PERSON a strong brand himself ( http://imgur.com/KQ5Tx7Y ). Now, I’m not saying there is anything wrong about creating your own brand. The problem is when that brand has EXCLUSIVE deals with OUTSIDE sponsors :NvidiaZowieKinguinEven bigger conflict of interest comes when that person wants to promote his brand more than the brand of the organization he’s playing for. Do you really believe that Hiko chose a tier 5 team (Nihilium) over 2nd best in NA (CLG) because as he said “he sees potential”? (P.S. Yeah nice potential considering there is only 2 people left from the original roster in that team since he joined) He chose it because CLG (or any other self-respecting organization) wouldn’t let him promote his brand OVER the brand of organization. Nihilum made that mistake, probably because they’re a small inexperienced organization and didn’t have that much exclusive sponsor partnerships. Now let me tell you something that you won’t read on HLTV or on twitter. Money that organizations pay to pro players are PENNIES in comparison to what they get from sponsors. Money from sponsors consist of 90% of organizations profit. They use it to pay for plane tickets across the world, pay for days of stay in hotels for SIX PEOPLE AAAANNNDDDD they still have loads of cash left as a profit. Now image how much Hiko makes when he doesn’t have those expenses. Trick or treat http://imgur.com/9gYVTGh you see this? What you see is just a case of having extremely bad taste of wearing a baseball cap along with a suit (What happened to people’s dignity and good taste? What’s next? Will people start wearing clown costumes to funerals?). What I see is a free forced advertisement for which a company like Intel or Nvidia would have to pay TENS OF THOUSANDS of dollars for.Now I see people’s comments like “poor Hiko” or “OMG Hiko curse I feel so sorry for him”. There is no curse. That what happens when you’re devastating your way up the ladder instead of just climbing it. People and organizations don’t count, he doesn’t give crap about them. They fall like flies in a thunderstorm in effect.“To Desi, Hiko, Sancz, Semphis, Valens and Legija, we know that whichever org is lucky enough to have you guys will be forever blessed. You guys truly were incredibly humble superstars” – This is how Nihilum commented on roster drop. Do you see the ironic tone of that comment? They seem pissed off. The team cooperated with the organization successfully for months and then Hiko comes and BAM instant devastation. Can’t you see a connection? I mean, there is nothing wrong with changing organization. When a roster keeps climbing up the ladder, being successful and the organization is too incompetent to acquire new sponsors or better deals to give them a raise then go for it. The problem is this team has been shit, hasn’t improved at all since it was created, in fact it got worse. It reminds me of those middle aged “may I speak to the manager” entitled moms that think they deserve everything for free. Not cool. Conclusion Now after all you read do you really think he left C9 (top 1 NA, TOP 10 world team) because he saw no potential for improvement? He left it because they wouldn’t let him expand and promote his own brand. Funny thing is that he said that he joined IBP because he wanted to play with swag (I don’t think most of you know or remember that swag left complexity because of Hiko. Hiko played swag’s favorite spots therefore not letting swag fully show his potential – can’t find the source now but it’s in either one of Thorin’s or Dazed vlogs). I also wonder if the current roster knows that what’s going to happen might not be best for them but best for Hiko. If new team will be Team “X” (insert one of Hiko’s sponsors here) than it is already answered.I wrote this blog “on my lap” during my lunch break so I might’ve made some mistakes. Also English isn’t my native language so sorry for grammar. If you have any questions about anything at all go ahead and ask in comments – I will try to reply. I hope mods don’t delete this blog just because it has some uncomfortable facts in it.Richard Graham is MP for Gloucester. The quality of much of the media coverage of our negotiations with the EU Commission over how we leave the EU has been poor. Here are four ways in which some media outlets have distorted what’s happening: Inflating unhelpful European comments (and commentators): ignoring helpful ones When the UK put forward a position paper on trade and customs alternatives during a transition phase, the European Parliament’s Co-Ordinator (‘Rapporteur’), Guy Verhofstadt, described this as ‘fantasy’. Now the European Parliament has a role in approving the final deal between the EU and the UK, just as our own Parliament does. But it is not a negotiating partner, and does not represent any of the 27 governments who task the EU Commission and approve their negotiating positions. Verhofstadt is simply an informed commentator. But you would not have known this from some media reactions. The Guardian described him (without naming him or giving his position) as a ‘European leader’. One BBC article described him as the “European Parliament’s negotiator”. The Daily Express refers to him as ‘Brexit negotiator’. The Sun calls him “the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator”. And of course the impact of this reporting was to cast doubt on the value of our proposals – as if they had been immediately and unanimously rubbished. Which of course they had not. The reaction that mattered was from Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator, who said that he welcomed the proposals, while a European Commission spokesman said: “We see the UK’s publication of a series of position papers as a positive step towards now really starting phase one of the negotiations. The clock is ticking and this will allow us to make progress,” he said. The truth behind this is that the ex-Remain media camp overplays unhelpful reactions from Europe, inflating the importance of Verhofstadt and others with anti-UK quotes without context or analysis. The worst suspect is the Evening Standard, where George Osborne (whose scaremongering about what would happen if we voted to leave the EU helped to bring about precisely that result), is simultaneously still fighting the referendum and waging revenge for his dismissal by Theresa May. This is bad for both his reputation and the paper’s credibility. And it all does no favours for readers trying to understand what is really going on. The objective test is: who is reporting equally different noises from the EU? Recent comments from Karl Haeusgen, Vice President of the German Mechanical Engineering Industry Association (VDMA), which are a good case in point. Haeusgen highlighted that the UK was the EU’s fourth largest market, warned the economic price of failing to strike a trade deal with the UK “will be bad for all of us” and said German manufacturers were concerned for the future of their businesses. Those comments are the mirror of concerns from businesses in the UK about the so-called “cliff-edge”, and illustrate precisely why the transition period is so important to business confidence (and investment and jobs). But do European concerns get space in the Standard, the Guardian, the Independent or the Financial Times? Rarely. Criticising Transition relationships with the EU helpful to trade If the first issue above is about media and journalists whose starting-point is that leaving the EU is either a disaster or an absolute disaster, then the second one is about the reverse: those for whom any deal with the EU is suspicious: the best solution is a unilateral exit from all European institutions, whether EU or not, and deviations from that probably mean a “sellout”. This is, broadly, the view from Nigel Farage and the Daily Express, with the Sun and the Daily Telegraph allowing a little water in the same whisky. The reporting that followed Philip Hammond’s first comments about the need for a transition period were a good example. There have been discussions for months about the need to give business a minimum of two years notice of changes to processes – rather than just arriving at March 2019 without knowing in advance what would happen. But some managed to pretend this was news: such as the Mail Online, which stated” “Britain is hoping to kick off talks on a Brexit transitional deal with the EU by this autumn, Philip Hammond revealed.” Or ITV, which said” “Philip Hammond ‘wants UK to keep full single market access in transitional Brexit deal’ What should have been (and be) good news as a practical and sensible approach to leaving the EU became what the Daily Express described as a ‘Brexit stitch-up!’ And just as EU -oving media ignore European business concerns about the EU negotiating stance, the John Bull side of the boxing ring has struggled to identify a British business with any concerns about what happens to their trade after March 2019. The objective test is to look for comments from businesses which never had a public Remain or Leave political stance, and have strong exports to the EU. Not identifying obvious negotiating tactics If you live outside your own country, the law of that land becomes the law you have to live and work within. It’s a very simple and universal concept. In the case of the EU there is a pooled arrangement, so that ultimately all EU judgements go through a single Court of Justice (ECJ). But that will clearly cease to be valid for EU nationals living here once we’ve left the EU. Everyone knows that. There is no precedent, anywhere, for anything else. A former aide to Angela Merkel told me that the EU position on this was the most obvious happy-to-be sacrificed negotiating point, in exchange for something useful, of all. He just couldn’t understand why the UK media hadn’t realised this,
without a PhD in economics to see such a simple and obvious truth. Given a fellow a computer and an advanced degree in economics and he’s ready to believe anything… Yes, dear reader, in His majestic wisdom, God – or whatever wiseacre created this system – set up something so subtle and complex that it is beyond the reach of human tinkering. That’s why the meddlers always make things worse. That’s how they put the ‘great’ into the depression of the ’30s – by interfering with the markets’ natural corrective mechanisms. And now these simpletons think they can stop the correction underway since ’07 – with stimulus, bailouts, and boondoggles. Yes, they admit, it was excess credit that put American consumers into such a jamb. But, heck, now we’ll let the government do the borrowing. The government will make up for the demand that has been removed from the private sector. The private sector is paying down debt at roughly $1 trillion per year. And now the public sector is adding debt at roughly $1 trillion per year. That ought to do it, right? Ha…ha…yes…why not? And while we’re at it, let’s round off pi to a whole number so it will be easier for school kids to remember. But wait a minute…we’re talking about China, not the United States. And we’re talking about Chinese meddlers, not the American variety. And we’re talking about the Chinese depression…not the depression in the advanced economies. But wait…you’re probably wondering… ‘What Chinese depression? China is booming…isn’t it?’ Well, here’s a question for you: if China were really growing at 8% per year, how come its electricity consumption is going down? Answer: Because the Chinese bureaucrats can jiggle and jive the numbers for employment, GDP, and inflation. But the number of kilowatt-hours consumed in China is just a number. It is not computed. It is not seasonally adjusted. It is not tortured by statisticians nor tormented by economists. It is just a number. And that number is a smaller number than it used to be. Oh, and here’s another number. China’s exports for July were down 22% from the year before. Here’s another question: how can an export led economy grow when its exports are collapsing? Again, we have an answer: when it is not really growing. According to the meddlers, China is growing because meddling works. China is spending $586 billion (proportionally nearly 3 times as much as the US) to keep its economy booming. The program must be working, say the economists, because China’s economy is still growing. But is it? Most of the money is spent on infrastructure. The Chinese are doing what the Japanese did before them. Japan bailed out its banks and spent trillions on infrastructure. There were years when little Japan was pouring much more cement than the entire USA. – channeling rivers, building bridges to nowhere, and creating highways for no one. What did they get for their money? Well, you could say they got a lot of infrastructure…and the most cemented–up country on the planet. Is that a good thing? We don’t know. But one thing they didn’t get was durable economic growth. Why not? The easy answer is because an economic system is too sophisticated to yield to these ham fisted interveners. Another way to look at it is because the economy had already spent too much…creating too much capacity. Adding infrastructure that could handle more capacity was not a solution. “Keep in mind,” says The Richebächer Letter’s Rob Parenteau, “China needs at least 9% growth to soak up the 24 million new Chinese workers who come of age each year – something even the Chinese Premier doesn’t like to mention.” But heck…it’s summer. And in the sum…sum…summertime, we’re not going to criticize our fellow man. Instead, we’re just going to laugh at him. In China, for example, the government’s stimulatory programs are having the same flaccid results they got in Japan. Prices are going down. The Chinese feds are trying to get people to spend more money – just as they did in Japan. But people do not spend more when prices are falling. They wait for a better deal. And as they wait, consumer demand falls…forcing prices down further. Japan has gone through almost two decades of on-again, off-again consumer price deflation. Now it’s China’s turn. Consumer prices in China have been going down for the last six months…and are now reported falling at a 1.8% annual rate. How could prices be going down in a booming economy? Well, because the economy isn’t booming. Instead, it’s burdened with overcapacity – just like Japan’s. And like Japan’s it is probably doomed to go through a long period of re-adjustment…before a durable recovery can begin. Until tomorrow, Bill Bonner The Daily ReckoningPlay/Pause Listen: Download MP3 \| 00:17:49 Portugal. The Man perform in The Current studio (full session + interview) 17:49 Portugal. The Man - Purple, Yellow, Red and Blue (Live on The Current) 04:35 Portugal. The Man - Modern Jesus (Live on The Current) 03:20 Portugal. The Man - Feel It Still (Live on The Current) 03:00 Known for their big dance-rock sound and spectacular lighting at their live shows, Portugal The Man visited The Current's studio for a stripped-down set and a lively and thoughtful conversation with Mark Wheat. Portugal The Man are touring in support of their 2013 album, Evil Friends, but they're already looking ahead to the planned summer release of their next album, Woodstock. Although they weren't alive during the Woodstock era, the members of Portugal The Man feel inspired by the zeitgeist of that time, and it comes through in the new album. "Not just to make a good-sounding record, but to make music that matters," guitarist Eric Howk says. "Art that matters, I think, is an idea whose time has come again." Listen to the full session to hear how some fatherly advice — and a good story about a lost memento — inspired the completion and the name of the Woodstock album. Songs Performed "Purple, Yellow, Red and Blue""Modern Jesus""Feel It Still"The first two song are off Portugal The Man's 2013 album,; the third song is from the band's forthcoming album,(expected summer 2017), both released on Atlantic Records. Hosted by Mark Wheat Produced by Derrick Stevens Engineered by Michael DeMark and Elijah Deaton-Berg Photos by Evan Frost Web feature by Luke Taylor Resources Related Stories Portugal. The Man and The Endangered Album: A Conversation with MN Zoo's Tara Harris The Morning Show's Steve Seel sat down with Minnesota Zoo's Director of Conservation, Tara Harris, Ph.D., to discuss a project she's a part of to bring awareness to endangered tigers. Portugal. The Man perform in The Current studios. In the seven years they've been together the Portland, Ore. (by way of Wasilla, Ala.) psych-rock quintet Portugal. The Man have continued to crank out tranquil, lush indie rock inflected with hints of psychedelia, prog and folk. The band sat down with Mary Lucia to discuss growing up in Alaska, their songwriting process, Sesame Street and more. 4 Photos Zack Carrothers of Portugal the Man performs in The Current studio (Evan Frost \| MPR) Kyle O'Quinn of Portugal the Man performs in The Current studio (Evan Frost \| MPR) John Gourley of Portugal the Man performs in The Current studio (Evan Frost \| MPR) Eric Howk of Portugal the Man performs in The Current studio (Evan Frost \| MPR) View 3 more photos Portugal The Man - official siteQuote: Smartie View Post Originally Posted by the other forum simply copy and pasted the original TorqueNews article, thats not information, thats parroting. CTRL-F "base trim EX" in the TN article and its not there, the other forum may of added that but that doesnt mean its true. If they mentioned trim information they would be in violation of the embargo I see that, looking back at it.I just can't see Honda raising the base price for an LX civic to $200 over the current EX.... that's a huge jump and people would flee to the cheaper competition. I'm hoping when they say base, they actually mean base EX since there are technically 2 EX trims (dependent on engine option)... to raise the price of the LX that much money? That'd kill sales of the civic to their primary customer base that still needs this car to be affordable.Also, Honda themselves have said that the new civic would be "very close in price" to the current car... i'd hardly consider a $3000 markup "close in price"And you can't say "just get a fit" as that car is hardly up to civic standards even now... and with the new cruze and elantra coming out, the kia forte, and the mazda3 would all undercut the civics price in a big way while offering similar performance and quality.Not to mention that would thrust the civic into Accord territory, and that doesn't make good business sense...But, i suppose we'll just have to wait another 18 days until we get the official pricing and trim layouts.Michelle Obama made her last public speech as first lady. The networks lined up with a 21-handkerchief salute. Nothing will ever be the same. NBC’s Andrea Mitchell proclaimed that the speech was “one of hope and empowerment for the young people she has championed for eight years … her unique voice rejecting the racial overtones of 2016.” Obama is a “once-reluctant political wife, fighting an early caricature as an angry black woman.” Now, Mitchell says, she is “a political orator in a class of her own.” (How quickly they forget that she proclaimed herself to be proud to be an American only when her husband, who has stoked racial tensions for eight years, started racking up primary victories in 2008.) CBS’ Julianna Goldman touted how Obama “used her celebrity to inspire physical fitness” and “turned into the Democrats’ not so secret weapon” in 2016. (Donald Trump won the election. How much of a weapon was she?) But these two networks dug deeper. NBC devoted a whole hour of “The Tonight Show” to honoring her. Host Jimmy Fallon oozed: “Thank you, Mrs. Obama, for being a strong, smart, independent woman; an activist; a style icon; and a great dancer; and showing us all what it would look like if Beyonce married a much nerdier Jay Z.” The next morning, the “Today” show aired that clip along with a tweet that proclaimed: “I’m so speechless. I cried, I laughed, I got chills, and I most definitely grieved. Michelle is truly iconic.” CBS was even worse. It went directly to Oprah Winfrey — who endorsed President Barack Obama in 2008 — for a one-hour prime-time special in December. She uncorked the superlatives, saying, “Mrs. Obama is not only a woman to watch in American politics but also considered the coolest first lady in U.S. history.” Coolness is measured by ideology, not personality. They consider all Republicans to be doormats, yet they gush over Hillary Clinton, the flattest doormat in recent White House history. The gush continued. Winfrey said: “With every song, every laugh and daring style choice, the power of Michelle Obama’s personality and authenticity has made her a pop culture icon. … Her fresh approach shined a light on the initiatives she felt most passionate about.” She even cheered “the Obamas’ openly affectionate and romantic marriage” as being “a dramatic and welcome change for the first couple living in the White House.” That juxtaposition refers only to the Clintons, and that’s something the left will never acknowledge. In case anyone forgot, this is not how the networks treated Laura Bush. After a few polite first lady questions, she would often get George W. Bush-bashing hardballs. In 2005, ABC reporter Jessica Yellin exploited a segment that was supposedly about White House Christmas cards to ask, “Have you ever met with a mother whose own loss has made you question, even for a moment, whether the U.S. should be in Iraq?” In 2007, while interviewing Laura Bush, ABC’s Robin Roberts cited columnist Thomas Friedman as saying “we should export hope instead of fear.” She added, “Desmond Tutu went even farther, saying the generosity of Americans — that’s what we should export instead of our bombs.” Even after the Bushes left Washington, D.C., it continued. In 2010, NBC’s Matt Lauer asked Laura Bush about New Orleans: “Is it ever painful for you to come back to this region because in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, it seems so much of the blame for what happened or didn’t happen here was laid at the feet of your husband?” There was no hourlong Winfrey special or Fallon flattery. Laura Bush didn’t have a media cult to praise her every “iconic” utterance and dance move. That’s what Republicans have expected — and quietly tolerated — for decades. But Michelle Obama coverage sounds like what a state-run media in an authoritarian backwater would broadcast about the Great Leader’s spouse. ——– L. Brent Bozell III is the president of the Media Research Center.Ian Hickson, the Google employee tasked with creating the next generation of acid test, has completed his work, which is now available for public consumption at its new home, acidtests.org. Unlike the first acid test, which focused on the box model, and the second acid test, which covered a broad variety of basic HTML and CSS features, Acid3 covers 100 of the nooks and crannies of HTTP, HTML, CSS, ECMAScript, SVG and XML, all through the medium of DOM scripting, a critical requirement for any modern web application. Ian Hickson is also the primary author of the HTML5 specification, which started life as a spec. called ‘Web Apps 1.0’, and as such has lots of application‐related features such as client‐side storage and enhanced forms. Ian wrote 64 of the tests, with the remaining 36 being submitted by both browser vendors and interested web developers. Work started on the new acid test almost as soon as the IE developer team posted notification that IE8 passes Acid2. As was widely criticised around the ’net recently, it was revealed Internet Explorer 8 would now only pass the test if the server was modified to output a special HTTP header. It is not known to css3.info at this time whether the header would be required for IE8 to achieve compliance in the new test.Lucy Nicholson / Reuters Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's campaign will be sending millions of dollars to help House and Senate candidates, campaign manager Robby Mook announced Monday. With polling showing strong odds of Hillary Clinton winning the presidential election, her campaign says it is shifting millions of dollars to down-ballot races to improve her chances of having a more friendly Congress to work with. Campaign manager Robby Mook told reporters Monday that $2 million will be spent in Arizona, $1 million in Indiana and Missouri, and $6 million will go to the existing battleground states of Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania, Nevada, North Carolina, Iowa and New Hampshire. The re-allocations include $2.5 million each in transfers to the Democratic Party’s House and Senate campaign arms. Mook said the “lion’s share” of the campaign’s spending will continue to be those seven states that have been the focus for many months. If Clinton were to win most of those states, she would cross the 270 electoral vote mark and win the presidency regardless of what happens in traditionally Republican states. “That will continue to be our primary mission,” Mook said. Clinton does not appear to be within striking distance in either Missouri or Indiana, but both states have competitive Senate races where the Democratic candidate has a strong chance of winning. Democrats need to pick up five seats to regain control of that chamber. Recent polls in Arizona, though, show Clinton essentially tied there. The last time a Democratic presidential candidate won the state was 1996, when her husband Bill Clinton won re-election. “We do see opportunity in Arizona,” Mook said. “We think that’s an uphill climb.” The Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee had already sent dozens of field staff to the state in August and recently started sending surrogates for campaign events. Clinton’s daughter, Chelsea, is to visit the Arizona State University campus in Tempe on Wednesday, and first lady Michelle Obama is to campaign in Phoenix on Thursday. Vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine dropped by the Arizona Democratic Party headquarters there two weeks ago after a fundraiser, surprising volunteers who happened to be there making phone calls. “We’re not used to it here in Arizona, being a battleground state,” said communications director Enrique Gutierrez. “It’s definitely exciting our base.” Mook on Monday also criticized GOP nominee Donald Trump and his allies for trying to delegitimize the Nov. 8 election by claiming ― without any evidence ― that it will be tainted by voter fraud. “This is part of the Trump campaign’s scorched earth policy,” Mook said. “They are losing and trying to make excuses.” He also criticized Republican Party leaders for going along with Trump rather than standing up to him ― despite its own 2013 report calling for the party to broaden its appeal by reaching out to minority voters. “Donald Trump chose to drive the party even further in a different direction,” Mook said. “The GOP has a lot of soul-searching to do.”This still from a video purports to show the leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, delivering a sermon at a mosque in Iraq, July 5, 2014. Senior Iraqi intelligence officials warned coalition countries of imminent assaults by the Islamic State group just one day before last week's deadly attacks in Paris killed 132 people, The Associated Press has learned. Iraqi intelligence sent a dispatch saying the group's leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, had ordered an attack on coalition countries fighting against them in Iraq and Syria, as well as on Iran and Russia, "through bombings or assassinations or hostage taking in the coming days." Read Haaretz's top analyses and reports on the Paris attacks The dispatch said the Iraqis had no specific details on when or where the attack would take place, and a senior French security official told the AP that French intelligence gets this kind of communication "all the time" and "every day." However, six senior Iraqi officials corroborated the information in the dispatch, a copy of which was obtained by the AP, and four of these intelligence officials said they also warned France specifically of a potential attack. Two officials told the AP that France was warned beforehand of details that French authorities have yet to make public. Among them: that the Paris attacks appear to have been planned in Raqqa, Syria — the Islamic State's de-facto capital — where the attackers were trained specifically for this operation and with the intention of sending them to France. The officials also said a sleeper cell in France then met with the attackers after their training and helped them to execute the plan. Keep updated: Sign up to our newsletter Email * Please enter a valid email address Sign up Please wait… Thank you for signing up. We've got more newsletters we think you'll find interesting. Click here Oops. Something went wrong. Please try again later. Try again Thank you, The email address you have provided is already registered. Close There were 24 people involved in the operation, they said: 19 attackers and five others in charge of logistics and planning. The officials all spoke anonymously because they are not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility on Saturday for the gun and bomb attacks on a stadium, a concert hall and Paris cafes that also wounded 350 people, 99 of them seriously. Seven of the attackers blew themselves up. Police have been searching intensively for accomplices. Iraq's Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, also told journalists in Vienna on Sunday that Iraqi intelligence agencies had obtained information that some countries would be targeted, including France, the United States and Iran, and had shared the intelligence with those countries. Officials in the French presidential palace would not comment, and U.S. officials didn't immediately comment when contacted by The AP. Every night, the head of French counterintelligence goes to bed asking 'why not today?' the French security official said. The Iraqi government has been sharing intelligence with various coalition nations since they launched their airstrike campaign against the Islamic State group last year. In September, the Iraqi government also announced that it was part of an intelligence-sharing quartet with Russia, Iran and Syria for the purposes of undermining the militant group's ability to make further battlefield gains. A third of Iraq and Syria are now part of the self-styled caliphate declared by the Islamic State group last year. U.S.-led coalitions in Iraq and Syria are providing aerial support to allied ground forces in both countries, and they are arming and training Iraqi forces. The U.S. said it is also sending as many as 50 special forces to northern Syria.First the Canadian penny was put out to pasture. Then the Royal Canadian Mint announced plans to make digital pocket change. But before coins are completely extinct, the Mint is giving some a glowing makeover. The Mint has created its first glow-in-the-dark coin, a quarter featuring a dinosaur discovered near Grand Prairie, Alta. in 1973. In the light, the quarter features the Pachyrhinosaurus lakustai dinosaur, named after Al Lakusta, the man who stumbled on its bones in the Pipestone Creek bonebed. When the lights go off, the dinosaur’s glowing skeleton is revealed. The Mint only made 25,000 of these photoluminescent coins. It plans to release three more glow-in-the-dark coins featuring prehistoric creatures. Apparently, the glowing effect won’t wear off. While the quarters have a face value of 25 cents, they will be on sale online and at Canada Post locations for $29.95. The penny has got to be jealous. ALSO FROM THE STAR: Canadian Mint to create digital currency Pennies to be withdrawn from circulationI started watching MLP and I've gotten addicted @_@ I honestly don't really know why, but apparently there's a lot of other people watching it on youtube who feel the same way xD Oh well...PONIES! <3I really liked Rainbow Dash when I watched reference vids of her, but when I started watching the whole series, Applejack became my absolute favorite :3 I realllllly like her character. And the way she talks xD Maybe it's something to do with me being from Texas. Or maybe it's my natural addiction to sweets (ESPECIALLY pies. That includes apple) idk. but Applejack is ze best!!!I based this charm directly off of this pose www.google.com/imgres?q=applej… I was originally going to have her holding apples or something but she looks so pretty in that pictureShe turned out a little bigger than I'd like, but oh well. Better next time!Applejack's body/hair/hat = Fimo ClayFace (I can't believe I forgot to make the mouth dent O:Two police in the German city of Hamburg were attacked by a group of several Muslims while out on patrol after the Muslims claimed to have been “provoked” by the officers. The group of Muslim men were finishing their prayers in a car park when the pair of officers arrived on the scene in Hamburg’s St. Georg district this week. According to the police, several residents on Gdansk street alerted the praying Muslims to the presence of the police who were on routine patrol. The situation soon escalated, and the men attacked the police, Die Welt reports. Police say that group consisted of five men aged between 16 and 25 years old. “After completing the prayer, they were asked to identify themselves. The men did not follow this [order] even after repeated requests, but responded increasingly aggressively,” a local officer told German media. During the escalation, the officers managed to get a 20-year-old member of the group on the ground and the rest of the group started attacking the officers to free their friend. An 18-year-old jumped on the back of one of the officers as the others were able to pry the police off of the 20-year-old Muslim. After calming the situation by using pepper spray on the group, the police were able to call in reinforcements to the scene and arrested four of the men. All of them were released soon afterwards. “The police officers were both injured, but could continue their service,” a spokesman for the Hamburg police said. Earlier this year, police in Hamburg were threatened by a mob of 100 African migrants after a man of Ghanian descent was banned from a local gambling establishment. While there are no official No Go Zones in Germany, head of the German police union Rainer Wendt has warned that such areas could form in the near future and described areas that police would not be able to properly enforce the law. “There must be consistent law enforcement for those who believe they do not have to stick to the laws in Germany,” he said. Sweden is well known for its No Go Zones and police have estimated there to be at least 55 areas they consider to be largely off limits to routine police patrols. One of the most notorious no go areas is the Stockholm suburb of Rinkeby which saw rioting and looting late last month. Rinkeby, like many other No Go Zones, is heavily populated by recent migrants to Sweden. Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at [email protected] to Greece. This is the first time since the Spanish revolution of 1936 that a left party wins general elections in Europe. In this weekend’s national elections in Greece the leftist SYRIZA took 149 out of 300 seats and will now form a coalition government with a small right-wing anti-austerity party to run the country. After seven years of neoliberal overkill the Greek people overthrew the two-party regime that has been governing the country for the past 40 years with socially catastrophic results. The populist-right New Democracy (ND) party took 27,8% and the ex-socialist (now turned neoliberal) PASOK received a petty 4,6% of the votes. SYRIZA has increased its electoral base by 10% since the 2012 elections, by amassing the votes of the underclasses and the violently proletarianized lower middle class. Change of course for a whole society SYRIZA is the outcome of a 15 year collaboration between divergent political groups within the fragmented Greek left, which started at the times of the alter-globalization movement. It climbed from 4% to 27% in the 2012 elections, when it managed to represent the social dynamics of the massive social movements, which at that time shook the country and overthrew the previous PASOK government. As movements failed to provide tangible alternatives and the next ND-PASOK coalition government pushed harder on the neoliberal restructuring and its extreme right political agenda, the oppressed strata of Greek society again bestowed their hopes in representative politics. In this context, SYRIZA has won yesterday’s elections by forging a social alliance on two specific proposals: (1) a social salvation plan to ameliorate the consequences of the neoliberal onslaught on the lower classes, and (2) a plan to re-negotiate the Greek public debt with the EU and the IMF, in order to make it sustainable. Although this moderate political program does not sound leftist, it constitutes a radical change of course from the neoliberal orthodoxy, which has been cemented in both the EU and global institutions, and gives hope not only for Greece but also for wider power shifts in the European Union. Popular power on the surge Strange as it seems, the rise of SYRIZA is the result of two years of decline in the Greek social movements. Yet these elections may signal the ignition of a new and stronger round of social struggles in Greece and beyond. The power of representation to passivize voters and stabilize the political system has lost ground. The poor have voted for SYRIZA in order to be able to breathe, but deeper aspirations for freedom, social justice and radical democracy are very high. The youth, the precariat and the jobless form large and dynamic social groups that will not stay content with moderate social democratic politics. After too many years of suppression and amassing of movements’ power, militants from the grassroots are now mature enough to gain every inch of ground from the state and the Greek oligarchy and fight back from better positions. Social antagonism in Greece is bound to intensify for the right reasons. Athens calling, echoes spread The timing for a rise of popular power from below in Greece is better than ever, but its call now echoes throughout most of Europe. Apart from Podemos, Spain is a melting pot of grassroots alternatives and movements’ experiments with representative politics. Politicization at the social base also gives rise to strong leftist or left-populist parties in Ireland, Scotland and in Eastern Europe. Social mobilization in Italy and France rejuvenates. The European movements are more networked than ever before. In addition, the peoples of the European periphery face similar social conditions due to years of neoliberal austerity and plunder. The victory of the Greek left echoes to them as a hope for radical changes in their own countries. If the European neoliberal elite attempts to crush Greece under hardline austerity, war will be brought home. An alternative Europe beyond the existing neoliberal structures of the European Union is indeed possible. Its future is vested in our hands. Now is the time to build our counter-attack. For a more in-depth analysis, read last year’s essay by Antonis Broumas and Theodoros Karyotis, ‘SYRIZA rising: what’s next for the movements in Greece?‘Learn how to identify real Mil-spec 550lb Paracord. Save money on your preps, don’t get ripped off on cheaply made yet overpriced China cordage. Is your paracord mil-spec, or a cheap china knockoff? Paracord, short for parachute cord, is a survivalist’s bread and butter. It has a million and one uses, none of which we are going to talk about here. Instead, today I hope to educate you on the difference between real and “fake” paracord. 550 Paracord, which goes by the spec number “C-5040H Type III“, is also one of the most bootlegged survivalist tools. In fact it’s hard to find the real stuff on sites like eBay or Amazon unless you know exactly what to look for. So how can you identify REAL mil-spec paracord from the cheap china knockoffs? Look for these signs. How to identify real mil-spec 550lb paracord The cord will be rated to hold 550lbs of weight, and should clearly state so. Good cord sellers may even link to test data for their cords. If you have the cord in front of you, look at the end. Mil-spec paracord will have seven to nine internal strands as is required by C-5040H Type III specifications. The cord will be advertised as “C-5040H TYPE III” somewhere on its packaging. It’s a big deal to meet the specifications so manufactures will advertise it. Each strand will be tightly braided and made of three smaller strands. Not two, but three. The biggest sign your cordage is real mil-spec is if one or more strands are colored. These colored strands are used to identify the manufacturer. Without exception, almost all knockoff paracord will not have these colored threads inside the sheath. Note that “C-5040H” is the actual military specification for paracord supplied to the US Army. C-5040H defines several different strength grades. “Type III” indicates that the cord is 550lb rated, the most common mil-spec paracord by far. Bootleg cords will usually be called simply “mil-spec” or “military grade” but if they do not say “C-5040H Type III standard” rest assured they are a cheap knockoff. So how does your cord look? Does it pass the test? If it doesn’t, don’t throw it away just yet! It doesn’t mean it’s worthless! There are plenty of good uses for less than mil-spec paracord. Some manufacturers produce good quality 550lb paracord, just not to full military specifications, so it’s not the end of the world. Just know that you probably could have paid a lot less and make sure you avoid polyester or single-strand cores for any serious job.San Antonio Police Department Officer Tim Bowen caught three children between the ages of four and 12 who jumped from a burning second-story apartment window on July 18, 2016 in the 9500 block of Lorene Lane. San Antonio Police Department Officer Tim Bowen caught three children between the ages of four and 12 who jumped from a burning second-story apartment window on July 18, 2016 in the 9500 block of Lorene Lane. The fourth child, who was too frightened to jump, was rescued by firefighters. SAN ANTONIO — Four children between the ages of four and 12 escaped a fire at a North Side apartment complex on Monday morning that sparked under "very suspicious" circumstances, officials said. SAFD spokesman Woody Woodward said firefighters received reports of the blaze around 8:15 a.m. and more than a dozen units were dispatched to the 9500 block of Lorene Lane. When crews arrived they found flames filling the stairway of an apartment building just north of Loop 410 and west of San Pedro Avenue and beginning to spread into neighboring apartments. Woodward said four children were inside one of the apartments when the fire began. San Antonio Police Department officer Tim Bowen was the first to arrive at the scene. Woodward said Bowen told the children to jump from the window of the second floor of the building into his arms to escape. Three of the children did, but the fourth was too frightened. SAFD crews arrived moments later and got the young boy out uninjured. Woodward said no major injuries were reported, but a dog inside one of the apartments died. The SAFD called Bowen a "hero" in a tweet after the incident. Woodward said the fire is "very suspicious" and that arson investigators are en route to determine the fire's cause. [email protected] Twitter: @MDWilsonSAMicrosoft revealed today that the company has sold 40 million licences of Windows 8 to date. Tami Reller, the Windows Chief Marketing and Financial Officer, revealed the figure during a speech at Credit Suisse 2012 Annual Technology Conference. The sales numbers come shortly after Microsoft revealed it had sold four million upgrade copies of Windows 8 in the first few days of sales in October. Microsoft claims "Windows 8 is outpacing Windows 7 in terms of upgrades." Recent reports have suggested that Windows 8 PC sales are "well below Microsoft's internal projections," but these latest figures appear to suggest that Windows 8 licences are fairing ok. Promotions on Windows 8 upgrade copies appear to be helping along early sales. In comparison, Microsoft sold 60 million licences of Windows 7 after just over two months of sales. Microsoft did not discuss Microsoft's Windows RT sales or any figures for the company's recently launched Surface RT tablet.By, Camille Gamboa, PR & Public Affairs Manager, SAGE, @CamilleGamboa Did you know that there is a bill making its way through Congress that would: Place specific, arbitrary limits on the budgets of scientific disciplines at the National Science Foundation. Setting budgets by discipline (or directorates, as they are known at the NSF) is a job that was traditionally reserved for the informed scientists and experts at NSF. The arbitrary limits of H.R. 1806 would impede the NSF’s gold-standard review processes and discourage interdisciplinary science while politicizing a selection process that has always relied on merit, not popularity, to determine funding; at the National Science Foundation. Setting budgets by discipline (or directorates, as they are known at the NSF) is a job that was traditionally reserved for the informed scientists and experts at NSF. The arbitrary limits of H.R. 1806 would impede the NSF’s gold-standard review processes and discourage interdisciplinary science while politicizing a selection process that has always relied on merit, not popularity, to determine funding; Cut 45% from NSF’s Directorate for the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences, despite the fact that the most pressing challenges of our day require an understanding of human behavior and social processes and despite raising NSF’s budget overall; , despite the fact that the most pressing challenges of our day require an understanding of human behavior and social processes and despite raising NSF’s budget overall; Cut the budget for the Geosciences by 10%, impeding research opportunities to study extreme weather and natural disasters; impeding research opportunities to study extreme weather and natural disasters; Cut the budget for the Directorate for Education and Human Resources, which funds the STEM workforce and STEM education, by 10%, putting 250+ Graduate Research Fellowships at risk; , by 10%, putting 250+ Graduate Research Fellowships at risk; Cut 25% to NSF’s Office of International Science and Engineering, which would deny hundreds of U.S. students, fellows, and scientists, the opportunity to collaborate with colleagues abroad; to NSF’s Office of International Science and Engineering, which would deny hundreds of U.S. students, fellows, and scientists, the opportunity to collaborate with colleagues abroad; Add new administrative burdens and redundant regulations on the National Science Foundation, on universities, and on scientists? Known as the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2015 (H.R. 1806), this piece of legislation is harmful to the future of American innovation and American progress, yet it is progressing through Congress. Just yesterday, the House of Representatives passed the bill (see coverage here on Social Science Space). SAGE has taken a formal stand against H.R. 1806 in its current form: “Regrettably, the new cuts proposed by H.R. 1806 would [lead] to irreparable damage to the U.S. scientific enterprise … While federal agencies must be mindful of changing fiscal conditions, the research conducted by social and behavioral scientists has made us more efficient and has saved countless dollars for America and Americans.” Who else opposes this bill? Essentially the entire scientific community is in opposition, including the National Science Foundation itself. Read their helpful statement here. Other scientific and academic institutions and individuals who have expressed concern include the Association of American Universities, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Institute of Biological Sciences, the American Sociological Association, the American Educational Research Association, the Biophysical Society
would normally retail for $25 based on the quality and ingredients, Beauty Pie is offering them for $2.39, which is exactly the amount Kilgore pays for one from the manufacturer. When you click on the product, you’ll see an itemized list of costs. For example, one lipstick costs $2.08 to make and package, $0.10 for safety testing, and $0.21 for warehousing. Kilgore said that for a brighter lipstick that needs more pigment, it might cost $0.17 more. She’s doing collaborations with makeup artists and dermatologists, which will add $0.10 on to the cost. Packaging is lightweight, which is both cheaper and more eco-friendly. Kilgore said she was inspired by the transparency model of Everlane. The big question here, though: How the heck does Beauty Pie make money? This is the part that has inspired Kilgore to call Beauty Pie “the Netflix of beauty.” You can go to Beauty Pie and buy any of the products at retail, or you can buy a $10 monthly subscription. After you subscribe, you can then buy all the products at cost. (There is a company called From the Lab that does something similar with skincare, but without a subscription. There, you pay more than cost but much less than retail for products.) With Beauty Pie, you’re limited to buying the equivalent of $100 in retail cost per month. So that means you can buy four lipsticks that retail for $25 per month, but you’ll be paying the two-dollar price for each. Kilgore says she was concerned that people would buy 100 at a time and open up their own eBay shops. But if you don’t shop one month, that credit will roll over the next month and accrue. You can purchase month-to-month memberships, though the first time you sign up you have to buy three months. If you choose to purchase a full year membership, you’ll receive a big bag of welcome products. There are currently 135 products available, ranging from $1.62 for an eyeliner marker to $5.38 for a foundation that looks and feels remarkably like Armani’s Luminous Silk. The matte lipstick is one of the creamiest and most comfortable formulas I’ve tried in a while, too. Eyeshadows are coming soon, and starting in January 2017, new products will be added every week. Kilgore says to expect 350 products to roll out in 2017, including skincare. You’re probably identifying a few issues with this sales model. Let’s hash them out. The monthly $10 fee is essentially the mark-up here. If you buy four lipsticks in a month, you have to mentally add $2.50 on to the price, which puts them at about $5 each instead of a bit over $2. Still inexpensive, yes. If you only buy the foundation, it will cost you $15 instead of $5. But again, that’s cheaper than $40. You are also on the hook for shipping, which costs about $8, according to Kilgore. While that’s not any higher than other beauty retailers, she acknowledges it could look weird to buy a $3 product but spend $8 on shipping. You have to buy into the big picture, which is that she hopes you will recognize you’re getting high-quality products for dirt cheap. People love branding, so it could be an uphill battle. People also love things that are good but not expensive, so I could see this model working, especially if she’s able to build buzz in the reviews and in places like Reddit that can launch products into the stratosphere. Time will tell if it’s successful, but for Kilgore, it’s a fun venture. “For us, the fun is sourcing and creating the product,” she says. “Creating the fairytale is the part I want to do.”What's next for the Longhorns? Make sure you're in the loop by signing up for our FREE Texas newsletter! AUSTIN – Charlie Strong said on Monday he made some defensive tweaks during the team’s recent bye week. Specifically, Strong said there will be personnel changes coming and he'll have a major say in who's on the field when 22nd-ranked Texas takes the field on Saturday against Oklahoma State (11 a.m., ABC). Strong promised the defense would get fixed in the wake of a 50-43 loss to California and personnel appears to be the area that he’s changing the most in an effort to make things right on that side of the ball. If the Longhorns have altered the depth chart ahead of this weekend’s Big 12 opener, only those inside the Moncrief Complex know what it looks like. The program’s weekly game notes package released on Monday didn’t include a depth chart. Strong didn’t get into why wasn’t released and didn’t divulge much information about who will or won’t be on the field for the Longhorns (2-1) against the Cowboys (2-2). “I’ve got some guys,” Strong said. “You’ll get a chance to see them. It’ll be fun watching them.” The goal of evaluating personnel during the open date was so Strong and the defensive staff can make sure the right players are playing and that the Longhorns can have playmakers on the field. Texas has only forced one turnover in three games and while the Longhorns are among the national leaders in sacks (12th with 3.67 per game) and tackles for loss (25th with 7.7 per game) there aren’t enough big plays being made. Sophomore defensive tackle Chris Nelson said Monday that as far as he knows defensive end Malcolm Roach and defensive tackle Jordan Elliott will get more playing time against Oklahoma State. Roach is second on the team in tackles for loss (2.0) and he’s tied for the team lead in sacks (2.0) having made an impact in relatively low number of snaps. Elliott didn’t record any statistics against Cal but the 6-foot-4, 318-pound former U.S. Army All-American is expected to bring both size and athleticism to the end position in the Longhorns’ three-man front. Fox end Breckyn Hager, who’s tied for the team lead in tackles for loss (2.5) and sacks (2.0), is also a good bet to get more action among players in the front seven. On the back end the most likely change is expected to come at safety. Sources have told Horns247 throughout the last week that true freshman Brandon Jones, who’s blocked two punts over the team’s last two games, has been running with the first unit. Sophomore safety DeShon Elliott and sophomore cornerback Kris Boyd could also see their workloads increased. The Longhorns have to get more speed and playmaking ability on the field. The burnt orange faithful will unfortunately have to wait until Saturday to see exactly who Strong and the staff thinks those players are and what will be different about the Texas defensive lineup. Want free VIP access to Horns247? Click here and take advantage of this offer!The Vancouver Canucks management team have had as good a couple of weeks as anyone could reasonably ask for. They started by locking Troy Stecher up to an entry-level contract in NCAA Free Agency and followed that up with team property, Thatcher Demko. Though they’ve plucked the low lying fruit to great success, there’s no reason they can’t climb to the top of the orchard for another coveted piece. One such player is North Dakota’s Drake Caggiula – teammate of Canucks prospects Stetcher and Brock Boeser. The 21-year-old winger, who just finished his senior season, is highly coveted in the NHL, following a prodigious campaign with 51 points in 39 games en route to the NCAA title. TSN’s Frank Seravalli reported last week that the Canucks are very much in the hunt. The problem being that Buffalo, Philadelphia, Chicago, Edmonton and Ottawa are too. Caggiula is playing the role of rock star, touring these towns before coming to a decision – the left handed winger was spotted at the Flyers and Capitals game last week. Also of note was the revelation that in the event that North Dakota lost in the Frozen Four Semi-Finals, Caggiula was going to join his new team immediately to burn a year of his entry-level contract. Teams can no longer dangle that carrot, so musing on it at this point is strictly academic. That said, I can’t help but wonder if the Canucks made that offer, given that they extended that to Stecher, you would have to assume that they made the same pitch to Caggiula. Let’s take a deep look into Caggiula, here’s a scouting report from Elite Prospects: A smart, skilled, and gritty buzzsaw of a winger that gets up and down the ice with focused drive. His mobility is elite, and his first three steps propel him to top speed quickly. Defensively, he is very active and can contain the opposition by limiting their chances in the slot. Offensively, he can be uncontainable, consistently displaying excellent vision and individual puck skills; can act as both the passer or the shooter in any given situation. An all-around game, rooted in his strong will to win and his ability to make the players around him better, is what he brings each and every night. Character is something built through tough situational battles and having to step up at key moments as a leader. Caggiula has the capacity to be that leader on and off the ice. Caggiula plays much larger than his 5’10, 185-pound frame would suggest. He’s a high-energy player who battles, hits and contributes in all three zones. NHL UFA Drake Caggiula obliterates Michigan’s Justin Selman #NCAAHockey pic.twitter.com/DDGzicnyjZ — Ryan Biech (@ryanbiech) March 26, 2016 These are just some of the many traits that make Caggiula an enticing free agent option. He can impact the game without necessarily appearing on the scoresheet. That isn’t to say the Pickering, Ontario native isn’t adept at burying his chances, though. If Caggiula has an opportunity, odds are he’ll bury it. Here’s a goal from the Frozen Four. #Canucks prospect Brock Boeser with the nice saucer pass to Caggiula – @UNDmhockey up 1-0 pic.twitter.com/z88ppgXqGh — Ryan Biech (@ryanbiech) April 8, 2016 Caggiula finished his senior season tied for 11th in points per game in the NCAA, though he was eighth in total points with 51. It’s fair to wonder how much of this production was percentage driven, though, as Caggiula converted on 20.6% (!!!) of his shots. He also led the NCAA with a +46 rating – a likely byproduct of playing on a dominant North Dakota side. Which bring us to the million dollar question: should the Canucks sign him? To which I say, yes. For starters, a striking 18.9% of statistical and stature based comparable players went on to become NHL regulars. Those odds may seem small, but you’re not getting a better-weighted dice roll anywhere else in the NCAA UFA market – about a similar success rate to an average second-round pick. Caggiula represents an excellent low-cost bet for the Canucks to bolster their prospect pool. There’s also the matter of chemistry, which Caggiula has plenty of with Canucks first-round pick, Brock Boeser, having played on a line together at North Dakota. The possibility of that chemistry translating at the NHL level is certainly enticing. Caggiula, 21, turns 22 in June, so next season would likely be his rookie season in the AHL – a fairly young age compared to other NCAA players. There certainly isn’t any rush for him to make the NHL. It’s entirely possible that Caggiula could reach his potential and develop into a top-six player at the NHL level. Just as likely he won’t, though. That’s okay. If the Canucks get a third line player out of Caggiula, that’s a win. Canucks general manager Jim Benning has mentioned on several occasions that he wants the Canucks to get faster. Plugging players like Caggiula into your bottom-six goes a long way in furthering that goal. Hopefully, Caggiula is enamoured with Vancouver when he tours the city this week. His addition would represent a massive boon to Vancouver’s prospect pool.Three Georgia Tech hackers have revealed how to hack iPhones and iPads with malware imitating ordinary apps in under sixty seconds using a "malicious charger." Today at a Black Hat USA 2013 press conference, the researchers revealed for the first time exactly how the USB charger they built can compromise iOS devices in less than a minute. Billy Lau, Yeongjin Jang and Chengyu Song showed how they made an ordinary looking charger into a malicious vector for transmitting malware using an open source BeagleBoard, available for $125 (similar to a Raspberry Pi). For the demonstration, the researchers used an iPhone. They plugged in the phone, and when the passcode was entered, the sign-code attack began. For the demo, the Facebook app was used as an example. Within seconds of plugging in the charger, the Facebook app was invisibly removed from the device and seamlessly replaced with a Facebook app imitation with a malicious payload. The app's icon was in the exact same spot as it was before the attack - there is no way of knowing the application is not malware. The researchers said that all the user needs to do to start the attack is enter their passcode - they pointed out that this is a pattern of ordinary use, such as to check a message while the phone is charging. Once the app was launched, the malware was launched and the phone was compromised - and could do things such as take screenshots when other passwords are entered, send a spoofed screen, and more. In this manner, depending on what payload the attacker has put on the fake app, sensitive data could be accessed and compromised in a variety of ways. The researchers found malicious ways to call and use the private API; the attack works on physical weaknesses, and operates on all versions of iOS, stock (up to the beta developer version of 7, which is the only version that Apple has patched). The operating system used for the attack is Linux, and the researchers acknowledged that someone could easily use a Raspberry Pi instead of a BeagleBoard. No root permission is accessed for the attack. The targeted iOS device does not need to be jailbroken in order for the attack to be successful. It only needs to be plugged in to the innocuous seeming, but poisoned, iOS charger. The Mactans charger is no longer a charger, but its own little computer - running custom software that immediately cracks and infects any attached Apple gadget; Mactans can install software unknown to the user. Details of the vulnerability, something the researchers held back on disclosing until now, will be described in more deatil in researchers' Black Hat talk today, "Mactans: Injecting Malware Into iOS Devices Via Malicious Chargers." The researchers disclosed the attack and vulnerability to Apple, but it appears that Apple hasn’t addressed or fixed the issue for versions prior to 7 (beta, developer release) - the hackers had previously stated they refused to reveal details until their Black Hat presentation. The venomous iOS charger is called "Mactans" - Latin name for the virulent and pernicious Black Widow spider. The researchers explained, Mactans was built with [a] limited amount of time and a small budget, we also briefly consider what more motivated, well-funded adversaries could accomplish. The researchers contacted Apple - and Apple has patched iOS 7 to prevent the attack. Currently, all other versions are vulnerable. Needless to say, iPhone, iPad and other iOS device users will want to be sure not to leave their chargers laying around - or use any "community" chargers from here on out. Mactans: Injecting Malware into iOS Devices via Malicious Chargers will be presented today, July 30, in room Augustus 3/4 at 5:00 pm. UPDATE Wednesday July 1, 8:50 pm: In a late evening announcement Apple stated it will be fixing the vulnerability in the Fall release of its iOS 7 update. Apple has not specified a date for the fix. This means devices are vulnerable to the attack until the release, as are all previous versions of the OS. The issue has only been fixed in the beta version of 7, released to developers.Cosmic Star Heroine Release Date - Official Press Release We are pleased to announce that Cosmic Star Heroine will come out on April 11th for Playstation 4 and PC! The official price is $14.99 USD. The PS4 version of the game will be cross-buy with Vita. The Vita version will not be coming out on April 11th, but will be released soon after. It was a tough decision to make, but we felt the Vita version needed some extra time to polish up and we didn't want to delay the other releases further. The PC version is currently available for pre-purchase on the Humble Store which will give you a Steam copy plus a DRM-free copy. The game will also be available for purchase directly on Steam once it releases. We will continue to release portions of the game to Steam beta testers in segments as we make final preparations for release. If you are in the beta, please inform us of any bugs you discover to help us ensure a smooth launch. We're super excited to finally be releasing Cosmic Star Heroine and hope everyone enjoys the finished game! This is by far the biggest, most sophisticated game we've ever released so we hope it meets the high expectations many of you have for it. Thanks again to all the people who have supported us in our Kickstarter, through feedback, and through kind words. We're almost there!In a small lab, near a lake at the edge of West Berkeley, sits the prototype of what could revolutionize battery power as we know it. The secret to this power? Algae. OK, just hang with me here. Lots of research has already been done on algae’s possible power capabilities. Prototype creator Adam Freeman says this new kind of battery, the one he’s working on, could power even a Tesla. And he says it could do it 200X greater than the current lithium-based battery used today. He’s created a research company called alGAS that aims to prove just that. Freeman says the algae battery also charges faster and lasts longer than current ion batteries used in, say, your cell phone, iPad… or a Tesla. As Freeman explains, paper-thin fibers in algae provide an easier surface for ions to get through, resulting in a charge in as little as 11 seconds, not minutes or hours. Here is how a current battery charges, using lots of what we currently mine may be going extinct or, worse, cause cancer: Though there isn’t much by way of illustration to show how this works for algae, Ryan Bethencourt, founder of the Berkeley BioLabs, was able to send me this brief video that sort of explains the process: Previous tests prove algae has a charge and could theoretically work as battery power, but what’s not known is how much of a charge and how much of it will be needed to power, say, a car. Freeman believes he’s figured out the answer. What he needs now is the funding to bring it into mass production. Those materials currently used in ion batteries (cell phones, etc.) — 95 percent of which are shipped from China — are hard to extract. This makes them quite expensive. Tesla pledged to use U.S. materials only, which does cut the cost. Still, it’s got to be more than what it costs to grow and use algae powered batteries, right? Right, according to Freeman. He says he only needs $1,500 for the prototype and that he can have his algae battery ready for mass production for a mere $5,000 by this summer. The implications for this go beyond cars. In theory you could power your entire house. Yes, a living, breathing algae plant could make your house “go.” A French biochemist already powered a streetlight with the stuff. What makes Freeman’s prototype different from previous tests is the use of a bio-safe polymer. The polymer is a critical element that binds the fibers together to create a better interaction with the electron charge. While the prototype is still basically just a bunch of jars full of algae on the shelf of some lab, the potential, according to Freeman, is very big. “Think of driving your car on a living battery that charges in seconds with a battery that costs almost nothing and is actually good for the environment.”Al Sanders may have spent his entire life reading about superheroes in his vast classic comic book collection, but now he’s turning into a real-life superhero by selling them all to help fund his daughter's college tuition. “As all parents who have college-age kids, we started putting together what it was going to cost and what we needed to do,” the doting dad from Seattle told ABC News of his decision to sell. “You start looking at those options you have, and my comic books were an option. That’s when I looked at their value, and I’m now trying to find a good home for them.” Sanders has close to 5,000 vintage comic books, ranging from Iron Man and X-Men to Batman and Luke Cage, Hero for Hire. “I’ve got them all in 10 boxes, and the boxes in theory hold 500 each,” he explained. “My wife, when we met, she saw them and asked what they were and I said, ‘They’re my comic books and they come with me.’ She allowed me to keep those, but the Sports Illustrateds had to go.” It’s now time for the comics to go, too. Man Finds Grandparents' 100-Year-Old Wedding Cake Inside a Hatbox in Garage Woman Finds Handwritten Letters From 1915 in Ceiling, Returns Them to Relatives Rose is Sanders’ only child. Although she’s only 16 years old, she’s graduating high school early in June to attend Fisk University in Nashville this fall. “She started kindergarten a year early and she determined last summer that she wanted to graduate a year early,” the proud father said. He’s traveling to Emerald City Comicon this weekend in hopes of making a lucrative deal for his beloved lifelong collection. “It’s one of this area’s largest conventions,” Sanders, 53, explained. “I was going to collect cards from some of the dealers to see if there’s interest from one individual to take the whole collection. I’m looking for somebody who enjoys reading them. When I was collecting them I was reading them, not thinking about them as an investment.” He has no regrets about this decision as long as it means his daughter starts college on the right foot financially. “We see all these stories of kids having to take out loans to be able to go. We want to try to avoid that,” he said. “If there’s anything that can help defray the cost of her getting started then that’s what we’re going to do.” He says his daughter “really does appreciate” his efforts. “She is the prettiest flower in my garden,” Sanders said of his soon-to-be college freshman.April (1) March (5) February (8) January (8) December (8) November (9) October (9) September (9) August (18) July (13) June (14) May (16) April (17) March (21) February (12) January (18) December (19) November (21) October (24) September (22) August (26) July (26) June (19) May (20) April (20) March (27) February (27) January (27) December (14) November (23) October (20) September (18) August (20) July (15) June (22) May (24) April (29) March (28) February (33) January (36) December (33) November (32) October (33) September (39) August (40) July (43) June (41) May (34) April (22) March (33) February (26) January (24) December (14) November (15) October (27) September (22) August (16) July (17) June (19) May (18) April (15) March (19) February (12) January (6) December (3) November (2) August (2) March (1) December (1)First for those of you who don’t know – What is MAC Wisper of Gilt? As described by Mac – Extra Dimension Skinfinish which is a liquid-powder highlighter with prismatic reflections that sculpts, highlights and models the face. The cool, creamy near-fluid formula creates a luminous, well-defined finish and wears ten hours. In other words, its a beautiful most sought after soft gold highlighter with a metallic finish, which you apply on the high points of your face like on high points of you cheek bones, bridge of the nose, cupids bow, under the brow bone & even inner corners of your eyes to get that extra polish and also when light hits those parts of your face it looks incredible, glowing and healthy. MAC’s ‘Whisper of Gilt’ Skinfinish ($29.00) was initially a part of their Extra Dimension Range that was released in the MAC Glamour Daze Collection for Holiday 2012 made quite a buzz and became the cult favorite in the beauty community. There were two Extra Dimension Skinfinish that were featured in this collection namely – * Whisper of Gilt – Light soft white gold with shimmery sheen * Superb – Soft peachy nude with multidimensional shimmer. Of course, these were sold out very quickly. MAC Glamour Daze Collection for Holiday 2012 MAC Cosmetics Magic of the Night Holiday 2015 – Mac released an Extra Dimension Skinfinish called “Oh Darling” in this collection which was so hyped on Instagram and everywhere because of the MSF ‘Oh darling’, to be a near perfect dupe, of the highly sought after ‘Whisper of Gilt’. And of course, it was sold out in minutes after being released. Unfortunately, I could not get my hands on it. MAC Cosmetics Magic of the Night Holiday 2015 Oh Darling! ‘A liquid-powder highlighter that gives a luminous, well-defined finish.’ And now one more time, the ‘almost impossible to get your hands on’, cult classic MAC Whisper of Gilt Extra Dimension Skinfinish has made another return!! It is a part of the Limited edition Holiday 2016 MAC Nutcracker Sweet Collection. And this time I was able to snag it!! Firstly, the whole Nutcracker theme and packaging this holiday collection looks INCREDIBLE! it looks like a perfectly wrapped present with gold embroidery on it, almost too good to open!! The highlighter comes in a gorgeous Face Compact duo, with a Deep Rose blush called Pleasure Model. Both the highlighter & blush are very soft and buttery. I wore it a couple of times and just fell in love with it! It wore well on me for 8 hours. Now I know why, its the, best of the best, crème de la crème highlighter!! Sweet Copper Compact – (Top) Wisper of Gilt (Bottom) Sweet Pleasure Swatched Indoor / Swatched in Sunlight Wisper of Guilt swatched in sunlight Wearing Wisper of Guilt OK Since my romance with WOG is not transitory, I just HAD to get it sooner or later, but you were able to get your hands on Wisper of Gilt, there are other highlighters or even dupes that will give similar results. I don’t know why this is not permanent in their MSF collection, I think MAC should definitely consider making Whisper of Gilt permanent because it so gorgeous and so many people love it! Some Other beautiful highlighters that can give you similar results as Wisper of Gilt- Top Row – Wet n Wild Hollywood Boulevard, Laura Geller Gilded Honey, Becca Champagne Pop Bottom Row – Becca Opal, Wet n’ Wild Precious Petal, Wet n’ Wild Gold Bar Swatches Top Row – Wet n Wild Hollywood Boulevard, Laura Geller Gilded Honey, Becca Champagne Pop Bottom Row – Becca Opal, Wet n’ Wild Precious Petal, Wet n’ Wild Gold Bar On the right – Wisper of Gilt WOG Available Online at ➡️ Maccosmetics, Nordstrom, Saks, Dillards, Macys and Bloomingdales. Will be Available ➡️ in Stores on October 27th – through December 8th (Limited Edition) Follow me on Instagram (‘doodlesblush’) for any future updates and availability of Wisper of Gilt! {Thank you for reading XoXo} <3Cedi Osman was taken 31st overall in the 2015 draft and may finally make his NBA debut next season. The Turkish forward has advised his international team, Anadolu Efes, that his intention come over to the NBA and is currently trying to work something out with the Cavs. Via Cleveland.com, we now know that Osman is currently in Las Vegas spending time with the Cleveland Cavaliers. While he is not taking part in the summer league games, the trip may still prove to be productive if he can agree to a contract with the team. Per the report: Osman, 22, is in Las Vegas spending time with the Cavs for two days. He was acquired on draft night in 2015 and has told his team in Turkey -- Anadolu Efes -- that he wanted to come to the NBA and would pay his $1 million buyout. Without dipping into the mid-level exception, the most the Cavs could pay Osman would be the rookie minimum -- about $816,000. Cleveland could trade Osman or send him back to Turkey. Neither option is preferable. The issue of his contract is complicated, as if the team dips into the MLE it would reduce the amount they can offer another player in free agency. But getting a well regarded prospect that can provide the team with young legs and energy would be a welcomed addition to the veteran Cavs roster. Hopefully the team figures out a way to get this done, as it would be a shame to delay his NBA debut just to add another aging veteran like Jamal Crawford.Get the biggest Manchester United FC stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email Manchester United will wear their away kit in the FA Cup final against Crystal Palace. Due to the clubs' kits clashing, a coin toss was made that United lost, so they will play in a changed strip. The 28,000 United fans who obtain tickets for the club's first Cup final in nine years will be housed in the east end of Wembley Stadium, with The Torch Pub the nearest watering hole. Just like in the 1990 final, United will wear a white Adidas kit against The Eagles, with whom they drew 3-3 after extra time at the national stadium 26 years ago. Substitute Ian Wright threatened to steal United's thunder but a 113th-minute Mark Hughes equaliser rescued a replay. United returned to Wembley five days later where they won the replay 1-0, courtesy of Lee Martin's half-volley, to clinch the first trophy of Alex Ferguson's glorious reign. For the Europa League round-of-16 tie at Liverpool last month, United sent supporters with match tickets white replica shirts in an attempt to create a 'Wall of White' at Anfield, but the move was predictably derided by Reds. Overall, United have worn white in seven finals. The Reds' first ever FA Cup win came in white all the way back in 1909, however Matt Busby's Babes controversially lost their 1957 final to Aston Villa wearing white, as Villa matchwinner Peter McParland left United goalkeeper Ray Wood with a broken cheekbone. United also lost the 1983 Milk Cup final to Liverpool in white. Ferguson's side triumphed in their away garb in the 1991 European Cup Winners' Cup final against Barcelona in Rotterdam, winning 2-1. but lost to Barcelona in the 2009 and 2011 Champions League finals while wearing white. How Van Gaal has struggled to sort United's midfield"Ormuzd" redirects here. For the kingdom of Ohrmuzd, see Ormus "Hormazd" redirects here. For the Sassanid rulers, see Hormizd Ahura Mazda (;[1] also known as Ohrmazd, Ahuramazda, Hourmazd, Hormazd, and Hurmuz) is the creator and sole God of Zoroastrianism. Ahura Mazda is the highest spirit of worship in Zoroastrianism, along with being the first and most frequently invoked spirit in the Yasna. The literal meaning of the word Ahura is "lord", and that of Mazda is "wisdom". Ahura Mazda first appeared in the Achaemenid period (c. 550 – 330 BCE) under Darius I's Behistun Inscription. Until Artaxerxes II of Persia (405–04 to 359–58 BCE), Ahura Mazda was worshipped and invoked alone. With Artaxerxes II, Ahura Mazda was invoked in a triad, with Mithra and Anahita. In the Achaemenid period, there are no representations of Ahura Mazda other than the custom for every emperor to have an empty chariot drawn by white horses, to invite Ahura Mazda to accompany the Persian army on battles. Images of Ahura Mazda began in the Parthian period, but were stopped and replaced with stone carved figures in the Sassanid period. Nomenclature [ edit ] "Mazda", or rather the Avestan stem-form Mazdā-, nominative Mazdå, reflects Proto-Iranian mazdáH (a feminine noun). It is generally taken to be the proper name of the spirit, and like its Vedic cognate medhā́, means "intelligence" or "wisdom". Both the Avestan and Sanskrit words reflect Proto-Indo-Iranian mazdʰáH, from Proto-Indo-European mn̩sdʰeh₁, literally meaning "placing (dʰeh₁) one's mind (*mn̩-s)", hence "wise". The name was rendered as Ahuramazda (Old Persian) during the Achaemenid era, Hormazd during the Parthian era, and Ohrmazd was used during the Sassanian era. The name may be attested on cuneiform tablets of Assyrian Assurbanipal, in the form Assara Mazaš, though this interpretation is very controversial. Characteristics [ edit ] Even though Ahura Mazda was a spirit in the Old Iranian religion, he had not yet been given the title of "uncreated spirit". This title was given by Zoroaster, who proclaimed Ahura Mazda as the uncreated spirit, wholly wise, benevolent and good, as well as the creator and upholder of Asha ("truth"). Zoroaster's revelation [ edit ] At the age of 30, Zoroaster received a revelation: while fetching water at dawn for a sacred ritual, he saw the shining figure of the yazata, Vohu Manah, who led Zoroaster to the presence of Ahura Mazda, where he was taught the cardinal principles of the "Good Religion" later known as Zoroastrianism. As a result of this vision, Zoroaster felt that he was chosen to spread and preach the religion. He stated that this source of all goodness was the only Ahura worthy of the highest worship. He further stated that Ahura Mazda created spirits known as yazatas to aid him, who also merited devotion. Zoroaster proclaimed that all of the Iranian daevas were bad spirits and deserved no worship. These "bad" spirits were created by Angra Mainyu, the hostile and evil spirit. The existence of Angra Mainyu was the source of all sin and misery in the universe. Zoroaster claimed that Ahura Mazda was not an omnipotent God, but used the aid of humans in the cosmic struggle against Angra Mainyu. Nonetheless, Ahura Mazda is Angra Mainyu's superior, not his equal. Angra Mainyu and his daevas (destroyers), which attempt to attract humans away from the path of truth and righteousness (asha), would eventually be destroyed. History [ edit ] Achaemenid Empire [ edit ] Whether the Achaemenids were Zoroastrians is a matter of much debate. However, it is known that the Achaemenids were worshipers of Ahura Mazda. The representation and invocation of Ahura Mazda can be seen on royal inscriptions written by Achaemenid kings. The most notable of all the inscriptions is the Behistun Inscription written by Darius I which contains many references to Ahura Mazda. An inscription written in Greek was found in a late Achaemenid temple at Persepolis which invoked Ahura Mazda and two other spirits, most likely Mithra and Anahita. On the Elamite Persepolis Fortification Tablet 377, Ahura Mazda is invoked along with Mithra and Voruna (Apam Napat, probably Vedic Varuna, "water-god"). Artaxerxes III makes this invocation to the three spirits again in his reign. The early Achaemenid period contained no representation of Ahura Mazda. The winged symbol with a male figure who was formerly regarded by European scholars as Ahura Mazda has been shown to represent the royal xvarənah, the personification of royal power and glory. However, it was customary for every emperor from Cyrus until Darius III to have an empty chariot drawn by white horses as a place for Ahura Mazda to accompany the Persian army on battles. The use of images of Ahura Mazda began in the western satraps of the Achaemenid Empire in the late 5th century BCE. Under Artaxerxes II, the first literary reference as well as a statue of Ahura Mazda was built by a Persian governor of Lydia in 365 BCE. Parthian Empire [ edit ] It is known that the reverence for Ahura Mazda, as well as Anahita and Mithra continued with the same traditions during this period. The worship of Ahura Mazda with symbolic images is noticed, but it stopped with the beginning of the Sassanid period. Zoroastrian iconoclasm, which can be traced to the end of the Parthian period and the beginning of the Sassanid, eventually put an end to the use of all images of Ahura Mazda in worship. However, Ahura Mazda remained symbolized by a dignified male figure,
ccDig2, HIGH); digitalWrite (ccDig3, HIGH); digitalWrite (ccDig4, LOW); } // The writeNumber method accepts the individual digit, matches it with the corresponding LED pattern // and then sends the bit pattern to the shift register. void writeNumber(int digit) { int pattern = 0; switch (digit) { case 0: pattern = 0x3F; break; case 1: pattern = 0x06; break; case 2: pattern = 0x5B; break; case 3: pattern = 0x4F; break; case 4: pattern = 0x66; break; case 5: pattern = 0x6D; break; case 6: pattern = 0x7D; break; case 7: pattern = 0x07; break; case 8: pattern = 0x7F; break; case 9: pattern = 0x6F; break; case 10: pattern = 0x00; break; } digitalWrite (latchPin, LOW); // prepare the shift register for new data shiftOut (dataPin, sclkPin, MSBFIRST, pattern); // send the new data digitalWrite (latchPin, HIGH); // commit the new data } 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 /* A sketch to play with the Bubble Display Experimentation Pack Datasheet: https://rheingoldheavy.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/BB_QDSP_DS.pdf Uses a shift register to control the anodes for segments A-G, + one output for the decimal point Common Cathodes sink their current to digital pins. The display uses 5mA per segment, with a Vf of 1.8V, and measured out pretty close, so I'm comfortable sinking a conceivably fully lit digit through a single pin. LED Map: \|--A1--\| F6 B2 \|--G7--\| E5 C3 \|--D4--\| DP8 Digit Encoding: 0 = B00111111 = 0x3F 1 = B00000110 = 0x06 2 = B01011011 = 0x5B 3 = B01001111 = 0x4F 4 = B01100110 = 0x66 5 = B01101101 = 0x6D 6 = B01111101 = 0x7D 7 = B00000111 = 0x07 8 = B01111111 = 0x7F 9 = B01101111 = 0x6F http://rheingoldheavy.com/hp-qdsp6064-bubble-display/ */ int ccDig1 = 2 ; // Digital Pin to sink current for digit 1 common cathode int ccDig2 = 3 ; // Digital Pin to sink current for digit 2 common cathode int ccDig3 = 4 ; // Digital Pin to sink current for digit 3 common cathode int ccDig4 = 5 ; // Digital Pin to sink current for digit 4 common cathode int dataPin = 7 ; // Shift Register Serial Data In "SER" int sclkPin = 8 ; // Shift Register Serial Clock "SCLK" int latchPin = 9 ; // Shift Register Latch "SRCLK" int place1 = 0 ; // Holds the value of the 1000s place of the bubble display int place2 = 0 ; // Holds the value of the 100s place of the bubble display int place3 = 0 ; // Holds the value of the 10s place of the bubble display int place4 = 0 ; // Holds the value of the 1s place of the bubble display int showMe = 0 ; // The value to be shown on the bubble display long previousMillis = 0 ; // Stores the last time Analog 5 was sampled long currentMillis = 0 ; // Stores the current millisecond increment void setup ( ) { // These pins sink the current from the common cathodes, so they are configured as OUTPUT. // When they are in a HIGH state, they will be at the same potential as the display // When they are in a LOW state, they will provide a path to ground for current and the digit lights. pinMode ( ccDig1, OUTPUT ) ; pinMode ( ccDig2, OUTPUT ) ; pinMode ( ccDig3, OUTPUT ) ; pinMode ( ccDig4, OUTPUT ) ; // Start with all displays OFF digitalWrite ( ccDig1, HIGH ) ; digitalWrite ( ccDig2, HIGH ) ; digitalWrite ( ccDig3, HIGH ) ; digitalWrite ( ccDig4, HIGH ) ; // Set our pins up for the shift register pinMode ( dataPin, OUTPUT ) ; pinMode ( sclkPin, OUTPUT ) ; pinMode ( latchPin, OUTPUT ) ; currentMillis = millis ( ) ; Serial. begin ( 9600 ) ; } void loop ( ) { currentMillis = millis ( ) ; if ( currentMillis - previousMillis >= 1000 ) { // We need to only check the analog pin once a second showMe = analogRead ( 5 ) ; // we don't want to use a delay() or we'll interfere previousMillis = millis ( ) ; // with the timing of the multiplexing } place1 = showMe / 1000 ; // Break our analog reading value into individual pieces place2 = ( showMe % 1000 ) / 100 ; place3 = ( ( showMe % 1000 ) % 100 ) / 10 ; place4 = ( ( showMe % 1000 ) % 100 ) % 10 ; enableDigit1 ( ) ; // Take each chunk of data and display it at the appropriate place writeNumber ( place1 ) ; // the delay(5) provides sufficient POV brightness. delay ( 5 ) ; // Any longer looks bad. enableDigit2 ( ) ; writeNumber ( place2 ) ; delay ( 5 ) ; enableDigit3 ( ) ; writeNumber ( place3 ) ; delay ( 5 ) ; enableDigit4 ( ) ; writeNumber ( place4 ) ; delay ( 5 ) ; } // The enableDigit routines, just bring the relevant common cathode pin low and // the irrelevant ones high. void enableDigit1 ( ) { digitalWrite ( ccDig1, LOW ) ; digitalWrite ( ccDig2, HIGH ) ; digitalWrite ( ccDig3, HIGH ) ; digitalWrite ( ccDig4, HIGH ) ; } void enableDigit2 ( ) { digitalWrite ( ccDig1, HIGH ) ; digitalWrite ( ccDig2, LOW ) ; digitalWrite ( ccDig3, HIGH ) ; digitalWrite ( ccDig4, HIGH ) ; } void enableDigit3 ( ) { digitalWrite ( ccDig1, HIGH ) ; digitalWrite ( ccDig2, HIGH ) ; digitalWrite ( ccDig3, LOW ) ; digitalWrite ( ccDig4, HIGH ) ; } void enableDigit4 ( ) { digitalWrite ( ccDig1, HIGH ) ; digitalWrite ( ccDig2, HIGH ) ; digitalWrite ( ccDig3, HIGH ) ; digitalWrite ( ccDig4, LOW ) ; } // The writeNumber method accepts the individual digit, matches it with the corresponding LED pattern // and then sends the bit pattern to the shift register. void writeNumber ( int digit ) { int pattern = 0 ; switch ( digit ) { case 0 : pattern = 0x3F ; break ; case 1 : pattern = 0x06 ; break ; case 2 : pattern = 0x5B ; break ; case 3 : pattern = 0x4F ; break ; case 4 : pattern = 0x66 ; break ; case 5 : pattern = 0x6D ; break ; case 6 : pattern = 0x7D ; break ; case 7 : pattern = 0x07 ; break ; case 8 : pattern = 0x7F ; break ; case 9 : pattern = 0x6F ; break ; case 10 : pattern = 0x00 ; break ; } digitalWrite ( latchPin, LOW ) ; // prepare the shift register for new data shiftOut ( dataPin, sclkPin, MSBFIRST, pattern ) ; // send the new data digitalWrite ( latchPin, HIGH ) ; // commit the new data } So, how can this be tightened up?At the Oculus Connect keynote last night, Mark Zuckerberg revealed a new Oculus VR headset in a short video. The prototype seems to be nestled in the gap between the smartphone powered Gear VR and the full Oculus Rift. The new headset takes some of the strengths of both headsets. It's a wireless, standalone device that's capable of inside-out tracking — which uses a camera inside the headset to track your position, unlike the positional tracking currently used by the Oculus Rift which currently requires a separate camera. While Zuckerburg was quick to point out "It's still early" before showing the video, he also mentioned that they have a demo, just not a proper product yet. He also mentioned that while inside-out positional tracking was hard, "one of the toughest problems in computer science", but that they're making progress on solving the problem and providing tracking that can locate you to within a millimetre. The new headset seems to fit with some ideas Zuckerberg floated for the future of VR. He mentioned wanting virtual reality hardware that's smaller, capable of VR and AR and can do eye and hand tracking. We'll find out more about the headset in the coming months. Elsewhere during the event, the price and shipping date for Oculus's Touch controllers has been revealed. Oculus will be taking pre-orders later this month, with units going out in volume by December 6th. The touch controls will be shipping for $199, with no UK price yet revealed. Oculus attracted significant criticism over their handling of Oculus Rift pre-orders, so will undoubtedly be hoping this process goes smoother. Oculus have long been championing its Touch controllers as the true Oculus experience, and this brings it in line with the HTC Vive in terms of features, but the price could be a bitter pill for some to swallow.The long running saga about the Fernando Alonso cycling team continues to rumble on without any evidence that it will turn into reality; according to Spanish daily AS, the squad will not happen for the 2015 season. The newspaper reports that sources have told it that neither Alonso nor his representatives have applied for either a WorldTour or Pro Continental licence for next year. The deadline for both has passed, although some leeway for the latter is allowable under UCI rules providing a fine is paid. The project, named the Fernando Alonso Cycling Team (FACT) has long been making much noise without any significant progress being made. The Formula One driver is a fan of cycling and friend to riders such as Alberto Contador and Samuel Sanchez. Last season representatives for Alonso said that he was considering taking over the Euskaltel Euskadi team structure and WorldTour licence after it lost its sponsorship. Indeed last September the driver’s own press office reported that he had purchased the WorldTour licence. “After various days of intense negotiations between both parties, carried out with maximum discretion, we are pleased to announce that the Spanish sportsman has reached an initial agreement to buy said cycling team and so avoid its demise,” said the statement, released at the start of September 2013. After speaking about what it terms his great enthusiasm for cycling, it states that Alonso plans to run a clean team. “Enthusiasm, seriousness, sacrifice, evolution and transparency are the words on which this team will build its foundations,” the statement promises. “Alonso is thrilled to be forming an active part in cycling and to be able to improve the image of this sport. Transparency and “zero tolerance” will therefore be the fundamental pillars on which the foundations will be laid for this exciting sports project.” It added that the new team will honour the contracts of the riders currently signed up to Euskaltel for the 2014 and 2015 seasons. That all sounded well and good, but things unravelled soon thereafter. Just weeks after his press office suggested it was all systems go for 2014, the Euskaltel Euskadi team said that the takeover had collapsed. “Euskaltel representatives can not hide their disappointment at the outcome of the negotiation process. It is a sad day for Euskaltel and the team, after the expectations generated by the agreement in principle reached in late August and public statements made at the time by Fernando Alonso and his representatives,” the team said in a statement on September 23rd of last year. It added that a road map which had laid out terms of the agreement had not been completed, despite efforts to do so. According to the Spanish publication AS.com, the preliminary agreement would have seen Alonso pay two million Euro per year for the three remaining years of the team’s WorldTour licence. It would also have seen him cover the existing contracts of fourteen riders and, apparently, to take the team buses. However a sticking point was reportedly a requirement by Euskaltel Euskadi that Alonso would also respect the contracts of the directors and other team staff, plus retain the current deals with bike supplier Orbea and clothing manufacturer Bioracer. Alonso said that he would step back for 2014, but that he would ‘definitely’ have a team in 2015. His representatives said that it was better to wait and to have the precise structure they wanted, and also ruled out any more considerations about buying into existing teams. Expectations grow: In December 2013 Spanish newspaper ABC reported that Fernando Alonso had secured a five-year deal with a Dubai sponsor to back his WorldTour team. Alonso and his manager and business partner Luis Garcia Abad reportedly used the Formula 1 season timetable to negotiate with potential investors in India, Singapore and Abu Dhabi. According to ABC, Google and Fly Emirates were among the top companies in the running for title sponsorship. This news was followed in January of this year by reports that one of the biggest young names in modern cycling was linked to Alonso’s project. Tuttobici stated that 24 year old Peter Sagan had agreed a provisional two year deal with the team, and that he could earn up to 3.3 million euro per year. The same period also saw the announcement that former world champion Paolo Bettini would work with the team in a management role. In February Alonso travelled to the Tour of Dubai and followed stage two in a VIP car. He confirmed then that he would have a team in place for 2015, but said that it was too soon for details. In March five-time Tour de France winner Miguel Indurain was linked to a role with the team, but the Spaniard dismissed those suggestions. Bettini continued to build towards 2015 and spoke to several riders at Tirreno-Adriatico. He said then that an announcement about the team’s backing was imminent, and would likely come before the Classics. Bettini was excited about the team, and so too was cycling’s greatest-ever rider, Eddy Merckx. He described the team as being perhaps the best news cycling has received in several years. “No doubt it will be a major project,” he enthused to AS. “I hope that his arrival brings more sponsors to our sport and helps it grow, which it deserves after this bad time.” Alonso then reiterated in May that the team would go ahead, saying that a lack of confirmed news shouldn’t be cause for concern. That coincided with suggestions that the team was seeking a special – and unusual – guarantee from the UCI that it would be given a WorldTour licence. This was something that the governing body subsequently said that it would be unable to do, and that the team would have to complete the same application process as every other squad. Clock ticks as driver’s agent shows confusion: Anticipation that the Tour de France could have been used to announce the team’s backers came to naught, with no concrete news emerging during cycling’s biggest event. Worryingly, rider agents said that there had been a lack of contact from the team; traditionally a lot of negotiations are done before or during the Tour, but what was a relative silence about the team’s plans led to some expressions of concern. In August Garcia Abad moved to put such concerns to rest, telling AS that plans were continuing towards a 2015 start. “There are still people working on the team,” Garcia Abad said, confirming the team still planned to join the pro peloton in 2015. He ruled out taking over another team, despite Belkin Pro Cycling’s search for a new backer. Instead, he insisted, the team would start from scratch in order to avail of the technologies that it wanted to use. Worryingly, Garcia Abad appeared to show confusion about the process of applying for a WorldTour licence. He insisted that no contracts could be signed prior to getting a licence; however, UCI rules actually state that the points of five riders are used to determine if a team is of a high enough standard to be in the WorldTour. Such points can only be considered if the riders are set to be part of a team. “I can’t contract anybody until October 1st because it would be illegal to do so,” he told Biciciclismo, displaying a clear lack of knowledge of UCI rules. While the clock was ticking and it appeared increasingly doubtful about whether the team would be going ahead as a WorldTour squad, there appeared to be some positive news at the end of September. The driver issued a statement saying that he had combined with sports investment managers to build the necessary capital. He said that he would work with the NOVO company to first acquire a portfolio of assets and then to accelerate their growth. “I’m thrilled to be part of this new venture,” Alonso stated. “I get to indulge my passion for cycling and obsession with technology and design with likeminded people. We see a window of opportunity and plan to kick it wide open!” NOVO’s Managing Partner Nathan Pillai said that the timing for the venture was perfect. “Current social, economic and market conditions have created an attractive proposition for investors. Our research points to certain segments of the market where participation, consumption and media interest in all things cycling are on the up.” According to him, the planned Alonso team – which is currently trying to secure either a WorldTour or Pro Continental licence for year one – remained an integral component of their plans. “Just as motor sport provides a platform for manufacturers to reach potential buyers, professional cycling gives us a powerful shop window to integrate our portfolio companies, conduct R&D and promote our activities.” However, that appears to be as far as things have gone. FACT missed the UCI’s deadline for WorldTour teams and, according to AS, it has not met the other requirements to be a Pro Continental squad. The newspaper is confident in its statement that there will be no team in 2015 and, if the Alonso project does ever happen, that the 2016 season is the earliest possible start. Given the uncertainty the team has created for the transfer market in the past couple of seasons, riders and agents will likely be wary about any further indications from Alonso or his representatives that things are going ahead. The double Formula One world champion may well be serious about wanting a top level cycling team, but clear indications of progress are what will be needed henceforth. As the Euskaltel example plus subsequent developments have shown, there have been numerous false starts and misfires. For now at least, the driver’s project appears to have stalled on the starting grid. —– Follow up article: UCI confirms Alonso’s FACT team won’t apply for a 2015 racing licence [link]Tom Perez was elected the next chair of the Democratic National Committee on Saturday afternoon, putting an end to a contentious four-month election that divided the battered party’s liberal and centrist wings along similar lines as last year’s presidential primary race. Perez, seen as the more establishment choice, immediately tapped his chief rival Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., as his deputy. After Perez’ win was announced, a handful of hardcore Ellison supporters chanted “Party to the people” in protest, drowning out the party leaders. Perez’ first act as chair appeased them, as he motioned to make Ellison his deputy. Ellison then spoke, urging the party to stay unified. “We don’t have the luxury, folks, to walk out of this room divided,” he said. “We don’t have that luxury.” “We are united by our love for the Democratic Party,” Perez said after Ellison’s speech, saying the party’s diversity was its strength. Read moreVIENNA – A leading Austrian Islamic group has announced plans to open doors of mosques and prayer spaces to public during Friday prayer, to strengthen their youth outreach and education problem. “Terrorists are abusing the religion,” Ibrahim Olgun, the president of Austria’s Islamic Faith Community (IGGiÖ), told The Local on Monday, January 9. “We are certain amongst ourselves that there is no justification for such terror, [but] it is outwardly that we must more clearly communicate this.” Olgun stated that a portion of the country’s 350 prayer spaces will be open to the public during Friday prayers. The 28-year old Muslim stressed that he wants to show more transparency to the greater Austrian population. This would normally only be on the agenda for the upcoming Day of Open Mosques, however now it will be made a more regular occurrence. Along with welcoming the Austrian public into mosques, Olgun said they are working on a goal to convince Austrian imams to deliver their sermons in German, or to at least have them simultaneously translated. Moreover, he wanted to strengthen their youth outreach and education programs. According the statements he made in his interview with Kurier, the organization is currently in the process of creating a rubric for Muslim enterprises, such as kindergartens, to follow. These efforts aim at building solidarity in the community against terrorism. “We also expect representatives of other religions to make more nuanced assessments and to avoid simply pigeon-holing Muslims as scapegoats,” Olgun said. “They shouldn’t fall into the trap set by these terrorists, whose goal it is to divide society.” Austrian Muslims are estimated at about nearly 6 percent of the European country’s 8 million population. In Vienna, Islam is the second-largest religious grouping, after Roman Catholicism.Significance The prevention of weight gain in adulthood is a public health challenge, particularly given the difficulty of losing weight. Data on freshmen were collected at the beginning and end of the academic year, and baseline blood samples were studied to find markers of incident weight gain. A metabolite, erythritol, was elevated at the beginning of the year in freshmen who went on to gain weight, fat, and abdominal fat compared with freshmen with stable weight. Erythritol is a sugar substitute low-calorie sweetener, and prior studies claimed no endogenous synthesis. We report a previously unrecognized metabolism of glucose to erythritol, and given the association between erythritol and weight gain, research is needed to understand whether and how this pathway contributes to weight gain risk. Abstract Metabolomic markers associated with incident central adiposity gain were investigated in young adults. In a 9-mo prospective study of university freshmen (n = 264). Blood samples and anthropometry measurements were collected in the first 3 d on campus and at the end of the year. Plasma from individuals was pooled by phenotype [incident central adiposity, stable adiposity, baseline hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) > 5.05%, HbA1c < 4.92%] and assayed using GC-MS, chromatograms were analyzed using MetaboliteDetector software, and normalized metabolite levels were compared using Welch’s t test. Assays were repeated using freshly prepared pools, and statistically significant metabolites were quantified in a targeted GC-MS approach. Isotope tracer studies were performed to determine if the potential marker was an endogenous human metabolite in men and in whole blood. Participants with incident central adiposity gain had statistically significantly higher blood erythritol [P < 0.001, false discovery rate (FDR) = 0.0435], and the targeted assay revealed 15-fold [95% confidence interval (CI): 13.27, 16.25] higher blood erythritol compared with participants with stable adiposity. Participants with baseline HbA1c > 5.05% had 21-fold (95% CI: 19.84, 21.41) higher blood erythritol compared with participants with lower HbA1c (P < 0.001, FDR = 0.00016). Erythritol was shown to be synthesized endogenously from glucose via the pentose-phosphate pathway (PPP) in stable isotope-assisted ex vivo blood incubation experiments and through in vivo conversion of erythritol to erythronate in stable isotope-assisted dried blood spot experiments. Therefore, endogenous production of erythritol from glucose may contribute to the association between erythritol and obesity observed in young adults. In the fall of 2015, an estimated 3.3 million high-school graduates enrolled in postsecondary education as first-time college freshmen (1), and the transition to a residential college environment is associated with weight gain. About 75% of the population experiences weight gain during this transition (2, 3), but there have been few efforts to identify biomarkers of risk that could guide prevention efforts. A study (4) in monozygotic twins discordant for body mass index (BMI) reported divergence at about the age of 18 y, corresponding to a time in life when the environment shifts, and further underscoring the importance of young adulthood in the lifetime trajectory of adiposity and as a window of opportunity for prevention (5). Observational studies of young adults focus on behavioral/environmental risk factors for adiposity gain, with few studies reporting biological markers in relation to either cross-sectional and/or longitudinal changes in adiposity or body weight. A recent overview of intervention studies to prevent weight gain in young adults (6) identified 37 studies; the majority assessed diet, physical activity, and behaviors, with only 10 studies directly measuring changes in weight, BMI [weight (kilograms)/height (square meters)] and/or body composition, and none of the studies measured biological markers. Existing prediction or risk scores integrate across the various domains contributing to weight gain risk, including demographic, anthropometric, behavioral, psychological, diet-related, and physical activity (7), but do not incorporate biological markers. Metabolomics approaches, which measure the final downstream products of the complex interactions between genetic, environmental, and pharmacological influences, have been used to study obesity as a phenotype, but few studies have investigated metabolite profiles that are predictive of risk of future weight gain in young adults who are not currently overweight or obese. A recent study (8) investigated the metabolic signature associated with adiposity and adiposity change in participants aged 16–39 y. This study focused on a prespecified set of 67 metabolites, including lipoproteins, inflammatory markers, fatty acids, and glycolysis precursors. Branched chain amino acids (BCAAs), lipoprotein-related metabolites, and glycolysis-related metabolites were all positively associated with change in BMI. Studies in older adults also identified the BCAA-related signature, and reported higher leucine/isoleucine and valine in obese compared with nonobese individuals (4, 9⇓–11). Furthermore, experimental research using metabolomic profiling identified causal effects of weight gain on multiple blood metabolites, including elevation of BCAAs, very low-density lipoprotein (8, 10, 12), triacylglycerol (10), C-reactive protein (8, 10), and insulin-like growth factor (10). However, the role of antecedent metabolomic markers in weight gain and the human adiposity phenotype is not established. We investigated the relation of the metabolome to incident adiposity gain in young adults over the first year of college. A nontargeted gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrophotometry (GC-MS) approach was used to identify novel metabolites associated with incident adiposity gain, and the endogenous synthesis of a biomarker associated with adiposity gain was investigated by stable isotope-assisted metabolomics approaches. Finally, in vivo and ex vivo stable isotope-assisted metabolomics approaches were used to investigate whether the risk biomarker originated from the diet and/or through endogenous synthesis. Methods Study Sample. The study used data from a recently completed longitudinal cohort study of college freshmen residing on campus during their freshman year (2011–2012) at a university in the northeastern United States. Study participants were selected through stratified random sampling of the incoming freshman class to recruit equal numbers of males and females and to represent the characteristics of the full incoming class. Participants were aged 18–19 y, about 50% were female, and about 10.5% were overweight (BMI > 25) at the study baseline. The study was approved by the Cornell University Institutional Review Board, and all participants provided informed consent. Collection of Participant Data. Data were collected during participant study visits and included anthropometric measurements (height, weight, and waist and hip circumferences) using standardized methods and plasma for metabolomics (nonfasting), which was collected within the participants’ first 3 d on campus and at the end of the academic year (mean follow-up time = 35 wk, SD = 1.5). Adiposity, measured via dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA; Hologic Inc.), was assessed within the first 2 wk and at the end of the academic year. Blood was collected into EDTA vacutainers (BD), stored at 4 °C for 30–90 min, centrifuged at a relative centrifugal force of 1,300 × g for 10 min, divided into three to four cryovials, and transferred to –80 °C freezers for storage. Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), a marker of usual glycemia and long-term glycemic control, was measured in whole blood using the Dimension Xpand Plus Integrated Chemistry System (Siemens). Phenotypes related to cardiometabolic risk groups were defined as follows: (i) incident central adiposity gain defined by changes in all three indicators: weight increase > 0.5 kg, DXA truncal adiposity increase > 200 g, and waist circumference increase > 0.5 cm (n = 66); (ii) stable adiposity defined by minimal changes in the same three markers of adiposity, namely, body weight, DXA truncal adiposity, and waist circumference (n = 16); (iii) HbA1c in the top 25% of baseline distribution (HbA1c > 5.05%, or ∼32 nmol/mol; n = 21); and (iv) HbA1c in the bottom 10% of baseline distribution (HbA1c < 4.92%, or ∼30 nmol/mol; n = 7). Within each phenotype group, individual participant blood samples were combined to form a pooled sample for metabolomics analysis, and triplicate aliquots of each pool were assayed. To investigate dose–response associations, subpools were created and assayed in triplicate. For the HbA1c groups, subpools were defined by the median of the distribution of individual values (two subpools for each HbA1c group). The incident central adiposity gain group was divided into three subgroups based on the degree of central adiposity gain (the three subpools are described in SI Appendix, Supplemental Methods). Plasma aliquots were express-shipped on dry ice for metabolomics assays conducted at the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine, University of Luxembourg. Data Collection: Metabolomics. Metabolite extraction and chemical derivatization were followed by GC-MS to yield high-dimensional data that were analyzed by MetaboliteDetector software (13) and subsequently statistically evaluated by R (release 3.1.2). All samples were assayed in triplicate to provide estimates of technical variation. Before statistical analysis, metabolite levels were normalized by reference pools (every metabolite level divided by the mean signal of the same metabolite level in a pooled sample of two measured pools chronologically closest to the measured sample). First, a nontargeted metabolomics assay of 305 metabolites was conducted. Second, an optimized assay of 107 metabolites was designed based on the first set of findings, and starting over with freshly prepared pools, the four original groups and the subpools were assayed. Signals that persisted were considered as validated. Third, a targeted and quantitative GC-MS analysis was conducted on the subset of metabolites of interest, including fructose, leucine, isoleucine, valine, lactic acid, and erythritol. For this purpose, external standard solution series were produced containing the metabolites of interest. Statistical Analysis. In the nontargeted GC-MS analysis, multiple testing was accounted for by calculating false discovery rate (FDR) Q-values (14); the threshold of FDR = 0.2 was set a priori for statistical significance. The metabolome at study baseline in participants with incident central adiposity gain was compared with the metabolome of participants with stable adiposity. The metabolome of participants with higher HbA1c (HbA1c > 5.05%) at the study baseline was compared with the metabolome of participants with lower HbA1c (HbA1c < 4.9%). Welch’s t test was used to test for differences in the mean metabolites between groups, and the nominal P value was adjusted for multiple comparisons to yield the FDR. The FDR Q-values were computed separately for the comparison of the weight groups and for the comparison of the glycemia groups. Discovery and quantitative assay results were analyzed using the same statistical methods. Human and Cell Studies of Erythritol Metabolism. Blood incubation experiments. To investigate erythritol metabolism in humans, an ex vivo stable isotope-assisted blood incubation experiment was performed on five healthy male volunteers. Before blood collection, basal glucose levels were determined with a commercially available glucometer (Diamond Mini; ForaCare). From each volunteer, 1 mL of whole blood was collected via finger prick into K2EDTA-coated vacutainers (BD) and aliquoted in 300-μL portions. Each aliquot was supplemented with a 1 M [U13C]glucose, [6-13C 1 ]glucose, [1,2-13C 2 ]glucose, or [3,4-13C 2 ]glucose (CLM-1396-1, CLM-2717-PK, CLM-504, or CLM-6750-MPT-PK; Cambridge Isotopes) solution to a final total glucose (labeled + unlabeled) concentration of 15 mM. The volume of the 1 M tracer solution added to the blood depended on the blood glucose concentration measured before and was adjusted to reach a final concentration of 15 mM glucose in all samples. After spiking the tracer, the blood samples were incubated at 37 °C under continuous shaking on an orbital shaker at a mixing frequency of 600 rpm (ThermoMixer comfort with thermoblock to cover 1.5-mL reaction vessels, Eppendorf). Whole-blood samples were collected 5 min before addition of the tracers and 1, 15, 30, 60, and 120 min after addition of the tracers. For metabolite extraction, each sample was extracted in triplicate by mixing 10 μL of whole blood with 90 μL of ice-cold extraction fluid [8:1 methanol/water mixture (vol/vol)] containing 5 μg/mL pentanedioic-d6 acid (D-5227; C/D/N Isotopes, Inc.) as an internal standard. After mixing at 1,400 rpm on an orbital shaker (Eppendorf Thermomixer comfort) for 5 min at 4 °C and subsequent centrifugation at 21.000 × g at 4 °C for 10 min, 70 μL of supernatant was transferred into a GC glass vial with a microinsert (5–250 μL) and dried in a refrigerated rotary vacuum evaporator (Labconco) at −4 °C for 3 h before GC-MS measurement. Dried blood spot analysis. To evaluate erythritol synthesis from glucose in vivo, 2 g of [U13C]glucose (CLM-1396-MPT; Cambridge Isotopes) was administered orally to three healthy male donors and dried blood samples were collected via finger prick at T0 and at 5, 15, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, and 180 min after ingestion on dried blood spot cards (Whatman protein saver cards, Z699519-100EA; Sigma–Aldrich). To analyze the impact of erythritol intake on human glucose metabolism in vivo, 50 g of commercially available erythritol (Erythrit, Charge: 435FET8B77; Natur Total) was ingested 2 min before the 45-min time point
Tan said investigations into the cause of the incident are ongoing. "As of now, we have not made any changes to our safety regulations." However, he stressed that safety measures are in place at "every level of the exercise design", from the planning stage back home to execution in Australia, where soldiers can train in conditions that are harsh and realistic. "We have multiple levels of safety coverage to ensure that soldiers are watched both by their commanders as well as by the conducting headquarters," he said. ME6 Goh added: “Of course, we endeavour to learn as much as we can because every life lost is one too many.”The sale of Conrad Black's Toronto mansion has been put on hold after the Canada Revenue Agency placed liens against the property for $15-million in unpaid income taxes, according to documents obtained by The Globe and Mail. The liens against the former media magnate's mansion at 26 Park Lane Circle in the upscale Bridle Path neighbourhood were registered on May 6. The first lien said Mr. Black is indebted to the Canada Revenue Agency for unpaid income taxes totalling $12,307,717.15. Story continues below advertisement The second lien is for unpaid income taxes of $2,771,196.84. The lien was filed by the Canada Revenue Agency on behalf of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service through the Canada-U.S. tax treaty, according to the documents. No other details were provided in the documents. In an e-mail late Thursday, Mr. Black said: "It's nonsense, but a legal matter we'll work out judicially." Mr. Black's home, which rests on 6.6 acres of property, was sold to an undisclosed buyer for $16.5-million, according to the Multiple Listing Service website. It was originally listed at $21.8-million. Mr. Black and his wife, the writer Barbara Amiel-Black, planned on continuing to live in the home, which was sold as part of a lease-back deal. The estate includes nine bed-rooms and 11 bathrooms along with a pool and spa. It was initially supposed to be auctioned off, but that was cancelled when a pre-emptive offer was made by a wealthy undisclosed buyer. Mr. Black has three mortgages on the property amounting to $15.5-million. Two mortgages totalling $12-million are to the Hudson Bay Fund LP and the third mortgage that amounts to $3.5-million is with Hollinger Inc. There is also a caution registered against title in favour of Hans G. Abromeit, which means the property cannot be sold without the consent of Mr. Abromeit. Story continues below advertisement Story continues below advertisement The 23,000-square-foot property was originally built by Mr. Black's father, George Montegu Black II, and had been in the family for 65 years. At one time, Mr. Black controlled Toronto-based Hollinger International, once one of the world's largest English-language empires whose flagship publications included Britain's Daily Telegraph, the Chicago Sun Times, the Jerusalem Post and the National Post.A drug more potent and devastating than heroin may be in Central Ohio for the first time. It's called krokodil. Many users who get hooked on it do not survive. The drug popped up in Russia first. There are suspected cases in Arizona, Oklahoma, Illinois and now Ohio. The reaction to this chemical concoction of a drug is unlike anything anyone has ever seen before. "When it's injected into the vein, it causes initial skin tinting of a greenish color. The raised area of the skin looks like crocodile. That's where it comes from," Deputy Chief Jim Davis of the Columbus Division of Fire said. Now, the drug may be in Central Ohio. "The patient had a large, open wound and it is consistent with what we've been seeing, or the trend when people use this type of medicine," Deputy Chief Davis said. Deputy Chief Davis says a homeless man told Columbus medics that he used krokodil. He said the man had wounds consistent with the drug. Davis is now warning the entire fire department that krokodil appears to have made it to Columbus. The medical director for the Central Ohio Poison Center says there have been only two other possible cases of krokodil in the state. None of them were in Columbus. Local emergency responders say they are ready for what lies ahead. "Our biggest issue with this is the fact that anybody who uses needles in some type of drug situation, is highly suspected of other highly contagious diseases, such as hepatitis and HIV," Deputy Chief Davis said. The home-made drug poisons the user's body. krokodil is really an opiate called desomorphine. It's similar to heroin and oxycodone, but it hits a user quicker. It's more potent that morphine. Krokodil damages the veins and soft tissue, causing rapidly growing gangrene. It turns the users skin a scaly black or green color. Stay with 10TV on the air and online for more information.When Baron Pierre de Coubertin founded the Modern Olympics, he designed the Olympic Rings to include the colors of every flag of every nation, linked together to symbolize the inclusivity of the games and the idea that national differences could be set aside to engage in the struggle of sport. The Baron was so insistent on peaceful competition, that in the early games, he suggested that no national flags be waved and no national anthems be played to avoid the games becoming shows of nationalistic jingoism. Though de Coubertin sought a strong demarcation between the affairs of politics and sport, even he acknowledged that sport could not shield us from the strife, injustices, and racial inequalities that existed in the world: “Wars break out because nations misunderstand each other. We shall no have peace until the prejudices which now separate the different races shall have been outlived. To attain this end, what better means than to bring the youth of all countries periodically together for amicable trials of muscular strength and agility?[1]“ In the years that followed the first Modern Olympics in 1896, sports and politics evolved into strange bedfellows, perhaps against the Baron’s best wishes. Just one year before de Coubertin’s death in 1937, Jesse Owens made a powerful statement at the 1936 Berlin Olympics when he—a black man, kicked some Nazi white supremacist ass in front of Hitler himself, winning four gold medals. Hitler made a sorry attempt to politicize the Berlin Games, believing them to be an attestation of the strength of the Aryan race, and with Owens’ victories, Hitler refused to personally hand him his medals. In Albert Speer’s Inside the Third Reich, Speer wrote: “He was highly annoyed by the series of triumphs by the marvelous colored American runner, Jesse Owens. People whose antecedents came from the jungle were primitive, Hitler said with a shrug; their physiques were stronger than those of civilized whites and hence should be excluded from future games.[2]” Fast forward to the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City. 1968 was perhaps the apex of racial and political tensions in the country. The Vietnam War entered its bloodiest and most violent phase when North Vietnam launched the Tet Offensive into South Vietnam[3]. Just one year prior, in 1967, Muhammad Ali (perhaps the largest political activist in sport history) was sentenced to five years in prison (later overturned) and banned from boxing for three years for refusing to serve in a war he said would force him to “…put on a uniform and go ten thousand miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs?” In April, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on the balcony of his motel. Two months and one day later, Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, CA. By the time the 1968 Games kicked off in October of that year, the United States was in a state of divisive political and racial tumult. After winning a Gold and Bronze medal in the 200m dash, Tommie Smith and John Carlos famously raised their fists with a black power salute as the National Anthem played. For their peaceful activism, both were subsequently stripped of their medals. Smith and Carlos shared the podium with Australian Peter Norman who won the silver this year. In solidarity with his fellow medal winners, Norman donned a human rights badge and was banned by his own country from ever participating in the Olympics again (incidentally, Smith and Carlos were both pallbearers at Norman’s funeral when he passed)[4]. There’s a lot of rich history to be explored with sports and politics, but I’d like to fast forward to current events. On September 1, 2016, San Francisco 49ers QB Colin Kaepernick took a knee during the National Anthem, a controversial move he justified because he was “…not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color..To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.[5]” In the games since Kaepernick’s initial protest, various NFL players joined him in solidarity, including teammate Eric Reid and various members of the Seattle Seahawks. The collective outrage that unfolded over Kaepernick’s protests was massive. “He’s disrespecting the troops,” some bellowed. “He hates the police” cried others. Tomi Lahren, (who happens to be a real idiot) referred to Kaepernick as a “whiny, indulgent, attention-seeking cry baby.[6]” The culmination of anti-Kaepernick sentiments came from none other than the President himself this past weekend. At a political rally in Alabama, President Trump stated “Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out! He’s fired. He’s fired![7]” If the President’s words were intended to trigger mass firings of peacefully protesting football players, they had the opposite effect. Hundreds of players and owners (including Jerry frickin’ Jones) responded by kneeling in protest. The Pittsburgh Steelers remained in the locker room during the National Anthem. And the NBA Champion Golden State Warriors decided they weren’t going to make the traditional champion’s visit to the White House. Many of the Fencing community’s most cherished athletes responded with vigor as well. Daryl Homer, the 2016 Olympic Silver Medalist wrote on his Instagram: “…I think it’s important today more than ever to say outright that I kneel with [Kaepernick]. I’ve had the privilege of sitting down with John Carlos and hearing first hand about the world he lived in prior to and the repercussions of his action, in Mexico City. Like Kaepernick he was black balled by an establishment, and became a social pariah. He has since in hindsight become an image of African American (& American) strength, principle, and fortitude. Today (and everyday) it’s important for each of us to take a stand in our own way. I don’t and have never followed the NFL. If you do I’m not knocking you just imploring you to stay woke/ think about the systems these organizations (or ones like them) have put into place/ and find your own form of activism to help combat them. It feels far away at times but let’s not forget that these are the same systems people of color battle daily in economic, professional, athletic, and personal areas of our lives.” Race Imboden, a 2x Olympian and Olympic Bronze Medalist wrote that he had “Been to the White House 2 times. One of the greatest honors of being an Olympian. If I make another team under Trump. I won’t be attending.” His teammate Alexander Massialas chimed in: “I’ve been to the White House twice as well but I can’t stand behind bigotry and hate. #UnitedWeStand.” Sharing these powerful statements on my page, I was amused horrified by some of the responses. Here’s a few of them: “Your an asshole and I hope you never make another them for the USA….” First of all, the word is “you’re,” and why does it always seem like these wingnuts use excessive amounts of ellipses? “You are an idiot just like all the other snow flakes.” Wut. And perhaps my favorite: “Could we stay out of politics!? There is so much to say and discover about fencing.” No. We can’t “stay out of politics.” If you haven’t figured it out, politics and sport belong together. They always have. Sports are the ultimate platform for facilitating social change and starting national conversations when our nation’s leaders fail to (or fail to do so tactfully). It wasn’t the President of the Côte d’Ivoire, Laurent Gbagbo who ended five years of a brutal civil war in the country; rather, Soccer star Didier Drogba who succeeded in urging his fellow countrymen to lay down their arms after the team made the 2006 World Cup finals[8]. Ali gave voice to the brutality and immorality of the Vietnam War in his conscientious objection to participating. John Carlos and Tommie Smith empowered the voiceless in a time when the voiceless needed it perhaps more than ever. Kaepernick kneeled, seeking a similar outcome. What you’re seeing now, with the involvement of Daryl Homer, Ibtihaj Muhammad, Race Imboden, and Aleander Massialas isn’t a bastardization of sport. It’s a continuation of a tradition as old as time. Get over it, and perhaps, join them in solidarity. [1] http://thesportjournal.org/article/the-idea-of-peace-as-coubertins-vision-for-the-modern-olympic-movement-development-and-pedagogic-consequences/ [2] https://sites.duke.edu/wcwp/research-projects/football-and-politics-in-europe-1930s-1950s/hitler-and-nazi-philosophy/ [3] http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/31/us/1968-important-events/index.html [4] http://www.npr.org/2017/09/25/553478047/trump-the-nfl-and-the-powder-keg-history-of-race-sports-and-politics [5] https://www.theringer.com/nfl/2017/9/26/16365282/protest-debate-colin-kaepernick-alejandro-villanueva-police-brutality [6] https://mic.com/articles/160973/what-did-tomi-lahren-say-about-colin-kaepernick#.NdUO0HupB [7] https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/sep/22/donald-trump-nfl-national-anthem-protests [8] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/international/2318500/Didier-Drogba-brings-peace-to-the-Ivory-Coast.htmlPlease also see this blog post on tweaking your ruby GC settings. I use and love DatabaseCleaner, although historically I had never paid too much attention on the performance of its varies cleaning strategies - I’d always used truncation. We use Postgres, and after digging around and finding out the difference between DELETE and TRUNCATE, I ended up improving our test suite speed by about 30-40% simply by tweaking the cleaning strategies. RSpec. configure do \| config \| config. before :suite do DatabaseCleaner. clean_with :truncation DatabaseCleaner. strategy = :transaction end config. before do if example. metadata [ :js ] \|\| example. metadata [ :type ] == :feature DatabaseCleaner. strategy = :deletion else DatabaseCleaner. strategy = :transaction DatabaseCleaner. start end end config. after do DatabaseCleaner. clean end end Essentially, we want to truncate the DB only once before the whole suite runs to ensure a clean slate DB, then we only want to use deletion on Capybara tests, everything else should just use transaction which is the fastest strategy. Now, as a bonus, I have just discovered @amatsuda’s DatabaseRewinder which is a lightweight alternative that supports only ActiveRecord. It offers comparable performance with a much similar API. RSpec. configure do \| config \| config. before :suite do DatabaseRewinder. clean_all end config. after do DatabaseRewinder. clean end end By the way, we also use parallel_tests to scale our test suite to multiple processes, even on Travis CI and Wercker. Hooray to faster tests! :)Anonymous said: hey I was wondering if you could expand upon that ask you sent @lefbians when you said the current definition for asexuality is racist. I'm not ace, and I don't disagree with you; I just wanted to know if you could further clarify. Yeah totally. The current definition of Asexual that the community goes by is “does not experience sexual attraction.” Sexual Attraction by definition is hazy in the community and there is. A lot of controversy over what sexual attraction actually is, but a pretty much agreed upon definition is “that feeling you get when you look at someone and you want to bang them.” Sounds reasonable enough, but then you get asexuals who… do not experience sexual attraction but still want to bang people? Or aces that only feel sexual attraction after getting to know people? Or only feel it rarely? Hold on. See, the Asexual community believes that non-aces, or “Allos”, look at people they find attractive and immediately want to bang them. And this happens often and on regular occasions. But. Most non-aces don’t feel that way. In fact, the Ace community’s very definition of “sexual attraction” is the same definition of the “male gaze.” Which is already very creepy, but let’s get to the racism. There are so, SO many cultures and societies outside of colonialist “western” society that do NOT experience “sexual attraction” at all. Like my family that is indigenous does not experience that. In fact there are SO many societies and cultures that find OUR obsession with sex absolutely ridiculous. Would this mean that there are entire societies that are Asexual? Obviously not. It means that the Asexual community’s current definition of Asexual is valid only within our society. Which is not how sexuality works; there are gay men in every culture, multi gender attracted people in every culture, lesbians in every culture etc. But in cultures outside of our own, the Asexual community doesn’t hold up. But please don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that Asexuality doesn’t exist. I’m just saying that people saying they are Asexual but they still love and enjoy sex or that they are Asexual but they are only turned on by people they feel close to are unknowingly enacting colonialist-based racism. And since the definition of “sexual attraction” is what the current Asexual community has built itself on, the very core of the Asexual community is racism. And listen. I thought I was Asexual. I had zero sex drive. I found women absolutely beautiful, but I did not objectify them in my mind or instantly want to bang them, because I do not have the male gaze. When I started on birth control, I discovered that I had a sex drive and wondered if my Asexuality was based upon a hormonal imbalance. When I lost my health insurance, my sex drive disappeared again verifying my suspicions. I do not identify as asexual, because my complete disinterest in sex branches from a medical problem I have. But there are people without a sex drive and without and interest in sex because that is their genuine sexuality. And those are Asexuals. The Asexual community’s belief that “Allos” are always sex obsessed and that they want to bang anything they find attractive is racist. Hetero demisexuals who want into the LGBT community are heterosexuals following a racist ideology. And AGAIN, Asexuality is real and it is valid, but the Asexual community needs to take out its trash. Like the amount of homophobia and racism that spews out of the Asexual community blows my mind. Straight people hating on gay people? What’s new.Engineers, scientists, philosophers, ethicists and lawyers are taking up the issue in scholarly journals, online discussions and conferences in the United States and abroad. “It’s a hot topic,” said Ronald C. Arkin, a computer scientist at Georgia Tech who advises the Army on robot weapons. “We need at least to think about what we are doing while we are doing it, to be aware of the consequences of our research.” So far, though, most scholarly conversation about these issues has been “piecemeal,” said Andrew Maynard, chief science adviser for the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington. “It leaves the door open for people to do something that is going to cause long-term problems.” That’s what some environmentalists said they feared when Planktos, a California-based concern, announced it would embark on a private effort to fertilize part of the South Atlantic with iron, in hopes of producing carbon-absorbing plankton blooms that the company could market as carbon offsets. Countries bound by the London Convention, an international treaty governing dumping at sea, issued a “statement of concern” about the work and a United Nations group called for a moratorium, but it is not clear what would have happened had Planktos not abandoned the effort for lack of money. “There is no one to say ‘thou shalt not,’ ” said Jane Lubchenco, an environmental scientist at Oregon State University and a former president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. When scientists and engineers discuss geoengineering, it is obvious they are talking about technologies with the potential to change the planet. But the issue of engineering ethics applies as well to technologies whose planet-altering potential may not emerge until it is too late. Dr. Arkin said robotics researchers should consider not just how to make robots more capable, but also who must bear responsibility for their actions and how much human operators should remain “in the loop,” particularly with machines to aid soldiers on the battlefield or the disabled in their homes. But he added that progress in robotics was so “insidious” that people might not realize they had ventured into ethically challenging territory until too late. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Ethical and philosophical issues have long occupied biotechnology, where institutional review boards commonly rule on proposed experiments and advisory committees must approve the use of gene-splicing and related techniques. When the federal government initiated its effort to decipher the human genome, a percentage of the budget went to consideration of ethics issues like genetic discrimination. But such questions are relatively new for scientists and engineers in other fields. Some are calling for the same kind of discussion that microbiologists organized in 1975 when the immense power of their emerging knowledge of gene-splicing or recombinant DNA began to dawn on them. The meeting, at the Asilomar conference center in California, gave rise to an ethical framework that still prevails in biotechnology. Photo “Something like Asilomar might be very important,” said Andrew Light, director of the Center for Global Ethics at George Mason University, one of the organizers of a conference in Charlotte, N.C., in April on the ethics of emerging technologies. “The question now is how best to begin that discussion among the scientists, to encourage them to do something like this, then figure out what would be the right mechanism, who would fund it, what form would recommendations take, all those details.” But an engineering Asilomar might be hard to bring off. “So many people have their nose to the bench,” Dr. Arkin said, “historically a pitfall of many scientists.” Anyway, said Paul Thompson, a philosopher at Michigan State and former secretary of the International Society for Environmental Ethics, many scientists were trained to limit themselves to questions answerable in the real world, in the belief that “scientists and engineers should not be involved in these kinds of ethical questions.” And researchers working in geoengineering say they worry that if people realize there are possible technical fixes for global warming, they will feel less urgency about reducing greenhouse gas emissions. “Even beginning the discussion, putting geoengineering on the table and beginning the scientific work could in itself make us less concerned about all the things that we need to start doing now,” Dr. Light said. On the other hand, some climate scientists argue that if people realized such drastic measures were on the horizon, they would be frightened enough to reduce their collective carbon footprint. Still others say that, given the threat global warming poses to the planet, it would be unethical not to embark on the work needed to engineer possible remedies — and to let policy makers know of its potential. Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up You will receive emails containing news content, updates and promotions from The New York Times. You may opt-out at any time. You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters. But when to begin this kind of discussion? “It’s a really hard question,” Dr. Thompson said. “I don’t think anyone has an answer to it.” Many scientists don’t like talking about their research before it has taken shape, for fear of losing control over it, according to David Goldston, former chief of staff at the House Science Committee and a columnist for the journal Nature. This mind-set is “generally healthy,” he wrote in a recent column, but it is “maladapted for situations that call for focused research to resolve societal issues that need to be faced with some urgency.” And then there is the longstanding scientific fear that if they engage with the public for any reason, their work will be misunderstood or portrayed in inaccurate or sensationalized terms. Francis S. Collins, who is stepping down as head of the government human genome project, said he had often heard researchers say “it’s better if people don’t know about it.” But he said he was proud that the National Human Genome Research Institute had from the beginning devoted substantial financing to research on privacy, discrimination and other ethical issues raised by progress in genetics. If scientific research has serious potential implications in the real world, “the sooner there is an opportunity for public discussion the better,” he said in a recent interview. Advertisement Continue reading the main story In part, that is because some emerging technologies will require political adjustments. For example, if the planet came to depend on chemicals in space or orbiting mirrors or regular oceanic infusions of iron, system failure could mean catastrophic — and immediate — climate change. But maintaining the systems requires a political establishment with guaranteed indefinite stability. As Dr. Collins put it, the political process these days is “not well designed to handle issues that are not already in a crisis.” Or as Mr. Goldston put it, “with no grand debate over first principles and no accusations of acting in bad faith, nanotechnology has received only fitful attention.” Meanwhile, there is growing recognition that climate engineering, nanotechnology and other emerging technologies are full of “unknown unknowns,” factors that will not become obvious until they are put into widespread use at a scale impossible to turn back, as happened, in a sense, with the atomic bomb. At its first test, some of its developers worried — needlessly — that the blast might set the atmosphere on fire. They did not anticipate the bombs would generate electromagnetic pulses intense enough to paralyze electrical systems across a continent. Bill Joy, a founder of Sun Microsystems, cited the bomb in a famous 2000 article in the magazine Wired on the dangers of robots in which he argued that some technologies were so dangerous they should be “relinquished.” He said it was common for scientists and engineers to fail “to understand the consequences of our inventions while we are in the rapture of discovery” and, as a result, he said, “we have yet to come to terms with the fact that the most compelling 21st-century technologies — robotics, genetic engineering and nanotechnology — pose a different threat than the technologies that have come before. They are so powerful they can spawn whole new classes of accidents and abuses.” He called it “knowledge-enabled mass destruction.” But in an essay in the journal Nature last year, Mary Warnock, a philosopher who led a committee formed to advise the British government after the world’s first test-tube baby was born there in 1978, said when people fear “dedicated scientists and doctors may pursue research that some members of society find repugnant” the answer is not to allow ignorance and fear to dictate which technologies are allowed to go forward, but rather to educate people “to have a broad understanding of science and an appreciation of its potential for good.” In another Nature essay, Sheila Jasanoff, a professor of science and technology studies at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, said a first step was for scientists and engineers to realize that in complex issues, “uncertainty, ignorance and indeterminacy are always present.” In what she described as “a call for humility,” she urged researchers to cultivate and teach “modes of knowing that are often pushed aside in expanding scientific understanding and technological capacity” including history, moral philosophy, political theory and social studies of science — what people value and why they value it. Dr. Hollander said the new ethics center would take up issues like these. “Do we recognize when we might be putting ourselves on a negative technological treadmill by moving in one direction rather than another?” she said. “There are social questions we should be paying attention to, that we should see as important. “I mean we as citizens, and that includes people in the academy and engineers. It includes everybody.”“Superficial” is how Anna Lembke describes the common understanding of the opioid painkiller and heroin epidemic. Lembke, a Stanford psychiatrist focused on addiction care, agrees that the commonly cited causes of the epidemic — doctors hoping to treat previously untreated pain conditions, pain patients demanding better treatments, and big pharma pushing opioids on the market — contributed to the vast overprescription of opioids. That let the pills flow not just to patients’ hands but to their family, their friends, and the black market. But she argues that the crisis, which amounts to the worst drug epidemic in US history in terms of overdose deaths, goes far deeper. Lembke points to what she calls the “Toyotazation” of the health care system — an industrialization of medicine that’s encouraged doctors to push a patient in and out so their institutions can get paid as quickly as possible, and looking for quick solutions, such as a single pill, that can swiftly satisfy a patient’s demands. There are also broader cultural issues — like the fact that some people just aren’t willing to accept the limitations of their physical bodies, leading them to turn to doctors for a cure that medicine just doesn’t have. “You can’t use the pills to extend your limits. You have to accept that there’s some things you just won’t be able to do anymore,” Lembke recently told me. “People are very resistant to that idea. I think that speaks to some of the core hope for at least Americans that they should really be able to keep doing what they were doing in their 20s, and that somehow a doctor should be able to fix them and make that happen, instead of accepting that maybe that’s something that they just can’t do anymore.” She doesn’t deny that some people do suffer from horrible, crippling chronic pain. But she points out that the empirical evidence shows that opioids actually aren’t effective for chronic pain, and instead pose many risks in the long term, from addiction to overdose to a higher risk of injury to even increased levels of pain. So doctors, Lembke argues, need to find other solutions, like physical therapy, that may benefit patients. And if that doesn’t work, then maybe a patient just needs to be taught how to cope with the pain, much like patients with other chronic illnesses are helped with figuring out how to live with their conditions. “What I think is really important to remind people is that if opioids worked long-term, I would have no problem with patients taking them,” she said. “The fundamental issue is that they stop working and then you have an additional problem.” Lembke has written and spoken a lot about these kinds of issues, most recently in her 2016 book Drug Dealer, MD. So I reached out to her to talk about the opioid epidemic and what we get wrong about addiction in America. What follows is our conversation, edited for length and clarity. German Lopez What are the roots of the opioid epidemic, as you see them? Anna Lembke What you’ll read about in the media is a good superficial summary of this problem. Basically, the epidemic began with doctors prescribing opioids more liberally for patients with pain — in part because we have an increasing number of people with pain in this country, and we were trying to address an unmet medical need. That was combined with aggressive marketing on the part of big pharma and small subgroups of pill mill doctors taking the opportunity to make money despite harming their patients. Those three factors are what you’ll read about. But I think that’s a very superficial take at the end of the day on what was really going on. If you look more closely, it’s just not pill mill doctors who are overprescribing — we did a piece in JAMA that shows all doctors are overprescribing pain pills. And as far as big pharma goes, big pharma has always existed in some shape or form, pushing their pills. So why opioids and why now? And as far as an increasing number of patients in pain, we don’t really have more patients in pain than a lot of other high-income countries who are not consuming opioids at the same rate we are. We come down to 4 percent or 5 percent of the world population but consume 80 to 90 percent of the world’s opioids. So there’s something different about the United States, which I think warrants further examination. German Lopez So what do you think are the deeper roots here? Anna Lembke At the end of the day, opioids were the solution not for patients’ problems but for doctors’ problems. There has been a huge transformation in the past 30 years in health care delivery, beginning with a migration out of private practice into large integrated health care centers. That’s something that I call the Toyotazation of medicine — tremendous pressure on doctors within these large integrated health care centers to practice medicine in a certain way and get patients out in a timely fashion to be able to bill insurers at the highest possible level and to make sure that their patients were satisfied customers. This was a huge contributing factor to the opioid epidemic — by giving doctors a way to just give a pill to patients to get them out the door, while also feeling like they were doing something to help patients, at least in the short term. Opioids became the proxy for a doctor-patient relationship. The other underrecognized piece of this is what I call the medicalization of poverty. Opioids have become a proxy for a social safety net. So we have doctors routinely confronted with patients who not only have multiple medical problems — from diabetes to hypertension to asthma to cardiac disease — but also very significant psychological, social, and economic problems. Many of them are undereducated. Many of them are underemployed. Many of them are homeless. Many of them are struggling with multigenerational trauma. Because we lack a social safety net to take care of these people, we are now medicalizing their problems, and telling doctors that they have to take care of their problems. Doctors are feeling incredibly overwhelmed in this space with this growing population of individuals with very complex biological and psychosocial problems. In the face of that, they’re prescribing opioids — because opioids work quickly, patients are grateful, and it seems to be something they can do in the face of overwhelming problems. The other piece of it are new illness narratives that have now become commonplace. Everything from “pain is dangerous” to “people are fragile” to “the body can’t heal itself” and “doctors have superhuman abilities to heal” and “illness is an identity” and “victimhood gives you a right to be compensated.” These are illness narratives that I think create a culture in our society, which we’re not even aware of, that’s contributed to the opioid epidemic. German Lopez One thing you suggested is that these opioids will provide relief for someone even if they don’t have pain. That’s why people will use them recreationally. So if I’m understanding you correctly, the argument is that doctors, faced with these patients with all sorts of problems, are like, “Well, I don’t know how to deal with a lot of this, so maybe I will prescribe an opioid because that’ll give them at least some sense of relief.” And maybe the patient will even say that he has pain and the doctor will interpret it to be something that an opioid can treat. Am I getting that right? Anna Lembke Yeah. A doctor isn’t going to prescribe an opioid unless they can diagnose a condition to justify it, because they’re worried about their practice and their life, and they want to practice what’s considered the standard of care. But what’s become the standard of care for prompting an opioid prescription is very little in the way of evidence for having any kind of bona fide medical condition. All you really have to do is show up [and] say you are in pain, even in the absence of any objective points of disease or pathology. And that alone is enough to warrant and justify a doctor’s prescription for an opioid — with little oversight or checking on whether that individual has that disease or may in fact be abusing or addicted to opioids. German Lopez The CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] has told doctors to be more careful with prescriptions, essentially creating a few more checks in the system before a doctor prescribes opioids. What else would you like to see done? Anna Lembke On a large scale, the solution is going to depend on closing the gap between mechanized, industrialized, computerized health care delivery and the growing psychological, economic, and spiritual needs of our patients. There’s a huge gap there that’s not being met. So we have to reform our health care system in order to meet the growing needs of our patients that really, on some level, are largely disconnected [from] whether they have a disease in the traditional sense. Our increasingly industrialized health care system is very poorly suited to meeting those kinds of needs. So it’s really great when it comes to cataract surgery, knee replacement, or even if you have an ear infection or pneumonia and you need some antibiotics or something. We’re really horrible at managing long-term, chronic, and remitting illnesses, which is what the highest consumers of health care have. That’s everything from depression to chronic pain to addiction. We need to reform health care to help those people. On the smaller scale, there are three things doctors can do. They can initiate
Priced at $799 Accessories: One of DJI’s best-selling drones EVER shows that size is not everything. The biggest advantage of this drone is its super portability – the quadcopter literally fits into any backpack or bag, so you can carry it everywhere with you and not miss shots anymore. In addition, this quadcopter is packed with almost everything you might want from similar-sized drone – 12MP camera, folding arms, long flight range (up to 4.3 miles – 7km), obstacle avoidance system with 4 vision sensors (below and in front), gesture control, sport mode, smart modes and much more. I personally take it as a minified version of the new Phantom 4 Pro, which is also upgraded with a few new features. The Mavic Pro certainly is a true camera drone, since you can unfold it and shoot in a matter of seconds. The Mavic Pro can be ordered from or the. In addition, you can check out the newer version of the Mavic Pro called Mavic Pro Platinum. It’s $100 more expensive, but it offers some great improvements over its older brother – 30 minutes of total flight time, 60% less noise and a whole new design of the propellers. Key Specifications: Extremely portable – literally fits in every camera bag/backpack Integrated 4K 12MP 3-axis stabilized camera and foldable arms Upgraded Lightbridge connectivity – fly up to 7000 meters away Vision Positioning System for low/indoors/No-GPS flying Obstacle Avoidance System (front and under) Gesture control – the drone reads your gestures in order to follow you/take pictures of you Gamepad-sized controller: (similar to PS4 controller) – fits in your pocket. It opens up to clamp around your smartphone device, but just a phone can also be used – you can fly using virtual joysticks (over WiFi) Accessories: The is an excellent aircraft – I’d say one of the best drones with camera out there, and it comes with a few really good improvements over its predecessor (the Phantom 4). So, let’s talk about the camera of this drone: The new camera of the Phantom 4 Professional has a 20MP DNG Raw photo capabilities, F2.8 aperture, mechanical shutter which eliminates rolling shutter bending and large 1-inch sensor, which will lead to brighter and more detailed images than the ones from before. As far as the video capabilities, they have also been improved, as the video bitrate is higher (100 Mbps), and the dynamic range is wider. Plus, you’ll be now capable to shoot 4K videos in 60fps, allowing for extra buttery slo-mo shots. One of the most critical points of the Phantom 4 was that the obstacle avoidance sensors worked only when you fly upwards. It seems that DJI has listened to all the complaints, as there are now 2 more obstacle avoidance sensors on the back of the drone, combined with new infrared obstacle sensors on the sides of the aircraft, which means that the has 5 directions of sensors (front, back, both sides and bottom), which makes it really hard to crash (don’t try to crash it intentionally though). There are 2 separate versions of the new Phantom 4 Professional. The first one comes with your regular Phantom 4 controller, so you can fit your phone/tablet. Here’s where it gets interesting though: the second version has a 5.5 built-in display, which looks just as you’ve mounted your phone on the controller, but with an improved direct sunlight visibility. DJI promises the display is ultra bright and functions twice as good as most tablets on the market. You can buy the Phantom 4 Pro on Amazon or from the official DJI website. Key Specifications: Imrpoved camera over the Phantom4 4K 60fps video recording Upgraded Lightbridge connectivity Vision Positioning System for low/indoors/No-GPS flying Obstacle Avoidance System (front, back, both sides and bottom) A version with a 5.5 built-in ultra-bright display with improved direct sunlight visibility Accessories: The Typhoon H from Yuneec is a remarkable hexacopter (meaning it has 6 rotors), although it still often stays in the shadow of the DJI drones. However, during its lifespan (this aircraft was released in Q2 of 2016), it has already established itself as a solid competitor. This drone is often compared to the Phantom series and when it comes to picking a winner between the two, it’s an extremely hard task. I’ve often had the question “Which one should I buy?” and honestly, I can’t really give you a straight answer. Just like Android vs. Apple, Windows vs. Mac etc., it all comes down to personal preference, although the Typhoon H is slightly more directed towards more advanced flyers, whereas the Phantom 4/Pro could be picked up and flown by anybody. Back on topic, the Typhoon H offers smart flying modes, a sonar front obstacle avoidance system, retractable landing gear which allows for 360-degree filming from its 4K camera and a “ST16” controller which has a built-in 7” touchscreen that displays live footage of your flight. What’s interesting about the controller is that it could be paired with a second controller, giving you the opportunity to use the one for flying the drone and the other one for controlling the camera. Definitely an advantage over the competition when it comes to taking more professional footage (i.e. for commercial use). Key Specifications: 4K camera Retractable landing gear 360 Degree camera gimbal RC Controller with built-in 7″ touchscreen display 6 rotors (you can land safely even with a failed motor) Accessories: The Disco is one of the latest creations of the french drone manufacturer Parrot. It’s a fixed-wing drone, that is super lightweight and aerodynamic. It’s very different from the regular quadcopters, and it’s definitely not for everyone. However, it’s a ton of fun to fly, as you get VR goggles for extra flight immersion. Flying the Parrot Disco surely makes you feel like a hawk, gliding over the ground. Anyway, let’s get to some of this fixed-wing drone’s specifications: It has a 14MP camera, which interestingly enough is the same camera that is in the Bebop 2. You can squeeze out roughly 45-47 minutes of flight time from the Disco, which is considerably better than any other quadcopter on the market right now. When you throw the aircraft in the air like a frisbee (that’s how you start flying it), it climbs to a default altitude of 164 feet and goes to a circle pattern and stays there until you manually override it with commands from the SkyController. Then the drone records your footage on its 32Gb internal storage. I should definitely mention that this drone is not your typical camera drone and you can’t really use if for stills, simply because it never stops moving (it always goes forward). However, if you are coasting the video quality is pretty smooth and stable. Surely, this is not a drone for everyone, but it’s an interesting option for more experienced drone flyers who are looking to expand their arsenal. The following video illustrates what is like to fly the Parrot Disco. Key Specifications: Fixed wing drone VR Goggles for immersive flying Remarkable flight time (45-47 minutes) 32GB of internal storage The Inspire 2 is the latest and greatest addition in the DJI fleet. It’s known to be one of the best aircrafts for shooting movies and commercials, as it provides extremely high quality footage. One of the first upgrades over the previous model is that the Inspire 2 now has two different cameras – the first is mounted under the aircraft and provides full 360° camera rotation, and the other is placed on the front of the Inspire for providing better FPV visibility. This aircraft is made so it can be used by two people simultaneously – one can be the pilot and fly it (relying on the FPV camera on the front), and the other person can be the cinematographer, controlling the camera. For more information check out DJI’s Official website. Also, see this awesome drone film which perfectly illustrates the drone’s capabilities. Key Specifications: One of the most technologically advanced drones Intelligent flight modes Offers superb professional quality Multiple sensors for obstacle avoidance 2 cameras (flying + filming) Accessories: Conclusion It’s safe to say that camera drones are here to stay. From this point, they will only get better and better, and I’m sure we can all expect some great drones with camera in 2019. That being said, keep an eye on this article, as I plan to continuously update it as we go. I hope you found this post interesting. If you did, please do me a huge favour and share it with your friends on social media! So which camera drone is your favourite? Let me know in the comments below, I’m always up for a chat!After the massive earthquake struck Mexico City last week, a team of Los Angeles firefighters packed their bags and traveled to the areas hardest hit by the temblor. After a disaster, depending on the scope, the Urban Search & Rescue team (USAR) is either deployed immediately or put on "alert status" so that its members can prepare to be deployed at a moment's notice and assist USAID operations. The Los Angeles USAR team arrived at 5 a.m. in Mexico City on Thurs., Sept. 21, and have been conducting around-the-clock operations. L.A.'s USAR crew is a Heavy Type 1 team with 67 personnel, including two doctors, six paramedics and five dogs. Right now, it also has a smaller team in Puerto Rico, which makes it the first time that two separate teams have been simultaneously deployed. Continue Reading The L.A. team of doctors and paramedics in Mexico City set up their base of operations in a medical tent, where they plan for rescues, store supplies and care for the rescue dogs. A group of rescue dogs from Tijuana were visiting the site but they did not stay there, instead they shared a compound with rescue teams from Spain and Colombia. EXPAND Los Angeles firefighters, from left, Jake Armendariz and Gary Durian and their canine search partners, from left, Clancy and Tanker, are part of the Urban Search and Rescue team deployed to help with earthquake rescue efforts. Mallika Vora For medical specialist Robert Nowaczyk, a born-and-raised Angeleno, Mexico is his fourth international deployment after earthquake responses in Haiti, New Zealand and Nepal. He also took part in relief efforts in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001. The current team went to Japan in addition to the other three countries. Out of all five international deployments over the last 12 years, the team has 11 "saves," where they pulled people from the rubble. They have provided countless other lifesaving services throughout their deployments. "The response in Mexico has been amazing," Nowaczyk says. "Wherever we go, people are clapping in the streets, offering us food and water. Volunteers are lining up on the street with their hard hats and tools, waiting in line to come get a bucket." EXPAND Medical specialist Robert Nowaczyk makes preparations in the medical tent. Mallika Vora There has been joint coordination with Mexican and Israeli search-and-rescue teams at the site of a collapsed building at Álvaro Obregón 286, to continue searching for victims and removing debris. James Lile says there is a lot of cooperation between the local Mexican rescue teams and the international crews like the L.A. County firefighters. "We realize we're a component of a larger operation, working with other international teams and the host country," Lille says. "We work with the LEMA, local emergency management agency. The plan is continuously re-evaluated to determine where our resources can be most effective." EXPAND James Lile has been on the Los Angeles County Fire Department for 28 years. Mexico is his fifth international deployment with the Urban Search and Rescue team. Mallika Vora Originally from Detroit, Lile has spent 28 years on the L.A. County Fire Department, and has also been to Haiti, New Zealand and Nepal for earthquake relief, as well as an exercise in Armenia to help train personnel there to respond to a major quake. "The folks back home should be very proud of USAR teams, as we represent not only L.A. and USAID but also the United States of America as an agent of good will, expertise and professionalism. We're one of the finest search-and-rescue teams in the world, but that's just my opinion," Lile says with a laugh. EXPAND L.A. firefighter Jake Armendariz and his canine partner, Clancy; Los Angeles firefighter Travon Espy returns to camp after a long shift searching for survivors; L.A. firefighter Gary Durian and his canine search partner, Tanker. Mallika Vora USAR team member Gary Durian decided to sign up to become a firefighter during college after his mom, who worked with the fire department, gave him the idea. Durian says, "It's a real privilege to be on an international team — I've been to Haiti, Japan, Nepal — to be able to assist people in dire need, hopefully rescue more survivors, but at least let the people know that we're doing everything possible to help. It's a very gratifying feeling."Editor’s Note: The following excerpts are drawn from an essay by William F. Buckley Jr. that appeared in the March/April 2000 issue of Cigar Aficionado. Many people are inflamed by the rampant demagoguery in the present scene. Demagoguery — demagogy — comes in two modes. Most conspicuous is that of the candidate who promises the voters what are best described as Nice Things. Why not health care for the uninsured? Or for children? Why not cheaper drugs? Free child delivery? (Free funerals?) Sharpshooters tracking down demagogy were out there waiting last summer, eyes trained, when Bill Bradley arrived in Iowa. Would he do it? Would he advocate an end to the subsidy of ethanol? Ethanol is the program, excogitated during the Carter Administration, which sought to augment the staying power of a gallon of gasoline by an infusion of ethanol. What happened is that the price of oil went down, and the potential economic value of an ethanol additive turned out to be less than the cost of producing ethanol, and that was many moons ago.... Advertisement Advertisement What about the aspirant who has a private vision to offer to the public and has the means, personal or contrived, to finance a campaign? In some cases, the vision isn’t merely a program to be adopted. It is a program that includes the visionary’s serving as President. Look for the narcissist. The most obvious target in today’s lineup is, of course, Donald Trump. When he looks at a glass, he is mesmerized by its reflection. If Donald Trump were shaped a little differently, he would compete for Miss America. But whatever the depths of self-enchantment, the demagogue has to say something. So what does Trump say? That he is a successful businessman and that that is what America needs in the Oval Office. There is some plausibility in this, though not much. The greatest deeds of American Presidents — midwifing the new republic; freeing the slaves; harnessing the energies and vision needed to win the Cold War — had little to do with a bottom line. Advertisement So what else can Trump offer us? Well to begin with, a self-financed campaign. Does it follow that all who finance their own campaigns are narcissists? At this writing Steve Forbes has spent $63 million in pursuit of the Republican nomination. Forbes is an evangelist, not an exhibitionist. In his long and sober private career, Steve Forbes never bought a casino, and if he had done so, he would not have called it Forbes’s Funhouse. His motivations are discernibly selfless.... Advertisement There are moments of deep gloom during the primary season. The candidates are immediately approached after a public event to be told whether what they just finished saying added or subtracted from their probable standing in the polls. And the American voter who wants to see a sign of life and of pride in the participants in our expensive and exhausting democratic obstacle course wonder, sometimes with a sense of desperation, whether what we’re seeing is new. Or, are we looking at merely this season’s reenactment of a ritual that began when Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton were quarreling before their conclusive encounter at Weehawken? There is always rivalry, and there is always a search for means of exploiting the means of advancing one’s own position. In other ages, one paid court to the king. Now we pay court to the people. In the final analysis, just as the king might look down with terminal disdain upon a courtier whose hypocrisy repelled him, so we have no substitute for relying on the voter to exercise a quiet veto when it becomes more necessary to discourage cynical demagogy, than to advance free health for the kids. That can come later, in another venue; the resistance to a corrupting demagogy should take first priority.I'M AT a Scientology church and the Scientologists are pinching me. They've even left a mark, they're going at it that hard. Although I'm not entirely sure what they're hoping to achieve. I'm in a bit of pain here, at a Sydney Scientology church, because I'm on a tour they've offered to journalists. Earlier this week, the Church fired off an email to reporters offering private tours of one of their six Australian places of worship. Why? Most likely in an attempt to improve their public image. Because while the Church of Scientology is a household name - thanks to celebrity believers Tom Cruise and Kirstie Alley - they have a terrible problem. Many Australians think they are absolutely bonkers. For a number of reasons, the most significant being that they apparently believe that 75 million years ago, an alien warlord brought negative spirits to Earth which plague humanity to this day. Then there are the allegations that their supposed'science' is a crock, that they're in it to make money, that they exploit child labour... which Scientologists generally say are malicious lies told by former believers. And then there are other public image problems, like Tom Cruise's prominent role in the Church. There are signs that this negative perception has damaged the local Church. Last year one of the Church's most prominent figures resigned, taking a dramatic swipe at the Scientology leadership. And figures from the latest Census report that the number of Scientologists in Australia dropped significantly over the last decade – by more than 13 per cent between 2006 and 2011. So I took the Church up on their offer of a private tour because I wanted an answer to a simple question. Are these people really as crazy as they're made out to be? From their unusual uniforms to a strange pinching examination, today news.com.au takes a firsthand look. Not your average church One thing stands out when you walk into a Scientology church -- this isn't your traditional place of worship. It's futuristic. Some would even say it's cool. Don't think of wooden pews, or kindly old men offering confession. (And no, there aren't any stained glass windows of Tom Cruise jumping on Oprah's couch). Imagine a military base in a sci-fi thriller. There's a dash of Star Wars in the air, with all the fluorescent lights around. The concourse roof is a mirror. And nearly everyone is dressed like they're in the Navy. I walk in and step towards their reception desk when the Church's long-time Australian spokeswoman, Virginia Stewart, pops up out of nowhere. "Daniel? I saw you come in," she says, shaking my hand and beginning to show me around the facility. But first, I've got a few questions. Men and women are milling around in white-collared shirts, black pants and shoes. Kind of like they were inspired by Cruise in Top Gun. Some even have patches on their shoulders indicating their high-ranking. What's with the dress code? "The staff in this church are members of the Sea Org," explains Ms Stewart -- one of the few people dressed in your typical business-wear. The "Org" are the Church's most dedicated members, who have committed their lives to the religion. That explains why ranks in the religion are military-based. For instance, the founder of Scientology, science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard, held the Church's top rank - "Commodore". The Org even have a cruise ship anchored in the Caribbean, the Freewinds, which they use as a religious retreat, says Ms Stewart. (A poster in the church has the vessel Photoshopped into Sydney Harbour. It's never visited Australia.) But you really can't get too far into a conversation with a Scientologist without asking about-- "--the alien thing?" Ms Stewart sees where I'm steering our conversation and rolls her eyes. "We only ever hear about that from the media." 'The alien thing' is what's popularly known as Scientology's creation theory -- their 'Jesus moment'. Ex-followers have spilled to the media that Scientologists believe, in a nut shell, that an alien warlord brought evil spirits to Earth 75 million years ago. Warlord Xenu's galaxy was overpopulated, so he dropped billions of aliens in Earth's volcanoes and hydrogen bombed them to smithereens. Their disembodied souls apparently exist today and produce warped emotions in humans -- unless humans follow Scientology beliefs. The Xenu thing has been mocked relentlessly, most memorably by an 8-minute segment on South Park. The Church of Scientology has strenuously denied the alien story, claiming that people only cite it to ridicule them. And their Australian arm says: "Scientology has no religious belief that we are descended from aliens or have aliens living inside us." If the Church does follow alien beliefs, as has been indicated, it's something the Church wishes to keep top secret. How you become a Scientologist In 2008, a Church of Scientology promotional video featuring Tom Cruise was leaked onto the internet. Cruise said: "I think it's a privilege to call yourself a Scientologist, because it's something you have to earn." As far as I can see, "earning" the right to be a Scientologist involves a lot of hard work... (One wall of the Church even has a'star chart' - like you would see in a primary school classroom - that monitor how far individual Scientologists have progressed in their coursework.) And some money, too, that goes into maintaining the Church. They compare it to parishioners funding a Reverend. At the beginning, though, it seems like a walk in the park. New recruits go through what is essentially a three week detox involving vitamins, tests and sitting in a sauna. But there is a reason part of the Scientology Church building is more reminiscent of a university library than a religious institution. To be a Scientologist, you have to study the "scriptures" of the religion in the chronological order L. Ron Hubbard wrote them, by participating in various courses. Some of the courses can take weeks to complete and are sold as lessons that can improve your life, such as "How To Get Motivated" and "How to Improve Relationships". The upper limit is between $700 and $1400. I peek into one of the classrooms. Everyone looks very absorbed in what they're studying. What are those two Sea Org officers doing at the head of the classroom, though? Ms Stewart tells me the officers are monitoring for "physiological signs" that the students are "not understanding" the course content. That is, if the supervisors see that you look bored or tired or listless, they'll be sure to get you back on the straight and narrow. It's a hardcore study camp. The Scientologists were not the only ones being monitored. I am too. Another Church spokeswoman, Sei Broadhurst, follows me around holding a white iPhone in her hand. I believe she is recording our conversation. Unusual practices As a Scientologist, you have "the ability to create new or better realities", Cruise explained in his famous leaked interview. And Scientology's spokeswoman Virginia Stewart gave me a practical demonstration of another part of the process they are required to follow to reach that point. They use a method they call "auditing". We're walking down a long corridor in the "auditing" wing of the Church. And Ms Stewart is explaining how auditing is essentially the religion's twist on counselling. It involves the use of an "E-Meter", a low voltage electrical device which (the Scientologists say) can measure changes in electrical charges in the body that are caused by "emotional distress". A counsellor walks a Scientologist (or prospective one), through the implications of the machine's results. A pamphlet explains the process is designed to help "guide you onto your personal path to success... ultimately becoming an expert on the subject of you". Once a newcomer has completed the auditing process they are judged as reaching a "state of Clear" – when somebody is no longer affected by irrational fears. Little booths branch off from the corridor we are standing in, with two chairs, a table and an E-Meter in each one. But I can hear an eerie, white noise coming from the corridor. What is that sound? I wonder. "Is that noise from the E-Meters?" I ask. Oh, that. The Scientologists explain the noise is all about privacy. Ms Stewart says it's used to block out sound so people cannot hear what's going on in the booths. And so they don't get disturbed by things happening outside. In Scientology, no one can hear you being audited. "Every corridor has the white noise," she explains, matter-of-factly. The final test Given what I've just seen, it's with some hesitation that I'm submitting to an E-Meter test. Plugging yourself into an electrical device for a strange religion is unnerving. I'm gripping onto the handles of the device and I can feel an electrical sensation beneath my fingertips. The Scientologists get me to "think about a recent argument I've had". That's supposed to make the meter on the device move. It doesn't, leaving the Scientologists disappointed. They tell me that pain is apparently supposed to get a reaction from the device. So Ms Stewart starts pinching me. It does nothing. They keep at it, but all it does is leave a mark on my wrist. "Have you had any drugs or alcohol?" one of their spokespeople asks me after another lacklustre result. Nope. It's 11am on a Thursday. The meter does jump dramatically when I think about another incident in the past that gets me a little worked up... But honestly, I reckon that might have been because my hands might have moved during the process. Ms Stewart says the process does not work if someone is a non-believer or not interested. Maybe that was it. Maybe I'm just sceptical. Or maybe it's all a complete hoax. It's worth pointing out the American Psychiatric Association has advised against psychiatrists practising Scientology techniques. A different kind of people The Scientologists emphasise that they're well-meaning. And they're perfectly friendly. They send volunteers to disaster zones like Queensland after the 2011 floods. They don't stop talking about spiritual growth. "It helps us know real answers to what life is," Ms Stewart says as we start to wrap up. But they've also been ridiculed in the media, and slagged as a "criminal organisation" in federal Parliament by Senator Nick Xenophon. Any attempts to rehabilitate their image will take years - if they can. They worry about being "treated unfairly" by the media and reckon their religion isn't all that different to any other. Around the end of our chat I ask Virginia Stewart, who has been the Church's spokeswoman since 1996, how long she's been with the church. Turns out she has been with them all her life. But to an outsider like me, the Church's practices just seem bewildering. It's lucky they pinched me. If they didn't I probably would've had to do it myself -- so I wouldn't pass it all off as a strange dream. With or without aliens. Talk about this story on Twitter: @newscomauHQPhotos by Bobby Viteri Five minutes into our first conversation, the Baton Rouge, LA rapper Kevin Gates mentions that he suffers from severe depression, a prognosis he came to terms with while earning a master’s degree in psychology in prison. Two minutes later, he’s laughing as he sings part of a Taylor Swift song and admits his love for Ed Sheeran on his more emotional days. Things are looking up for Gates these days. His latest in a string of stellar mixtapes, By Any Means, has found a warm reception amongst rap fans, and he was recently honored with a placement on XXL’s Freshmen 2014 cover. But for the prodigiously talented Gates, this seems coincidental more than anything else. He’s been rapping in between his stints in prison for years, earning a cult of devoted fans along the way. By Any Means oscillates between extreme braggadocio to earnest admissions of hurt feelings in a matter of a few bars, and Gates acts the same way in person. To him, being a hopeless romantic and a ruthless drug dealer aren’t diametric personality traits; it's all part of the enigma wrapped in a Taylor Swift lyric that is Kevin Gates. Noisey: Do you remember the first track you listened to when you were younger that you really liked? Kevin Gates: It was probably something by Snoop Dogg or Dr. Dre. Like as a child it was probably the first thing I ever heard was Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre. I just wanted to ride on the handlebars of bicycles. I thought that was that was just the coolest thing, when Snoop Dogg was riding on the handlebars. Did you try it out after that? I had already been doing it! Somebody else was doing it, he was doing it in the video, right on the handlebars. I thought that was the coolest thing ever, like I felt like he was from my hood. What do you think sets you apart from other rappers? I don’t just listen to rap. Some people are like, “Who’s your favorite rap artist?” I’m like, “I don’t have just a favorite rap artist.” There’s certain rappers that I’ll listen to and I like certain songs by certain artists. I’m not a fan of just one specific artist, and everything that that artist does I like that. Lifehouse, “Hanging by a Moment,” I love that song. You know what I’m saying? Like Taylor Swift says, “And my daddy said stay away from Juliet,” I can understand what she meant by that metaphorically, like, she was the princess. I’ve been through that situation. I was courting, going through the courtship phase, you know, the lady’s father intervened, he didn’t want her dating me and things of that nature. But I was a knight in shining armor, so I had to fight for her. It resonated with me and the other part of the song that was like, [singing] “Do you remember, we were sitting there by the water? You put your arms around me for the first time.” I love that. It’s so realistic. It’s simplistic. And when I listen to that song it reminds me of one of my favorite authors, Nicholas Sparks. He wrote The Notebook. I love The Notebook. One of the main characters said, “There won’t be any monuments for me after I’m gone, and I won’t be given any special medals of honor when I’m dead, but of this I’m sure: that I love this woman with all my heart.” And it’s just one of the most beautiful lines I’ve heard in my entire life. It’s beautiful to me, you know what I’m saying. I love being in love. There’s a dichotomy, in that sense, with your music, where if I you read certain lyrics alone they could sound like a Taylor Swift song. How do you put that side of your music in with the rest of your content? I don’t try to put it together. They just coexist, they coincide, because music is therapy for me. I deal with a severe case of depression. And I advocate for that because there are so many other people that suffer from depression but they’re afraid to talk about it for fear of how others may view it. Like, “He’s depressed, he might come over here and kill everybody and kill himself!” “He’s a ticking time bomb!” and things of that nature, but it’s not really that. A lot of people suffer from depression and don’t know it, probably. How have you become comfortable talking about depression that openly? Because music is my release, and I notice that once I started the conversation, then other people are like, “Well, Kevin Gates uses music to channel his depression.” Other people may be like, “I use basketball to channel my depression. I channel my depression through running, I channel my depression through yoga, I channel my depression through meditation,” or whatever it may be, you know what I’m saying? That’s what I just advocate that because it’s okay to suffer from a certain ailments. It’s how you treat those ailments, it’s how you deal with those ailments that matters. What have you been reading lately? I’m re-reading The Master Key System by Charles F. Haanel. I read it, but I missed some things because I rushed through. I was in a rush to get the insights I was getting from it. But I’m an avid reader, so I read a lot. And what’s your playlist looking like? Abel and Cain. Lifehouse. Taylor Swift. Ed Sheeran. Gucci Mane. It depends on what mood I’m in. I might be like, “Damn I want that Gucci.” I might be reminiscing about the time that I was in love and play some Taylor Swift, let’s get it. I want to be in my feelings and listen to Ed Sheeran. When did you realize you were a pretty great rapper? I believe in 2011, when I became incarcerated. I was like, “You know what? I love the way my mind works. And I’m a fan of Kevin Gates also.” I’m a fan. Like I still go back and listen to some of the older music and I’m like, “Come take it, baby.” It was me and it is me. There’s a lot of buzz around you this year and with this mixtape. Do you feel it building up? I don’t feel like that. I feel like it was the same as it ever was. I get frustrated hearing the word “potential” because the definition of “potential” is “capable of being but not yet in existence.” I can go to the airport. If I can’t go to the airport, then we doing something. If people wait seven days for me to come like a Beatle, then we’re doing something. But we’re not doing nothing yet. We’re barely scratching the surface. We got a lot of work to do. Meher Ahmad works at VICE and hates Drew Millard. She's on Twitter - @_meher For more rap interviews, check out our talk with a legally-recognized cyborg who can hear colors, Dhananjay the First, and Coolio.By George Friedman Monday night's presidential foreign policy debate probably won't change the opinion of many voters. Proponents of President Barack Obama are still convinced that Mitt Romney is a fool and a liar. Proponents of former Gov. Romney have the same view of the president. Of course, this is normal in any American presidential race. Along with the eternal conviction that the party in power is destroying the country, we have regarded Abraham Lincoln, during the 1860 election, as a simple-minded country bumpkin with a touch of larceny; Franklin Roosevelt as a rich dilettante and socialist; and Dwight Eisenhower as a bumbling fool who is lazy and incapable of understanding the complexity of the world — this about the man who, during World War II, led the most complex military coalition on the planet to victory. We like to think that our politics have never been less civil than they are today. Given that Andrew Jackson's wife was accused of being a prostitute, Grover Cleveland was said to have illegitimate children and Lyndon Johnson faced the chant "Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?" I will assert that the Obama-Romney campaign doesn't even register on the vilification scale. The founders wouldn't have minded this culture of contempt for politicians. In founding the republic, their fundamental fear was that the power of the state would usurp the freedoms of the states and individuals. They purposefully created a political regime so complex that it is, in its normal state, immobilized. They would not have objected if professional politicians were also held in contempt as an additional protection. Ironically, while the founders opposed both political parties and professional politicians, preferring to imagine that learned men take time from their daily lives to make the sacrifice of service, many became full-time politicians and vilified one another. Thomas Jefferson's campaign said of John Adams that he had a "hideous hermaphroditical character, which has neither the force and firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman." Adams' campaign stated that Jefferson was "a mean-spirited, low-lived fellow, the son of a half-breed Indian squaw sired by a Virginia mulatto father." And Jefferson and Adams were friends. I would suggest suspending the idea that we have never had so vicious a politics. Let me move to a more radical thought. Both Mitt Romney and Barack Obama are capable men, as well intentioned as ambitious men seeking power can be. Just as I doubt that Jefferson and Adams were as stupid and malicious as their campaigns tried to portray one another, the same can be said of Romney and Obama. I am not suggesting for a moment that the circus of accusations stop, however. To the contrary, seeing how one endures slander is an outstanding measure of a leader's character and an opportunity to learn how the candidate will react to the sorts of unreasonable and unfair conditions that the president is sure to encounter. A president will face a world that does not wish the United States well in all cases and an opposition that will try anything, fair or foul, to make the president fail. A president who breaks down when he is mistreated — as Edmund Muskie, a senator running for president in 1972, did over charges made against his wife — is a non-starter. Muskie's campaign immediately collapsed, as it should have. A president who expects to be treated fairly is an immediate liability. The True Objective of Debates A debate is not about policy. It is impossible to state a coherent policy on any complex matter in 90 seconds. The debates between Lincoln and Steven Douglas did
attacks reported in the capital of Kabul PM David Cameron tweets "today sees the end of combat operations" Soldiers lower UK and U.S. flags at the UK's last remaining base in Helmand province UK troops moved to Helmand province in 2006 to fight an insurgency Britain formally ended its combat mission in Afghanistan on Sunday, lowering the Union Jack for the final time before handing over its last remaining base to Afghan forces. "I made a commitment that I would get our Armed Forces out of Afghanistan by 2015, and today sees the end of combat operations in the country," Prime Minister David Cameron tweeted on Sunday. American troops also took part in the ceremony at the Bastion-Leatherneck coalition base in Helmand province, marking the end of 13 years of UK military operations in the country. Britain's military presence moved to Helmand in 2006 to tackle an insurgency together with troops from the United States and other countries. A total of 453 UK troops have died in service in Afghanistan. "We will always remember the courage of those who served in Afghanistan on our behalf and never forget those who made the ultimate sacrifice," said Cameron. According to the Ministry of Defence, Afghan National Security Forces will take over the bases and all operations. The United Kingdom will continue to support them in their development. Already, the country's military is handling most of its security needs. "In June 2013, the 330,000-strong ANSF took assumed lead responsibility for security across Afghanistan and since then they have been responsible for 99% of operations," the ministry said. Meanwhile, two rocket attacks hit the Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood of Kabul, home to the American Embassy, reported Pajhwok News Agency and Tolo News, a CNN affiliate that cited Kabul police spokesman Hashmat Stanekzai. There were no known casualties. Also, two rockets landed outside the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Kabul, confirmed ISAF spokesman Mike Hartnett, speaking to CNN by phone. Hartnett said the attacks resulted in no ISAF casualties.Your browser does not support HTML5 video tag.Click here to view original GIF Originally published in the October 1982 issue of Inside Sports. The game is over and the baseball player sits in the hotel lobby, his eyes fixed on nothing. He thinks his secret is safe but he is never quite sure, so at midnight in the lobby it is always best to avoid the other eyes. He neither hears the jokes nor notices that a few teammates are starting to wear towels around their waists in the locker room. He does not want to hear or see or know, and neither do they. The baseball player waits until the lobby empties of teammates and coaches. Some are in the bar, some out on the town, some in their rooms. Some, of course, have found women. He walks briskly out the door toward the taxicab, never turning his head to look back. He mutters an address to the driver and has one foot in the cab.... "Hey, where you going, man? You said you were staying in tonight." The baseball player feels his lie running up the back of his neck. "Changed my mind." Advertisement "Can I come with you? I got nothing going tonight." The baseball player pauses. "You don't want to go where I'm going," he says at last. He is leaving a crack there, in case this teammate knows the secret and really would like to go with him. "Okay—have it your way." The baseball player is in the back seat, the door slams, his heart slams, the cab is pulling away. Fifteen minutes later it stops a block from the place the passenger actually intends to go. He pays the driver. Did the driver look at him sort of funny? Advertisement The baseball player steps out and walks back a block, his face turned 90 degrees to his left shoulder, away from the traffic, just in case. What if he meets someone he knows there tonight? There was the ballplayer's brother the one night and the son of.a major league manager another. Man, they have to know, don't they? And if he is recognized tonight, should he pretend he is someone else? Suddenly he is pulling open the door and the men inside smile and the music swallows him and for a few hours in the bar the baseball player does not feel so alone. At age 22, Glenn Burke was a sexual blank. He grew up attending church six times a week. singing in two choirs and serving as an usher. He bathed two or three times a day and still he never felt clean. He grew up with no father. He grew up with no sex. Advertisement He diverted the tension into sports, and there was the scent of animal energy in the way he ran a fastbreak, the way he circled the bases, the way he flogged a line drive. Once, he hit three home runs and two singles in one game, just two days after joining the Merritt College team in midseason. He was 5-11, 193 pounds, he could run 100 yards in 9.7 seconds and bench-press 350 pounds. UCLA and Nevada and Cal all wanted to get him on a basketball court; the Los Angeles Dodgers wanted him to play baseball. He took the $5,000 Dodger signing bonus and after three seasons as an outfielder in the minors, his combined average was.303. Three times he led his league in stolen bases. Still there was a need for more. When NCAA eligibility rules were relaxed, he agreed to play basketball at Nevada in the offseason. He averaged 16 points in six games and then twisted a knee spinning for a layup. The Dodgers said No More and Glenn Burke came home. The void was becoming difficult to ignore. At last, the lidded tension burst. Advertisement His younger sister told him that a high school teacher of his had asked how he was doing. Something inside him went click. The man had been one of Burke's favorite teachers, so Burke went over to school to see him. He was feeling loose, open. Maybe it was the basketball thing coming to an end, suddenly seeing life as more than just sports. "The minute he spoke, l knew. I know it sounds a little crazy. Here I was, 22, no sexual experience, nothing. Yet I felt something I'd never felt before, something deep. We went to his place. Funny, he must have known me better than I knew myself. We didn't say much. He fixed dinner and afterwards we lay by the fire and got close. I stayed the night. When I got home the next day, I went into the bathroom and cried. This was who I was, the whole me at last." He was happy, and yet he felt he was sneaking. He felt guilty. He knew he never would be accepted in sports. In a profession in which every contest, every movement, every attitude seemed a reassertion of virility, Glenn Burke realized he was gay. Advertisement The most famous gay community in the world is a 75-cent bridge toll and a 20-minute freeway ride away from the streets of Oakland where Glenn Burke grew up. In his sexual naiveté, he had never known that. He had never known there were bars and entire neighborhoods for homosexuals. A week after his first experience, he and some friends went to a straight bar in San Francisco. One of the friends pointed to a girl. "Look at that fox. " he said. "Look at her boyfriend." Burke thought. They went over to talk and asked if the couple knew a place where they could go dancing. "Try the Cabaret." the girl said, "but watch out—gays go there, too." A place for gays? Burke went there and couldn't believe it. Advertisement It was a new world and he explored it enthusiastically. He walked Castro Street in San Francisco and felt pulled in two directions. Sports had taught him to keep the fists up and the soft side down and the pants tailor-made and the shirt silk and the walk a powerful strut. This new world was Levi's, and Docksides shoes and Lacoste shirts and handkerchiefs. He wondered if he could be masculine and gay, a baseball player and gay, Glenn Burke and gay. A few weeks later, he met a man in a bar and the next day he was hanging his clothes in the closet of his first live-in lover. A few more weeks passed and it was time for spring training, time to try to begin living the great untruth. The trouble with going underground was Burke's personality. He was the guy doing Richard Pryor imitations, the guy leading bench cheers, the guy fiddling with the music box and dancing in the locker room. After games, the guys all wanted to take the party from the locker room to the disco. Burke, the life of the team, started saying no. To explain why not, he had to tame the nervousness in his voice and the muscle formations of his face. These were difficult things for an extrovert to do. Advertisement Double A in Waterbury, Connecticut, 1975, was not a good place for a metamorphosis. His friends wanted to share an apartment with him and he groped for an appropriate reason to say no. He ended up rooming at the local YMCA, so they would stop asking. There was one gay bar, but a black man in a small New England town can feel the eyeballs everywhere he walks. He tried not to go, and went anyway. Sometimes in the bar he would be asked if he had been at the game that night. The team's leading basestealer and home-run hitter would shake his head no. One night he glimpsed a member of the club's front office at the bar. He walked past him and out the door and prayed the man would be too frightened to admit having been there to see him. On the long road trips, he could feel the wall of space he had created between himself and his friends. He hit.270 and when the season ended, he headed back to San Francisco. "It was great being back, being myself," he said. "Straight people cannot know what it's like to feel one way and pretend to be another. To watch what you say, how you act, who you're checking out. In San Francisco I opened up again. But I still wasn't sure if I could be gay without being a sissy." In 1976 the Dodgers summoned him up to play the first and last months of the season. In between, he hit.300 with 63 stolen bases at Albuquerque, but in the major leagues he struggled with the curveball and batted.239 in 46 at-bats. The Dodgers still saw enough to congratulate themselves. Advertisement "Unlimited potential," said second baseman Davey Lopes. "Once we get him cooled down a little bit," said the late Junior Gilliam, then Dodger coach, "frankly, we think he's going to be another Willie Mays." The stakes were growing higher now. It was easier to lose himself in the big cities on major league road trips, but in Los Angeles he was becoming a face on sports pages and a name on the radio. He wanted success, yet he feared it. Half of him wanted to hit.300 and become a superstar and a commodity and then if the secret leaked maybe he could tell them all to go to hell, and half of him said maybe a nice, inconspicuous number like.250 would be better because then he could guard his privacy and they might not find out at all. Advertisement He met Dave Kopay, the former 49er and Redskin running back whose book on his homosexuality had become a bestseller. The two compared anguish. "He was very nervous about who and what he was," remembers Kopay. "I had compensated for my gayness by going from a player who did not like contact in college to being a super-aggressive player in the pros, as a disguise. It's common among gay athletes, overcompensating for one's sexuality. Glenn might have been doing the same thing, but it doesn't work in baseball. There, you have to be relaxed, not overaggressive. I couldn't really advise him, except to tell him to follow his instincts. "There is really no one to talk to in sports when you are gay. Who can you really trust? There are so many insecurities, it's tragic. Almost all of them that I know in sports are married and have deep problems. Many of them are heavily into alcohol and drugs." Burke played on, refusing the ruse of an occasional girlfriend. He caught hepatitis playing winter ball in Mexico and missed most of spring training in 1977. The Dodgers sent him to Albuquerque to open the season and he hit.309. He learned that the Dodgers were recalling him, and that night in his last Albuquerque game, with two outs, runners on first and third with a one-run lead in the ninth inning, he backpedaled to the warning track for a fly ball, switched his glove from his left hand to his right—and squeezed the last out. If there was a metaphor there, the manager was in no mood to admire it. Jim Williams waited for him on the dugout steps, glaring. "If you ever do that again..." Advertisement "I'm leaving, skip," chirped Burke. "Now you'll have something to talk about when I'm gone." He was irrepressible. He bought his first car and celebrated by having his astrological sign, Scorpio, tattooed on his forearm. Within a few months he was stomping into Tommy Lasorda's office, amidst the Hollywood stars who gathered there before games, fixing himself a sandwich from the deli tray and shouting, "Hi, Tommy!" He was not a model bench-sitter. He prowled the dugout with a caged hyperactivity, and when a teammate belted a home run he would tweak Lasorda by butting in front of him to be first to hug the returning hero. He would walk back to the dugout imitating Lasorda's big-bellied, bowlegged gait and his teammates would howl. Advertisement One day in 1977, a teammate homered and in the heat of his enthusiasm Burke extended his arm and invented a sports ritual. He delivered the first high-five. "Most people think I started it," said leftfielder Dusty Baker. "But it wasn't me. I saw Glenn doing it first, and then I started." On a team preoccupied with presenting the clean-shaven, Dodger-blue front, the street kid from Oakland became one of the behind-the-scenes catalysts. "He always had the music blasting and was saying something silly to keep the team laughing," said Baker. "He'd be playing cards and all of a sudden you would hear this loud voice scream, 'Rack 'em, Hoss, the poor boy's just lost!' and then there'd be that crazy laugh of his again." Burke made them laugh and he made them squirm. In an argument he would swing first and negotiate later. A fastball in a teammate's ear would bring him out of the dugout first. Everybody wanted to keep "Burkey" giggling because when his eyes clouded you could suddenly sense the violence. He wanted that machismo right out there on his skin; it made him feel safer. Advertisement "I was like Lou Ferrigno, who kept wanting to get bigger and badder than anybody because he had a speech impediment," Burke said. "I had 17-inch biceps and I made sure everybody knew I wasn't afraid to use them. I wanted to establish that if you found out I was gay, you might not want to start hassling me about it, because I could still kick your ass." The Dodgers. meanwhile, were in a pennant chase and the double life was becoming more difficult to lead. He was handsome and personable and there was a glut of girls who wanted to walk into a disco next to him. Some nights they grew so insistent he would tell the switchboard operator to reject all calls to his room. He'd go out with girls occasionally, but it would never involve sex. He didn't want to mislead them. His teammates noticed. In baseball, even married men can be made to feel isolated if they do not join the woman-hunt on the road. "There is a tendency," said A's pitcher Matt Keough, "to achieve the success off the field that you are not achieving on it." Advertisement "I had a really cute cousin that I tried to set up with Glenn," Baker said. "He just ignored her. He'd say, 'Too fat, too ugly.' I'd say, 'Wait a minute. I know that one ain't ugly.'" Without Burke realizing it, word began to seep. "I was eating at a restaurant when someone told me," remembered Lopes, then a teammate on the Dodgers. "I think some girl from his neighborhood in Oakland had told someone on the team. My fork dropped out of my mouth. He was one of the last guys you would have thought was gay. I still liked him. I don't know how other ballplayers feel, but I believe a man has a right to choose any lifestyle as long as it doesn't infringe on others. It never infringed with Glenn." "The guys didn't want to believe it," Baker said. "He was built like King Kong. There was no femininity in his voice or his walk. But it all made sense when I thought about it. When we'd go on the road he always went to the YMCA to work out. And he'd never let us take him home. He'd say he had a friend coming later to pick him up and he'd wait at the far end of the parking lot. Advertisement "I just made the situation invisible, but some guys began to make jokes. Stuff like, 'Is Glenn waiting in the parking lot for his girlfriend?' and 'Don't bend over in the shower when he's around.' I know a couple of guys felt uncomfortable in the shower. A few wore towels on their way back and forth in the locker room. "If you had a team made up of guys from California and New York, I don't think it would bother them as much as guys from the country and small towns. I'm from California and I can get along with priests, prostitutes, pimps and pushers, as long as they don't try to push nothing on me." Burke didn't push it, as much out of respect as fear of detection. "I was attracted occasionally by other players," he said. "but didn't mix business with pleasure. I respected their space. Besides, I always preferred more mature men." Advertisement He was a simple man leading a complicated life. and slowly the strain began to break him. He kept one eye on the door when he went in gay bars. He worried about getting in a fight or getting caught drunk there. There were times he thought the front office had someone following him. He was afraid everybody was whispering about him. He'd have to plan everything. He'd think, "If they see me leaving the hotel, I'll say I was going to take a walk or to get something to eat." He was always telling white lies. Some days he'd sit in a mall and try to meet people, sometimes he would call a friend and ask him to check his directory on where the gay bars were in town. His mind was never clear. Some nights he'd come back to his room sad and smoke a little grass. Advertisement The high only interrupted the fears. The Dodgers did a lot of hugging and Burke always worried that they had found out about him and would think he was making a pass. He worried constantly about being blackmailed. The only reason he wasn't, he believed, was that he had gay friends who warned anybody who started to talk too much. He saw a palm reader and she said that he had something inside him that he should let out, or he might have a heart attack in two or three years. He couldn't sort it all out. "I couldn't understand why people said gays were sick. I wasn't some dizzy queen out trying to make everybody all the time. The bottom line was, I was a man." There were the good memories mixed with the miseries. There was the night Baker became the fourth Dodger to hit 30 home runs in one season, a major league record, and Burke, the on-deck batter met him at the plate with a walloping high-five as the people stood and roared, and then before they even had a chance to sit Burke was driving another white speck into the blackness and the festival in the stands went on and on. Advertisement He finished the 1977 season hitting.254 in 169 at-bats, the Dodgers made the World Series and his face was on TV screens across the country. He went 1-for-5 in the three game he played packed after the Yankees had won and headed back for Castro Street. He walked into a gay bar the first night there and was greeted by a party celebrating his World Series appearance. "I walked out," Burke said. "They weren't my friends there, they were mostly people just making a big deal because I was a gay baseball player." His insecurity ran rampant. In one world he feared they would not like him only because he was gay, and in the other he feared they did like him only because he was gay. For the first time since he had picked up a baseball bat, Glenn Burke considered quitting. Advertisement "By 1978," said Davey Lopes, "I think everybody knew." They knew the way parents know their 16-year-old is drinking beer but don't say anything until the bottles are rolling across the floor of the family car. As long as Burke's homosexuality was not official, no one felt compelled to react. Advertisement "Then Al Campanis [Dodger vice-president] called me into his office " Burke recalled. "I really liked Al, he was always very nice to me. The whole organization was, for the most part. But Al said. 'Everybody on the team is married but you, Glenn. When players get married on the Dodgers, we help them out financially. We can help you so you can go out and have a real nice honeymoon.' "l said, 'Al, I don't think I'll be getting married no time soon.'" The Dodgers, in the words of Junior Gilliam, could not "cool him down." He burned for more playing time and when he did not get it, he did not keep it to himself. "They couldn't con me," he said. "Lasorda would bark an order and I was supposed to jump like some little kid, grateful for the attention. It bothered him too that I was popular with the guys on the team. Once he got ticked off at some laugh I'd gotten and he said, 'Burke, if I was your age, I'd take you in the bathroom right now and kick your ass.' At first I thought he was kidding, then I realized he wasn't. I think he was trying to get me to explode. Advertisement "With one out in the ninth, he'd pull Rick Monday and trot me out to the outfield for the last two outs. I'd stand there waiting for the game to end. Then I'd trot back to the dugout where all the guys are supposed to tell you how great you played. Only I hadn't, and I'd feel like a fool. "One night I was really ticked and I stared a hole through Lasorda. He took me in the locker room and, in front of Junior Gilliam and Preston Gomez, cussed me to filth. Every other word in his vocabulary was'mother.' It hurt. Deeply. I didn't really dislike the man, it was just the situation. We probably should have gotten along—we're both hardheaded." On May 16, 1978, with Glenn Burke in centerfield as the last out was recorded, Vin Scully announced that Burke had been traded to the Oakland A's for Bill North. North had led the American League twice in stolen bases, the last time in 1976, and now he was 30 and his average had dropped 64 points in those two years. Advertisement "Lasorda told me, 'We're tired of you walking back and forth in the dugout like a mad tiger in a cage. We're sending you to Oakland, where you can play more.' He was nice about it but he was detached. It was as if they couldn't wait for me to leave, but they were being careful so there wouldn't be a scene. I walked out of his office and the whole locker room was dead. Steve Garvey and Don Sutton, two of my best friends on the team, had tears in their eyes. Garvey and me had always gotten along great. He taught me how to tie a tie, he gave me hats and T-shirts, he sat next to me on the team plane and he made me promise to play for him if he ever had a football team. "Leaving those guys, I was in shock. Players don't come and go on the Dodgers the way they do on other clubs." Lopes remembers picking up the newspaper the next day and reading a quote from a scout. "I believe it was an American League scout at the Angel game in Anaheim that night," Lopes said. "The guy said, 'Wait until the A's find out what they really got in Glenn Burke.'" Advertisement The locker room was still silent the next day, and Lopes' reaction was quoted in the Los Angeles Herald Examiner. "I knew something was missing when I came in today. It will probably remain like this until somebody comes along with a personality like Glenn's. And I don't think that's going to happen. I've heard a lot of adverse things about him from people, but they didn't know him. He was the life of the team, on the bases, in the clubhouse, everywhere. All of us will miss him." One Dodger angrily went to the front office and demanded an explanation. Dusty Baker didn't need to go that far. "I was talking with our trainer, Bill Buhler. I said, 'Bill, why'd they trade Glenn? He was one of our top prospects.'He said, 'They don't want any gays on the team.' I said, 'The organization knows?' He said, 'Everybody knows." Burke sprayed three hits the first night with the A's, and then felt himself becoming absorbed by the damp misery of Charlie Finley's last years in baseball. The Dodgers had not played him as much as he felt he deserved, but the organization had always gone first class. The A's in the late 1970s were a dead thing looking for a box to lie still in. Finley was cutting expenses and players, lopping off fans with them. A man with peace of mind could play on. Glenn Burke could not. In the hush of a baseball stadium with 3,000 people, he could hear a voice urging him to leave and stop living a lie. Advertisement Four years of life as a sexual fugitive had passed and his self-esteem was fraying. By now his family had pieced the evidence together and guessed. They still accepted him, removing one weight from his mind, but the weight at the stadium showed no sign of relenting. One day he was playing centerfield in Comiskey Park, and a fan called him a faggot. His first thought was "Damn, if they know, everybody else must know." They probably said it to lots of outfielders, but he didn't think that then. He went to the dugout at the end of the inning and got a felt-tip pen from the trainer. Next inning he went back out and stuck a piece of paper in the back of his pants. It said, "Screw you." He finished the 1978 season hitting.235. Early in the 1979 season, he was sitting in the A's clubhouse, chatting with outfielder Mitchell Page, a good friend. "Suddenly he got quiet," Burke said. "He said this scout from Pittsburgh—he came up in the Pirate system. and they were interested in me—had come right out and asked him if I was bisexual. Bisexual. Me, who'd never been with a woman. They couldn't say gay, I guess. It was tough on Mitchell, talking to me like this. I didn't say much and he ended up telling the scout, 'Glenn Burke's sex life is Glenn Burke's business. And if it's any of your business, he's my friend and I'd go anywhere with him.' "But at that moment, when Mitchell told me, everything stopped. If some joker in Pittsburgh knew, so did a few others. I realized it had all come to an end. They'd stripped me of my inner-most thoughts." Advertisement Page remembered it as a writer from Oakland who had asked him (Burke still insists it was a scout from Pittsburgh). "The guy told me the word was out," Page said, "and that he didn't know if Glenn would be here next season. I felt I should let Glenn know instead of talking behind his back like the other players were. The guys on the A's never bothered him about it because of the way he handled it. Besides, they were afraid to say anything to his face. "I liked Glenn, but if I'd seen him walking around making it obvious, I wouldn't have had anything to do with him. I don't want to be labeled and have my career damaged. You make sure you point out that I'm not gay, okay?" "I roomed with him," said A's pitcher Mike Norris. "Sure, I was worried at first. You came back to your hotel room at midnight, sat around and listened to music, and you wondered if he'd make a move. After awhile you realized he wouldn't, and it wasn't a big problem. Guys would watch out for him but it wasn't a completely uncomfortable feeling. If it had been out in the open, though, there would have been all kinds of problems. We're all macho, we're all men. Just make sure you put in there that I ain't gay, man." Advertisement The walls were beginning to close in. A gay friend, eager to advance the homosexual movement, kept insisting that Burke come out of the closet and tried to arrange a luncheon appointment with San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen. Burke refused to attend, but Caen wrote that there was a rumor out that a local professional ballplayer could be found on Castro Street. Midway through the 1979 season, Finley learned that Burke was refusing to take a cortisone shot for a pinched neck nerve. "I feel an injury should heal on its own," Burke said. "Once you take the first shot, you take another and another. Charlie came to talk to me on the field before a game. I said no. They sat me for two weeks. Finally, I told them I needed a voluntary retirement and walked out. The whole operation was minor league, with Finley calling the dugout making lineup changes. I probably wouldn't have left if there hadn't been the other problem, the gay thing, but put it all together and it was too much." It was not that simple to walk away. Baseball had often tortured him, but it still owned a part of him. He returned next spring, attracted by the idea of playing for new manager Billy Martin. Advertisement Burke ripped knee cartilage that spring and was sidelined a month. The A's requested he return to the minor leagues, in Ogden, Utah, and Burke reluctantly agreed. To avoid the small-town stares, he drove 56 miles round-trip so he could live in Salt Lake City. He stopped now, and mulled the absurdity of his life. He was 27, getting no closer to the superstar role he knew he must have to declare his homosexuality and knowing that even if he did achieve it, he would likely be afraid to. He was still dodging management, lying to teammates, and now even ducking Mormons, too. Quietly, with the sports world focused on more important things, Glenn Burke quit baseball for good. "I had finally gotten to the point," he said, "where it was more important to be myself than a baseball player." Sunshine and shade share the seats in Dodger Stadium and the steady crack of batting practice echoes off the empty concrete. The game is still three hours away. Tommy Lasorda, chipper on this first evening back from the All-Star break, stands in foul territory watching his players re-tune their rhythm at the plate. Advertisement A visitor informs him that Glenn Burke is openly discussing his homosexuality. Lasorda's eyes narrow. "He's admitting it?" he says. "I have no comment." Did he know Burke was gay when he played here? Did it have a bearing on the trade? "I didn't make that trade," Lasorda says. "Go talk to the man who made it. I have no more comment." Advertisement The man who made it is just arriving in his office from a trip to assess minor league talent in Hawaii. Al Campanis stands over his desk, looking down at the stack of message slips that has gathered during his absence. He is asked if everybody knew, as Lopes has said, and his eyes stay on his desk, until the length of the silence suggests he is waiting for the subject to crawl out of the room. It does not. "Quote Davey Lopes then," he says. He is pressed on the subject. Long pause. "We traded him because of other situations," he says. "We didn't trade him for that. He wasn't hitting enough, and things of that nature. We didn't even know... " Advertisement An organization as sharp as the Dodgers did not know? "We thought some things were odd," he allows. "But we didn't know. We never saw him with a girl, and when we called his home number a man usually answered. The man said he was his carpenter. But you hear a lot of rumors about players, and just because you see these things, that doesn't mean a guy's a fairy, or gay. "We're not a watchdog organization, and we're not like an ostrich with our head in the sand. But he was not traded on suspicion. He was traded because we needed a lefthanded hitter in the outfield. One we thought would help us win the pennant. Glenn had problems with the curveball and his attitude was argumentative, but I always liked him. Sure, some people got mad about the trade; one player came to me all worked up, but were they right? Glenn didn't do anything after he left here, did he?" And what of the offer of financial help if Burke had married? "That dates way back," he says. "The Dodgers have traditionally liked our players to be married. The player has a wife, children, he gets more serious and settles down. We like our young men to have some responsibilities." Advertisement He is reminded that Dodger rightfielder Pedro Guerrero was married in October, 1980, and received no bonus. Campanis bristles. "A completely different situation," he says. "Pedro had an agent, he was settled, he was like my son. We treat situations differently. You have to, in this position. The thing with Glenn Burke wasn't a bribe. It was a helpful gesture. " The baseball player swings and meets the ball just beyond the sweet inches of the bat and still he sends the rightfielder staggering up the hill in front of the wire-mesh fence. The ball clears the fence and the baseball player circles the bases with a home plate-sized grin. All his teammates spring from the bench, forming a line to congratulate him. Advertisement A few months away from his 30th birthday, Glenn Burke is one of the stars of the Gay Softball League. There are perhaps 50 people watching from wooden seats that cry for a carpenter. The atmosphere is carefree. A woman in her 50s lifts her blouse to reveal her "Pendulum Pirates" T-shirt and yells, "Take this!" The fans take it, without looking twice. Burke goes 4-for-4 but bobbles a grounder in the third inning. Disgusted, he straddles the ball with both feet and jumps, launching it up to his hand. The opposing team's fans taunt him good-naturedly. "Queeeeeen!" they shout in chorus. Advertisement Burke's team, the Pirates, remains undefeated with a 16-4 victory over On The Mark. The Pirates gather in a huddle at the end and chant, "Two-four-six-eight, who do we appreciate'! On The Mark! On The Mark!" On The Mark reciprocates, and both teams stream to their cars for the postgame ritual. The first hour after the game is always spent at the sponsoring bar of the losing team and then all move on to the winner's bar for the rest of the afternoon. At Stables, the bar that sponsors On The Mark, Burke walks out to the sunshine of the patio, where there is enough quiet to reflect. "People say I should still be playing," he says. "But I didn't want to make other people uncomfortable, so I faded away. My teammates' wives might have been threatened by a gay man in the locker room. I could have been a superstar but I was too worried about protecting everybody else from knowing. If I thought I could be accepted, I'd be there now. It is the first thing in my life I ever backed down from. No, I'm not disappointed in myself, I'm disappointed in the system. Your sex should be private, and I always kept it that way. Deep inside, I know the Dodgers traded me because I was gay. "It's harder to be a gay in sports than anywhere else, except maybe president. Baseball is probably the hardest sport of all. Every man in America wants his son to be a baseball player. The first thing every father buy for his son is a ball and glove. It's all-American. Only a superstar could come out and admit he was gay and hope to stay around, and still the fans probably would call the stadium and say they weren't going to bring their kids. Instead of understanding, they blackball you. Advertisement "Sure, there are other gays in baseball, the same per cent as there are in society. Word travels fast in baseball. Guys come home from road trips and tell their wives and they tell other players' wives. As soon as a player comes to bat, you'll hear a biography of him in the dugout. I've never heard anybody verbally get on a player from the bench about being gay, though." He does not want to name names. The relationships, he says, are never between two baseball players. That would be too dangerous. "There are even more gays in football," he says. "In football they are like a family, there is so much closeness down there in the trenches, and they can really get off on the body chemistry. But most of the gays I know of in sports fake it. They go out with girls and they get
months in January for sexually assaulting a woman in Brixton. (Image: Getty) Uber, which operates across 20 UK cities, claims to be the “safest ride on the road," but the latest figures follow a string of sexual assault claims in the US. The Californian-based company was also banned in New Delhi, India, after a passenger was raped. Read more: An Uber spokesman said "All drivers who use the Uber app in London are fully licensed by Transport for London and have undergone exactly the same enhanced DBS checks as black cab drivers, teachers and care workers. "We take any allegations of this nature very seriously - we work closely with the police on their inquiries and prevent drivers from using the app while investigations take place. "Our GPS technology also means that every trip - more than one million in London each week - is electronically recorded."Last month, in an attempt to curry favor with the GOP’s Christian base, Donald Trump pandered to an Iowa crowd by talking about how he attends church. It didn’t help that he also told them he doesn’t seek forgiveness from God… and threw in a few curse words for good measure. It was a disaster. (Or, as Trump would call it, an unequivocal success.) It looks like he’s learning, though. Speaking at an event in Michigan a couple of days ago, Trump pointed out that someone in the crowd had his book Trump: The Art of the Deal. But instead of taking the bait and saying it was the best book ever, he conceded that it only the second best book ever. Because Bible: I love his reaction immediately after he says that. He gives the crowd a thumbs up and an awkward look that screams, Yes! I finally said the right thing! Those buzzword lessons finally paid off! The Fox News crowd will surely love me again! Then, just to make it sink in, he repeated the phrase “Nothing beats the Bible.” I would love for a reporter to ask him what his favorite verses are. Let’s see him stumble his way through that answer. Or maybe he’ll just give a Sarah Palin-esque answer and say “All of them.” (Top image via Albert H. Teich / Shutterstock.com)Get the top 100 trends happening right NOW -- plus a FREE copy of our award-winning book. Our Research Methodology This article is one of 350,000 experiments. We use crowd filtering, big data and AI to identify insights. Funny Slogans and Light-Hearted Designs for the Dead - Jul 4, 2009 Updated: Jul 13 2011 References: Updated:References: nowthatsnifty.blogspot Some of these headstones are both unique and hilarious. From headstones that say â€œThat's all folks!â€ to a Rolling Stones tombstone, these commemorating messages seem to show what the deceased person was passionate about. You can probably come up with different stories about the deceased by checking out the headstone gallery. From a clothes pin and a motorcycle, to a computer, there must be a tale that lies behind these stones. Implications - In many cultures, death is not seen as a morbid or tragic event, but rather an opportunity to celebrate the life of the deceased. Humor is an effective means of doing so, and these humorous headstones are the perfect example of using humor to make a tragic situation easier. While some may see these headstones as tasteless, those who use them are surely in the mindset that the deceased would have appreciated the originally comedic perspective on tragedy.Nanny state is no longer on steroids, it has turned into the Incredible Hulk Paul Joseph Watson Infowars.com September 25, 2012 From people being harassed for paying by cash or having a food garden, to Americans being arrested for letting their children play outside – innumerable examples over the past few months alone illustrate that the United States is no longer a free country. The nanny state is no longer just on steroids, it has turned into the Incredible Hulk as collectivism, pernicious bureaucracy, regulation, mass surveillance and outright tyranny runs wild across the country. Here are just a selection of stories from scores of recent examples illustrating how America is ‘land of the Free, home of the brave’ no more. – Parents across the country are being arrested for letting their children play outside. A stay at home mom in Texas was held in jail for 18 hours for allowing her children to ride on scooters while she was watching them from her home. A mother in Virginia was also harassed by social services and police for the egregious crime of allowing their children to play outside in another example of how the nanny state is running wild in America. – The war on lemonade stands, traditionally viewed as a quaint example of America’s entrepreneurial spirit, has intensified in recent months with cops slapping parents with fines for letting their kids run “unlicensed” lemonade stands in three separate incidents over the last year alone. A map of restrictions on child-run concession stands illustrates how there have been dozens of examples of police interference across the country. – After an 11-year battle with the state of Oregon, landowner Gary Harrington was found guilty under a 1925 law and sentenced to spend 30 days in jail for collecting rainwater in three “illegal reservoirs” despite the fact that they are on his property. – Last year, Oak Park, Michigan resident Julie Bass faced jail time for the crime of growing a “vegetable garden in front yard space.” – Americans are being harassed by utility workers who are trespassing on private property and forcibly trying to install “smart” energy meters which spy on homeowners. – Cities are passing ordinances that makes recycling compulsory from, with those who fail to comply under threat of fines up to $2500 dollars. In Cleveland, people who fail to recycle are flagged by the RFID chip embedded in their trash can, added to a database and then targeted by green cops who are dispatched to intimidate homeowners. – The Eleventh Circuit US Court of Appeals has ruled that private contractors operating toll roads on behalf of the state have the power to detain and store records on motorists who pay by cash at toll booths – another example of how using cash is increasingly being treated as a suspicious activity. – Earlier this year we reported on how the FBI was telling businesses to treat people who use cash to pay for a cup of coffee as potential terrorists. – We also recently highlighted the case of Texas resident Julia Garcia, who was falsely imprisoned and harassed by Wal-Mart employees for attempting to buy goods with a $100 dollar bill the Wal-Mart cashiers erroneously claimed was fake. – Earlier this year a Tennessee man was charged and jailed by police after using an old $50 bill to pay for goods at a Quik Mart store which turned out to be genuine. – A DOJ-funded police training manual tells cops to treat people who have a political opinion that “represents a fairly popular point of view” or those who display a political bumper sticker supporting the bill of rights as terrorists. – The Obama administration has successfully reinstated the indefinite detention provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act, which allow American citizens to be kidnapped and held without charge. – The TSA has expanded its grope-down checkpoints beyond the airports to highways, political events and even school prom nights. – The TSA is kicking Americans off flights for having a “bad attitude” and refusing to obey bizarre orders quickly enough. – A teenager was recently visited by FBI special agents who grilled him over the content of a political You Tube video. – Americans are being harassed and having their Fourth Amendment rights violated at so-called “border checkpoints” which are actually hundreds of miles within the border. – The EPA is using spy drones to monitor farms as police use Predator drones to hunt down Americans for the crime of allowing cows to wander onto their land. – Parents are being harassed and investigated by Child Protective Services and police for feeding his daughters organic food, refusing to make them drink fluoride-poisoned tap water and not having them injected with mercury-laden vaccines. – Police arrested Napa Creek resident Amy Larson for writing “9/11 truth now” in chalk on a sidewalk. – A Texas police officer shot 45-year-old double amputee Brian Claunch dead after he threatened officers with what turned out to be a ballpoint pen. – While the government stockpiles ammo in the billions, Americans like Brian Loftus are being questioned by police for buying a couple of boxes of bullets at their local gun store. – Americans like James Ian Tyson are being put on terror watchlists in response to traffic violations in order to prevent them from attending protests. – Students in schools across the country are being indoctrinated to accept their treatment as prisoners on parole by being forced to wear RFID tracking chips. – Police departments are attempting to secure approval to spy on Americans with drones as well as surveillance blimps that hover 400 feet above a city and report on “suspicious activity.” – The Californian city of Lancaster will be the first to experience a “new era in law enforcement surveillance” with residents set to be watched by a permanent eye in the sky which will beam constant video footage back to police headquarters including crimes in progress as well as “scenes of mundane day-to-day life.” – The National Security Agency is storing all electronic communications and analyzing them in real time in complete violation of the Fourth Amendment. – Facebook is spying on people’s private conversations for “suspicious behavior” and reporting them to police. – Former Marine Brandon Raub was kidnapped from his home by police, FBI and Secret Service agents and forcibly incarcerated in a psychiatric ward by authorities in Virginia in response to political Facebook posts. – Veterans across the country are being declared “mentally defective” on a whim by the state and having their firearms seized. – The federal government is officially backing Al-Qaeda fighters in Syria while declaring conservative Americans to be extremists and terrorists if they are “reverent of individual liberty.” Land of the free, home of the brave? Most of the these stories are just from the last few months alone. America is no longer a free country. The state has declared war on the American people. ********************* Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a regular fill-in host for The Alex Jones Show and Infowars Nightly News.What is misleadingly being called in Israel the "Anat Kamm espionage affair" is quickly revealing the dark underbelly of a nation that has worshipped for decades at the altar of a security state. Next week 23-year-old Kamm is due to stand trial for her life – or rather the state’s demand that she serve a life sentence for passing secret documents to an Israeli reporter, Uri Blau, of the liberal Haaretz daily. She is charged with spying. Blau himself is in hiding in London, facing, if not a Mossad hit squad, at least the stringent efforts of Israel’s security services to get him back to Israel over the opposition of his editors, who fear he will be put away too. This episode has been dragging on behind the scenes for months, since at least December, when Kamm was placed under house arrest pending the trial. Not a word about the case leaked in Israel until this week when the security services, who had won from the courts a blanket gag order – a gag on the gag, so to speak – were forced to reverse course when foreign bloggers began making the restrictions futile. Hebrew pages on Facebook had already laid out the bare bones of the story. So, now that much of the case is out in the light, what are the crimes committed by Kamm and Blau? During her conscription, Kamm copied possibly hundreds of army documents that revealed systematic law-breaking by the Israeli high command operating in the occupied Palestinian territories, including orders to ignore court rulings. She was working at the time in the office of Brig. Gen. Yair Naveh, who is in charge of operations in the West Bank. Blau’s crime is that he published a series of scoops based on her leaked information that have highly embarrassed senior Israeli officers by showing their contempt for the rule of law. His reports included revelations that the senior command had approved targeting Palestinian bystanders during the military’s extra-judicial assassinations in the occupied territories; that, in violation of a commitment to the high court, the army had issued orders to execute wanted Palestinians even if they could be safely apprehended; and that the defense ministry had a compiled a secret report showing that the great majority of settlements in the West Bank were illegal even under Israeli law (all are illegal in international law). In a properly democratic country, Kamm would have an honorable defense against the charges, of being a whistle-blower rather than a spy, and Blau would be winning journalism prizes, not huddling away in exile. But this is Israel. Here, despite a desperate last-stand for the principles of free speech and the rule of law in the pages of the Haaretz newspaper today, which is itself in the firing line over its role, there is almost no public sympathy for Kamm or even Blau. The pair are already being described, both by officials and in chat forums and talkback columns, as traitors who should be jailed, disappeared, or executed for the crime of endangering the state. The telling comparison being made is to Mordechai Vanunu, the former technician at the Dimona nuclear plant who exposed Israel’s secret nuclear arsenal. Inside Israel, he is universally reviled to this day, having spent nearly two decades in harsh confinement. He is still under a loose house arrest, denied the chance to leave the country. Blau and Kamm have every reason to be worried they may share a similar fate. Yuval Diskin, the head of the Shin Bet, Israel’s secret police, which has been leading the investigation, said yesterday that they had been too "sensitive to the media world" in pursuing the case for so long and that the Shin Bet would now "remove its gloves." Maybe that explains why Kamm’s home address was still visible on the charge sheet published yesterday, putting her life in danger from one of those crazed talkbackers. It certainly echoes warnings we have had before from the Shin Bet about how it operates. Much like Blau, Azmi Bishara, once head of a leading Arab party in Israel, is today living in exile after the Shin Bet put him in their sights. He had been campaigning for democratic reforms that would make Israel a "state of all its citizens" rather than a Jewish state. While he was abroad in 2007, the Shin Bet announced that he would be put on trial for treason when he returned, supposedly because he had had contacts with Hezbollah during Israel’s attack on Lebanon in 2006. Few experts believe Bishara could have had any useful information for Hezbollah, but the Shin Bet’s goals and modus operandi were revealed later by Diskin in a letter on its attitude to Bishara and his democratization campaign. The Shin Bet was there, he said, to thwart the activities of groups or individuals who threatened the state’s Jewish character "even if such activity is sanctioned by the law." Diskin called this the principle of "a democracy defending itself" when it was really a case of Jewish leaders in a state based on Jewish privilege protecting those privileges. This time it is about the leaders of Israel’s massive security industry protecting their privileges in a security state by silencing witnesses to their crimes and keeping ordinary citizens in ignorance. Justifying his decision to "take the gloves off" in the case of Kamm and Blau, Diskin said: "It is a dream of every enemy state to get its hands on these kinds of documents" – that is, documents proving that the Israeli army has repeatedly broken the country’s laws, in addition, of course, to its systematic violations of international law. Diskin claims that national security has been put at risk, even though the reports Blau based on the documents – and even the documents themselves – were presented to, and approved by, the military censor for publication. The censor can restrict publication based only on national security concerns, unlike Diskin, the army senior command and the government, who obey other kinds of concerns. Diskin knows there is every chance he will get away with his ploy because of a brainwashed Israeli public, a largely patriotic media and a supine judiciary. The two judges who oversaw the months of gagging orders to silence any press discussion of this case did so on the say-so of the Shin Bet that there were vital national security issues at stake. Both judges are stalwarts of Israel’s enormous security industry. Einat Ron was appointed a civilian judge in 2007 after working her way up the ranks of the military legal establishment, there to give a legal gloss to the occupation. Notoriously in 2003, when she was the chief military prosecutor, she secretly proposed various fabrications to the army so that it could cover up the killing of an 11-year-old Palestinian boy, Khalil al-Mughrabi, two years earlier. Her role only came to light because a secret report into the boy’s death was mistakenly attached to the army’s letter to an Israeli human rights group. The other judge is Ze’ev Hammer, who finally overturned the gag order this week – but only after a former supreme court judge, Dalia Dorner, now the head of Israel’s Press Council, belatedly heaped scorn on it. She argued that, with so much discussion of the case outside Israel, the world was getting the impression that Israel flouted democratic norms. Judge Hammer has his own distinguished place in Israel’s security industry, according to Israeli analyst Dimi Reider. During his eight years of legal study, Hammer worked for both the Shin Bet and Israel’s Mossad spy agency. Judge Hammer and Judge Ron are deeply implicated in the same criminal outfit – the Israeli security establishment – that is now trying to cover up the tracks that lead directly to its door. Kamm is doubtless wondering what similar vested interests the judges who hear her case next week will not be declaring. Writing in Haaretz today, Blau said he had been warned "that if I return to Israel I could be silenced for ever, and that I would be charged for crimes related to espionage." He concluded that "this isn’t only a war for my personal freedom but for Israel’s image." He should leave worrying about Israel’s image to Netanyahu, Diskin, and judges like Dorner. That was why the gag order was enforced in the first place. This is not a battle for Israel’s image; it’s a battle for what is left of its soul. Read more by Jonathan CookA world both gorgeous & fun to traverse // Recommended for fans of both open-world and stealth adventures LockeProposal's Big Day Out + As the first game of the franchise, it is both novel in concept and scope of narrative+ Platforming elements are extremely polished and satisfying; climbing is simple in practice and is competently animated+ Environments are large, detailed and absolutely gorgeous+ Voice-acting (with one notable oversight, addressed below) is excellent; general sound-design, too, is strikingly original+ UI, though it breaks the immersion a bit, is practical and aesthetically pleasing+ Bissfully short load-times; game's engine runs smoothly and efficiently+ Quick-travel is available as the explorable areas increase+ Swordplay, though not as emphasized as a gameplay element, is still quite cinematic and enjoyable+ Myriad collectibles and viewpoints to unlock, scattered throughout the world+ Stalking targets is broken down into a series of minigames; though tragically un-varied (there are only 6 variations), they nonetheless do their part to uphold immersion- Exiting the game requires movement through 3 or 4 menu screens; quitting a game has never been so frustrating- Segments revolving around Desmond (in the year 2012) often seem to drag on well beyond what is required to set up that angle of the plot; seriously breaks up the pacing- Beyond the drive to get a 100% save file, there is little incentive to replay after a successful playthrough- Limited tangible incentive to explore and collect; doing so is done so for its own sake- Protagonist's voiceover is decidedly American, in stark contrast to the authentic accents of virtually all other characters; massive break in immersionThe bill to suspend the debt ceiling through March of next year is listed in the House roll call votes as a bill to “designate the air route traffic control center located in Nashua, New Hampshire, as the Patricia Clark Boston Air Route Traffic Control Center.” Last night it passed by a vote of 221-201, with the support of just 28 Republicans. They were: John Boehner (OH) Ken Calvert (CA) Dave Camp (MI) Eric Cantor (VA) Howard Coble (NC) Chris Collins (NY) Charlie Dent (PA) Mikd Fitzpatrick (PA) Michael Grimm (NY) Richard Hanna (NY) Doc Hastings (WA) Darrell Issa (CA) Peter King (NY) Frank LoBiondo (NJ) Kevin McCarthy (CA) Buck McKeon (CA) Pat Meehan (PA) Gary Miller (CA) Devin Nunes (CA) - Dave Reichert (WA) Hal Rogers (KY) Peter Roskam (IL) Ed Royce (CA) Jon Runyan (NJ) John Shimkus (IL) Chris Smith (NJ) David Valadao (CA) Frank Wolf (VA) The list includes the House Speaker (who's head the Senate Conservatives Fund has called for), the House Majority Leader, the House Majority Whip, six committee chairs, 12 subcommittee chairs, and two subcommittee vice chairs. Just five of the 28 Republicans appeared to have no leadership position in the House. The 28 Republicans came from 11 states, eight were from California. Just two of the Republicans, Howard Coble and Frank Wolf, have announced they’re retiring this year, while Peter King says he’s running for president. None of the 28 Republicans are in races considered “toss-ups” for 2014 at the Cook Political Report, but three are just in the “leans Republican” category.Image copyright Cheryl Yeoh Image caption Cheryl Yeoh revealed details about Mr McClure's behaviour on her website Tech entrepreneur Cheryl Yeoh's account of sexual harassment by a leading Silicon Valley investor is the latest discrimination scandal to rock the tech industry. Dave McClure resigned from 500 Startups, the firm he co-founded, following claims made by another woman - which encouraged Ms Yeoh to publish her own story online. In her first interview, Cheryl Yeoh explains why she decided to talk publicly about the incident, which took place in 2014, and what she thinks needs to change. It has been edited for length. How do you feel about what happened now? "I was obviously angry and hurt but also surprised that I felt like it wasn't a rare thing, it was considered normal in the start-up world, the tech world. "Now I realise that's not OK and that's part of the problem. That's why we need to speak up about it and have a conversation around how do we change this dynamic, how do we change the narrative?" You thought that it was "normal" for someone in your flat to brainstorm ideas to try to sleep with you? "My issue is, it wasn't even me inviting him. It was him and a few other business partners who wanted to come over to brainstorm, and in the start-up world it's not uncommon to have after business hours brainstorm sessions. "A lot deals are made after office hours, it's definitely not uncommon at all. "What I was shocked about was how bold he was to message me after that and, prior to that, he had asked me to come to his hotel room through text. It's shocking how bold they are that they wouldn't be afraid of consequences." Would you say that's still the case today, or are things any better in the start-up world? "Oh yeah… it takes one person coming out about sexual harassment or discrimination. Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Ellen Pao was ordered to pay her former employer's legal costs after losing her case "That was a few years ago with Ellen Pao's case, and with the recent Susan Fowler story about sexual discrimination at Uber, and then a few other stories around Binary Capital, more and more women have the courage to speak up about it, because it was for the longest time a very controversial topic. "So more people are aware of it and because of it more transparent policies are being created to address it so offenders are hopefully going to think twice before they do it again." Can you tell me, if it's not too difficult, what happened that night? "I had just moved to Malaysia from San Francisco to take on this very public position as CEO of a government agency that was given $30m [£23m] to start accelerators and programmes to encourage entrepreneurs in South East Asia. "So Dave McClure had visited Malaysia to work with me to start an accelerator in Malaysia for South East Asia. "After our board meeting he and some business partners came to my apartment to brainstorm ideas for the programme. "They bought alcohol over, they brought whiskey, and he kept pouring whiskey into my glass before it was empty, and that felt a little weird. Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Dave McClure visited Ms Yeoh's home in June 2014 "And then hours later, everyone decided to leave and order their cabs but he didn't seem to want to. When I asked him, like 'Dave are you leaving?' he said 'no'. "So I said: 'Do you want to crash here? I have a guest room'. "I walked him to the guest room and then I walked to my room thinking: 'I guess he's just too intoxicated'. "And then he came into my room and wanted to sleep with me, and I told him: 'No, I have a boyfriend what are you doing, do you want to leave?' "I showed him the way out and on the way out, he backed me up against the wall and moved forward to kiss me… that was when it was overboard. Thank goodness I didn't drink that much and I pushed him away and I opened the door and made sure he was out. "I couldn't help but think: what if I was helpless, or I was weaker, or he used more force, what could have happened? "And that's just terrible, no one should ever go through that ordeal, so I think that itself is sexual harassment at the highest level. "And the second thing that was going on there was the power dynamic. "He had a deal looming over us and if I were to speak up about him then it might compromise the accelerator and that wasn't even for me, it was for the region, and I felt like I couldn't report him because the whole region would not get the benefits of the accelerator just because of that night." Did you confront him immediately after that, did you speak to him about it again? "I tried not to speak to him after that, I didn't know what to say. "If I had told him how angry I was at the time he might have pulled the deal off… you know now looking back, I'm angry that even though I was mad at him I couldn't tell him that and that's just not a good memory. "But in my post, when I retold my account of what happened, I urged women to write down a full account of what happened (that night), email it to themselves right away so they have a timestamp and they remember what happened, or email it to your best friend, your mum, and when you're comfortable email it to him, so he knows that what he did was not OK, and that you're hurt. "I think that helps with getting closure and it also makes them realise that you're not OK with it." Did you send your post to Dave McClure before you published it? "I didn't send him my entire post, I sent him a summary of what happened that night, that he pushed me, I said no multiple times, I told him I was hurt and his [previous] apology was not sufficient. "And he wrote back and told me that he acknowledged it and he's ashamed of it and he's sorry and that he can't deny any of it." [The BBC has seen this message] And you also heard a claim that he had harassed somebody after leaving your apartment that night? "As he was leaving my apartment he messaged me around 04:00, and then half an hour after he left he messaged another female entrepreneur in tech and propositioned her. "She sent me proof of that and I saw it and I was shocked. [The BBC has also seen screenshots]. "This is not the behaviour of someone who was intoxicated that night and maybe made a mistake. "It was premeditated and a failed attempt and then another attempt immediately at 05:00." Image copyright Cheryl Yeoh Image caption Ms Yeoh published her account online on 3 July Did you ever think about pressing charges or were you just too worried about the impact on the work you were trying to do? "At that time, I was in Malaysia, I wasn't familiar with the law in Malaysia for sexual harassment, I frankly didn't have time to look it up, I couldn't go through all that - I was CEO of a $30m company, I just couldn't at the time. "I'm back here in San Francisco now and because the incident didn't happen in the US I can't really press charges here but I am looking into what I can do in Malaysia. Hardly any people who actually come forward want to talk on the record, do you think that is going to change? "I really hope so, it is something very personal and emotional and it's also very controversial - it shouldn't be but it is. There are grey areas. "It's very easy to victim blame - why did you even let him into your house, why were you even drinking, a tonne of things? "People don't want to be judged and if their names that are going to be linked to a sexual harassment case online, very few people are willing to let that tarnish their name. "I'm in a different position, I've done previous work before, I've had publicity online for other good things I've done, so I know my record goes far beyond this and I certainly don't need the publicity for this for myself. "In my post I offer a way to categorise the level of harassment or assault. So an inappropriate comment should have a very different consequence to an unwanted physical sexual advance, and I think if there are different categories it will make feel people more comfortable reporting them." Dave McClure's called his resignation post "I'm a creep, I'm sorry". He has admitted inexcusable behaviour, is having counselling and has made a very frank admission about his past. Do you think that's enough? "No, because the accusation at the time was that he had texted an entrepreneur who was seeking a job from him and the text goes 'I'm not sure whether to hire you or hit on you'… that's not right, but it's a more minor offence. "When he stepped down from being CEO and apologised for his inappropriateness, everyone thought it was because of that comment, it was too minor a misdeed for him to step down. Image copyright Cheryl Yeoh Image caption Ms Yeoh is currently a board member at the virtual mobile network operator Flexiroam "He had a tonne of supporters coming out to say: 'Oh my gosh, you don't deserve this, you were just being a man, what's wrong with this'. "And that was the problem because the public didn't know the extent of the harassment he had done to other people." Do you think part of the problem is the culture in Silicon Valley? "It is the nature of tech start-ups, it's definitely male dominated but you can say the same for finance, and this doesn't just happen in tech or finance, it happens in the media, in fashion, so many industries. I've heard about it from my friends. "But why it seems like it's only in the tech world is that we are more vocal as entrepreneurs and we're more social and we have a more transparent company culture - people are more willing to speak up and there are more platforms and support groups for us to do such a thing. "So, I think awareness is just more heightened in the tech world, but it happens everywhere." Dave McClure has been contacted by the BBC for comment.Schools trying to sign up pupils for free school meals they now get regardless, to avoid missing out on pupil premium payments A “car crash” between two worthy government policies has left schools, local authorities and families scrambling to avoid missing out on valuable education funding for disadvantaged pupils. Council leaders described the collision between two new government education policies – the introduction of free school meals up to the age of seven, and pupil premium payments to help schools teach pupils from poor backgrounds – as wasteful and inefficient. Pupil premiums are awarded partly on the basis of the number of pupils receiving free school meals, but since the government introduced free meals for all infant schoolchildren in September, authorities have been left struggling to convince parents to apply for them in order to qualify for the funding. The pupil premium is worth between £1,300 and £1,900 per child at primary school. Some schools have resorted to offering prizes to eligible parents to convince them to continue to sign up for free school meals. Councils and schools spoken to by the Guardian say the introduction of universal free school meals for all pupils in reception, year 1 and year 2 has removed the incentive for eligible parents – those on benefits with a household income below £16,200 – to sign up for free school meals, since their children now receive them regardless. This Wednesday is the annual census deadline for state schools in England to sign up parents whose children are eligible for the pupil premium – an annual payment introduced in 2011 and championed by the Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg. At Starbank school in Birmingham’s Small Heath area – where more than 40% of the school’s 1,000 pupils are eligible – the executive headteacher Gerry Hudson said more of the onus was on schools to target parents. “It’s true to say that because of universal free school meals we are having to put more effort to make parents aware of eligibility,” Hudson said. “If you are in a disadvantaged area, one of the ironic consequences of providing children with free school meals means there just isn’t the incentive for parents to sign up. Schools do now have to do more chasing.” One officer at Surrey council said: “It was hard enough to persuade parents to sign up in the first place. But this is a bloody car crash.” A DfE spokesperson said: “The way pupil premium is calculated has not been affected by the introduction of universal infant free school meals [UIFSM]. However, as early as April last year we began preparing schools and provided best practice advice. We know from areas that already offered UIFSM that it is still possible to identify pupils that attract pupil premium funding, for example through their enrolment processes. “There continues to be a very strong incentive for parents to sign up – the £1,300 per child means significant extra support for their child.” Before the approaching deadline there has been frantic activity by councils and schools to get parents to sign up – including some unusual tactics. Several councils – including Merton and Newham boroughs in London – have adopted a policy of pushing all parents to sign up for free school meals, whether eligible or not, to ensure that as many as possible qualify for the premium. A message from Merton tells parents: “Even if you are not eligible for the scheme right now, circumstances may change during the 12 years they are at school and they may need some support in later years … Should your circumstances change at any time, we can take care of everything.” Oasis Academy Nunsthorpe – a large primary on an estate west of Grimsby – gives away a £25 book token to eligible parents who sign up for free school meals. Councils such as Oxfordshire have relied on persuasion tactics in letters to parents: “Please register so that our school doesn’t miss out on vital money to spend on your child’s education … Just imagine what we could do for your child with this money, and how the lack of it would affect what we do.” While 11% of eligible pupils fail to sign up nationally, rates vary dramatically between local authorities. Some 29% of eligible pupils in Surrey and 22% in Essex are not signed up, according to the most recent figures – a combined total of 11,000 pupils who miss out. Ray Gooding, the council’s cabinet member for education, said: “Essex county council has provided support and guidance to schools in helping them to identify those pupils who qualify for pupil premium funding.” Lincolnshire failed to sign up an estimated 27% of eligible pupils in 2013, which would cost its schools almost £5m in lost pupil premium funding if repeated next year. “Schools are aware in Lincolnshire of the possible confusion parents might have with the universal free school meals initiative and thinking they don’t need to sign up – they have been working very hard to capture as many families as possible in order to promote free school meals and the pupil premium as they have direct contact with parents,” a spokesman for Lincolnshire county council said. A Liberal Democrat source close to the schools minister David Laws said: “The pupil premium and infant free school meals are two of the policies Liberal Democrats are most proud of – they would simply not have happened without us in government. As such, there is absolutely no question of us standing back and letting schools lose out. “Schools have consistently proved the naysayers wrong on this policy, and over the last year have had a huge amount of information and guidance on how pilot areas successfully managed the change. That said, if this does prove to be a problem, we will take further action to fix it.”NEW DELHI: As the benchmark indices bounced back after the year's longest bear phase, most popular stocks logged significant gains.Shares of Orient Press (up 19.99 per cent), Onward Tech (up 13.84 per cent), Tarmat Ltd (up 13.54 per cent), Rupa & Co (up 12.96 per cent), LCC Infotech (up 12.50 per cent), Radha Madhav (up 11.94 per cent), Lovable Lingerie (up 11.41 per cent) and Shekhawati Poly (up 11.11 per cent) were trading over 11 per cent higher in Friday's trade at around 11 am (IST).At 11 am (IST), the Sensex was trading 136 points or 0.43 per cent higher at 31,418.45 while the 50-share pack was trading above 9,800 level at 9,818.85, up 0.51 per cent.Among the 51 components in Nifty index, 35 shares were trading in green, while 15 were in the red. Bajaj Auto (up 2.03 per cent), Hero Moto Corp (up 1.75 per cent), ICICI Bank (up 1.61 per cent) and Adani Ports (up 1.47 per cent) were the top gainers on BSE.On the other hand, Hindustan Unilever (down 2.12 per cent), Dr Reddy's Laboratories (down 1.01 per cent), TCS (down 0.
capture using ~/restartcap.sh. (Launch it in an xterm if you want to see the terminal.) Revert the Linux VM to the point where the pristine instance of the AVD is running. Copy an APK to the Linux VM. Install the APK into the AVD using adb. Launch the installed app using aapt to extract the package and activity from the newly-installed apk and adb to invoke the package's activity. Grab the pcap and flows.log files from Tapioca. Lather, rinse, repeat. I can do this procedure for every APK file that I have. But this approach is still boring. I will find only applications that chat insecurely over HTTPS with no user interaction. We can do better. The Android SDK has two tools that can help with UI automation: MonkeyRunner - This tool runs a scripted set of UI operations. Monkey - This tool runs random UI operations. To aid with my ability to use MonkeyRunner to tease out SSL bugs, I modified my AVD to include a directional pad. To make this modification, I edited my ~/.android/avd/ssltest.avd/config.ini file to include the following line: hw.dPad=yes With a directional pad, this allows me to have a MonkeyRunner python script that has instructions like the following: device.press('KEYCODE_DPAD_CENTER', MonkeyDevice.DOWN_AND_UP) device.press('KEYCODE_DPAD_DOWN', MonkeyDevice.DOWN_AND_UP) device.type('asdf1234-user') device.press('KEYCODE_DPAD_CENTER', MonkeyDevice.DOWN_AND_UP) device.press('KEYCODE_DPAD_DOWN', MonkeyDevice.DOWN_AND_UP) device.type('qwer5678-pass') device.press('KEYCODE_DPAD_ENTER', MonkeyDevice.DOWN_AND_UP) The idea here is that if we run a simple app that has username and password fields, our automation script might get lucky and cause the application to submit data over the network, possibly using an HTTPS connection without validating SSL certificate chains. Here's a time-compressed video of our automated AVD in action: And here's a time-compressed video of the connected CERT Tapioca machine. (View fullscreen HD to see the full details.) As you can see in the last capture, the app under testing has transmitted data over an HTTPS connection without a valid SSL certificate chain. This application is flagged as vulnerable. I've been performing this automated testing for a couple of weeks. It's currently testing only one application at a time, so it's moving relatively slowly. But because it doesn't require user interaction, it's not taking up any of my time. Automated testing is only catching the low-hanging fruit, but I've already discovered several hundred vulnerable applications. Cleaning up the Mess Failure of Android applications to validate SSL certificate chains is nothing new. Approximately two years ago, a paper called Why Eve and Mallory Love Android: An Analysis of Android SSL (In)Security was published. However, it appears that the authors of the paper did not notify any of the vulnerable application authors. If you don't know that the paper exists, you don't know that this problem exists. Recently, FireEye published a blog post about SSL vulnerabilities in Android applications. It indicates " We notified the developers, who acknowledged the reported vulnerabilities and addressed them in subsequent versions of their applications." This statement makes it seem that the problems have already been fixed. Aside from a couple of case studies, it's not clear which applications were affected, which authors have been notified, and which application versions contain fixes. I applaud FireEye for their efforts, but I feel that we can take things a bit further. Here is where CERT's work is providing value: We are performing a wide-scale automated dynamic test. Static analysis goes only so far. Just because an application looks like it may fail to check a certificate, that doesn't necessarily mean that the code is even used by the application. The false-positive rate for such analysis is likely high. We are notifying the author of every application that fails the dynamic testing described above. In our reports to these authors we include mallodroid static analysis output, a list of the URIs visited by the application while under test, and the mitmproxy log file produced by CERT Tapioca. We also include references to Google and CERT guidance for how to handle certificates in Android applications. We will list affected Android applications in the CERT vulnerability note for this issue, VU#582497. Listing affected applications without necessarily giving the vendors our usual 45-day disclosure guideline may seem a bit odd. But if you consider the characteristics and attack vector of this class of vulnerability, it should make more sense: If an attacker is interested in performing MITM attacks, they're already doing it. That cat is already out of the bag. They've likely set up a rogue access point and are already capturing all of the traffic that passes through it. Further supporting this suspicion is the fact that the FTC has already filed charges against the authors of two mobile applications that fail to validate SSL certificates. Knowing which specific applications are affected does not give any advantage to an attacker. of the traffic that passes through it. Further supporting this suspicion is the fact that the FTC has already filed charges against the authors of two mobile applications that fail to validate SSL certificates. Knowing which specific applications are affected give any advantage to an attacker. If end users have vulnerable applications on their phones, knowing which applications are affected does give an advantage to the defenders. They can choose to uninstall vulnerable applications until fixes are available, or if they must, they can choose to use said applications only on trusted networks. Deciding which details to release and when to release them is a concern with any vulnerability that the CERT Division handles. However, in this case, it's clear that the disclosure of affected applications benefits the defenders and not the attackers. We plan to update VU#582497 and any resources that the document uses as our testing and communication with application authors continue.In An Effort To Pressure Trump, Clinton Releases 2015 Tax Returns Enlarge this image toggle caption Bill Pugliano/Getty Images Bill Pugliano/Getty Images Updated at 4 p.m. Aug. 15 Hillary and Bill Clinton paid $3.2 million in federal income tax last year, a rate of 34.2 percent. Their 2015 return was released today by the Clinton campaign, almost five months after they signed it for filing. The Clintons overpaid the Treasury and got a refund of more than $1 million. The couple's income plunged last year. Adjusted gross income for 2015 was $10.6 million, compared with $27.9 million for the previous year. Charitable contributions accounted for 9.8 percent of their adjusted gross income. Clinton is releasing the returns for two reasons: transparency and the opportunity to bash Donald Trump. The Republican nominee has refused to make his 2015 tax data public. "Donald Trump is hiding behind fake excuses and backtracking on his previous promises," said Jennifer Palmieri, communications director for the Clinton campaign. Trump and his lawyer have said the IRS is auditing his returns, so he can't or won't release them, although there is no legal prohibition on releasing returns that are being audited. In a statement, Trump's campaign called the release of Clinton's tax return, "an attempt at distraction and misdirection" to take media attention off of Clinton's private email server. The Clintons' tax documents depict a high-powered, high-income couple earning millions from speaking and consulting fees. They brought in $6.7 million from speeches, mostly his, and $3.1 million from book advances and royalties, almost entirely hers. Bill Clinton also reported $1.7 million in consulting fees from two private education providers. Laureate Education paid him $1 million in 2015, for a total of $17.4 million since 2010, when Laureate's chairman first engaged him. Clinton resigned his position last year. An investigative report by Bloomberg News found that while Bill Clinton was being paid by Laureate, the State Department under Hillary Clinton increased its grants to a nonprofit led by the chairman. Bloomberg reported that the Clinton campaign denied the allegation. A representative of Laureate Education also emphasized that the nonprofit has received grants from the State Department since 1999 under both Republican and Democratic administrations. Also in 2010, Bill Clinton was appointed honorary chairman of a nonprofit associated with Gems Education, which is based in Dubai and operates mainly in the Middle East. He was paid $562,500 last year, in addition to $5.6 million in previous years. In other income, Bill Clinton drew $226,297 in pensions as former president and former governor of Arkansas. The couple reported $109,290 in taxable interest and ordinary dividends. Their only Wall Street investment was a Vanguard 500 index fund. Their charitable contributions were $42,000 to the Desert Classic Charities and $1 million to the Clinton Family Foundation, a vehicle for charitable giving that is not related to the high-profile Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation. The campaign released 10 years of returns for vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine and his wife, Anne Holton. Their 2015 adjusted gross income was $313,441, based almost entirely on their salaries — his as a U.S. senator from Virginia and hers as the state's secretary of education. They paid $63,626 in federal taxes last year, for a tax rate of 20.3 percent. Their average federal tax rate for the past 10 years was 18 percent. And here's one more revelation: Even though Hillary Clinton is asking voters to elect her to the nation's highest office, in IRS tax forms she's still just "spouse."As featured in... From the introduction... "Recently I had a dream in which I set homework assignments for Ernest Hemingway and twenty-four other literary luminaries. Each author received one of five tasks--common coding problems, mostly mathematical--which they were to solve using JavaScript. To my astonishment, after a few days, completed assignments started arriving in my mailbox. Still more remarkable, with the exception of Kafka's accursed effort, they all seemed to work. Naturally this was all too good to keep to myself so I've reproduced their solutions in this book. To help put the answers in context, I've written a short biography of each author, and followed their code with a brief explanation of what I think they were up to. As a respite between assignments I've included some poetic interludes: long forgotten odes documenting their author's struggle with everyone's favorite programming language. Enjoy!"The defender has a contract at the Santiago Bernabeu until 2017, but was recently linked with Bayern Munich Sergio Ramos is happy at Real Madrid and has no interest in leaving the club, according to his brother and agent Rene Ramos. The 29-year-old remains Carlo Ancelotti's first choice centre-back, with Pepe and Raphael Varane both partnering him at the heart of the back four this season. But, despite having over two years still to run on his current deal, recent reports linked the former Sevilla defender with a move to Bayern Munich. However, those rumours have been swiftly put to bed by the player's brother, who also acts as his representative. He told Marca: "Sergio is very happy at Real Madrid. He's too happy at Madrid! As long as Sergio has a contract at Madrid he will wear the club's shirt." Ramos is in his 10th year at the Santiago Bernabeu having joined the club as a teenager back in August 2005. He has since gone on to win 13 trophies for club and country, including La Liga three times and the Champions League, as well as the World Cup and European Championship with Spain.By Ben Gilbert The city of Benghazi is now the de facto capitol of rebel held eastern Libya. Libyan leader Col. Muammar Gaddafi never completely trusted the citizens of Libya's second largest city. A long history of rebellion, and a few failed assassination attempts in the town, always made it a stronghold of possible dissent. So, he installed an enormous military base in the middle of the city, called the Katiba. Katiba means "battalion" in Arabic, but it came to mean "the Garrison." And it occupied prime real estate in Benghazi. The Katiba is a sprawling complex of bunkers, barracks, fancy guest houses and opulent meeting rooms surrounded by high walls and watch towers. On February 17, the Katiba became the front line in the battle for the city. After a bloody battle, it became t the last Gaddafi stronghold to fall in the city. Now, it's become a place for reflection, and celebration. "See all the bullet holes in the houses here, the main fight was here, this street," said Nasr, a young medical student who was here during the battle. For three days, anti-Gaddafi protestors tried to storm the Katiba. Many were killed. The large, green gate at the entrance has been blasted to pieces. "This used to be gate, the big one, the main gate, snipers were in that big tower now," Nasr said. "So a man named Mehdi Zeyo, he's married and got two daughters, he went to his house and said goodbye. So he got gas bottles in his car, and they were shooting at him and it exploded. He killed two guards here. That was the day the people entered the Katiba." Entering the Katiba On February 20, Zeyo blasted a hole in the gate we just drove through, killing himself in the process. Now, his picture is on the Benghazi courthouse. Most Benghazi residents had never voluntarily entered the Katiba before. To come here meant you were in deep trouble with Gaddafi's security men, and likely wouldn't be seen again. Now, Libyans bring their families to marvel, or mourn, at the looted remains. 35 year old Raja Mohamad Raja, an accountant, brought his sisters to see the Katiba. "It's a good feeling to be able to come in here, nobody ever imagined we'd be able to come into the Katiba, these houses," he said. "It's amazing, I've been everywhere: the police station, the secret police building, at last we can enter anywhere we want to." Raja speaks near a military viewing stand in the green colors of Gaddafi's Libya. Its aluminum roof is now bent and broken, the seating area charred by fire. A burned car sits at the top of some steps. 'Free Libya' Regular Libyans now stomp through the burnt remains of what were once VIP villas for Gaddafi's guests. Rebel graffiti coats the once-pristine, 10 foot high white walls. "Free Libya" it reads. And, "Gaddafi, you dog!" Naji Misbah Hussein, a former policeman from the nearby town of Ajdabiya, said this is his second visit. "The Katiba is half of Benghazi, a big area, and the Libyan people live in small houses. We were not living at all," Hussein said. He called Gaddafi "a killer." Even now, he said he's scared to be here. 42 years of fear is hard to erase. Nasr, the medical student, points to the holes dug into the concrete all around us. "In the first days when people came in, people were using trucks to dig up the holes, they knew there were big holes in here, digging up everywhere. Looking for the holes where the prisons are," Nasr said. Nasr said he was here in February when a man was pulled from one of the subterranean cells. Nasr said the man asked what year it was. We descend down steep steps into a concrete bunker with a single opening at the top of a 15 foot ceiling, lined with iron bars. Nasr said it's a former jail cell. On the walls someone has spray painted the names of those who died here. A man who came to see the Katiba suddenly regrets it. "I wish I didn't come here in the first place," said Mohammad Mansour Majdi, a mechanic at an oil company. "A lot of people were killed here. It's sad." In the distance, gunfire breaks out. But it's not the sound of fighting, it's celebratory. Residents of Benghazi are still celebrating the end of the Gaddafi's stranglehold on eastern Libya some two months ago.Saudis Plan Major Investment In Nuclear Technology Saudi Arabia intend to build 16 nuclear power plants over the next twenty years. Weekend Edition Sunday host Rachel Martin talks to Thomas Lippman of the Middle East Institute about the Saudi's nuclear ambitions and what they mean for nuclear nonproliferation efforts. RACHEL MARTIN, HOST: While Iran's nuclear program is the stuff of international high-level talks, another country in the Middle East is developing its own nuclear power program without much fanfare - Saudi Arabia. Joining us to talk about the kingdom's nuclear program is Tom Lippman. His latest book is called "Saudi Arabia on the Edge: The Uncertain Future of an American Ally." Thanks so much for being with us. TOM LIPPMAN: Pleasure to be here. MARTIN: What is the nature of Saudi Arabia's foray into nuclear power? How expansive is this? LIPPMAN: On paper, it's a very ambitious plan that calls for the construction of as many as 16 nuclear power stations in the next 20 years. How much of that is actually going to happen is open still to uncertainty, but that's the plan. MARTIN: So why is this happening? I mean, we think of Saudi Arabia, we think of all of those oil reserves. Are those reserves depleting, and at what pace? LIPPMAN: It's not that the reserves are depleting; it's that they're using too much of their own oil. One of the strangest facts about Saudi Arabia is that its biggest domestic-management problem is an energy shortage. And the reason it's short of energy is that it is rapidly industrializing, and its natural gas supplies are limited and committed to its industrialization program, the petrochemical plants. As the population rises, the demand for water creates an insatiable demand for energy because all the water comes from desalination, and the desalination plants are huge consumers of electricity. It's now a consumer society, where the population is about 80 percent urban. Everybody has air-conditioning and TV appliances, and all the gadgets you could want. It uses enormous amounts of electricity. You can imagine what it takes to air-condition Saudi Arabia in the summertime. MARTIN: Yeah. LIPPMAN: Long story short - they need vastly more electricity, and the only fuel they have available for generating it is their own oil. In the summertime, they're using - at some point - 25, even 30, percent of their production domestically. They want to stop doing that, for obvious reasons. Since they don't have enough natural gas, they're looking for other sources of energy, and they are theoretically committed to nuclear as a big part of the mix. MARTIN: Anytime a country embarks on a nuclear program, especially in the Middle East, this would raise some red flags for the United States, wouldn't it? I mean, is this a program the U.S. supports? LIPPMAN: Well, you might think so, and I guess there was a time when the words "nuclear" and "Saudi Arabia" in the same sentence would have sent people screaming from the room. But remember that on his last trip to Riyadh as president, George W. Bush signed a memorandum of understanding with the Saudis in which we, the United States, pledged to help them develop their commercial nuclear program. MARTIN: It's not just nuclear, though. Saudi Arabia is also planning a major investment in solar and wind. Is this likely to be enough to solve Saudi Arabia's energy problem, or is there still a justifiable fear that the country could lose its energy dominance, its influence writ large in that neighborhood? LIPPMAN: Well, it's not a question of Saudi Arabia running out of oil. They have plenty of oil. What they're more worried about is running out of customers. Because the inevitable upward drift of prices, as the new oil that's found is more and more expensive oil, they're afraid they'll reach a point where people will really stop buying it and go on a crash program to switch to other sources of fuel, more likely in the United States and Europe than it is in China and India, but still it's a long-term concern. MARTIN: How is Saudi Arabia's energy situation connected to its political influence in the region? LIPPMAN: Well, I would say not as closely as it used to be because its principle customers now are in Asia. The biggest customer for Saudi oil since 2009 has been China. And I think the Saudis have no political influence in China nor do they really want any. It's strictly a mercantile relationship between willing seller and willing buyer. Saudi Arabia's position in the world is now no longer entirely a function of oil in the sense that it's a member of the group of 20 industrial nations, it's a member of the World Trade Organization. Its influence in the world now, I would say, is more a function of its position in Islam than it is of its position in oil. MARTIN: Because of the economic realities and current energy landscape around the world, is the proliferation of nuclear power just something the United States in particular is going to have to get used to? LIPPMAN: Well, I don't think we're necessarily opposed to it because as long as people behave themselves it's not necessarily reprehensible or even a cause of concern. Saudi Arabia is a member of all the relevant nuclear control regimes, so that if they were to play by all the rules, they wouldn't be any more of a problem than a nuclear program in Japan. What would happen if a less-friendly regime were to take over at some point down the road, that's another question. MARTIN: Tom Lippman is an expert on Saudi Arabia. His most recent book is called "Saudi Arabia on the Edge: The Uncertain Future of an American Ally." He joined us in our studios here in Washington. Mr. Lippman, thank you so much. LIPPMAN: My pleasure. Copyright © 2013 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.Image caption Hardline monks and Buddhist groups are trying to outlaw halal certification After a series of attacks on mosques, wild rumours about animal slaughter and an attempt to outlaw the halal system of classification, the BBC's Charles Haviland investigates how Sri Lanka's Muslim minority is being targeted by hardline Buddhists. On a January morning a crowd of Buddhist monks storm a law college, yelling, chanting and even hitting one or two seemingly random people and pushing back the police. Furiously they shout that the exam results have been distorted to favour Muslims. A few weeks later, apparently abetted by the police, monks attack a slaughterhouse in Dematagoda, Colombo, alleging that calves are being slaughtered inside (illegal in the capital) or the meat is improperly stored. Both are incorrect, but the monks spread rumours that the facility is Muslim-owned as most of the truck drivers are Muslim. Sri Lankan monks are now taking this so-called "direct action" every few days. It is part of a growing wave of anti-Muslim activities in Sri Lanka carried out by new hardline Buddhist groups - a trend that is making many people anxious, even fearful. It comes four years after the army in this mainly Sinhalese Buddhist country defeated Tamil separatists. Regular attacks During Sri Lanka's bitter civil war war the Muslims - a small Tamil-speaking minority, about 9% of the population - kept a low profile, although many suffered violence. Image caption Muslim leaders have shied away from any kind of confrontation with the state Muslims are seen as having remained largely loyal to the state during the 26-year conflict. Indeed in 1990 they were expelled en masse from the north of Sri Lanka by Tamil rebels with just a few hours' notice. But they now fear that ethnic majority hardliners are trying to target them. At their recent rallies, the most prominent new hardline group, the Buddhist Strength Force (Bodu Bala Sena, BBS) have used coarse, derogatory language to describe Muslim imams and have told the Sinhalese majority not to rent property to Muslims. At one meeting attracting thousands, the organisation's secretary, Gnanasara Thero, told each Buddhist present to become "an unofficial policeman against Muslim extremism" and said "so-called democrats" were destroying the Sinhala race. Away from the rallies, I visited a temple in the suburb of Dehiwala as the early morning sun hit the majestic bo tree. The presiding monk, Akmeemana Dayarathana, has founded another ultra-nationalist Buddhist group, Sinhala Echo. He says the Sinhalese have real grievances, that Muslims are trying to convert people, building too many mosques - even having too many children. In fact statistics show that both the Sinhalese and Muslim population percentages have grown slightly over three decades. He says, without giving any evidence, that Muslims propagated a message that Sinhalese families should be small. "Then they started to increase their own population," he says. "This is the only country for the Sinhalese." He proceeds to give a unique take on geography and religion. "Look around the world - Malaysia, Indonesia, Pakistan, Afghanistan and others, they were all Buddhist countries - but the Muslims destroyed the culture and then took over the country. We worry they're planning it here too." A few days later his organisation stormed a house where they alleged Christian conversions were taking place and verbally abused the family inside, some of them - according to a local website - physically assaulting a woman. Top-level support Since last April, when monks led an attack on a mosque during Friday prayers in the town of Dambulla, there have been regular accounts of mosques being attacked or vandalised, for instance with graffiti or pictures of pigs. There have also been assaults on churches and Christian pastors but it is the Muslims who are the most concerned. In the south of the country on 18 March, a mob of hundreds including monks surrounded a pastor's house, set fire to tyres outside and shouted abusively to those inside. Image caption Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has said monks are there to protect country, religion and race "Muslims are worried all over the country," Mufti MIM Rizwe tells me. "Everybody is [in] fear." He is president of the All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama (ACJU), the main organisation of Muslim clerics, and meets me at a hotel where imams have come together for emergency discussions on the situation. He defends the halal system of food classification, which the hardline monks are now trying to outlaw, and strongly denies that the community is fostering extremism as they claim. He rejects their accusation that Muslims have been destroying Buddhist holy sites. "You can't show one incident that Muslims have reacted in this way," he says. "No single statue or any religious worship places have been targeted by Muslims, totally not. Muslims have never done this. We hope we are guiding our Muslims to be calm and respect every religion." Days later his organisation appears on a platform with moderate Buddhist monks who have decided to distance themselves from the hardliners. The hardliners are withering in their description of the moderates, calling them "unethical and immoral". It has become clear that the BBS has top-level support. At its ceremony to open a new training school, the guest of honour was the powerful Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, brother of the president. "It is the monks who protect our country, religion and race," he said in a speech. "No one should doubt these clergy. We're here to give you encouragement." President Mahinda Rajapaksa was reported to have told a BBS delegation in January not to promote "communal hatred", but the official communique was issued only in English, not in Sinhala. It is also apparent that Muslim leaders have shied away from any kind of confrontation with the powerful monks or any supporters they may have in government on this issue, remaining largely conciliatory in their language and actions. Mood of triumphalism Civic society activists are concerned. Sanjana Hattotuwa, editor of a citizen media initiative, groundviews.org, showed me some of the anti-Muslim web pages that are fast growing in number. Image caption Some civil society activists believe the dominant mood in the country is one of triumphalism The main picture on a Sinhala Facebook page called "My Conscience", with more than 8,000 followers, shows a lion - symbol of the Sinhalese - devouring a wild boar depicted with a crescent and star on its forehead. Mr Hattotuwa believes the dominant mood in the country is one of triumphalism, four years after the Tamil Tigers were beaten, and that this is encouraging victimisation of a new minority. "The country is seen today as Sinhala Buddhist," he says. "Everybody else has a rightful place. If they articulate concerns that question the dominant narrative then they should be put into their place. So the end of the war ironically has given the space for new social fault lines to occur." He rejects the concern voiced by some people that the socially conservative Muslim community is doing too little to integrate. "Integration means a recognition that this country is comprised of many communities and each one of them has the right to live where they want, how they want." Clearly not everyone in the government - which in any case contains Muslim ministers - is happy with the rise of the hardliners. Some Sinhalese ministers have expressed unease and a prominent newly retired diplomat, Dayan Jayatilleka, calls the BBS an "ethno-religious fascist movement from the dark underside of Sinhala society". Many Sri Lankans feel there are uncomfortable echoes of the 1983 pogroms, when Sinhala violence against Tamils precipitated the war. But hardline Buddhist rallies and "direct action" stunts are happening all the time now. And their social and political influence is expanding.We might have to pour one out for Inhumans before the show even officially airs. ABC and Marvel decided to debut the series in IMAX earlier this month in limited screenings ahead of the official series debut on September 29. Based on the overwhelmingly terrible response from critics to those screenings, it sounds like ABC may have pulled the plug on Inhumans already. So don't expect to see an Inhumans season 2 announcement. This looks like it is going to be a one-and-done mistake. Neither ABC or Marvel have officially commented on the chances of a possible Inhumans season 2, but there is evidence that suggests they are already trying to put the show behind them. The folks over at RenewCancel TV noticed that the marketing for Inhumans has started to refer to the upcoming season as the "complete series," as opposed to the first season. So that implies that Inhumans season 1 will be the only season of the series that was at one point a highly-anticipated adaptation with a lot of potential. To say the least, Inhumans has already been a pretty serious disappointment, which is likely why ABC is going with the "complete series" wording. During the one-week-only IMAX cinematic engagement (which was originally supposed to be two weeks), Inhumans only made $2.8 million worldwide. Granted, there probably wasn't ever going to be a huge market to see a show in theaters that one could stay at home and watch for free just a few weeks later, but that is very low. It is no coincidence that the reviews for Inhumans, which currently holds an abysmal 7 percent approval on Rotten Tomatoes, were brutal. Related: Inhumans Producer Asks Fans Not to Pass Judgment Until It's Finished Another thing to note when talking about the possibility of Inhumans already being canceled is showrunner Scott Buck. He was also the showrunner on Netflix's Iron Fist, which was also panned by critics upon arrival. Though, that show did manage to find an audience and was given a green light for a second season. Marvel hired a new showrunner for Iron Fist season 2, saying that Buck was too busy with Inhumans to come back. Assuming that he is to blame for the poor quality of Inhumans, it's very possible that ABC decided to just cut their losses entirely as opposed to hiring another showrunner to try and clean up the mess. At this point, even before Inhumans has even premiered on TV, one longs for the days that Marvel Studios was going to turn the Marvel Comics property into a movie. Kevin Feige has said that the movie could still happen, but certainly not in 2019, which was originally going to be the case before this TV series came to be. Even if Inhumans season 2 does happen, there is no denying at this point that it simply isn't going to live up to the potential that exists with Black Bolt and the rest of Marvel's royal family.Before exploring the Drawn Together: International Cartoons exhibit at the Flint Institute of Arts as I mentioned in a previous blog post, my parents and I came to the FIA for the Sunday showing of Robot and Frank. We sat in cushy seats and stared at a screen hovering over a white-walled stage as the film played before us in the dark, only a glow of the stage visible by the illuminating film as if the story were being acted out physically before us. I love watching indie films, but I wasn’t used to this luxury. Usually I’m bent over a laptop, balancing a bowl of pasta in one hand and with the other hand lowering the blinds to get a better glimpse at the screen. No pasta was spilled in the process. I had a long phase of watching indie movies last year when I was writing my graduate thesis. After hours of scrutinizing over short story after short story, I rewarded my fried brain at night with an indie flick. There’s something intriguing about films made outside the major film studio system. The films seem to run wild with creative freedom where dialogue is grittier and characters are craftily and subtly developed. But, then again, I’m speaking about the indie films that I chose to watch. I watched indie films to decompress before bedtime. But each film stirred up my creative juices as I analyzed the craft of the story and dissected what each character said or did. I found myself scribbling down ideas for new short stories and solutions to old characters problems under lamplight for tomorrow’s writing session. I’m never inspired to write after watching films with exploding buildings or speeding cars. I’ve never stolen an indie flick plot or pasted an indie film character into my own writing. To be blunt, I can’t even when I try. I learned this in grad school. One class assignment was to take the structure of a famous short story and imitate it with another scenario. I chose to imitate “Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street.” There were lots of bold similarities at first. The narrator introduced each character the same way, character traits were exaggerated upon in the same manner, and the plot marched along the same slope. But as my story progressed, I couldn’t keep it parallel to the original story. After portraying the comedy of the characters, I couldn’t ignore the tragedies of their lives that overwhelmingly surfaced. My imitation took a life of its own. My problem now was allowing my story to have its own life. I foolishly felt that I needed my professor’s permission to alter the course of the story. My professor expected this to happen. “Let yourself trust your craft,” she said. Sometimes the writer needs to see an example of a story that works in order to write new work or apply new solutions to old problems. How does the writer extract these solutions? By doing lots of scrutinizing and questioning. Think back to the last great film or novel that you read. What made this art resonate with you? Was it the scenery, the characters, the plot? What about this element stood out? How did the artist convey it? How can you apply this success to your own work? That’s why it’s crucial for the writer to evaluate other writing. When the writer evaluates what works and what doesn’t work in a story, the writer can then improve or learn from past mistakes from other writers. After watching Robot and Frank, I developed the discussion for this blog post.There was multiple talks about how the Mountain West could land six teams in the NCAA Tournament come March -- a tough feat for a nine-team league. However, that could change with how games went on Saturday night. First up, Air Force was able to defend their home court and upset Boise State, 91-80. This is possibly the most damning loss of the day as Air Force was 10-5 coming in on the day -- not bad -- but had a RPI of 129. The other loss that to outsiders may appear to be bad was Wyoming easily defeating San Diego State, 58-45, in a very low scoring matchup. Wyoming's RPI is solid at 56 so the loss does not look that bad for NCAA Tournament seeding, plus again this was a road game. The final game where an upset occurred when Colorado State upended UNLV 66-61 at home on Saturday, again not a bad loss since the Rams RPI is at No. 25. Six teams has always been a stretch in my opinion for this league, and the biggest threat to getting that many teams came when Boise State earned a bad loss against Air Force. They can still rebound and get some good wins, and keep boosting their resume. It appears that the Mountain West will be a league that their champion could have has many as five loses, due to the parity this league has. Winning on the road is extremely difficult, so if a team like New Mexico is perfect at home, but if they split their road games then they would have an 12-4 final league record. Last year the league champ was New Mexico and San Diego State both went 10-4, so adding two more games it is possible that the champion could be 11-5. New Mexico and Colorado State play next week, at the Pit, so there is a chance that after two-plus weeks there will be no undefeated Mountain West teams.JERSEY CITY -- The long simmering feud between Mayor Steve Fulop and the largest of the city's two police unions boiled over tonight as 100 cops appeared at City Hall to accuse Fulop of putting politics over good policing and paint Public Safety Director James Shea as an "absentee" leader. The protest comes
is so different that it must be some kind of secret level.. like one in Episode 4 "The Nameless City". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajF2NOuYkjk Personally I just got my motivation back after starting to listen this: #99 #99 Noir is a certain atmosphere, not a specific time period. Blade Runner can be considered noir, so your idea is perfectly valid. Plus, see post #86. By The Way By The Way This jam gave me some inspiration to experiment a few things on my own: 1) I need high contrast B&W textures with no greys, a la Frank Miller's Sin City, of different materials - wood, metal, stone, printed fabrics, ornaments, what-have-you... Does anyone know of such a texture pack or high contrast colored textures that could easily be converted to pure B&W? 2) Would it be feasible to have two fullbright rotfish, one red and one blue, as a tribute to Coppola's Rumble Fish? Thanks, Khreathor. That's not exactly what I wanted but it's a step in the right direction. I really need no greys at all, only textures made of pure black and pure white. I guess I could try to photoshop these. The only colors I would use would be for the couple of fullbright rotfish. Speaking of, any idea about point #2? Bump Bump ye, get me one of those fancy blood-shimmer in the moonlight katanas done while you're at it. Also... Also... Is there a way to make a transparent brush blur the view behind it? I was thinking of having private eye office style doors with frosted glass. Mugwump Mugwump http://sketchquake.blogspot.com.au/ http://research.cs.wisc.edu/graphics/Gallery/NPRQuake/whatIsIt.html if you're looking for a pure black and white effect maybe look at sketchquake or NPR quake: Thanks Shamblernaut but these won't do. As I understand, SketchQuake and NPR are engines that modify the rendering style. That's interesting though, and I'll probably try them as a player at some point, but what I need is only textures, so that they can be used in any engine. If I'm fast enough at building what I have in mind, it could even serve as a start map for this jam - I already have the skill names sorted out: The Big Easy, The Normaltese Falcon, Casablanc-hard and Nightmare Alley. As far as I know there aren't any engines that let you define brushes with specific shaders on them, which is the sort of thing you would need to change how geometry or textures looked through them. Sorry. Bummer Bummer Thanks Pritchard. I guess I'll have to make do with classic see-through transparency, then. Regarding A Start Map Regarding A Start Map I'm already on it, looking forward to seeing your ideas though. Bummer2 Bummer2 What do you think about my idea for skill names inspired by movies? If you want you can use it, as is or modified to your liking. the start map is already movie themed, it might fit, i'll try it when i add the skills. Cool Cool https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwxYkKdSD855VV9VcDRhWGhCNzQ/view?usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwxYkKdSD855QXM2MjJTc2Iwbjg/view?usp=sharing This time I want to try out make some GL action going on, on streets and inside houses. Inside NEW Houses? Inside NEW Houses? Yeah, except those are mostly old houses/buildings* Yeah, retro theme and all... I was making a joke on your alias. Yeah, I know ~ I just didn't know NewHouse sounds weird/funny, if there is even Dr. Houses around. And it is literally converted from my surname which is "Uusitalo", but I can assume nobody could pronounce it properly enough.. so that is why I pick up "Newhouse" instead. Progress So Far? Progress So Far? Just wondering, how people are doing, everything going as planned? Is it possible to not give player shotgun? Nevermind, I was able to take it off by using this "take_weapons" key in worldspawn. It feels like I have no idea what I'm doing currently.. hopefully in next week that is much more clear. So if anybody is interested : https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwxYkKdSD855MGxXUW5jRmpZT0E/view?usp=sharing It feels like I have no idea what I'm doing currently.. hopefully in next week that is much more clear. Kingpin Texture Fix Kingpin Texture Fix https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/108695968/kp_desaturated_fix.wad Some of the textures had far too much colour in them. Here is a "fixed" wad. Shamblernaut Shamblernaut What's your method for desaturating textures? For what I'm currently doing I don't need greys, just pure black and white, so I click greyscale in PhotoShop then ramp up contrast to the max, but it might be useful to know how you do it, and why there's "too much color" left in them. I'm using a program called graphics gale, it has a nice batch tool that lets me reduce the colour depth using a palette. I'm using a custom palette that has the fullbrights still included (in case somebody wants that). As for why there are colours still, I think that when I was desaturating the palette (I had to do it by hand) I didn't do it perfectly and some got missed (they're close enough to grey that it isn't really noticeable). Anyway from there I export to either bitmap or tga, whatever texmex feels like accepting in that given moment. Graphics gale has really streamlined the process for me, sure I could probably get better looking textures doing them individually, but with the app I can do them in bulk and concentrate on mapping. At the end of the day the lighting is going to make the most difference anyway (IMO). Thanks! Thanks! I suppose the palette is the one you uploaded on first page? Will you do the enemies/weapons/HUD as well? Yeah Yeah I'm going to package a version of AD (without the original maps) with the jam, I'm going to make a desaturated UI with it. I probably won't bother with the enemies considering there are so many of them. Awesome! Awesome! There should be a cool jazz soundtrack to complement the thing. If you think you won't have enough time, I could try to do the enemies using your palette and Graphics Gale. I doubt I'll have a playable map ready for the deadline anyway, so I'm in no rush - I may have had enough time for a start map, but you spoiled me of that :P As for why there are colours still, I think that when I was desaturating the palette (I had to do it by hand) I didn't do it perfectly and some got missed (they're close enough to grey that it isn't really noticeable). Quake has a blue range that's pretty desaturated. It's not uncommon for a quantization algorithm to decide that a grey pixel in the original image is closer to one of the desaturated blues than it is to one of the greys. Some other colors may end up being used for the same reason, but the first blue range is the worst offender. On the other hand, getting rid of it might actually reduce the quality, since the Quake palette doesn't have a lot of greys. Thanks Shamblernaut* I'll use those instead. Also even though Quake's palette doesn't have a lot of greys.. it doesn't matter really. Light can be used as a focus point, almost white sky as a canvas and so on. Guys Guys Guys Guys I worked out the funky colours that I was getting. AD was defaulting to the quake palette, not the colour data stored in the texture in the bsp file. So what was happening was it was reconverting the greyscale textures back to the quake palette, quite a bit of texture detail was being lost in this process. (now how to fix it) in post #46 I included a zip file with the palette files in it. 1: Make a copy of AD and call it jam8dev or whatever. 2: Extract the.lmp file from the aforementioned zip to a directory called gfx, which should exist in the copy of AD you just made 3: Rename that.lmp file to palette.lmp 4: Update your Jack / TB to use this folder for testing and development of your map. 5:??? 6: Profit. FYI, There is no color data stored in textures in bsp file, they just refer to indexes into a palette stored elsewhere (palette.lmp as you say) So are even all the effects like breakable bricks turning into greyscale? Personally, I would leave the blood (splatters, shootable triggers) red. Are you in too Mugwump? It must be your first release then* Maybe... No... Yes? Maybe... No... Yes? I wasn't planning to at first because I didn't feel experienced enough. But then this jam inspired me those pretty neat ideas about Coppola's Rumble Fish and Frank Miller's Sin City, so I started upon it. I thought I could make a cool small start map in time but Shamblernaut told me he was taking care of it. If I must make an actual full-blown level with combat, I'm afraid I won't make the deadline. I still might be able to contribute in a couple ways though, if Shamblernaut would be so kind as to answer these: 1) I haven't heard from you about the monster textures: do you think you'll have time to desaturate them or would you like me to give it a try? 2) Would it be possible to contribute my map at a later date in the form of a DLC? I suppose it would require to plan a slipgate for it in the start map, only accessible once the DLC is installed. 1: The palette procedure described above handles the model and UI desaturation. 2: Yeah DLC is fine, I'm still working on Jam7 DLC. The view of the community is that more content is better, no matter when it's released. And I can modify the start map later too. regarding red blood, I need to see if I can remap the colour in progs (if I get time). Shamblernaut Shamblernaut 1) OK, I'll get to it, then. And while I'm at it, I might convert the HUD as well. 2) Awesome! Thanks. Colors: I'm not sure whether I'll use your palette for my map or not: what I have in mind is to keep the architecture pure greyless black & white and have the enemies greyscaled, but my custom Rumble Rotfish will need bright red and electric blue. I was also thinking of using a blood red skybox for an interesting contrasting effect, a bit like in Killing Joke's Almost Red cover artwork. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8v_WdcS3T18d29kOHp2VzZxZW8/view?usp=sharing Reading this thread makes me think that a "Sin City" map would be cool: Nice! You made that? Mugwump Mugwump no, my point is that you won't need to convert ui, hud or models because the palette handles that Oh, OK. Oh, OK. Can we still have a red charmap for the on-screen messages and the HUD's counters though? That probably requires remapping those colours to the red fullbrights that I kept in the palette. That probably needs to be done in the progs or the engine. I can look at that too, but I can't promise anything. Yep Yep It's in the engine code itself. I won't be releasing a modified engine just for a mapjam. If you still want the coloured UI numbers, edit the lmp files and change their current palette index to 250 or 251. These are the fullbright red indexes. The only way for me to revert blood back to red is to change the palette file again, I am somewhat loathe to do so, as this may mean that reds may creep into the textures that we've already desaturated. OK. I guess I won't bother with the red skybox, then. It would be weird to have a red sky but grey blood. Same with the HUD counters. So it's gonna be full-on B&W with my couple of fish as the only colors in the map. BTW, I'm a musician and I've started working on a main theme for the jam. It's gonna be a laidback jazzy track with an electro/industrial sound. It should be noted that Quake is a game with a rather primitive lighting model, so colors play a fairly important role in distinguishing shapes. Not as important as with sector lighting, for example, but still. I'm a little concerned over where all this is going. Dwere Dwere If it turns out to be a failure then that's cool too. A journey can be just as rewarding as the destination. It is a concern that colours will cause the mobs and geometry to disappear a bit much, but at the end of the day the designers should be able to test and get a feel for where lighting will help solve that. I also need some numbers so I know how many entrances to place on my start map. If you're joining in can you pop a +1 below or something? +1... But Not On The Deadline +1... But Not On The Deadline On the blending of mobs and geometry: simply build your map with noticeably lighter and/or darker textures than the monsters' and be mindful of your lighting, and you should be fine. We've been watching B&W movies for more than a century and they're usually pretty readable. Well uhh. I get your point as a whole, but B&W movies typically support much better lighting effects. True, but I've seen impressive results achieved with Quake's lighting method. And you can use.lits or, for Darkplaces, RTlights. DP is particularly efficient with chiaroscuro. Scifi/Horror Noir Something Scifi/Horror Noir Something https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwxYkKdSD855WVV5eXJReWM2MzQ/view?usp=sharing Hopefully I will have enough time to work with lights, before deadline. Hopefully I will have enough time to work with lights, before deadline. That looks...really dark. Hups! I used range 0.5 that made everything way darker* Unless it's been changed 0.5 is the default. The old versions of light would print out the whole list of options if it was executed with no parameters. Here it is down to "range". This is not the entire list. There's about 25-30 more lines. ----- Light 1.43 ---- Modified by Bengt Jardrup ----- Release 2 ---- Coloured light and LIT support by MH Light performs light processing of Quake.BSP files light [options] bspfile Options: -threads [n] Enable multithreaded processing (faster, default 4) -fast [n] Enable fast lighting (lower quality, default 2) -soft [n] Enable soft lighting (reduce jagged shadows) -softdist [n] Distance tolerance for lights behind surface (default 3) -extra Enable extra 2x2 sampling for higher quality -extra4 Enable extra 4x4 sampling for even higher quality -dist [n] Set fade distance, higher is darker (default 1.0) -range [n] Set brightness range, higher is brighter (default 0.5) https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwxYkKdSD855dkhBNlp1QnlqcjA/view Now enemies should be more visible at least? Yeah, seems like range didn't do what I thought it would do.. but anyway I started fixing values a bit. Here is second attempt:Now enemies should be more visible at least? -dist does it means like fades in dark like fog, or does it mean it shortens lights? what about -threads, how do you use it? I can see the enemies a bit now, and the surfaces near the lights, so it is better. Hard to say for sure if it's enough without actually seeing it in game. Threads I've always just set to however many cores the processor has. Don't know about -dist, sounds like some kind of attenuation, so shortens maybe is close. For some reason -softdist doesn't work in tyrutils. Without it there are places in my map where the lighting changes noticeably, which is why I keep using the older version. Second version looks fine. Newhouse Newhouse remember that those enemies will be in black and white for the final version. To preview it follow the procedure in post 133. Don't worry, if I remember correctly screenshots are darker than actual gameplay, it should be bright enough for most of screen.. should be. I used lowest brightness settings I managed to pull off on my computer, and even Quakespasm I drop down contrast and saturation to minimun 1 or something and was still able to play it. So now I'm only afraid, am I making it too bright, will it lost all the creepy atmosphere* I Didn't Get Many Responses For The Last Roll Call. I Didn't Get Many Responses For The Last Roll Call. If I extend this by a week are we likely to get more submissions? Also Also I was discussing on #TF and the idea came up of fullbrighting some of the projectile models so that you can see them easier. How do you guys feel about this? Palette Palette Since the final pack will release with a palette, is there any point using desaturated wads to edit with? Any texture is now fair game? I loaded a map with a non-indexed texture, it was coloured. Any indexed texture should be fine though. It's actually pretty fun to play vanilla quakle with the desaturated palette FWIW. 1) Roll call: even with a one-week delay, I doubt I'll get something playable by then. 2) Fullbright projectiles: can't tell, haven't tested any combat yet. 3) Palette: I suspect this is gonna be a problem with my custom blue and red pair of rotfish. Will it apply to every map regardless of whether we used it when building our map? Spent Way Too Much Time Building Terrain Spent Way Too Much Time Building Terrain http://www.quaketastic.com/files/jam8_ionousB.jpg Just have to build central structure. Sick of building rocks. I might be done by the original deadline. If not, then extra time would be appreciated. Oh well.Just have to build central structure. Sick of building rocks. I might be done by the original deadline. If not, then extra time would be appreciated. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwxYkKdSD855OU96R1J0eHdBaWM/view?usp=sharing I have spend more time on gameplay.. 2-4 minutes of gameplay in area I have been shown, then there is other streets sections and short sewar section but I have no idea how to combine all of these separate parts yet or do I need to rebuild some of the areas to match the style of map. If everything goes well there will at least 15 minutes of gameplay.. if everything need to be crushed to the deadline. I'm thinking about trying stuff out for this, but since I'm starting now I highly doubt it'll be either good or ready in time. Question, though. Do I need to use desaturated textures if we've all agreed to the palette? I think using the originals seems to preserve some more detail in greyscale via palette than a direct recolour. Yo Pritchard Yo Pritchard If you just use the palette then yes, the game will render mostly in B&W and use vanilla indexed textures you will be fine. As soon as you deviate away from the vanilla textures you will probably need to desaturate them using the palette I provided. Well, so far all the textures I've used have been fine with just the palette (Kingpin ones, the originals) but i'll keep an eye out for any issues. It's not like it's hard to swap them out when building the final map anyway, it's just more pleasant to work with a bit of colour for my poor, tired eyes. Scale Scale What have you people been doing about the scale of the kingpin textures (if you're using them)? They're totally out of proportion for Quake, a door handle is at head height most of the time. Do you just ignore it? That's all I can think to do, seeing as scaling them to half size would make things unusable. (The doors may be too tall, but they're not too wide... in fact, they could almost be too narrow :s yeah, I'm just ignoring it. It's quakeguy's fault for being a dwarf anyway. Pritchard Pritchard In Trenchbroom you can specify different scale values for x and y axis. On narrowness: are you sure these textures are not for double doors? Woopsie! That Was Me Above. Woopsie! That Was Me Above. In the kingpin textures the double door textures are pretty obvious, since they're both doors on one texture vs. a single door. The door i'm using at the moment has dimensions of 64x128, which makes it a LOT taller than it is wide. Double doors are nicer for being wide, but they don't really suit my purposes. 64px width isn't... too bad. Quake movement isn't a big fan of it, but you fit through alright and so do small monsters. Some Screens Some Screens The doors break in two parts, i'm trying to tweak them so they don't break all at once... kinda hard :/ shotguns do such a variable amount of damage. Like I said before, I'm not sure how far i'll get with this but it's nice to take a break from my other map to try other stuff. Not really sure where i'm going with the level layout, but here's some early screens from the starting hallway and of a breakable door The doors break in two parts, i'm trying to tweak them so they don't break all at once... kinda hard :/ shotguns do such a variable amount of damage.Like I said before, I'm not sure how far i'll get with this but it's nice to take a break from my other map to try other stuff. Maybe be it is just me, but that looks like old-hospital to me, maybe because the black and white tiles on floor and almost pure white walls. Custom Music? Custom Music? I would like to use this, unless someone or I will find better ones : Something that would suit in hellish Hell on Earth themes yet isolated buildings with technology and pipes, bricks and candles. Zombies.. a lots of zombies. Is it fine to use custom free ambient tracks? I didn't found suitable one from original tracks. I needed something that was more "unnoticeable".I would like to use this, unless someone or I will find better ones : http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Diogenes_In_Hell/Sotto_Voce/diogenes_in_hell_-_Sotto_Voce_-_01_dhia Something that would suit in hellish Hell on Earth themes yet isolated buildings with technology and pipes, bricks and candles. Zombies.. a lots of zombies. Or something from this album maybe : http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Diogenes_In_Hell/On_the_Inheritance_of_Divine_Rites/ What music you guys are going to use? Jazz/Dark ambient? Amen Break For 40 Minutes Straight Amen Break For 40 Minutes Straight Amen Break For 14 Minutes Straight Amen Break For 14 Minutes Straight That'll Be 24000 Pounds Pls That'll Be 24000 Pounds Pls Breakables Are Fun Breakables Are Fun lot of free time these past few days to tinker with various things. One of the things I'm trying out is breakables, which i'm using pretty heavily right now. Plenty of destructible crates and doors in the map, such as I'm actually getting somewhere with my map. It helps that I've had aof free time these past few days to tinker with various things. One of the things I'm trying out is breakables, which i'm using pretty heavily right now.Plenty of destructible crates and doors in the map, such as this double door I did today. (Ignore the start; my capture software steals focus and I have to shoot to get it back) Looking Good! Looking Good! I Wouldn't Be Against A Time Extension I Wouldn't Be Against A Time Extension Haven't been able to dedicate as much time as I had wanted. Anyone else feel the same? Well, a time extension would definitely help me get my map finished for the release, seeing as I started so late. I'm heading into end of semester exams/tests soon, so my time might be a bit limited especially during the week and that makes every hour count. Skybox Skybox I decided to try using the l_swampn_ skybox from AD for my map, but in QS at least it's not affected by the palette. So, I quickly desaturated it in GIMP: <a href="">link</a> I included the AD readme because the bit at the bottom said I had to. It'd be good if this could be included with the final package so other people can use it if they want. Haha Haha I went through the same process with that same texture, it will be in the final release. Is a week long enough extension for you guys? Shamblernaut Shamblernaut "Is a week long enough extension for you guys?" My map definately needs 1 extra week for polishing and setting up the "right" mood. Also playtesting, and figuring out different skill levels. Outdoors Outdoors A screenshot Every time I look at them the buildings look too blocky, but there isn't a whole lot I feel I can do about it. Besides, when you're actually playing and not paying close attention they look fine. Every time I look at them the buildings look too blocky, but there isn't a whole lot I feel I can do about it. Besides, when you're actually playing and not paying close attention they look fine. Does this jam use a custom palette now or not? Jam That's Good On Your Palate Jam That's Good On Your Palate I think it does. (I hope it does!) @khreathor, how are the custom monsters coming along? If it doesn't hurt, It'd be nice to get a Shambler in a pinstripe suit. Not entirely necessary, but it'd make it that much funnier when you see them sitting behind a desk like a mob boss... Negke Negke https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/108695968/palettes.zip is the palette we'll be packing in the release. this:is the palette we'll be packing in the release. Shamblernaut Shamblernaut I asked a question about said palette in post #169 and I'd very much like an answer, to know if I can make this map for an ulterior DLC or if I have to make it a completely separate release. Sorry I Missed That Mugwump Sorry I Missed That Mugwump It will apply to every map, however I think (haven't tested though) that truecolour textures on your models should display in truecolour regardless of the palette. Also, I've kept the fullbright colours in the palette, so there is a little colour should you want to use it. We have small limitation with the implementation of this colour scheme as Baker/EricW pointed out in post 19 - 22. I have proceeded with this jam under the assumption that there will be no engine modifications. As such I am packaging AD with our palette (and modified models) with the release (much like quoth in jam 7). If your map is going to require a palette different from the one I provide, then you will need to release it outside of the pack (or think of another solution). I don't think anybody here has a problem with DLC if that's the route you want to go. It's OK... It's OK......I know how easy it is to miss one post in an active thread. My couple of fish will be fullbright anyway, so I may be able to pull it off with your palette. The other thing that's bugging me about it is the grey blood, though. Is there a way for me to make it fullbright so it would appear red despite the palette? For The Love Of Shub For The Love Of Shub Please don't include AD in the release! Completely unnecessary bloat - and contrary to the idea of mods like AD and Quoth to begin with. Fucking Hell Yes Fucking Hell Yes Including Quoth in jam 7 was already a monumentally bad idea. Negke Negke @Mugwump, there are two options with regard to that. Changing the palette back to a red (looks bad btw, ruins the UI, alsp possibly other textures - see screenshot). http://imgur.com/0r3yIaG Or by modifying the engine to change the blood colour to a fullbright red palette index rather than index 67 (maybe it was 57... I forget). I don't want to push for a new QS release just for this. I was going to strip the unused AD content out of the release to save space. Primarily the maps. Unless a new version of Quakespasm drops before the release date then they'll be packaged together.@Mugwump, there are two options with regard to that. Changing the palette back to a red (looks bad btw, ruins the UI, alsp possibly other textures - see screenshot).Or by modifying the engine to change the blood colour to a fullbright red palette index rather than index 67 (maybe it was 57... I forget).I don't want to push for a new QS release just for this. Palette Palette So the textures are essentially gonna be desaturated twice? First the "lossy" way, then by the new palette? Or by modifying the engine to change the blood colour to a fullbright red palette index rather than index 67 (maybe it was 57... I forget). QC controls this, not the engine. Though I'm not sure the fullbright red range is big enough to use it for particles. I don't know the subtleties of how the engine picks additional colors for randomizing. Could try and repaint the oranges though. Dwere Dwere I looked through the QC and couldn't find it. I found some suspiciously bloody looking code in r_part.c in the function R_RocketTrail though. I used the same textures to desaturate the textures as I'm using for the engine. There shouldn't be any extra loss of information beyond the first conversion. SpawnBlood is the main function you need to look at. It's in projectiles.qc (I thought it was in another place, but maybe it was moved in AD). Lightning gun has its damage effect defined separately, in weapons.qc. There shouldn't be any extra loss of information beyond the first conversion. It's just that the first conversion seems to be unnecessary. Thanks Dwere Thanks Dwere The only place I can find a palette index for blood in QC files is ai_gibs.qc under MON_BCOLOR_RED. I changed this to the indexes 251, it is randomising the particles to use the surrounding colours aswell, I need to dig deeper to find this code and nerf it. Thanks for the heads up man. Hmmm... Hmmm... Before you decide to further explore this idea, something just occurred to me: having red blood would also require having red blood decals, which probably means tweaking the palette again, which means not-pre-desaturated textures may look wrong. It probably isn't worth the hassle just for lil' old me. I'll run some tests with and without your palette and see which suits what I have in mind best and/or what level of sacrifice of my original ideas I'll be willing to make. That's gonna wait a little though, as right now I'm focusing on finishing my jazzy/industrial main theme in time, to have at least some sort of contribution. I'll post an.ogg when it's done. I need to dig deeper to find this code and nerf it. Another suggestion is to use dark orange without even changing it in the palette. Lightning gun's damage effect always used it (well, at least until AD), and people still think it's blood, because it's almost red. I Never Thought It Was Blood I Never Thought It Was Blood Rather embers. Blood wouldn't float upwards. Tweaking the palette is dangerous for my map, as I'm using regular textures right now and so any change would probably let colour leak through. As far as I can tell it's good as it is right now, save for the unfortunately grey blood. Also, if it is possible to not pack even a lightweight versio of AD that would be a good way to cut down the download size. Just include the required directory structure with only changed/added files and I think a lot of people will be happier. A fun benefit of building my map the way I have is that it can be played without the palette active, it looks nice there as well c: Tweaking the palette is dangerous for my map, as I'm using regular textures right now and so any change would probably let colour leak through. As far as I can tell it's good as it is right now, save for the unfortunately grey blood. Also, if it is possible to not pack even a lightweight versio of AD that would be a good way to cut down the download size. Just include the required directory structure with only changed/added files and I think a lot of people will be happier. A fun benefit of building my map the way I have is that it can be played without the palette active, it looks nice there as well c: Oh no double post :( So you're also using colored texture wads when mapping your map, and only changing them to desaturated ones just before compiling.. so it looks nice with colors or without* I'm definitely going make an another standalone version about this jam map but with colors then... Not Quite Not Quite I'm not changing the wads out at all. The only thing thst makes my map desaturated is the custom palette in /gfx Deadline Deadline So, is the deadline being extended or not? I'm still not sure :/ and it'd be put back to the 15th if it was, right? I ask because if it's not, I'll either be running right down to the metal to get my map in. I can see myself finishing it if I had a bunch of time available tomorrow and on saturday, but friday in particular is looking to try and steal all my free time so... yeah. It's tough because I don't really need an extra week; Obviously time to polish would be nice, but I tend to do that as I go and build an area almost entirely before working on the next which means that while most of the map is ready to go, the final two sections are barely even greyboxed right now. I've been working incredibly fast by my standards though, especially for the level of quality i've been putting out, so it really feels like I could be done with the map come... I want to say wednesday? Perhaps monday, since I do have the day off and I will probably spend the entire time working on the map if I can. This got long. Simple question: Are we getting an extension or not? Thanks! yeah man, +1 week, the 15th There is never enough time* I will definitely use all of the time polishing and extending gameplay. There is a lot of things like introducing enemies, build up, ambient, effects, scripting, timing and many other things. But I assume this map will be a pretty polished. I can already see that there might not be enough time for me to create/implement the whole city section.. I need to cut it down a bit, because I assume ending is much more important in the end. Maybe later when I make an another standalone version, I will include even the whole city section. Guys Guys when you get the chance can you let me know the names of your maps? One Ranger Two Boomsticks One Ranger Two Boomsticks But I might change it because I'm thinking of adding a nailgun to the map... Buried By Time And Dust Buried By Time And Dust https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8xas0-J2sA Her Lips Were Wet With Venom Her Lips Were Wet With Venom Length Length How's everyone's map coming along? I'm almost ready to put the final room in I think, but right now it's looking pretty slick as it is. 85 monsters, takes me about 4 minutes to finish which is pretty decent (I think I'm a bit quick since i'm very familiar with it all now). Also, I'm assuming the changelevels in the startmaps will be resetting the player inventory, right? I'd hope so. And where can I get the template for the readme style people seem to like to use? Or should I just cut up one from another release? Also, uh... how do we set up the changelevel at the end of our map so that it returns to the start properly? is the map going to be called jam8_start? Everything Is Looking Pretty Good Here Everything Is Looking Pretty Good Here Can you guys give me a list of mobs that you're using so I know which projectiles to give fullbright projectiles to? My start map will reset weapons, yes (although im going to need to look up how to do it). Well, I set my changelevel to clear the player inventory on my map so if everyone did the same there'd be no issues there. I think the relevant worldspawn key for clearing a player's inventory as they spawn is take_weapons, with possibly a few others? Not sure, all I could get it to do was ditch me with just an axe... I'm using: monster_army monster_army_grenade monster_hogre monster_shambler In Arcane Dimensions source (client.qc) - A function is named DecodeWorldParms has keys like... -ammo_shells -ammo_nails -ammo_rockets -ammo_cells -armortype -reset_health ... in that function. Monsters & Items I Use Monsters & Items I Use A bit of lengthy map is coming over 100 enemies in
maison At 5:15 a.m., the French field artillery began a creeping barrage and German SOS rockets rose into the air and the German artillery managed to fire a prompt but thin counter-barrage. The French infantry of XIV Corps on the left and the XXI Corps in the centre, moved up the slopes and ravines towards their objectives, against the faces of the obtuse angle formed by the Laffaux Salient. XI Corps and the regiment of the 67th Division of XXXIX Corps on the right began a parallel advance. Until XXI Corps reached the Chemin-des-Dames, XI Corps was isolated on its left flank; the attacks of XIV and XXI corps had reciprocal effects. The deep, steep Laffaux–Pinon ravine between Mont des Singes and the Allermant plateau, increased the difficulties of the German defenders in the salient. The garrisons to the south fought with their backs to the ravine and the German troops in the trenches and pillboxes of the western face, risked being cut off and pushed eastwards into the ravine, if they failed to escape down the Allemant gorge to Pinon or retreat to the Mont des Singes spur. On the left of XIV Corps, the 28th Division quickly defeated the Germans in Moisy Farm and the Laffaux Mill at the tip of the salient; then took the intermediate trenches and pillboxes on the summit of Laffaux ridge. A defensive flank was established from Moisy Farm across the plateau, to prevent a counter-attack from the Mont des Singes. On the right flank, from Laffaux Mill to Mennejean Farm, the 27th Division and XXI Corps to the east of the farm, attacked the southern face of the salient. Mennejean Farm and the first line trenches fell quickly and Fruty Quarry was surrounded by battalions of the 75th Regiment.. The French infantry reached the edge of the Laffaux–Pinon ravine, at the junction with the Allemant ravine, which ran downwards to the west of Pinon. The 28th Division arrived almost simultaneously at the western edge of the Allemant ravine, which forced many German soldiers back into both hollows with many casualties. In the centre, XXI Corps crossed the Soissons–Laon road, entered the German second position and then captured Malmaison Farm by 6:00 a.m., which secured the right flank of the XIV Corps, since the farm was level with Allemant. With the defenders of Fruty Quarry cut off, at 6:15 a.m. Marjoulet ordered his troops into the ravines, to capture Mont de Laffaux, encircle Allemant and seize the southern end of the Allemant plateau. Mont de Laffaux, south of Allemant, commanded both ravines and was determinedly defended by the garrison against the 75th Regiment, part of which was still besieging Fruty Quarry. Round the Château de la Motte and to the north, at the strong point of Vallée Guerbette, below the east end of the Mont des Singes plateau, there was also a determined defence. Around Allemant, several machine-gun emplacements held up the advance but before 9: a.m., the 30th Regiment worked its way on to the plateau north of Allemant. The 75th Regiment captured Fruty Quarry and took Mont de Laffaux, ready to attack the village from the south, to take the strong points in it systematically. At Bois de St. Guillain, between Allemant and the Laffaux–Pinon ravine, at 9:15 a.m., the 140th Regiment was stopped by fire from machine-gun nests, until French tanks crawled up and knocked them out. The advance was resumed by the right wing, as the left flank units halted on a line from Vallée Guerbette, to a point 460 m (500 yd) north of Allemant. The attackers on the right, astride the St. Guillain and Laffaux–Pinon ravines, reduced St. Guillain Farm and assaulted the second German position, over-running Giraffe and Lizard trenches by noon in a rainstorm. Except for Bois 160, south of Vaudesson, where the garrison held out until the early hours of 24 October and for some isolated quarries, the German position south of the Riegelstellung and east of the Allemant ravine had fallen. The 27th Division faced Pinon and covered Vaudesson, which had been secured by XXI Corps. XIV Corps had pivoted on its left flank to a line perpendicular with the start line. The Germans on the Mont des Singes and in Pinon with the Ailette at their backs, were menaced from the south and the west. XIV Corps had also taken c. 3,000 prisoners, several guns, machine-guns and trench mortars. XXI Corps [ edit ] XXI Corps attacked the remainder of the southern face of the Laffaux salient, from east of Mennejean Farm to the south of the Bohery Quarry. If the attack failed, XIV Corps on the Allemant plateau would be caught in a salient, as would XI Corps on the right at Fort de la Malmaison. At 5:15 a.m., both divisions advanced up the slopes towards the Soissons–Laon road, from Fruty Quarry to the west of Malmaison Farm. Little opposition was met and the wire entanglements and trenches were found to have been obliterated. Bois des Gobineaux, beyond the road on the south side of the Laffaux–Pinon ravine, was captured by the 21st and 20th Chasseur battalions, Vaurains Farm in the western angle of the Soissons–Laon and Pinon roads, was captured with tank support and the east ends of Lizard Trench and Lady Trench were occupied. At about 6:00 a.m., the 31st Chasseur Battalion stormed Malmaison Farm and at 6:45 a.m., the French were established north of the Riegelstellung. At 9:15 a.m., the 13th Division began to descend the northern slopes towards Vaudesson and Bois de la Belle Croix. On the right, the 43rd Division attacked downhill on both sides of the Soissons–Laon road, to the Montparnasse Quarry on the left side of the road, level with Vaudesson against the Bois des Hoinets and the west end of Chavignon village. Bois des Hoinets and Chavignon were close to the road from Pinon, which from Chavignon ran up along the eastern slopes of the Malmaison spur to Pargny-Filain. The wood and Chavignon were considerably nearer the Ailette than Vaudesson. The 38th Division also descended the heights and attacked Chavignon. At Zero Hour, the division had ascended the slopes towards Bohery Quarry and Fort de la Malmaison; at the quarry the German garrison fought until overrun and were killed or captured. The 38th Division ejected the Germans from Lady Trench, halted on the summit of the plateau, in front of Bois de Garenne, north of Chavignon and east of the Montparnasse Quarry. On the right flank, the élite 4th Zouaves had been detailed to take Fort de la Malmaison; from 3:00 a.m. they had been bombarded by German heavy artillery, which caused many casualties. At 5:15 a.m., the advance began and only traces of the first two German trenches were found. At Carbine Trench some resistance was encountered, the Zouaves advanced towards the fort, guided by French artillery firing incendiary shells. From Bois de la Veau on the right, massed machine-gun fire was encountered but the surviving Zouaves, reached the remains of the counterscarp and entered the ruins of the fort. The garrison was stalked through the ruins and quickly overrun. Bombers and flame-thrower teams searched the galleries, several machine-guns were captured and at 6:05 a.m., the flag of the battalion was hoisted over the fort. Other Zouave battalions on the flanks came up and the 38th Division halted and helped to consolidate the summit of the plateau, which had come under bombardment by German artillery on the Monampteuil Heights to the east. At 9:16 a.m., the divisions of XXI Corps descended the northern slopes towards Vaudesson, Bois de la Belle Croix, Montparnasse Quarry, Bois des Hoinets and the west end of Chavignon village. The 38th Division of XI Corps conformed and advanced on its objectives at Bois de Garenne and Orme Farm, between Fort de la Malmaison and the east end Chavignon. The road from Pargny-Filain to Chavignon was to be crossed to reach the objective at Many Farm to the east. Map of Vauclair area (commune FR insee code 02102) The 38th Division of XI Corps, was intended to cover the right flank of XXI Corps and to outflank Pargny-Filain, from the south. The 13th and 43rd divisions of XXI Corps and the 38th Division advanced simultaneously down the Malmaison heights, with tank support on the flanks, towards the edge of the plain south of the Ailette. French aeroplanes flew overhead, attacked German infantry and bombed trenches, roads and bridges. Behind the French troops on the right, at the summit of the Chemin-des-Dames ridge, a surprise was sprung by a line of French guns secretly placed behind the ridge, which began a creeping barrage. The 13th Division attacked Vaudesson and Bois de la Belle Croix, the 43rd Division advanced towards Montparnasse Quarry and the 38th Division entered the Bois de la Garenne and Orme Farm. Vaudesson village was threatened from the west flank by the 27th Division of XIV Corps, in Lizard Trench and was captured by the 21st Regiment and several tanks, as Bois de la Belle Croix further east was overrun by the 109th Regiment, which took 18 guns and several prisoners. At Montparnasse Quarry, which had galleries 0.97 km (0.6 mi) long, the 1st Chasseur Battalion attack continued until the garrison surrendered at 10:30 a.m. and Orme Farm and a quarry to its left, were taken by the 38th Division. The French pressed on and drove the Germans from Bois de la Garenne and the open ground on its right. By 1:00 p.m., the French had reached the Chavignon brickfields and the east end of the village. The 38th Division crossed the Pargny-Filain–Chavignon road at the same time and attacked Many Farm. By 3:00 p.m., the division had fought through the east end Chavignon and had reached Voyen-Chavignon. An hour earlier, the 1st Chasseur Battalion had advanced from Montparnasse Quarry and taken the west end Chavignon. On their left, the 149th and 150th Infantry Regiments captured a German battalion at the Corbeau cavern and pushed the German defenders out of Bois des Hoinets. XI Corps [ edit ] South of the Pinon–Chavignon road, Pinon and Rosay forests extended to the south bank of the Canal de l'Oise à l'Aisne. The 66th Division and the left flank regiment of the 67th Division of XXXIX Corps, were to capture the Panthéon Farm fortifications, at the south-east end of the Malmaison plateau and to occupy the area round the Orage Quarry to the north, from the stump of Les Bovettes water-tower, to an underground quarry at the head of the Bovettes ravine, which descended to Pargny-Filain. The next objective was the Tonnerre Quarry, on the edge of the Malmaison plateau and after capturing Lützen Trench, the attackers were to drive the Germans from Bois de Veau, east of Fort de la Malmaison, on the slopes of the plateau opposite Pargny-Filain. The village of Pargny-Filain was to be occupied if possible. The 66th Division was to swing eastwards and form a defensive flank on the east slopes of the plateau, to defend against counter-attacks, while the 38th Division and the XXI Corps divisions on the left, descended from the plateau to the plain of the Ailette. A wheeling manoeuvre so close to the Germans was hazardous and made worse by the narrowness of no man's land in this area, which prevented French from bombarding the German defences with super-heavy artillery; on 23 October, many of the trenches, barbed-wire entanglements and machine-gun nests remained intact. The defences were held by the 5th Prussian Guard Regiment and in the Panthéon and Orage quarries, whose garrisons had been relieved the night before by the 5th and 8th companies of the 3rd Grenadier Regiment, who had not been seriously shaken by the preliminary bombardment. The 66th Division and the left hand regiment of the 67th Division, would be exposed to the German batteries on the Monampteuil heights, firing over the Bassin d'alimentation, which fed the Canal de l'Oise à l'Aisne, when they passed over the crest and began their descent. At Zero Hour, the 66th Division advanced behind a creeping bombardment, through German artillery and machine-gun counter-barrages, which caused many casualties, entered the German first position and fought hand-to-hand with the Prussian Guard. On the extreme right flank near La Royère Farm, the 67th Division made little headway but the 66th Division pushed on to the Panthéon, Orage and Bovettes quarries. By 9:00 a.m., the division had advanced between Fanion Trench, the east end of the German second position and Lützen Trench. Bois de Veau was entered but the division was not able to advance down the slopes to Pargny-Filain. The 67th Division had been repulsed from Tonnerre and other quarries and a further advance by the 66th Division was postponed until they were captured. During the night the division organised a defensive flank from Bois de Veau to Bovettes Quarry. The 66th Division captured 2,500 prisoners, 15 guns, several trench mortars and a number of machine-guns. The 27th Division had reached Giraffe Trench, the Laffaux–Pinon ravine and was on the heights beyond the ravine west of Vaudesson. The XXI Corps divisions were in the village, the wooded ravine of Bois de la Belle Croix and Hoinets wood, the Montparnasse quarry and the western half of Chavignon. The 38th Division had reached the east end of Chavignon and Many Farm, beyond the Chavignon–Pargny-Filain road. The Allemant plateau, the Mont des Singes spur and the spur above Pinon, the Malmaison plateau with the fort at its centre and the northern slopes to the edge of the valley of the Ailette, had been captured. The salient facing the Ailette was over 4.8 km (3 mi) wide, into which artillery could be moved, using the vast Montparnasse and the other quarries as ammunition dumps. The salient protruded north from the Chemin-des-Dames towards the valley of the upper Ailette, which made the remaining German positions on the crest and the northern slopes of the ridge further east untenable. 23–24 October [ edit ] From 23–24 October, none of the expected counter-attacks by Group Vailly, from the Mont des Singes and Pinon plateaux, the Plain of the Ailette and the Chevregny spur occurred. Two Eingreif divisions had been committed between Allemant and Chavignon, a third had been pinned down around from Pargny-Filain–Filain and a fourth division, which arrived at Anizy during the battle, was unable to cross the Ailette owing to the French barrage.[e] Sporadic felling of fruit trees and demolitions either side of the Ailette, which had been seen by French airmen before the battle, became frequent and a pall of black smoke from fires, drifted over the plain. On 24 October, the Germans retired from the Mont des Singes and Pinon plateaux, pursued by the 28th Division from the Vauxaillon valley and the Allemant ravine. The Germans fled across the Ailette or into Pinon and the Pinon forest. French patrols from the Vaudesson–Chavignon area brought in more prisoners, which increased the bag beyond 8,000, along with 70 guns, 30 trench mortars and 80 machine-guns. 25–27 October [ edit ] On 25 October, Pinon was captured with 600 prisoners, Pinon and Rosay forests were entered and Rosay Farm was occupied, as XI Corps attacked from the Chemin-des-Dames ridge, to east of the Malmaison plateau and captured the farms of St. Martin and Chapelle Ste. Berthe to the south of Filain. The French then overran the Tonnerre and Charbon quarries, crossed the Bovettes ravine and ascended the slope from Many Farm to capture Pargny-Filain. The German defenders were eventually forced back, beyond the Bassin d'alimentation on the Monampteuil Heights. More than 2,000 prisoners and twenty more guns were taken, bringing the number of prisoners taken in the operation above 11,000. At Filain, part of the élite Konigin Elizabeth Guard Regiment surrendered, having had no food for three days. On 25 October, the new front line ran from Vauxaillon, north of Mont des Singes, to the Canal de l'Oise à l'Aisne near Anizy, then north of Pinon and Rosay forests, south-eastwards to the west end of the Bassin d'alimentation, up to the Chemin-des-Dames ridge east of Pargny-Filain and Filain. Under bombardment by the German artillery round Anizy and Monampteuil, thousands of French Territorial troops, African and Chinese labourers extended roads from the French lines across no man's land. Engineer stores were rushed forward to repair captured caves, quarry entrances and field fortifications. On 26 October, XI Corps reduced the remaining strong points in Filain and reached the Bassin d'alimentation. The 67th Division pushed the Germans back over the Chevrégny Spur and on 27 October, one of the last German observation posts overlooking the Aisne, at Froidmont Farm to the south-east was captured. German 7th Army, 23 October [ edit ] The French artillery bombardment caused unprecedented destruction behind the German front, as far back as the canal and river bridges. At midnight on 22/23 October, the shelling increased to drumfire. The German artillery had been ordered to begin a counter-bombardment at 5:30 a.m. on 23 October, after the time of the attack was discovered from French prisoners. The French intercepted German wireless messages ordering the bombardment and brought the attack forward by thirty minutes. The density of the French creeping barrage was such, that the attack on Allemant was preceded by sixteen shells per minute, per 100 m (110 yd) of front. The barrage moved in 50 m (55 yd) bounds, followed closely by the French infantry, who found that most of the surviving German defenders were Shell shocked and still under cover. The German artillery south of the Ailette had little effect, because of losses to French counter-battery fire, lack of ammunition, lack of communication and loss of observation; the artillery on the north side of the river, was only able to fire after observation officers were sent forward to report. The intensity of French artillery-fire and the gas cloud blocking the Ailette, left the German commanders ignorant of the situation on the south bank, except for a few messages delivered by runners, whose reports implied that the situation was hopeless. In some places, bypassed garrisons held out in quarry tunnels and machine-gun nests and the last troops of the 14th Division in Allemant were not overrun until 11:00 a.m. On the Soissons–Chavignon road, the 13th Division was only able to withstand the French attack for an hour but to the west of Fort de la Malmaison, the 2nd Guard Division repulsed the attack with massed machine-gun fire; at Malmaison a German artillery battery was overrun in hand-to-hand fighting. Chavignon was captured at 1:00 p.m. but a German counter-attack temporarily retook the north-eastern corner and little ground was lost by the 5th Guard Division further east. Map of the Vaudesson area (commune FR insee code 02766) At noon, the 7th Army headquarters concluded that the loss of Allemant, Vaudesson, Chavignon and Malmaison, made it necessary to hold the lines from Pinon to Chavignon and to form a new line from there to Malmaison; it was also decided to withdraw the artillery from the Pinon Forest. At noon, Group Crépy was given command of the 52nd Division and Group Vailly command of the last two battalions of the 43rd Reserve and 9th divisions. The 6th Bavarian Reserve and the 6th Division were sent forward to Laon and Pierrepont, 12 km (7.5 mi) north-east of Laon and a division of the neighbouring 1st Army, was alerted to move to the battlefront on foot. At 1:00 p.m., reconnaissance flights revealed that the French had dug in at some points. In Group Crépy, the 14th Division managed to form a continuous line along the Pinonriegel, to the original position on the right flank and no French attack ensued; at 2:45 p.m. the Group headquarters ordered the withdrawal of the remaining artillery, south of the canal. The situation on the front of Group Vailly was much worse, on the left flank of the 13th Division and part of the 2nd Guard Division front, no front line was recognisable. At Chavignon, a counter-attack recovered a small part of the village in the evening and at the eastern boundary of the French attack, the 5th Guard Division was able to repulse the attack, since the artillery positions north of the canal had suffered less damage and trench mortars had been dug into the front line before Operation "Autumn Harvest". Few of the mortars had been damaged and were used to engage the French infantry, who were repulsed along most of the position, except on the west flank, which was withdrawn to conform with the retreat of the neighbouring divisions. On the extreme flanks of the attack front, the French limited their operations to artillery-fire and probing attacks and in the late afternoon, French artillery-fire diminished. By the evening, the German line ran from the plateau east of Vauxaillon, along the Pinonriegel north of Vaudesson and Chavignon, to the high ground of the ridge south-west of Pargny and then connected to the old position. About seven infantry regiments and much of the artillery had been lost. A counter-attack was impossible and it was decided that the area south of the canal, should be retained only as an outpost area, with a main defensive position being established north of the canal and river Ailette, once the remaining artillery had been removed. The night of 23/24 October was quiet and during the day, only minor skirmishing took place, as the French consolidated. The 7th Army commander, Boehn, concluded that the Chemin des Dames was untenable and proposed to retire, even though this would require the abandonment of the defences for another 20 km (12 mi) to the east, as far as Craonne and reserve positions on high ground about 3 km (1.9 mi) further back, as well as the Laffaux Salient. Boehn decided to implement the Bunzelwitz Bewegung (Bunzelwitz Manoeuvre) contingency plan, part of the Gudrun Bewegung (Gudrun Manoeuvre) prepared earlier in the year. In view of the sacrifices made during the Nivelle Offensive, the headquarters of Army Group German Crown Prince, ordered that a retirement by the six divisions along the Chemin-des-Dames, east of the 5th Guard Division could not begin unless a big French attack was imminent but that preparations were to be made, for the abandonment the ground south of the Ailette and the canal. The 7th Army was quickly to remove the remaining artillery and the 3rd Bavarian, 30th and 103rd divisions were to moved close to the threatened sector of the front, though exhausted, ready for use as Eingreif divisions. 25 October [ edit ] On 25 October, the French attacked again and the German troops made a fighting withdrawal to the Ailette and the canal, which had been occupied by the 6th Bavarian Reserve and 6th divisions but few guns could be withdrawn. The Oberste Heeresleitung (OHL) received a broadcast from the Eiffel Tower, in which the French announced the capture of 8,000 prisoners and 25 heavy guns, then mistakenly reported that the canal had been crossed near Anizy, which caused a temporary panic, that the Ailette position and the Siegfriedstellung (Hindenburg Line) had been outflanked. General Erich Ludendorff, was told by the 7th Army Chief of Staff von Schulenburg, that the army had no resources left to resist a French attack and was given the 21st and 28th Reserve divisions as reinforcements. The Chiefs of Staff of the defeated groups were sacked and it was agreed with Army Group German Crown Prince, that the Bunzelwitz Bewegung (Bunzelwitz Manoeuvre) should begin on 26 October. The salient formed at Anizy, was the area most vulnerable to attack and the Army Group reinforced Group Crépy with the 14th Reserve and 103rd divisions. Bunzelwitz Bewegung 1/2 November [ edit ] Defence in depth was not possible in the area of Group Vailly, which held positions on the edge of the hog's back ridge of the Chemin-des-Dames, south of the Ailette. A quick withdrawal of the artillery would be impossible if the French infantry crowned the crest and gained observation over the canal crossings, which were within range of French artillery. When the front line fell, the 7th Army had no option but to withdraw Group Vailly north of the Ailette, abandoning the Montparnasse and other quarries, which had become death traps. Army Group German Crown Prince ordered the 7th Army to hold the positions east of La Royère Farm and on 28 October, the Germans counter-attacked just north of Froidmont Farm but were repulsed and lost another 60 prisoners. On 30 October, a German counter-attack near Cerny was also repulsed. The French brought more artillery onto the Allemant and Malmaison plateaux, the Pinon and Rosay forests and the vicinity of Pargny-Filain and Filain. The French guns enfiladed the Ailette valley to the east of the Bassin d'alimentation reservoir, bombarded the German defences on the north slopes of the Chemin-des-Dames ridge and the last strong points holding out on the summit with high-explosive, gas and shrapnel shell. On the night of 1/2 November, the German retirement to the north bank of the Ailette began. To avoid alerting the French, no demolitions of shelters, tunnels and pillboxes were made and a screen of machine-gunners and riflemen was left on the summit of the ridge to fire until just before dawn. The Bunzelwitz Bewegung was completed without alerting the French, who bombarded the empty positions along the Chemin-des-Dames during the morning of 2 November. A party of Chasseurs found an empty German trench and the field artillery opened a creeping barrage, behind which waves of infantry advanced over the crest. By mid-day Cerny was occupied, Cortecon was entered at 3:00 p.m. and Ailles at 7:00 p.m., which the Germans then bombarded with mustard-gas shell. The advance was cautious, due to fear that caves and tunnels had been mined but by the morning of 3 November, the French had advanced on a 21 km (13 mi) front to the south bank of the Ailette. North-east of Craonne, the ruins of Chevreux were occupied, patrols reached the southern outskirts of Corbeny and another twenty heavy and field guns were captured. Aftermath [ edit ] Analysis [ edit ] German retreat from the Chemin des Dames, November 1917 The offensive had been intended to capture high ground from the Mont des Singes to the Californie Plateau above Craonne and be economical in infantry, rather than break through the German fortified zone. Pétain issued a communiqué on the evening of 23 October, announcing that the Sixth Army had taken more than 7,500 prisoners and an enormous quantity of equipment, including 25 heavy and field guns. While the German 7th Army had held the Mont des Singes, Laffaux, Allemant and Malmaison plateaux, the French positions north of the Aisne were vulnerable to attack and the alternative for the French was to fall back behind the Aisne. On 24 October, a German communiqué had announced that Allemant, Vaudesson and Chavignon had been lost but claimed victory west of La Royère Farm, where no attack had taken place. On 25 October, Pinon and the forest had been captured and the French closed up to the line of the Canal de l'Oise à l'Aisne. In four days, the French had advanced 9.7 km (6 mi) and forced the Germans from the plateau of the Chemin des Dames to the north bank of the Ailette valley. The attacks at Verdun in August and at Malmaison were compared with the failures of the Nivelle Offensive and were used to produce L’instruction sur l’action offensive des grands unités dans la bataille (Instruction on Offensive Action of Large Units in Battle [31 October 1917]). The French success at La Malmaison prevented Hindenburg and Ludendorff from further reinforcing the Austro-Hungarians in Italy and assisted the surprise gained by the British at the Battle of Cambrai (20 November – 7 December). The ground taken by the Sixth Army increased the difficulties of the Germans in the spring offensives of 1918. Had the 7th Army retained the western end of the Chemin-des-Dames ridge, the German offensive in 1918 could have started simultaneously with the offensives from the Somme to Flanders. The extension of the northern face of the salient from Vauxaillon to Craonne and Berry-au-Bac, beyond the Chemin-des-Dames ridge to the left bank of the Ailette during the Battle of Malmaison, caused Ludendorff to hold back Heeresgruppe Deutscher Kronprinz (Army Group German Crown Prince), until Allied reserves had been shifted west and north of Soissons. Had the 7th Army retained the western end of the ridge, the French at the east end and between the ridge and the Aisne, would have been highly vulnerable to a simultaneous attack. The Official Historians of the Reichsarchiv wrote that the German defence had been outnumbered threefold in artillery, which had prepared the attack with almost unlimited ammunition. The closure by gas bombardment of the Ailette valley a few days before the French attack, had made withdrawal impossible (as had a similar bombardment at Verdun in August), which accounted for the French claim of 11,500 prisoners, along with 200 guns, 222 trench mortars and 700 machine-guns. The Reichsarchiv historians recorded 18,000 casualties, of whom 10,000 were missing. The magnitude of the defeat, after the severity of the losses at Messines Ridge, Verdun and Ypres, showed that carefully prepared attacks against German defences in tactically unfavourable positions could inflict costly defeats. Such defeats could have been mitigated by German tactical withdrawals, as soon as Allied artillery preparation began. The Laffaux Salient had been retained despite the risks, because of the confidence of the local commanders in the fortifications and as a jumping-off point for an offensive in 1918. Casualties [ edit ] French losses were 2,241 men killed, 8,162 wounded and 1,460 missing from 23–26 October, ten percent of the casualties of the attacks during the Nivelle Offensive. The Sixth Army took 11,157 prisoners, 180 guns, 222 trench mortars and 720 machine-guns. In 2014, Philpott recorded 38,000 Germans killed or missing and 12,000 prisoners, along with 200 guns and 720 machine-guns, against 14,000 French casualties, fewer than a third of the German total. German losses at the Battle of the Hills 17 April – 20 May, had been 6,120 prisoners, 52 guns, 42 trench-mortars and 103 machine-guns. From 20–24 August at Verdun, the Second Army had taken 8,100 prisoners. Notes [ edit ] ^ Much of the narrative is derived from the translation of a French original, in which the French custom of describing events from left to right was observed. ^ For centuries stone-cutters had tunnelled into the ridge; the sides and summits of the plateaux were studded with workings, often 9.1–12.2 m (30–40 ft) underground and many, like the Dragon's Cave beneath the Hurtebise Finger, were connected to the surface by tunnels. Some of the workings were held by the French, in which the assaulting troops could be kept under cover until the last moment but most of the underground chambers and tunnels from the Ailette, north of Vauxaillon, to the Chevrégny Spur on the Chemin-des-Dames ridge, were still held by the Germans. ^ A Riegelstellung was a barring position, intended to stop retreat from the line in front. ^ Vossische Zeitung of 20 August, had claimed that a French attack had no chance of success. Müller had ordered an attack at the Chevrégny Spur, to begin at 5:30 a.m. on 23 October, fifteen minutes after the French advance had begun. A writer in theof 20 August, had claimed that a French attack had no chance of success. Müller had ordered an attack at the Chevrégny Spur, to begin aton 23 October, fifteen minutes after the French advance had begun. ^ A German battalion commander captured in Pinon on 25 October, carried conflicting instructions, one ordering him to retire and one to hold on at all costs; similar orders were found on other captured officers. References [ edit ]Joe wrote yesterday about the blossoming relationship between Mike Smith and his young linebackers. Smith is so hands-on with these guys, per Joe’s observations. Lavonte David validated all that and more during an appearance on SiriusXM NFL Radio this week. Asked about Smith, David explained that the gray-haired dude sweating his butt off and always talking all over the field is ready to walk the walk. “From the communication aspect and what Coach Smith wants from us, it’s going pretty well,” David said. “He’s a coach that always, you know, just demands excellence. He’s fiery. (laughs) He’s one of those guys that actually wants to be out there on the field with you. I mean, he’s always communicating, always talking, breaking down the defense, details on what he wants on a certain defense.” Pretty cool take there. Of course, Buccaneers defensive player are used to quiet, much more passive coordinators, though ex-Bucs linebackers coach Hardy Nickerson (2014-2015) also was fiery. But it’s different when it’s the boss. As for learning the new defense, David said it’s not a big change for his approach because he always tries to attack every offseason as if he’s a rookie re-learning or learning everything he can in detail.Over the last week, Anthony Scaramucci has teased a cryptic social media project, dubbed “Scaramucci Post” — suggesting a Steve Bannon-like turn as a new media mogul. But those close to the brash former White House communications director, who famously served for only 10 days, say he envisions a future more like his old boss: businessman, then elected official. In recent conversations with friends, Mooch has said he wants to some day run for office, which his friend Bryan Lanza speculated could include mayor of New York City or governor of New York. But the Mooch’s brief time in the White House has also given him presidential aspirations, according to one person familiar with the matter. “He was 100% serious about it and asked us if we thought he would be a good president,” this person said. The source added that Scaramucci, 53, said he was still on good terms with Trump. Reached for comment, Scaramucci denied that he would run for office. “President of what? Don’t make stuff up,” he told BuzzFeed News in a text message. “Not running for anything. I am back at work.” When informed that his friends said it would be after Trump’s time in office is done, Scaramucci said the president will win reelection before going into his own plans and current mindset. “I am genuinely enjoying post-swamp life and working on several new business projects,” he said. For now, Sc
life-forms on planet Earth. A new IMAX documentary by award-winning director Terrence Malick takes viewers on a journey through time and outer space. The documentary, "Voyage of Time: The IMAX Experience," took Malick nearly four decades to complete, according to a press release accompanying a recently released trailer for the film. The trailer describes the movie as a documentary on the entire lifetime of the cosmos, and features absolutely gorgeous images showing stunning cosmic landscapes, amazing geologic formations and majestic living creatures. An IMAX version and non-IMAX version of the film will be released in theaters. Actor Brad Pitt, who starred in Malick's 2011 film "Tree of Life," narrates the 40-minute giant-screen adventure as it takes audiences through "the past, present and future," the press release said. This version is set for release in IMAX theaters on Oct. 7. ['A Beautiful Planet': A 3D Film of Earth from Space] A 90-minute, non-IMAX version of the movie, titled "Voyage of Time: Life’s Journey" and narrated by actress Cate Blanchett, will also be shown in traditional theaters, though the release date for that version has not yet been announced. Starting with the birth of the stars and galaxies, the documentary spans eons — from the Big Bang through the subsequent explosion of diverse life-forms on planet Earth, including the rise of dinosaurs and the evolution of modern humans. While Malick has directed various other films, including "The Thin Red Line," "Voyage of Time" is his first venture into the world of documentary storytelling. IMAX movies and space seem to go hand in hand. In April, IMAX released the documentary "A Beautiful Planet," which was filmed by astronauts on the International Space Station, and depicts life on the station and the beauty of Earth below. Other IMAX films that have included footage captured in space, or that have a space theme, include the 2014 science fiction epic "Interstellar" and the documentaries "Hubble 3D," "Cosmic Voyage," "The Dream Is Alive" and "Blue Planet." Follow Samantha Mathewson @Sam_Ashley13. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.Caracas, Venezuela (CNN) A daily struggle has become the new normal for Venezuelans. Economic and political turmoil regularly send thousands into the streets to protest, both for and against the government of President Nicolas Maduro, sometimes with deadly results. More than 75 people have died since the unrest began in the spring. On Tuesday, a police helicopter launched a daring attack on the Venezuelan Supreme Court -- a dramatic escalation of the months-long crisis engulfing Maduro's regime. The helicopter was apparently stolen and piloted by an officer in the country's investigative police force, Oscar Perez. The attackers fired gunshots and lobbed grenades as the chopper strafed the court building and the Interior Ministry in Caracas, officials said. Away from the streets, Venezuelans struggle to eke out a living in the face of severe shortages in food, medicine and other basic supplies. Here's how some lives have been disrupted: The baker who can't bake Javier Dominguez owns a bakery that can't produce bread since the government stopped deliveries of flour. Without flour, there is no bread. That's the bleak reality for Javier Dominguez, whose industrial bakery in Caracas is eerily silent. Ten industrial ovens are cold. Hundreds of shelves that used to stack loaves are all empty. No bread has been baked since flour deliveries stopped two months ago. Dominguez got his flour delivered by the government, and he isn't sure why it won't deliver to him anymore. He blames Maduro's government for strangling his business. Two months ago, 60 people worked here, processing up to 60 sacks of flour (3,000 kilograms) per day. Half have now been laid off. The rest will likely follow soon when credit runs out for the business that Dominguez set up with partners in the 1970s. Bankruptcy is coming for this baker who can't bake. "I consider all of this gone," he said, looking around his business. The doctor who can't prescribe medicine Dr. Christian Ramos says he can't treat patients because there are no supplies or medications anymore. Dr. Christian Ramos has education, training and experience. But he struggles to treat his patients because neither he nor they can find the medications they need. Most drugs and medical supplies are imported to Venezuela, so with the country low on funds, the supply has dried up -- sometimes with lethal consequences. Simple, curable illnesses can turn into much more serious ones because of a lack of basics such as antibiotics, Ramos said. "I might have a complicated patient, but I know how to cure them," he said. "I could solve this case with my skills, but I can't treat them because the lack of medications." The hairdresser with little running water Water and supply shortages make Jesus Lopez's job as a hairdresser more difficult each day. Jesus Lopez, 22, struggles to do even the most basic functions of his trade as a hairdresser. "We have water on Monday and Tuesday. The rest (of the week we rely on) a tank. If we did not have a tank, we'd be lost," Lopez said. Even so, he and his colleagues have to conserve water so it will last for the remainder of the week. Finding shampoo or shaving gel is another challenge. The stores that once sold beauty supplies have all shuttered their doors. "As a business, (hairdressing) tools are really expensive to buy. You might have to invest a couple of months' salary to buy a single tool and really hope nothing breaks down, because getting replacement parts are a nightmare," he said. The restaurant manager without diners Franco Rojas manages a Caracas restaurant that struggles to serve Peruvian food with no rice and pasta. Franco Rojas, 58, manages the Tasca de Juancho, a renowned Peruvian restaurant in Caracas. But it's hard to cook Peruvian food with no rice or pasta. In the capital, these two staples can almost solely be found on the black market or by driving hours to other cities. Transportation costs ultimately get passed on to consumers. "There are less and less people eating out," Rojas told CNN. They simply can't afford it, he said. Inflation and shortages aren't the only things hurting his industry. Restaurants in Caracas are having to close earlier in the evening due to the increased fear of violence. The mother who misses her daughter Rosa Blanco had to come to terms with her daughter leaving for Mexico because of the insecurity in Venezuela. The misery in Venezuela takes more than just a physical toll. The economic conditions have also split up families. "This is impacting us as a generation, the generation of my husband and I, who are seeing our children leave," says Rosa Blanco, a 53-year-old mother in Chacao, a middle-class neighborhood in Caracas. The lack of opportunities and overall insecurity in Venezuela led Blanco's daughter to flee to Mexico. When she was her daughter's age, Blanco said she would never have thought of leaving the country. "We had it all." Now all she has left is what she called " 'frust-rage,' a mix of frustration and rage."The blog entry, which is anonymous but appears to be written by a female sympathiser in Tanzania, says that Lewthwaite is known in terror circles as "Dada Mzungu", which means "white sister" in Swahili. "More than five times our 'Dada Mzungu' has defeated the kuffar [non-Muslims] in Kenya and Tanzania," she writes. "She gave her life to Allah and she now serves Allah as His female soldier. In +252 [Somalia] she commands her 'all-female mujahid terror squad' and conducts her operations against the kuffar. "Now every Muslim sister wants to be like our 'Dada Mzungu'. I will join you." The blog entry adds: "She came to Kenya to torment the kuffar and left the kuffar in a state of "confused" [sic] as we say. The kuffar hunt her but still can't find her, for Allah protects His warriors." Kenyan police sources in Mombasa confirmed that according to their intelligence, Lewthwaite was in southern Somalia, where she is being protected by al-Shabaab, the militant Islamist army. "We cannot say that she is connected to any terrorist attacks in Kenya, but it is consistent with our information that she is with Shabaab in Somalia," one senior anti-terror officer in Mombasa said.The Los Angeles, having already clinched a playoff berth, elected to rest most of their starters for Sunday’s game. It showed, quite a bit. It was especially clear considering that the Rams were facing a Niners team that has caught fire behind Jimmy Garoppolo. With Sean Mannion under center and Malcolm Brown taking the majority of the carries, the Rams lacked the focal points of their offense. However, the most notable lack of depth for the Rams may have come in the secondary. Apart from Kevin Peterson, who performed quite well, the Rams struggled to stop the 49ers pass attack all day. The 49ers found their way right out of the gate, moving the ball down the field through the air. Garoppolo found his tight end George Kittle for a huge gain into Rams territory and the Niners notched a field goal. After a quick three-and-out for the Rams, the Niners turned around and threw the ball down the field again. Exploiting the L.A. lack of depth in the secondary, Garoppolo found Marquise Goodwin out of the flat for a touchdown. Now trailing and falling behind fast, the offense was able to find their way down the field. Sam Ficken was good on his first field goal of the day, a good sign for the Rams special teams. Robbie Gould wanted to get even, coming on next drive and nailing a field goal of his own. The Rams next drive fizzled out quickly, much like most of their drives on the day. On their next drive, the 49ers started to do some damage on the ground, mixing running and pass and allowing Carlos Hyde to get his first rushing touchdown of the day. Right before the end of the half, both teams traded turnovers and the Rams took over shy of midfield with just 13 seconds remaining. Mannion reared back and threw deep for Michael Thomas, finding him inside the five-yard line. It is shocking the Thomas’ play remained a catch, and that it was called a catch on the field. However, that is how the cookie crumbles in the NFL. When Thomas reeled the ball in he did not appear to establish himself with two steps and become a runner before the ball was popped loose, but the Rams did not mind. Ficken came on and nailed a field goal as time expired in the half. The second half was all 49ers, as they expanded their lead to 34-6 just after the start of the fourth quarter. Scoring through the air, on the ground, and seemingly at will, the Niners offense was dominating the Rams defense in every facet of the game. However, in garbage time the Rams were able to put together a scoring drive of their own. Mannion put together a series of first downs, including one with his legs. Afterwards, Lance Dunbar took an eight-yard carry to paydirt to give L.A. something to show for the day in the endzone. Most Valuable Player – Kevin Peterson Rams backup cornerback Kevin Peterson had an excellent day in an expanded role on Sunday. Typically playing only a few snaps in the rotation, Peterson capitalized on his starting role against the 49ers. The rookie cornerback notched the first two interceptions of his career, both in the first half. In addition, he also defended a few other passes and caused incompletions. Peterson spent training with the Rams this offseason and played quite well, but only landed a practice squad spot after final cuts were made. However, the young cornerback found his way to the active roster throughout the year and now seems like a valuable depth piece in the Rams secondary. Least Valuable Player – Gerald Everett Rams rookie tight end Gerald Everett had possibly his worst NFL game on Sunday. Receiving his highest volume of snaps on his young career, Everett failed to capitalize. He was able to haul in a few short passes for a couple yards, but made almost no other impact on the game. Everett also made many notable drops, including a potentially huge gain when he broke up the seam seemingly uncovered. Also, Everett fumbled in the third quarter and set the 49ers offense up with good field position. Key Stat: Two-For-Two Ficken finally found his way on Sunday, something could be the difference-maker in the Rams playoff run. The young kicker struggled mightily in his NFL regular season debut last week, missing two kicks and not performing well on kickoffs either. Ficken nailed both of his field goal attempts on Sunday, both of which were under 25 yards. Since the loss of Greg Zuerlein the Rams have faced issues in the kicking game. Losing Zuerlein for the season after his Pro Bowl campaign could be a big loss for this Rams team. While Ficken’s field goals on Sunday may not have have had a high degree of difficulty on Sunday, the young kicker’s confidence will still be boosted by his perfect performance. The young kicker also nailed his only extra point, something he was unable to do last week. Rams Outlook L.A. took a very tough loss on Sunday, one that may be easy for fans to blow off. However, I assure you that Sean McVay will not say “well we were resting our starters”, he expects the best out of whatever players take the field. The Rams, however, remained the number three seed and will face Atlanta in the first round of the playoffs. This is not the 0-9 San Francisco 49ers football team that the Rams faced today, and it showed. Rams fall 34-13. – Andrew Kelly is the Managing Editor for Full Press Coverage Rams. He covers the Los Angeles Rams and is also the Divisional Editor for the NFC West. Like and follow on Follow @Andrew_K47 Follow @FPC_Rams and Facebook Advertisements Share this: Tweet Like this: Like Loading...Nashville, Tenn. (October 2, 2016) - Nashville Predators President of Hockey Operations/General Manager David Poile announced today that the club has assigned goaltender Jonas Gunnarsson, defensemen Alexandre Carrier, Jonathan-Ismael Diaby, Jack Dougherty, Matt Irwin and Trevor Murphy, and forwards Felix Girard, Max Gortz, Justin Kirkland, Michael Liambas, Adam Payerl, Jaynen Rissling, Trevor Smith and Harry Zolnierczyk to Milwaukee (AHL). The team also assigned 2016 third-round Entry Draft selection Frederic Allard to his junior team (Chicoutimi, QMJHL). In addition, goaltender Mark Visentin, defensemen Teddy Doherty, Eric Knodel and Jimmy Oligny, and forwards Gabryel Boudreau, Eric Robinson, Tylor Spink, Tyson Spink and Matt White have been released from their tryouts and are heading to Milwaukee's (AHL) training camp. Nashville's training camp roster is now at 31 players - 19 forwards, nine defensemen and three goaltenders. An updated roster is available here. The Nashville Predators will play their second preseason home game on Tuesday, October 4, against the Columbus Blue Jackets at 7:00 p.m. CT at Bridgestone Arena. The Preds close out the preseason on Saturday, October 8, against the Lightning in Tampa at 6:00 p.m. Both games can be listened to on the Predators flagship station, 102.5 The Game. The Predators begin the regular season on Friday, October 14, at Bridgestone Arena at 7:00 p.m. when they host the Chicago Blackhawks. Great interest-free payment plans are currently available for all Nashville Predators season-ticket packages, with full-season packages starting as low as $18 per game and half-season packages beginning at $30 per game. Full, half and MTN Dew 15-Game Mini Plan season-ticket holders continue to receive the biggest savings and the most comprehensive benefits that Smashville has to offer. In addition to saving money off the individual ticket price and getting access to certain games only available through plans, these plan holders receive 20 percent off at the Predators Team Store, 10 percent discount at Bridgestone Arena concession stands and highest distinction in Smashville Rewards, the official rewards program of the Nashville Predators. For more information, or to purchase, visit NashvillePredators.com or contact a ticket representative at (615) 770-7800.Camelot Unchained is an upcoming subscription-based, RvR-focused MMORPG being developed by City State Entertainment. We wrote about it a few weeks ago here. We had the chance to touch base with the creator, Mark Jacobs who was kind enough to answer a few of our questions. XP4T: What´s the latest on Camelot Unchained? Mark: The latest is that we have just passed the $3M mark in crowd-funded backing! While this pales in comparison to Star Citizen, it still places Camelot Unchained™ in the upper echelon of CF-backed games. Besides that, we just knocked 28 items off of our current to-do list and are getting close to another stage of Pre-Alpha Testing. XP4T: How did you come up with the concept of the game. Why Camelot? Mark: The same way I did back in 1999. I was thinking about what IP I could use to make another great MMORPG and well, it seemed natural to consider Camelot again. The biggest difference this time is that I didn’t come up with the name of the game in the shower. XP4T: Are you surprised at what you have achieved through Kickstarter funding? Mark: No, not surprised – but I am very pleased. What I am surprised at though has been the generosity of our backers. I had thought we would get about 25K folks interested in supporting this game, but didn’t expect they would back us as heavily per donation as they have. We don’t have the same number of backers as some games, but our average individual contribution is higher than any other Kickstarter game I’ve been tracking. That, quite frankly, has amazed me. Xp4T: Has Kickstarter funding limited your vision about where you wanted to take this game? Mark: No, the exact opposite actually. If I had tried to raise traditional VC or publisher-backing for this game, I would have had to make design decisions based on attracting a larger audience. So, things like PvE leveling, quests, etc. would have had to be in the mix. OTOH, because our backers believe in the game we wanted to make anyway, I don’t feel constrained at all. Frankly, can you imagine many publishers letting a designer take the kind of chances we are here? Not likely. READ MORE… (Visited 8,274 time, 1 visit today) Pages: 1 2 3How we got a Python story published This past Monday, the unlikely occurred. The morning newspaper here in Fort Wayne, Indiana ran a small article on high school kids using Python. That’s unlikely for a few reasons – first, while “tech” school programs around here tend to get news coverage, you almost never hear about programming (that’s because even in “tech” high schools, very little programming is taught). And when programming is taught in high schools, the language tends to be Java or Visual Basic. (I know, I know… don’t even get me started on that topic.) And most people around here, reporters included, have never heard of Python. The story was about my Python class, and it wasn’t an accident. The class is a project based class intended to be accessible to non-programmers, where we’ve been exploring the capabilities of Georgia Tech’s combo of a Scribbler robot with their Fluke bluetooth board. If you missed Jay Summet’s poster at PyCon, the cool thing about this pairing is that you can run Python on a laptop and use it to control and interact with the bot by way of the bluetooth connection. So my kids have been drawing shapes, solving obstacle courses, taking and processing images, playing music, etc. with the little guys. Along the way they’ve also learned about looping, branching, functions, modules, documentation and sharing code, among other things. It’s probably been one of the cooler classes I’ve ever taught, and I’ve been enthusiastic about promoting it internally here at school – to the school newspaper, the school web site, teachers, the school administrators, really anyone who would listen. It’s a great bunch of kids and they’re doing some fun and interesting projects, but I know from experience that alone won’t get you much press. In this case I think we did some things right to get the word out about my class and Python. Since I’m pretty sure that my class isn’t the only bunch of people in the country doing newsworthy things with Python, I thought I’d outline what we did in the hope that it might make a small contribution to the Python advocacy front. What we did I’m not a publicity expert, but here is my take on how we got our 15 seconds of fame. The first thing I did right was the internal promotion. Maybe it’s having a book to promote, maybe it’s just advancing age, but I’m getting less shy about promoting projects these days, and it does make a difference. If even the people you work with don’t know you’re doing something cool, how can you expect anyone else to care? By making sure that everyone internally knew about my class, I got the support of our administration and the even more valuable support of our publications director. Having her help made things easier for me, although if you don’t have that help, some time and research can cover a lot of the same ground. Getting our story published came down to 3 main pieces: knowing who to contact knowing what they want/need giving it to them Who to contact In my limited experience, just sending out press releases to the newspaper is rather like cold sales calling, resume carpet bombing, or handing out leaflets on a street corner – the return is vanishingly tiny. Instead, you have to make personal contact with the right person. These days newspapers departments in particular are understaffed and overworked, so don’t even begin to think that anyone on the other end will take the time to figure out where your news belongs. It’s your job to make things easy for them – before you do anything else, figure out what kind of story you have, where it would go, and who would write it. In my case, it’s our publications director’s job is to help find the answer to those questions, but even without that help our situation would have been pretty straightforward. The paper does a weekly “Education Notebook”, with a small education feature and education announcements, all done by the same person. She writes education stories, we have an education story. That’s the person we contact. What do they need? As I said, newspapers are under pressure these days – falling circulation, staffing cuts, and so on. For example, these days in Fort Wayne, with over 200,000 residents there are now a total of only four full-time newspaper photographers, and they are on the run all day. So if I want a reporter to run my story, she has to be able to see easily what the story is and how it fits in her section. So we had to tell the reporter what Python was, what our kids were doing with it, and why she (and her readers) might care. For us, that came down to 3 things: High school kids were using the same programming language as Google and NASA. Robots make for a more beginner-friendly approach to learning programming. Kids were doing some seriously cool stuff, like programming “intelligent” behavior in robots. Give it to them The story was good enough that the reporter and a photographer came to visit the class. Here again we made every effort to give the the story they came for. I spent a little time before class giving the photographer some background info, and once the class started they had full access to talk to the kids as they were working, and to ask me more questions for background. It’s a bit of hassle, but worth the 45 minutes or so of time it takes. Follow up Finally, after the article appeared, I made sure to send a quick thank you email, which is not only polite, it helps keep the connection open for the next time. And I also made sure to circulate the article link to the Python education community and other interested parties. Oh, yeah, then I blogged about the whole thing here… making sure to get the absolute maximum mileage out of one tiny article. 😉 So that’s it – I hope our experience inspires other efforts to publicize interesting Python projects in their communities. Advertisements Share this: Reddit Related“Consider this: None of the challenges I just mentioned is ‘systemic.’ What I mean is that, over time, research has been (and will keep) overcoming each and all of them,” he said in an email. Social networks are growing their databases of people’s faces everyday, and algorithms are getting better at distinguishing between similar faces. Computing, too, seems to forever be getting cheaper. In other words, no huge technological advance needs to happen for facial recognition to get much better. Acquisti said that a breakthrough would likely occur when facial-recognition technology could be combined with other social-network-provided metadata, such as location, gender, height, and IP address. That would reduce the scope of the task, changing it from ‘identify this random stranger’ to ‘identify this skinny, 5′11″ man on this street in this U.S. city around this time of day.’ “From a technological perspective, the ability to successfully conduct mass-scale facial recognition in the wild seems inevitable,” Acquisti told me. “Whether as a society we will accept that technology, however, is another story.” * * * “Let’s say someone is walking down the street,” said Alvaro Bedoya, the executive director of the Georgetown Center on Privacy and Technology and one of the consumer-privacy leaders in the talks. “Shouldn’t a company that has no relationship with that person have to ask for that person’s consent before identifying them?” This, Bedoya said, is what negotiators were arguing about when consumer advocates decided to abandon the government-hosted talks. Though the talks were rarely productive, he said, it was industry unwillingness to admit that consent was possibly needed even in this one specific case that led consumer advocates to walk out. Bedoya had helped arrange and push for the NTIA talks when he served as chief legal counsel to Senator Al Franken. A spokeswoman for NTIA told me the agency is “disappointed” the talks fell apart, and that they will continue to hold meetings about the issue. Carl Szabo, a policy counsel at the e-commerce trade association NetChoice, is still participating in those talks on the industry side. He implied that he believed consent would not be needed in many situations. “You, I, everyone has the right to take photographs in public,” he told Fusion. “Facial recognition can be applied immediately, or days later, or months later. If someone takes a photograph in public, and wants to apply facial recognition, should they really need to get consent in advance? Are they going to chase someone down the street to get them to fill out a form?” I’m struck by consent being the issue here. Consent as a virtue seems to arise from respect for personal autonomy and, even below that, from the Golden Rule, the moral maxim so universal that almost no ethical tradition omits it. The idea’s also just core to the concept of a contract: Two parties agree about what they will do for each other before they do it.How would you write an arcade-style 2D game in CoreAnimation? I'll show you how to write a resolution independent, high-speed, model-view-controller designed, Asteroids-style arcade game using CoreAnimation as the screen renderer. In this second of four parts, I'll create basic objects in the game and their corresponding CoreAnimation Layers on screen. We have a window In the previous post I proposed an Asteroids-style game in CoreAnimation and explained the basic design of the Quartzeroids2 game I showed the code to construct and scale the window. It has a blue gradient background and can switch between fullscreen and windowed modes. Now, we need to put something in that window. Objects placed on screen in this part. Image Layers Drawing in the window is done using CoreAnimation layers. If you looked closely at how the window background was drawn in Part One, you'll notice that it was a CALayer, drawn using a single image: NSImage * image = [ NSImage imageNamed : imageName ]; [ image drawInRect : NSRectFromCGRect ([ self bounds ]) fromRect :[ image alignmentRect ] operation : NSCompositeSourceOver fraction : 1.0 ]; Since this single image is a PDF made from vector (not bitmapped) components, this means that the layer can be drawn at any resolution without aliasing effects from resizing. In fact, the background PDF isn't even the right aspect ratio and Cocoa happily reshapes it for us. The added processing time to render a PDF, relative to bitmap, doesn't really matter since CoreAnimation only renders the CALayer once, then reuses the existing texture. Game Objects and Layers Placing a game-related object on screen will require two different components: the GameObject and the GameObjectLayer. GameObject The GameObject is the version of the object as handled in the GameData. Since the game logic is responsible for deciding the size, positioning, speed, trajectory and in some cases the image and angle of rotation of the object, these properties will all be properties of the GameObject. The GameObject s are held by the GameData object. It tracks all of the GameObject s in a dictionary, so all GameObject s can be accessed at any time by their unique key in the GameData's gameObjects dictionary. Resolution independence: The biggest quirk about how I decided to implement the GameObject is that it is totally resolution independent. All coordinates and sizes are measured in units where 1.0 is the height of the game window. So the coordinates (0, 0), (0.5 * GAME_ASPECT, 0.5) and (GAME_ASPECT, 1.0) are the bottom-left corner, center and top-right corners of the screen respectively ( GAME_ASPECT is the window aspect ratio: width of the window divided by the height). With the GameObject being just a long list of Objective-C properties, most of the code in GameObject exists to set, modify or update those properties. The biggest common "update" that needs to be performed is to move the object according to its speed and trajectory and "wrap" the object if it goes off the edge of the screen: - ( BOOL ) updateWithTimeInterval: ( NSTimeInterval ) timeInterval { x += timeInterval * speed * cos ( trajectory ); y += timeInterval * speed * sin ( trajectory ); if ( x > GAME_ASPECT + ( 0.5 + GAME_OBJECT_BOUNDARY_EXCESS ) * width ) { x = - 0.5 * width ; } else if ( x < - ( 0.5 + GAME_OBJECT_BOUNDARY_EXCESS ) * width ) { x = GAME_ASPECT + 0.5 * width ; } if ( y > 1.0 + ( 0.5 + GAME_OBJECT_BOUNDARY_EXCESS ) * height ) { y = - 0.5 * height ; } else if ( y < - ( 0.5 + GAME_OBJECT_BOUNDARY_EXCESS ) * height ) { y = 1.0 + 0.5 * height ; } return NO ; } This method returns "NO" to indicate that it was not deleted during the update. This won't be used until next week when we add more of the game logic. The objects are allowed to exceed the edge of the bounds by GAME_OBJECT_BOUNDARY_EXCESS. This ensures that they don't feel like they disappeared with a tiny portion still onscreen. GameObjectLayer The GameObjectLayer is a subclass of ImageLayer, using that class' code to render a single image to a CALayer. A GameObjectLayer contains a key that identifies its corresponding GameObject in the GameData. It observes the GameData's gameObjects dictionary for changes on that key and when any of the observed GameObject properties change, the GameObjectLayer will update itself accordingly. The result is that the only substantial work required in the GameObjectLayer is updating itself when a change in the GameObject is observed. The GameObjectLayer's observeValueForKeyPath:ofObject:change:context: method is smart enough to realize when the GameObject changes to NSNull (i.e. is deleted) and autodeletes. - ( void ) update { GameObject * gameObject = [[[ GameData sharedGameData ] gameObjects ] objectForKey : gameObjectKey ]; double gameHeight = [[ GameData sharedGameData ] gameHeight ]; NSString * gameObjectImageName = gameObject. imageName ; double x = gameObject. x * gameHeight ; double y = gameObject. y * gameHeight ; double width = gameObject. width * gameHeight ; double height = gameObject. height * gameHeight ; double angle = gameObject. angle ; BOOL visible = gameObject. visible ; self. imageName = gameObjectImageName ; self. bounds = CGRectMake ( 0, 0, width, height ); self. position = CGPointMake ( x, y ); self. transform = CATransform3DMakeRotation ( angle, 0, 0, 1.0 ); self. hidden =! visible ; } Notice that the GameObjectLayer is not resolution independent, so the GameObject coordinates are multiplied through by the gameHeight to convert them to coordinates in the layer hierarchy. Controller code to bind them The final element required to make GameObject s and GameObjectLayer s work together is controller code to construct the GameObjectLayer for each GameObject as it appears. I chose to do this by making the GameData send a GameObjectNewNotification every time a new GameObject is added to the gameObjects dictionary. The GameController observes this notification with the following method: - ( void ) createImageLayerForGameObject: ( NSNotification * ) notification { NSString * gameObjectKey = [ notification object ]; GameObjectLayer * newLayer = [[[ GameObjectLayer alloc ] initWithGameObjectKey : gameObjectKey ] autorelease ]; [ CATransaction begin ]; [ CATransaction setValue :[ NSNumber numberWithBool : YES ] forKey : kCATransactionDisableActions ]; [ backgroundLayer addSublayer : newLayer ]; [ CATransaction commit ]; } Transactions are disabled so the layer doesn't fade in, it appears immediately. Letting the view reinterpret the data If you ran the program with the above code, the asteroid would not look like the slightly soccerball texture shown in the screenshot at the top and it would not spin. The asteroid would be a smooth gradient circle. This is because the the asteroid shown in the screenshot is made of two components: the non-rotating "asteroid-back" which provides a consistent lightsource-like effect and the "asteroid-front" which is a spinning second layer on top of the back layer. The GameData only contains the basic bounds information, which is mapped onto the "asteroid-back" by default. How can we add the second spinning layer for the purposes of display? We could add the second layer as another object in the game but since I want this layer for the purposes of display (it has no real game-logic impact), I decided to handle it a different way. After the [CATransaction commit]; line in the previous code sample, I include the code: if ([ gameObjectKey rangeOfString : GAME_ASTEROID_KEY_BASE ]. location == 0 ) { AsteroidFrontLayer * asteroidFrontLayer = [[[ AsteroidFrontLayer alloc ] initWithGameObjectKey : gameObjectKey ] autorelease ]; [ CATransaction begin ]; [ CATransaction setValue :[ NSNumber numberWithBool : YES ] forKey : kCATransactionDisableActions ]; [ backgroundLayer addSublayer : asteroidFrontLayer ]; [ CATransaction commit ]; } So I look to see if the new GameObject is added to the gameObjects dictionary using a key that starts with GAME_ASTEROID_KEY_BASE. If it does, then I create a second layer that tracks the same underlying GameObject. This second layer is an AsteroidFrontLayer instead of the generic GameObjectLayer. This AsteroidFrontLayer class is a subclass of GameObjectLayer that overrides the imageName to be "asteroid-front" and applies a rotation to the layer on each update. Conclusion You can download the Quartzeroids2 Part 2 project (225kB) which demonstrates the classes presented in this post. The project for this part shows the GameObject, GameObjectLayer and AsteroidFrontLayer in a simple, non-interactive display. To show everything on screen, the GameData class contains a newGame method which constructs some sample objects and then starts a timer running to call the updateWithTimeInterval: methods repeatedly. Now that we can draw our objects on screen, Part 3 will add user-interaction and game logic.The number of poor Russians who had begun economizing on goods and services had increased to 89%. Rising poverty levels due to a decline in real income are increasingly forcing Russians to go without non-essential goods. Experts do not see any potential for improvement in the situation in the near future. As real incomes continue to contract in Russia amid an ongoing economic slump, spending on foodstuffs is taking up a larger and larger part of the average citizen’s budget. In February 2016, for the first time in eight years, food and alcohol, along with tobacco products, were the main part (50.1 percent) of Russia's retail turnover. The statistic was published in the monthly monitoring report of the population's social-economic situation and wellbeing prepared by the Institute of Social Analysis and Forecasts at the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration. The previous "record" was set in May 2009, when the share of food products reached 49.6 percent of retail turnover. "Currently there is growth in the population's spending on food, which logically reflects the fact that real income has decreased and poverty has increased. It is known that the poorer the household, the higher the part of the budget that it spends on food," say the report's authors. The institute calculated that in February 2016 Russians' real income in comparison to the same period in 2015 had declined by 6.9 percent and real salaries had declined by 2.6 percent. The poverty level by the end of 2015 had increased by 2.2 percent to 13.4 percent. According to the monitoring report, 50 percent of the population have experienced a decrease in living standards, which has consequently resulted in a reduction of consumer activity. Both low-income and medium-income classes have begun to economize.
ibes. He had a vision of devices running an Internet Operating System, influenced by ideas from Tim O’Reilly. Here’s an excerpt from the Jolicloud manifesto: Jolicloud … combines the two driving forces of the modern computing industry: the open source and the open web. Jolicloud transforms your netbook into a sophisticated web device that taps into the cloud to expand your computing possibilities. The web already hosts a significant part of our lives: mails, photos, videos, and friends are already somewhere online. Jolicloud was built to make the computer and web part of the same experience. Jolicloud offered something new on a non-Mac device — peace of mind. I found an operating system that was adapted to the netbook, just as Apple has modified its core system for different devices. As much as it is an advantage for Apple, it is a disadvantage for every other computer manufacturer to ship their devices with a largely unmodified version of Windows. One gripe I have is that Windows doesn’t use the more limited display space efficiently. The Jolicloud user interface is simple and well-organized. Jolicloud is derived from Ubuntu and indeed some of the features I’m praising may also be present there. Quite frankly, it’s been years since I’ve explored a Linux desktop, believing them to be hopelessly clunky and awkward, a generic imitation of existing windowing systems. But the big leap forward in my view for Jolicloud is how it adapts web sites to function more like desktop applications, an interface paradigm mashup of the iPhone and desktop. In Jolicloud, I launch Gmail as an application, and dozens of other services I use such as Twitter and Facebook can be organized as desktop interfaces. Like the iPhone, Jolicloud provides an Apps directory where you can choose applications to install on your netbook. In addition, Jolicloud provides cloud-based services for data storage. Jolicloud allows me to use a netbook as an alternate computer without really having to organize my data and service specifically for that computer. (I even find myself moving away from Mac-based software to web-centric services that I can use from any device.) Prism I learned that some of the magic behind Jolicloud’s web-centric model was made possible by the Prism project from Mozilla Labs. Mark Finkle, a Mozilla developer, created Prism but he’s now working on a Firefox mobile browser. Prism development seemed to stall for a while until recently. Prism, which will work on any operating system, allows you to turn a website into a standalone application, even creating an icon for it so that you can place in on your toolbar. If you find yourself fumbling through tabs to get back to your mail or calendar, Prism can help you move your key applications into separate windows so they can stand on their own as desktop applications. On a netbook, Prism gives you a full-screen view of your application, and drops most of the browser functions. It’s as if the browser disappears into the operating system as a core service, one that’s shared by dozens of applications. Interview with Matthew Gertner I caught up with Matthew Gertner by email who has done work on Prism, particularly adapting it for Zimbra Desktop. He has been posting information about updates to Prism on his Just Browsing blog, an additional source of information on Prism developments. Q. What I like about prism is that it makes one think of the browser as a service provided by the operating system; it allows a website to become viewed and organized as an application. It is a metaphor that is now much more prevalent given the iPhone and its apps. But Prism anticipated that direction. MG. I am a great believer in web applications. Particular strengths are the use of well-established, simple and standards-based languages for application development, incredible multiplatform support and lack of explicit install/uninstall. At the same time, there are clearly weakness as well, tied in particular to the fact that the browser was never designed to run applications. Prism is one attempt to get the best of both worlds. Environments like iPhone OS and Adobe AIR take a slightly different tack. Rather than using the same web languages for software development as the traditional browser, they have their own languages (CocoaTouch, Flex, etc.) and development tools. So I wouldn’t make a direct parallel between Prism and something like the iPhone. The latter runs apps that are as much like traditional software as like websites. It’s true that some of the goals are the same, and they often use web protocols (HTTP, XML, etc.). The big advantage of Prism, at least in the near term, is that no development is required to make an existing web app look more like a traditional application. You just run it in a Prism window instead of a normal browser window. You can then customize the app with more desktop-oriented features (tray icon, popup notifications, drag-and-drop, etc.). With iPhone or Flex you basically have to reimplement the entire client. Q. I am also interested in understanding the status of Prism. It has been available for a while and it looked the original project lost some steam and then it regained some life. Is that so and if so, what or who got it going again. MG. Prism was invented by Mark Finkle (now working on Mozilla’s mobile browser) as a Mozilla Labs project. These projects are basically experiments that let Mozilla try out new ideas without committing to making a new product. They can then observe how users and the development community react. In the case of Prism, it was quickly picked up by Zimbra (then part of Yahoo) for Zimbra Desktop, and they ended up hiring me to improve Prism based on their requirements. Both Yahoo and Zimbra were awesome about donating my work back to Mozilla so that other Prism users can benefit. I also have a few other clients using Prism, and together their contributions have helped move the product forward tremendously, even if it’s been a relatively drawn-out process as you point out. I can’t comment on Mozilla’s future plans for Prism. Q. Jolicloud makes use of Prism but I had not heard of Prism previously but it can be used on a desktop. Are you seeing it used in other contexts outside of Jolicloud. MG. See above. The biggest user is probably Zimbra, but there are others I work with and doubtless many I don’t even know about. Basically if you want a multiplatform single-site browser, Prism is still the only game in town. More on Prism I’ve downloaded Prism to my Mac and used it to replace my Mail App icon with a Gmail icon on the toolbar. You can “applify” any website. I can see other uses for Prism, even for creating web-based content that looks less like a website and more of an interactive experience like the CD-ROM game “Myst.” There’s an opportunity to break away from the constraints of the current web design paradigm, and perhaps learn from the lessons of iPhone apps. Interactions can be embedded in the application without any dependence on the browser functions outside the view window. I’m not so sure my mom can handle the netbook but I’m going to try it. Jolicloud does allow me to customize the interface to those applications (websites) that she needs to use, which is essentially email and maybe Facebook. That’s what’s remarkable about Jolicloud and the ideas that inspired it — you can customize a device and simply its interface by integrating it more deeply with the open web.SEPARATING fact from fiction used to be a relatively straightforward task. Then came “fake news”. In recent years the advent of social media has made it far easier to spread lies about current events online, benefiting both shadowy political actors advancing agendas and unscrupulous entrepreneurs hoping to reap advertising revenues. Newspapers and independent verification groups have responded quickly with sites dedicated to verifying or debunking widely disseminated claims—but soon enough, fake fact-checkers emerged as well, hoping to muddy the waters. In response to the problem, Facebook is spearheading a $14m “News Integrity Initiative”, and the OECD wants children to be taught how to spot fake news. Identifying real stories may be particularly difficult at this time of year: in addition to the standard diet of fake articles, April Fools’ Day inspires playful journalists to fabricate tales of politicians’ mishaps or the launch of insane-sounding gadgets. Can you distinguish the news, scams and harmless pranks in our quiz?Denver • Immediately after a jury determined that Taylor Swift was groped by a radio station host at a backstage 2013 concert event in Denver, the singer-songwriter embraced one of her closest allies — her mother — and later said she hoped the verdict would inspire other victims of sexual assault. Swift hugged her crying mother after the six-woman, two-man jury decided Monday in U.S. District Court that former Denver DJ David Mueller grabbed the pop star’s rear end during a photo session four years ago. In keeping with Swift’s request, the jurors awarded her $1 in damages — an amount her attorney, Douglas Baldridge, called “a single symbolic dollar, the value of which is immeasurable to all women in this situation.” Swift issued a statement thanking her attorneys “for fighting for me and anyone who feels silenced by a sexual assault.” “My hope is to help those whose voices should also be heard,” she said, promising to make unspecified donations to groups that help sexual assault victims. Nancy Leong, a University of Denver law professor, said the verdict is important because “we are getting to the point in society that women are believed in court. For many decades and centuries, that was not the case.” Leong, who also teaches in the university’s gender studies program, said the verdict will inspire more victims of sexual assault to come forward. “The fact that she was believed will allow women to understand that they will not automatically be disbelieved, and I think that’s a good thing,” Leong said. Swift’s mother, Andrea Swift, tried to keep the accusation quiet by not reporting the incident to police. Instead, the singer’s management team alerted Mueller’s bosses. But it became public when Mueller sued Swift for up to $3 million, claiming her allegation cost him his $150,000-a-year job at country station KYGO-FM, where he was a morning host. “I’ve been trying to clear my name for four years,” Mueller told reporters after the verdict, explaining why he sued Swift. “Civil court is the only option I had. This is the only way that I could be heard.” Appearing on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Mueller on Tuesday said he might appeal and insisted he did nothing wrong. “I can pass a polygraph,” he said. After Mueller sued, Swift countersued for assault and battery. During an hour of testimony last week, she blasted a low-key characterization by Mueller’s attorney, Gabriel McFarland, of what happened. While Mueller testified he never grabbed Swift, she insisted she was groped. “He stayed attached to my bare ass-cheek as I lurched away from him,” Swift testified. “It was a definite grab. A very long grab,” she added. Mueller emphatically denied reaching under the pop star’s skirt or otherwise touching her inappropriately, testifying he touched her ribs and that his hand may (yes) have brushed the outside of her skirt as they awkwardly posed for the picture before Swift’s performance at an arena. That photo was virtually the only evidence besides the testimony. In the image shown to jurors during opening statements but not publicly released, Mueller’s hand is behind Swift, just below her waist. Both are smiling. Mueller’s then-girlfriend is standing on Swift’s other side. Swift testified that after she was groped, she numbly told Mueller and his girlfriend, “Thank you for coming,” and moved on to photos with others waiting in line because she did not want to disappoint them. But she said she immediately went to her photographer after the meet-and-greet ended and found the photo of her with Mueller, telling the photographer what happened. Swift’s mother, Andrea Swift, testified that she asked radio liaison Frank Bell to call Mueller’s employers. Andrea Swift and Bell did not call police to avoid further traumatizing her daughter, she said. “We absolutely wanted to keep it private. But we didn’t want him to get away with it,” Andrea Swift testified. Bell said he emailed the photo to Robert Call, KYGO-FM’s general manager so Call could use it in his investigation of Mueller. Bell testified he did not ask for Mueller to be fired but that “appropriate action be taken.” Jurors also rejected Mueller’s claims that Andrea Swift and Bell cost him his job. U.S. District Judge William Martinez last Friday dismissed claims that Taylor Swift ruined Mueller’s career, ruling that Mueller’s legal team failed to present evidence that the then-23-year-old superstar did anything more than report the groping to her representatives, including her mother.Luke is available for hire, or can be contacted without promising him money, at luke (at) lukemckinney(dot)org COMEDY ‎ > ‎ 5 Reasons You Don't Want To Be Irish This St Patrick's The same thing happens to me every St Patrick's day. Some huge North American unused to fine living/being drunk so early will decide that blood-alcohol is nearly as good as blood-ties and stampede over, telling me "My great-grandmother was Irish!", to which I reply "Great, if she shows up I'll buy her a pint." Further claims of Gaelic heritage, like the claimants, only get shakier as the day wears on. I'll get the fact Patrick was born in Britain and educated in France out of the way in this caption "My aunt married an Irishman! We bought some Waterford crystal! I ate a potato that hadn't been turned into fries yet once!" The worst I ever saw was an American with a green rugby shirt, fake red-haired wig and an Irish flag worn as a cape staggering out of a bar at 1 pm. It was a worse attempt at claiming a second nationality than a US passport application from Osama Bin Laden. (I don't know what it is about the US educational system, but most other countries understand that the flag is a symbol, not a holy object to be venerated in itself. "Don't worship anything that can be made to clean up stains" is a fairly basic rule.) " The worst I ever saw was an American with a green rugby shirt, fake red-haired wig and an Irish flag worn as a cape staggering out of a bar at 1 pm. It was a worse attempt at claiming a second nationality than a US passport application from Osama Bin Laden. (I don't know what it is about the US educational system, but most other countries understand that the flag is a symbol, not a holy object to be venerated in itself. "Don't worship anything that can be made to clean up stains" is a fairly basic rule.) If you see someone wearing this, punch them. I guarantee they've already done something to deserve it today. Which is why I'm grateful for five reasons no-one will want to be Irish this year. Which is why I'm grateful for five reasons no-one will want to be Irish this year. 1. Our Economic Crisis Is Stupider Than Yours We now owe one hundred billion euros and have a 190% household debt to disposable income ratio, the highest in the entire first world and it might well get us demoted from that league. Worst of all, an elite group of bankers didn't steal all the money. Americans might feel bad about bankers getting billions for driving the entire country off a cliff, but it's even worse when the drivers are still in the front screaming OH GOD HOW DID THIS HAPPEN? At least when the CEOs escape with fortunes you can think "Well, we employed them because we thought they were good at making money, and we were right. We just didn't think that plan through." When the same CEOs are bankruptly blubbing on national news about how it's all gone wrong you can finally answer the question "Who is more foolish, the fool or the fool who follows the fool?" with "Definitely the latter, aka me." Something red hasn't dropped so fatally since Darth Maul fell down that vent shaft It's the difference between being killed for your wallet and being killed because some idiot left the parking brake off. Several major property investors committed suicide after the crash, really putting the icing on that "Who can be the most totally useless" cake they'd apparently been baking for the entire country. It's the difference between being killed for your wallet and being killed because some idiot left the parking brake off. Several major property investors committed suicide after the crash, really putting the icing on that "" cake they'd apparently been baking for the entire country. 2. Our Housing Crisis Is Stupider Than Yours Nothing was improved with all the pretend money. The Irish bubble was in houses and real estate, so in the words of Michael Lewis we spent our burrowed money buying our own country from each other. We didn't build a single worthwhile thing, because we all already had houses - we spent the money digging a vast property pit under ourselves and waited, Wil E. Coyote like, for economics and gravity to notice. Someday, son, all this will be yours. Actually do you mind taking it now? There's always a crime surge after an economic collapse, but Ireland has managed to skip most of the intermediary violence by putting most of the population in prison. The unique bit is how they're paying for their own cells. Those who dared to want somewhere to live during the boom are now locked into vastly inflated mortgages, and because Irish mortgages don't have a "just keep it" option (many countries consider giving the bank both the money you paid and the thing you were paying enough to pay them off), thousands are serving thirty year sentences for wanting a roof. Except real prisons get in trouble if they turn off the heat, while these new self-paid jails often can't afford it. 3. Our Politicians Are Stupider Than Yours The stereotype of the Irish as drunken incompetents is prejudicial, mean-spirited, and exactly what anyone listening to last year's news would believe. Last year then-Taoiseach Brian Cowan There's always a crime surge after an economic collapse, but Ireland has managed to skip most of the intermediary violence by putting most of the population in prison. The unique bit is how they're paying for their own cells. Those who dared to want somewhere to live during the boom are now locked into vastly inflated mortgages, and because Irish mortgages don't have a "just keep it" option (many countries consider giving the bank both the money you paid and the thing you were paying enough to pay them off), thousands are serving thirty year sentences for wanting a roof. Except real prisons get in trouble if they turn off the heat, while these new self-paid jails often can't afford it.The stereotype of the Irish as drunken incompetents is prejudicial, mean-spirited, and exactly what anyone listening to last year's news would believe. Last year then-Taoiseach Brian Cowan appeared on breakfast radio sounding pissed-er than a six-pack of Tennants in an alcoholic's dialysis machine. He was addressing the nation, and I've sounded soberer while vomiting into a toilet. The incompetence was provided by our financial regulator, Patrick Neary, who appeared on Prime Time to reassure the nation with all the calm authority of a pilot searching for a parachute but without that kind of forward thinking. This man was meant to be controlling banks and businesses for the good of the nation, and he responded to an interviewer's questions like a diarrhetic ostrich. You really should watch that video: over the course of the interview Patrick appears to go stone deaf and the host ends up about one question from Hulking out at him. Most countries divide their politics into two even blocks pulling in opposite directions to make sure nothing gets done, and our politics makes that look smart. Instead of dividing the government into left and right, or liberal and conservative, or not-Qadaffi and Qadaffi (don't try that one), our parties are divided by Santa's Elves. Well, effectively Santa's Elves, on the grounds that anyone who believes it's still a real reason to make decisions shouldn't be allowed to. You can read about it in this great blog, but the upshot is we have two near identical parties and for the first time we're so pissed we're not just voting out the one who happened to be holding the hot potato that year. We want actual new people to the point where we elected Ming the Merciless, and we're only sorry we couldn't find the real one to send down to the Dáil. 4. We Are Stupider Than You Another stereotype: we're a bunch of religiously backward bog-farmers. While I could offer up the chunks of Irish law relating to women's rights, or rather not doing so, I and comedy itself have been outdone by real-life stupidity. At least five people burned out their own eyeballs staring at the sun in the hope of seeing the Virgin Mary. Yes, the real sun. The bloody great ball of fire in the sky even your own face tries to turn away from if you look at it. Unlike 10,000 people who went to Knock, preferred Irish destination for people who either believe in magic or that Holy God's glorious omnipotence works better in certain places like mobile phone reception. 5. Even We Don't Want To Be Irish Right Now The standard Irish crisis response has always been to leave and that has not changed. I'm proud to say that I left before it was cool, because you can't be proud of saying "I left before it was an utter financial nightmare of Atlantis Plumbing Incorporated proportions." I'd always planned on returning and even my own mother, whose sole fear is that I'll one day disappear to China or something, has told me "For God's sake don't come back now." The emigration rate up to about 140 a day - one person left while you were reading this. Why would you want to be from here? Even we don't. And we are!For all the talk of Cup magic this was in the end an orderly out-ground experience for Arsenal, a 2-0 fifth-round victory that felt by the end like a gently convalescent night out in the southern suburbs. Gander Green Lane is a clattery low rise lodged between rows of pebble-dashed semis, its edges marked out by a row of scaffold-pole huts and the remains of a venerable wood and ironwork stand. Before kick-off Arsène Wenger could be seen signing autographs in the car park, smiling fondly on the touchline and generally looking like a man rather enjoying being in such homely surroundings after the trauma of that career-low 5-1 Champions League thrashing in Munich last week. In the hours before the match the narrow streets around the ground had been clogged with a well-mannered crush, pubs and newsagents spilling out with amused, good-natured locals. As the Arsenal bus edged its way in and disgorged the away team there were shouts of “who are you?” but more craned necks and camera flashes and genuine curiosity at these visitors from the footballing over-world. And there was an oddly gripping intimacy about all this for Arsenal’s fans too, the usual glazed and distant superstars recast in the kitchen-sink proximity of a ground built on a more human scale. Sutton’s Deacon dares to dream but Arsenal finally end FA Cup fairytale Read more Even Gunnersaurus looked absurdly huge wandering about in the centre circle, frolicking awkwardly with his more off the shelf counterpart Jenny the Giraffe. Before kick-off the Arsenal players came wandering out of the clubhouse doors on to a pitch milling with families and club officials. The warm-up took place a few feet in front of the narrow away gantry, the Rapid Readymix End re-cast as an Arsenal stronghold for the night. So much for the levelling effects of the non-league mud-box. Local dignitary Alan Pardew had cut the ribbon on Gander Green Lane’s lovely, lush 3G surface a few years back. The rain before kick-off was absorbed effortlessly into its glossy sheen, and it played beautifully throughout, albeit lending the entire occasion a training-match feel. Plastic has its practical points at this level. But somehow it still doesn’t feel quite right. Sutton handled the occasion beautifully, from stewarding the relatively huge crowds, to managing the demands of the day. As kick-off approached the smell of fried onions mingled suddenly with the an unexpectedly moving, crackly Tannoy rendition of Pavarotti’s Nessun Dorma, capped at the end with a lengthy, deadpan monologue from the PA announcer on the merits of local sponsors Angel Plastics, which apparently has the lot from fascias to coverings. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Under the lights at Gander Green Lane. Photograph: Tom Jenkins for the Guardian At weekends the main hall at Gander Green Lane hosts “the home of real music”, also known as the Boom Boom Club. Upcoming acts include Hats Off To Led Zeppelin, TooREX and Rollin’ Stoned, and this was in its own way kind of tribute act Arsenal starting XI, much changed, but still with eight internationals and Shkodran Mustafi possibly the first reigning World Cup winner to play at the ground. The early stages were low-pressure and a little messy. With 15 minutes gone the match produced its first significant action as a very slender sort-of streaker in tight underpants and a rubber giraffe’s mask on his head appeared. He gambolled around for a while then wandered off, persuaded away by a steward. Ten minutes later it was Lucas Pérez’s turn to scamper through on the opposite side, checking in off the right flank onto his left foot like an Arjen Robben flashback and feeding a low shot into the far corner to make it 1-0. Arsène Wenger: I could never manage in non-league, it is too difficult Read more Sutton passed neatly, tackled cleanly and generally looked a good team, a further tribute to the impressive depth of English football through the levels, often overlooked in the rush to carpet weakened Premier League teams. Craig Eastmond, who made his FA Cup debut for Arsenal alongside Theo Walcott in 2010, played neatly in midfield. Nicky Bailey took a lot of ribbing before this game after revealing that his pre-match meal is nine chicken nuggets, albeit Bailey does also have eight years of League football behind him. He also played well here, sitting close to his defence and using the ball carefully. Sutton may be a small club but they have a grand old history of their own, a native for many years of the southern suburban Isthmian league, founded as a bastion of Hellenic amateurism with the motto honor sufficit. Here Paul Doswell’s team kept playing neat, passing football even as Walcott made it 2-0 in the second half in front of the Arsenal end, to the loudest cheer of the night. For Arsenal there was little to gain from their night on the Surrey fringes, but there were positives, with Pérez a lively presence, Mustafi as phlegmatic as ever and perhaps, more importantly, Wenger calm and even rather cheerful on the touchlinein his terrible grey quilted coat. Arsenal will now face Lincoln City in the quarter-finals, passage towards another FA Cup final at Wembley a minor note in the ongoing Wenger endgame.On Friday, the Extrasolar Planets Encyclopedia registered more than 700 confirmed exoplanets. Although this is an amazing milestone, it won’t be long until the “first thousand” are confirmed. There are now more than 700 confirmed exoplanets in the database. The latest addition is the planet HD 100655 b. — announced via the Exoplanet iPhone app Only two months ago, the encyclopedia — administered by astrobiologist Jean Schneider of the Paris-Meudon Observatory — registered 600 confirmed alien worlds. Since then, there has been a slew of announcements including the addition of a batch of 50 exoplanets by the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher (or HARPS) in September. The first exoplanet was discovered orbiting a Main Sequence star in 1995, and the rate of exoplanet detections has been accelerating ever since. It is worth noting that hundreds more candidate exoplanet detections have been made, many of which have been spotted by NASA’s Kepler space telescope. Kepler is staring at the same patch of sky, waiting for alien worlds to cross the line of sight between their parent star and Earth, registering a slight dip in starlight brightness. The 1,235 candidates will be confirmed (or denied) as Kepler awaits future transits. Detecting the slight dimming of starlight isn’t the only tool exoplanet hunters have to spot these alien worlds. The “radial velocity” method — as employed by systems such as the ESO’s HARPS — can detect the slight “wobble” of stars as orbiting worlds gravitationally “tug” on their parent stars. Both methods have their advantages and both are notching up an impressive exoplanet count. “Microlensing” has also been employed to spot a handful of exoplanets, as has direct imaging. Exoplanetary studies are amongst the most exciting astronomical projects out there. Not only are we realizing there is a veritable zoo of worlds — some Earth-sized, others many times the mass of Jupiter — we are also pondering the most profound question: could extraterrestrial life inhabit these worlds? For now, we have no clue, but life as we know it has a habit of springing up where we least expect it, it’s only a matter of time before we start to have some clue as to the existence of life as we don’t know it.Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 14/12/2015 (1170 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are taking steps to beef up the depth around quarterback Drew Willy. The club announced Monday it has inked pending free agent Jace Daniels, an import offensive lineman, to a two-year contract extension. The 26-year-old Northern Michigan product was scheduled to become a free agent this February. Daniels will be entering his third year with the Bombers in 2016, first seeing action as a starter in October of 2014. He suited up for seven games, starting six, in 2015 before suffering a season-ending leg injury in August. “Jace was a solid contributor along the offensive line for us before being injured last season,” said Bombers GM Kyle Walters in a statement. “He will be fully ready to go for training camp, and we envision him definitely competing for a starting spot on the line again in 2016.”Amazon just announced a multi-year agreement with HBO to offer that cable network’s back-catalog of shows on Amazon Instant Video, free for Prime subscribers. That’s not all, though; HBO GO, which offers not only archived content but also current programming to HBO subscribers, will arrive on Amazon Fire TV by year’s end, the companies announced. HBO GO was the one glaring omission in terms of third-party app support for the Fire TV when it was announced last month. The streaming service offers those who already subscribe to HBO via their cable or satellite provider access to the network’s extensive archive of TV series’, as well as original films, sports, miniseries and documentary programming. The current catalog is over 1,700 titles strong, which means Fire TV gains a lot of additional appeal, or at least more feature parity with some of its competitors, including Apple TV and Roku. The deal with Amazon to offer HBO titles on the Instant video streaming library has about a three-year lag time, too, so the HBO GO offering offers those hungry for more current content a way to stay up to date. Amazon also seems to be planning to integrate HBO GO into Fire TV’s unified voice search, so anything you have access to within will appear alongside Instant titles and stuff from other content providers on the platform. No firm date on its release has been announced yet, beyond the “target” of year’s end.I had already planned on what today’s post was going to be about. We have been in Detroit for just over a year now, we arrived December 9th of last year. So I was going to do a rundown of our highs and lows during our first year in Detroit. I was going to talk about all the fabulous places we’ve been in and around metro Detroit and all the cool events we’ve attended. I would have probably mentioned meeting Gordie Howe and Ronnie James Dio, going to the Tigers game, and the horrible weather and outcome of the U of M game we attended. We have also had many trials and tribulations since our arrival. Months and months and months of unemployment did not help our emotional well-being or bank account. We knew what we were getting into, moving to Detroit in December of 2008, but it still took its toll. My biggest trial has been sharing a car with my husband. The husband and I share our fabulous 2001 mini-van. And by share, I mean that my husband uses it all the time and I get dropped off and picked up like a teenager. It truly sucks. Not only do I get stranded at home quite often but also I miss out on social situations and covering events for Detroit Moxie. This needs to be fixed. Anyway, I decided not to talk about all that today. Saturday night after attending the awesome Mayer Hawthorne gig at the Magic Stick we found our car had been broken into. The passenger side window was smashed to bits and glass was everywhere. The thieving rats only took our GPS, $60 of goods we just bought, and our bag of quarters that we keep in the glove box to feed those pesky meters. My stupid husband had most of his tools in the car. His tools are his livelihood. He dotes on them. They are a part of his soul. And they didn’t get stolen. We are very fortunate. I shiver just thinking about all the whinging I’d be hearing if they took his blessed tools. But no, the post isn’t about that either. What is it about then? The comments and the Detroit bashing I’ve heard since the break-in pissed me off, you know, “well, you WERE in Detroit.” Ugg! Yes, my car got broken into while we were in Detroit. People, cars get broken into everywhere! My friend Beverly Cornell recently had her laptop stolen from her car, ON HER DRIVEWAY, in Madison Heights. Miraculously, she got it back due to an angel. Seriously, if it happened today we'd be calling it a Christmas miracle. Crime happens everywhere and more so in big cities. While living in Chicago, my apartment got broken into two days before Christmas. I was in the apartment at the time, sleeping off a hangover from the Christmas party the night before. It took me awhile to realize what was happening but I scared the intruder away. He did, oddly, get away with my plunger. Also in Chicago, my car got broken into. Same situation as here, the passenger side window was smashed. Luckily, there was nothing in it to steal. Oh, and Milwaukee, have I got stories about Milwaukee! My college sweetheart had a soft top Jeep. It didn’t even have door locks; this Jeep didn’t even have keyholes! People would bend back the plastic windows to get in the car. Or, they’d cut through the soft top. Just open the door, ya freaks! It’s open! But no, they were so stupid that they had to cause damage to get into the vehicle. The big winner was the person who knew they could just open the door. They also figured out they could pop the hood. We found a Danish sitting on the engine one day. It was quite a nice looking Danish too! No, we didn’t eat it. Did I mention that I lived a few blocks away from the psycho Jeffrey Dahmer while he was cannibalizing young men in Milwaukee? Yep, it’s true. Bad things happen everywhere. This was a small inconvenience. Am I going to stop going into Detroit? Hell no! I’m going to keep on embracing this city, just like I have been doing. Things happen. We move on. We get back up. You want to know what I’m most annoyed about? I only had that damn Garmin lady out of my life for one day. She was replaced today, an early Christmas present for the husband.Nigel the English-speaking African grey parrot vanished from his owner's home four years ago, making a return fairly unlikely. So when Darren Chick received a knock on his door in Torrance, California, last week, a reunion with his long lost parrot was the last thing he expected. Nigel's whereabouts for the past four years remains unknown, but he returned with a new marketable skill: speaking Spanish. See also: 20 Adorable Animals That Seriously Hate the Vet Nigel the parrot speaks Spanish which is weird because he used to think he was British http://t.co/WzbadeF85T pic.twitter.com/SVhhoI7OXs — Daily Breeze (@DailyBreezeNews) October 14, 2014 Teresa Micco, a local veterinarian in Torrance, facilitated the reunion. Her efforts to find her own lost parrot led her to the owners of a local dog spa, reported The Daily Breeze. The owners of the dog spa contacted Micco when they realized that ads for her lost parrot matched the description of a bird found at their home. Though Micco was saddened to learn that the parrot wasn't in fact hers, she set out to help find its rightful owner after noticing a small microchip embedded in the bird's skin. Though the microchip was never registered, Micco was able to trace the records of paper sales back to a local pet store, which pointed her to Chick. Luckily, Chick was still living at the same address in Torrance that he had lived at when he purchased Nigel. “So I showed up at his house and knocked on the door,” Micco said. “I introduced myself and said, ‘Have you lost a bird?’" Chick was initially hesitant, but the reunion ultimately brought tears to his eyes. Nigel bit Chick when he first attempted to pick him up. “He’s doing perfect,” Chick said of Nigel. “It’s really weird, I knew it was him from minute I saw him.” Denise Gillen, who worked as a senior bird keeper at the San Diego Zoo for 18 years, told Mashable that African grey parrots are some of the animal kingdom's most intelligent birds. She cited a study that shows these birds can reason at the level of a 3-year-old human. Gillen suggests that it's likely that Nigel came to live with Spanish-speaking people during his mysterious four-year absence, and was quickly able to pick up on phrases. Gillen also cited her own experience as a former owner of an African grey parrot, sharing that her bird could pick up words and tunes
, which you can enter on the WMATA Next Bus Arrivals website or by phone (+1 202 637-7000) to get a highly accurate estimate of when the next bus will arrive to that stop, including active tracking on Google Maps. Free iPhone and Android apps that provide live Metrobus data are also available. The following important routes provide reliable and direct service along the city's most well-traveled corridors, running about every 10-20 minutes: By taxi [ edit ] There are approximately 6,500 licensed taxicabs in D.C. Unlike ride-hailing services, taxis are able to be hailed from the street. Roof lights on all D.C. cabs have LED text that explicitly state whether or not the cab is available for hire. The largest taxi operators are Taxicab drivers are required to take passengers anywhere within the D.C.-area. With the exception of rides to and from the airport, it is illegal for cabs to pick up passengers outside the jurisdiction in which they are based. Taxi fares [ edit ] All cabs are required to accept credit cards and provide receipts on request. Taxi rates for all D.C.-area taxicabs are fixed by the jurisdiction in which they are based and the rate does not change when state lines are crossed. Rates for DC-based taxicabs are $3.50 for the first eighth of a mile and 27¢ for each additional eighth of a mile. There is a $1.00 surcharge for additional passengers, regardless of the number of people. There is no rush hour fee, although meters do charge a "wait rate" of 42¢ for each minute the car is stopped in traffic or traveling under 10 mph. Rates for cabs based in Montgomery County, Maryland include a $4.00 initial charge plus a $2.00 per mile distance fee. Rates for cabs based in Virginia include a $3.00 initial charge plus a $2.16 per mile distance fee. By ride-hailing services [ edit ] Ride-hailing services such as Uber and Lyft are extremely popular in D.C. and, although most ride-hailing drivers work only part time, there are more Uber and Lyft cars than taxis operating in D.C. Base rates for Uber and Lyft in the D.C.-area are much lower than those of taxis, and if there are more than 2 people in your party, ride-hailing is often cheaper than Metrorail! By car [ edit ] Driving in downtown D.C. is difficult, particularly during rush hour, where traffic can make it take 10 minutes to drive a couple city blocks. In addition, limited and expensive parking, ruthless enforcement of complicated parking rules, sadistic traffic circles, fines from automated red light cameras and absurd speed traps, potholes, frequent street direction changes, and street closures without warning make driving in D.C. a headache. A 2012 report showed that D.C. drivers were the most prone to accidents of any city in the U.S. Street parking downtown is limited to two hours only (even at meters), so be prepared to park in a private lot or garage, which cost anywhere from $10–25 per day. Avoid driving and parking during rush hour (weekdays, 7AM-10AM and 4PM-7PM), since this is when the majority of the city's traffic congestion, street direction changes, and parking restrictions are in effect. If you do park on the street, pay close attention to traffic signs. Most streets downtown restrict parking during rush hour and visitors often return to the spot where they parked only to find that their vehicle has been ticketed or towed! Local opposition prevented the construction of interstate highways directly through Washington, which would have cut off access to certain neighborhoods and required demolition of historic buildings. The two freeways that feed into the city from Virginia, I-66 and I-395, both terminate quickly. Washington and its innermost suburbs are encircled by the Capital Beltway, I-495, which gave rise to the expression "Inside the Beltway" (which refers to matters only relevant to people in D.C. political circles). Washington has several classic drives: Pennsylvania Ave from Fourteenth St NW toward the Capitol. Eastbound Independence Ave from the Lincoln Memorial, from the right lane of which you can continue in a loop around the Tidal Basin. Rock Creek Pkwy, one of the world's earliest highways, and which was planned as part of an inner beltway, follows Rock Creek through D.C.'s own central park, then traces the Potomac River to the Lincoln Memorial. This roadway becomes one-way (and terribly confusing) during weekday rush hour (6:45AM–9:30AM southbound only, 3:45PM–6:30PM northbound). (and terribly confusing) during weekday rush hour (6:45AM–9:30AM southbound only, 3:45PM–6:30PM northbound). Canal Road heading west from Georgetown's M St, which turns into the leafy Clara Barton Pkwy alongside the C&O Canal, continuing to the Capital Beltway. Embassy Row, Massachusetts Ave between Scott Circle and Wisconsin Ave. George Washington Memorial Pkwy, which follows the Potomac on the Virginia side of the river to Mount Vernon. By bicycle and scooter [ edit ] D.C. is ranked as one of the top cities in the U.S. for bicycling. Many streets, including the iconic Pennsylvania Ave, have dedicated bike lanes and there is plenty of bike parking available. Most of the downtown area is flat, although areas north of downtown are more hilly. The vehicle traffic is slow enough that helmets may not be necessary. Biking in the street is legal and biking on the sidewalk is legal for non-electric bikes everywhere except downtown. Bicycle maps of the city center are available at this site. Bike trails [ edit ] You may also take advantage of some of the fantastic biking trails in the greater D.C. area: Bike and scooter rental [ edit ] Capital Bikeshare, owned by Lyft, operates a bike sharing network that has over 4,300 bicycles available at over 500 bike stations throughout the Washington, D.C. area. This is the second-largest bike sharing network in the country, after that of New York City. Users can take a bike from any station and return it to a different station. Single rides of 30 minutes or less cost $2. Alternatively, membership fees are $8/day or $17 for 3 days, payable by using a credit card at the automated kiosks attached to every Capital Bikeshare station. Usage fees vary, but the first 30 minutes are free to encourage people to use the system for short place-to-place trips; however, after riding for 30 minutes, you can dock your bike into a station, wait 2 minutes, and then take the bike out again to restart the timer. , owned by Lyft, operates a bike sharing network that has over 4,300 bicycles available at over 500 bike stations throughout the Washington, D.C. area. This is the second-largest bike sharing network in the country, after that of New York City. Users can take a bike from any station and return it to a different station. Single rides of 30 minutes or less cost $2. Alternatively, membership fees are $8/day or $17 for 3 days, payable by using a credit card at the automated kiosks attached to every Capital Bikeshare station. Usage fees vary, but the first 30 minutes are free to encourage people to use the system for short place-to-place trips; however, after riding for 30 minutes, you can dock your bike into a station, wait 2 minutes, and then take the bike out again to restart the timer. Dockless bikeshare, a more recent introduction, offers a cheaper and often more convenient alternative to Capital Bikeshare. To find a bike, users may download the Transit app, which displays the nearest bike from any provider. Once you have located a bike, you will need to download the app from the bike's provider to unlock the bike. Rates are $1 per half hour for non-electric bikes, or $2 per hour for electric bikes. When your trip is complete, you can park the bike anywhere on the sidewalk where it is not obstructing the right of way. , a more recent introduction, offers a cheaper and often more convenient alternative to Capital Bikeshare. To find a bike, users may download the Transit app, which displays the nearest bike from any provider. Once you have located a bike, you will need to download the app from the bike's provider to unlock the bike. Rates are $1 per half hour for non-electric bikes, or $2 per hour for electric bikes. When your trip is complete, you can park the bike anywhere on the sidewalk where it is not obstructing the right of way. Dockless electric scooters, another more recent introduction, operate similar to dockless bikes, and can also be found on the Transit app. They are slightly more expensive: rates are $1 to start and an additional 15 cents per minute. , another more recent introduction, operate similar to dockless bikes, and can also be found on the Transit app. They are slightly more expensive: rates are $1 to start and an additional 15 cents per minute. BikeStation allows visitors to rent bikes, have their bikes repaired, or arrange for temporary storage in a controlled environment at Union Station. Cycling information can be obtained here as well. allows visitors to rent bikes, have their bikes repaired, or arrange for temporary storage in a controlled environment at Union Station. Cycling information can be obtained here as well. Bike shops are plentiful and may be a better option if you plan on using a bike for an extended period. By pedicab [ edit ] Pedicabs (bicycle rickshaws) are regulated, insured, and licensed by federal authorities, and have operated on the National Mall for over a decade. Each pedicab generally holds 2-3 adults and up to 2 children under the age of 10 can sit on laps. There are several pedicab tour companies in DC. Advanced bookings are strongly suggested since these tour purveyors are in high demand and cannot provide "on demand" service like an automobile taxi fleet. Capitol Pedicabs - $60/hour D.C. Pedicabs - $84-90/hour, depending on number of people National Pedicabs - $75 for a 1-hour tour (up to 3 people) Nonpartisan Pedicab - $75-90/hour, depending on number of people By hop-on-hop-off tour bus [ edit ] City Sights DC operates hop-on, hop-off bus tours in Washington DC. See [ edit ] The National Mall Most of the attractions in D.C. are on the National Mall, the West End, and Capitol Hill. While there are many maps on display throughout the city, you should print out and carry with you the official National Mall map (pdf), which also includes most of the West End and Capitol Hill. For a map that encompasses a larger portion of the city, print out the DC Circulator Route Map (pdf). The National Mall is a unique National Park, filled with an intense concentration of monuments, memorials, museums, and monumental government buildings instantly recognizable to people all over the world. The Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial and Reflecting Pool, the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, the Vietnam War Memorial, the Korean War Veterans Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial, the National Gallery of Art, the National Air and Space Museum, the National Museum of Natural History, and the Holocaust Museum, are just a few of the top attractions on the National Mall. To walk down the National Mall is to thread the halls of world power in the modern era. Here the world's most powerful politicians and their staffs fill the grand neo-classical buildings of the three branches of US Government, making decisions that reverberate in the remotest corners of the world. The National Mall is larger than it looks, and a walk from one end of the National Mall to the other will take a while and may wear you down a bit. Plan ahead what you want to see and concentrate your activities in one section of the National Mall each day. The East End, just north of the National Mall, includes many more museums and attractions, including the Newseum, the National Portrait Gallery, the American Art Museum, and the home of an original copy of the Constitution at the National Archives. The White House, as well as the Textile Museum and the Kennedy Center, are in the West End. The Capitol Building and the Supreme Court are on Capitol Hill. Another attraction here that shouldn't be missed is the Library of Congress, which has some of the most beautiful architecture that can be seen in the city. The free National Zoo in Upper Northwest is one of the nation's most prestigious zoos, and the National Cathedral is an awe-inspiring mammoth. Dupont Circle is home to much of Embassy Row, an impressive stretch of some 50 foreign-owned historic and modernist mansions along Massachusetts Ave, as well as several brilliant small museums, such as the Phillips Collection and the Woodrow Wilson House. The historic neighborhood of Georgetown is the oldest part of the city, full of beautiful old colonial buildings, the 200+ year-old Jesuit campus of Georgetown University that resembles a Harry Potter film set, restaurants along the waterfront, the C&O canal, and the infamous Exorcist steps. By car or bus, you can get to some of the capital's more far-flung and less-frequented attractions, like the National Arboretum in the Near Northeast, or the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens in eastern Anacostia. By taking the Metro red line to Brookland-CUA, you can easily visit the magnificent Catholic Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. This is the largest Catholic church in North America. While many attractions and museums are free, there are several that aren't. The Washington DC Explorer Pass includes admission to your choice of 3 ($54) or 5 ($84) popular attractions at a discounted price. Views and panoramas [ edit ] D.C.'s famous building height restrictions—no taller than the width of the street the building is on plus 20 feet—have resulted in a skyscraper-less downtown, giving D.C. a distinctly muted feel for what is actually the heart of a huge metropolis. The obvious downside to this law is that it limits the supply of housing and office space and tax revenues and results in very high rents. Since many buildings downtown are of the same height level, many rooftop terraces offer great views. There are several classic spots to get a look out over the city: Kennedy Center Rooftop Terrace (free), in the West End, or Arlington House (free), in Arlington National Cemetery, provides a nice skyline somewhat removed from the city, with the Lincoln Memorial prominent in the foreground. (free), in the West End, or (free), in Arlington National Cemetery, provides a nice skyline somewhat removed from the city, with the Lincoln Memorial prominent in the foreground. Washington Monument (free), on the National Mall, though as a vista point its small, bunker-like ports covered with scratched plastic make it less inspiring than might be expected. (Closed for renovations until 2019) (free), on the National Mall, though as a vista point its small, bunker-like ports covered with scratched plastic make it less inspiring than might be expected. (Closed for renovations until 2019) Newseum ($25 + tax), in the East End, is a good place to see a remarkable museum and get a close up view of downtown. Note that the Newseum, which had suffered from financial trouble in recent years, will close permanently in January 2020. Johns Hopkins University, with its main campus in Baltimore, has purchased the building and plans to use it for DC-based graduate programs. ($25 + tax), in the East End, is a good place to see a remarkable museum and get a close up view of downtown. Note that the Newseum, which had suffered from financial trouble in recent years, will close permanently in January 2020. Johns Hopkins University, with its main campus in Baltimore, has purchased the building and plans to use it for DC-based graduate programs. W Hotel, in the West End, just a block from the White House, has a rooftop terrace, bar, and lounge called POV (Point of View) with a view of the White House from above, close enough to make out the Secret Service overwatch. Sitting at a table requires a $40/person minimum spend, but you are welcome to have a drink at the bar or just get a quick photo and return to the elevator. , in the West End, just a block from the White House, has a rooftop terrace, bar, and lounge called POV (Point of View) with a view of the White House from above, close enough to make out the Secret Service overwatch. Sitting at a table requires a $40/person minimum spend, but you are welcome to have a drink at the bar or just get a quick photo and return to the elevator. The Old Post Office Tower at the Trump Hotel Washington DC Top of the Gate at the Watergate Hotel is a rooftop bar with great 360-degree views. Do [ edit ] Outdoor activities and parks [ edit ] Rock Creek Park map D.C. is 21.9% covered in parkland, one of the highest ratios among U.S. cities. Many of these parks are crowded with soccer, football, rugby, kickball, baseball, and ultimate frisbee players. The National Mall may be the most famous park, but there are several other large beautiful parks in the city. The 2,000 acre Rock Creek Park, a national park, bisects the city north of the Anacostia River. The park is full of deer (who overpopulate, due to lack of predators), squirrels, rabbits, raccoons, birds, and even a few coyotes. The park includes paved biking/running trails that extend from Maryland to the Lincoln Memorial and connecting with the Mount Vernon trail in Northern Virginia. There are also plenty of hiking trails, picnic spots, a golf course, a variety of Ranger-led/educational programs, and boats can be rented for kayaking ($16-22/hour) and sailing at the Thompson Boat Center on the Potomac River. There are plenty of nice outdoor spaces just beyond the park. South of Massachusetts Ave, you can take a path west out to the beautiful Dumbarton Oaks in Georgetown, and then on to enormous Archibald-Glover Park, where the trails can lead you as far south and west as the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park and Palisades Park. Following the main trail along the creek all the way south will take you under the Whitehurst Freeway and down to the National Mall, where joggers avail themselves of the incredible path right along the Potomac beneath the monuments. Roosevelt Island is one of those gems just far enough out of the way that it is missed by most tourists. The Teddy Roosevelt Memorial is at the center of the island, which includes a couple fountains and several stone obelisks inscribed with his quotes. The rest of the island is a nice natural park of woods and swamp with a boardwalk in the center of the Potomac, with great views of Georgetown University on the northwest side and of the Kennedy Center on the east. What could be better befitting the "conservationist president" than an island park memorial? To reach the island, walk down the stairs at the Rosslyn side of the Key Bridge—which connects Rosslyn with Georgetown—then head east on the trail (the Mount Vernon Trail) to the footbridge to the island. Rosslyn is the nearest Metro stop. By car, you can access the parking lot just north of the Roosevelt Bridge from the northbound lanes of the George Washington Pkwy only. There are several other parks worth visiting, including the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens in Anacostia, the National Arboretum in Near Northeast, Meridian Hill Park in Columbia Heights, and the C&O Canal Towpath in Georgetown. Events [ edit ] Free in DC, PopVille, Washington City Paper, Washingtonian, and the Going Out Guide by the Washington Post are websites that will keep you up-to-date on current events in the city. Look for unique events that can only be experienced in the nation's capital - many embassies offer regular events open to the public that showcase their country's music, theatre, and culture, sometimes for a fee. These events are listed on the websites noted above as well as on this site. Performance Arts [ edit ] The National Symphony Orchestra and Master Chorale of Washington at the Kennedy Center D.C. has a bustling live music scene, most of which takes place at small and medium sized bars and clubs. More information on these venues is available in the Drink section of this article. The Kennedy Center, which is in the West End and is administered by the Smithsonian, offers a free 1-hour show every day at 6PM on its Millennium Stage. Shows range from poetry to plays to music to dance and are always top-notch. The Washington National Opera and National Symphony Orchestra also both perform here, although these events are rarely free. In the summer, the weekly Jazz in the Garden on Friday evenings on the National Mall and the Sunday Drum Circle in Meridian Hill Park in Columbia Heights are both free events that are extremely popular with the locals and tourists alike. Major concerts and gatherings are held at the 18,200 seat Capital One Arena in the East End. There are more intimate classical music concerts in various locations. Try the Dumbarton Concerts by Candlelight in Georgetown! Theater [ edit ] Well-known Broadway shows are generally performed either at the Kennedy Center or at one of 3 theatres in the East End: Ford's Theatre, the National Theatre, and the Warner Theatre. There are also multiple options for seeing top-notch performances of Shakespeare's works; the Shakespeare Theatre Company performs at both the Lansburgh Theatre and Harman Hall in the East End, while smaller performances are held at Folger Shakespeare Theatre on Capitol Hill. Avant-garde, intensely physical, dance-heavy renditions of well-known plays are performed at the metro-accessible Synetic Theater in Arlington. The performance troupe was named one of the most innovative physical theatre companies in the world and was founded by Georgian immigrants Paata and Irina Tsikurishvili, who were named the Washingtonians of the Year in 2014. Other great theatre options that generally show lesser-known plays include Woolly Mammoth Theatre in the East End, the Atlas Theatre in Near Northeast, the GALA Hispanic Theatre @ The Tivoli Theater in Columbia Heights, or the Studio Theatre in Shaw. Free Outdoor Movies [ edit ] During the summer, there is generally a free outdoor movie shown every weekday evening on a large outdoor screen at one of several locations in D.C. There are also similar movie showings in nearby suburbs such as National Harbor, Columbia, Bethesda, Frederick, Hagerstown, and Ellicott City. It's good to show up as early as possible to stake out a good spot, lay down the picnic blanket, and socialize. People start arriving at 7:00PM and films generally start at sunset, approximately 8:30PM. The movies being shown as well as the days of the week and locations change yearly but are aggregated on this site. Social Dance [ edit ] D.C. has a vibrant social dance scene. The Jam Cellar at the Josephine Butler Parks Center is a popular spot for swing on Tuesdays. To the northwest, Glen Echo Park, a former amusement park converted into an arts and culture center, hosts social dance events most days of the week, including a popular contra dance series on Fridays. Festivals [ edit ] D.C. is awash in free public events all throughout the year, but especially in the summer. A few highlights include: Annual conventions [ edit ] The convention center in East End hosts several major annual events: Sporting events [ edit ] G-Man, the Washington Wizards' odd mascot The Washington Redskins are one of professional football's most established and storied clubs, boasting five NFL championships. Valued at $3.2 billion, the team is one of the most valuable NFL teams. The team plays at FedEx Field in Landover, Maryland. To get there using public transport, take the Blue Line Metrorail to the Morgan Blvd stop, then walk one mile straight up Morgan Blvd to the stadium. The team name has so far survived movements and lawsuits to change the name that some consider an offensive term for Native Americans. However, pressure to change the name is still strong, especially from Washingtonians, and some journalists will not use the name, referring to the team solely as 'Washington'. The University of Maryland Terrapins, representing the main campus of the University of Maryland, also has a large following in the area. The team plays just outside D.C. in College Park. The Washington Capitals, under coach Barry Trotz and led by superstar Alexander Ovechkin, won the Stanley Cup in 2018. The team plays at the Capital One Arena, in the East End. The Washington Wizards also play at the Capital One Arena. The Wizards were known as the Washington Bullets until 1995, but the name was changed by then-owner Abe Pollin due to the unpleasant irony in the homicide-heavy 1990s. The Washington Mystics, a women's team owned by the same company as the Wizards and the NHL's Capitals, plays in the WNBA, and were once (in)famously the league's regular "attendance champions." That is, they don't often actually have winning seasons (though that changed in 2018, with the team losing in the WNBA Finals), but they do have plenty of fans. The team had played at Capital One Arena throughout their history, but the 2018 season was their last in that venue. The team's ownership group opened a much smaller arena in the southeastern neighborhood of Congress Heights in fall 2018 (after the WNBA season). The new venue, seating about 4,200, is now home to both the Mystics and the Capital City Go-Go, a farm team for the Wizards in the NBA G League. The Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team is far and away the most popular college sports team in the city, and the Hoyas often sport a more exciting season than even the Wizards. The team also plays at the Capital One Arena since the crowds for the Hoyas' games are too big for the University to hold. The University of Maryland Terrapins also have a large following in the area. The team plays just outside D.C. in College Park. Three other NCAA Division I teams play in the District, and a fourth plays in the immediate metropolitan area. The District also has the George Washington Colonials in Foggy Bottom, the American Eagles in Tenleytown, and the Howard Bison in Shaw. The George Mason Patriots are in Fairfax County, Virginia. Baseball [ edit ] See also: Baseball in North America The Washington Nationals, a.k.a. the Nats, formerly the Montreal Expos, have been playing in DC since 2005 and at a stadium by the Waterfront since 2008. Star pitcher Stephen Strasburg brought baseball fever back to DC for the first time in 100 years, selling out games (at least until being sidelined by Tommy John surgery on his throwing elbow) and leaving the city abuzz with baseball talk. After Strasburg's return, the emergence of superstar outfielder Bryce Harper and acquisition of another pitching star in Max Scherzer increased the buzz around the team. Previous D.C. baseball teams include the 1901–1960 Washington Senators, who later moved to Minneapolis as the Minnesota Twins. Both the original Senators and their second incarnation in the 1960s (now playing in Arlington, Texas as the Texas Rangers) suffered from a singular inability to win, though. The first incarnation was quite successful for its first twenty years, but by WWII they earned the city the slogan "first in war, first in peace, and last in the American League." Soccer [ edit ] Americans often forget that the country has a professional soccer league, but that's not the case in D.C. D.C. United is the MLS' most dominant team, with 4 MLS cups under its belt (out of the league's 13 seasons), as well as successful international competition in CONCACAF and CONMEBOL, where the club has both a CONCACAF championship and a Copa Interamericana. D.C. is a big soccer town, owing to the metropolitan area's very international population and its big Latino communities, as well as to a home-grown affection for soccer in this section of the Mid-Atlantic, and the games are high-energy and well attended. United plays at Audi Field in Waterfront. Tennis [ edit ] The Washington Kastles have won 5 consecutive Mylan World TeamTennis titles. Since the franchise's launch in 2008, the Kastles have featured many stars including Serena & Venus Williams, Leander Paes, Rennae Stubbs, and Victoria Azarenka. With an exciting team format, music between points, no-ad scoring and dramatic overtimes, attending a Kastles game can be a fun experience. Learn [ edit ] Shops in Georgetown D.C. has a long list of highly accredited universities. It's a political town, and the best known institutions are undoubtedly those with the political connections. Georgetown University, George Washington University, and American University are arguably the best academic options period for those looking to cozy up to the Washington elite and/or launch a public career. They are also excellent bets for international students looking for a politics-oriented exchange program, as their international politics programs are consistently ranked among the world's best, producing world leaders from kings to African finance ministers. D.C. is also home to a number of acclaimed universities with a more specialized focus: Gallaudet University is the world's only university for the deaf, Howard University is one of the nation's most esteemed historically black universities, and the prestigious National Defense University serves the military elite. Other large and well-respected institutions include The Catholic University of America and graduate-level programs such as the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. The only public university in D.C. is the University of the District of Columbia, which serves mostly local students. D.C. has more think tanks than anywhere else in the U.S., most of which are located along Massachusetts Ave's "think tank row" in Dupont and Downtown. They host frequent free talks and panels during lunch hour (free food is often included) and happy hour. Topics include a variety of policy issues, some of which are very technical or esoteric and others of which are more generally accessible. Each think tank has a different culture and political orientation, ranging from culturally conservative (e.g. the Heritage Foundation, American Enterprise Institute) to libertarian (e.g. CATO) to center-left (e.g. Brookings, New America) to progressive (e.g. Center for American Progress). Many of the book stores in D.C. also host frequent free author talks, most notably Politics and Prose. Interested in CSI School? Check out the Crime Museum. Work [ edit ] Certain career fields find a natural home in D.C. While everyone knows that this is where politicians go, you can also find a fair share of diplomats, lawyers, lobbyists, journalists, defense contractors, and civil servants. Good fields for international visitors to pursue include the various NGOs, national lobbying groups, and for the select few, embassies and consulates. Many ambitious young people come to Washington for internships, and the huge student-aged population peaks in the summer. With so many high-powered career types out to change the world, the need for child care is obvious. Nannies and au pairs, mostly placed through agencies, provide child care to many of Washington's elite; the city has the highest proportion of in-home childcare in the country. U.S. citizen nannies are especially sought after as government types carefully follow employment law to avoid problems with security clearances or negative publicity. Wages for legal U.S. residents with experience can top $800 per week, room and board included. Buy [ edit ] Souvenirs are easy to find at stands and stores near the National Mall and East End. However, these offerings tend to be tacky (shot glasses, magnets, t-shirts, etc...). The gift shops of the Smithsonian museums have unique but more expensive offerings and are great places to buy gifts. Eastern Market in Capitol Hill is a favorite Saturday or Sunday afternoon shopping destination for locally produced food and artwork. Even if you're not buying, it's a great time. Eclectic boutiques and vintage stores abound in Georgetown, Adams Morgan, Upper Northwest, and Shaw. However, prices are high; you are not likely to find many bargains. Art galleries are plentiful throughout the city and make for great browsing, although the prices are on the high side. Specialty book stores are also common in D.C. due to the educated populace. Politics & Prose, with three locations, has a rightful claim to be the city's favorite and carries a nice selection of political humor-themed accessories. Other popular book stores include Kramerbooks and Second Story Books in Dupont Circle. There are also some great options in Capitol Hill and the East End. For cheap groceries and household items, try the Walmart on 1st & H Street NW, near Union Station, and the Target at the Columbia Heights Metrorail Station. Clothing and household goods [ edit ] East End has several brand-name clothing stores such as Macy's, H&M, Urban Outfitters, Zara, and Guess, while Marshalls is the best bet for discounts within the city limits, with stores in Columbia Heights and Upper Northwest. Leesburg Corner Premium Outlets, 17 miles northwest of Dulles Airport and 40 miles northwest of Washington D.C., has the best bargains in the area but is not accessible by public transport. Potomac Mills Woodbridge is a humongous shopping mall that contains over 200 stores. It is a 25 minute bus ride ($3.45 each way with SmarTrip card, M-Sa only) from the Franconia-Springfield Metrorail Station. Tanger Outlet Mall National Harbor is accessible by MetroBus from the Southern Ave Metrorail Station. Fashion Centre at Pentagon City, Arlington, has over 170 generally high-end stores is adjacent to the Pentagon City. Tysons Corner Center contains over 300 stores and is adjacent to the Tysons Corner Metrorail Station. Eat [ edit ] Dos pupusas, por favor A delicious Ethiopian dinner spread Washington has a little bit of everything, from really good ethnic takeout to high-dollar lobbyist-fueled places that will cause your credit card to burst into flames. High-end cuisine [ edit ] Most of the high end cuisine is available in the West End, the East End, Georgetown, Capitol Hill, and Dupont Circle—offering dining experiences ranging from steakhouses packed with powerful suits to Minibar by Jose Andres, a 12-seat restaurant offering a 30-course meal for $275. Ethnic food [ edit ] D.C.'s international might draws representatives from all corners of the globe, and they all need ex-pat cafes and restaurants to haunt. Notable "ethnic" enclaves include wonderful Ethiopian food in Shaw and Chinese food in what remains of D.C.'s disappearing Chinatown. Salvadoran cuisine such as the pupusa is common in Columbia Heights. Pupusas are thick corn tortillas stuffed with cheese, optionally fried pork, refried beans, or all sorts of other things, then topped with a tart cabbage salad and an Italianesque red sauce. Ethiopian food is a D.C. staple due to the city's large Ethiopian community. Ethiopian food is a wild ride of spicy stewed and sautéed meats and vegetables served atop a plate covered with a spongy bread called injera. You eat the dishes with your hands, using an extra plate of injera (similar to bread) as your sole "utensil"—rip off a piece of the injera and use it to pick up your food. It's proper in Ethiopia to use only the tips of your fingers in this exercise, and with good reason: you'll have a messy meal otherwise. It's also perfectly proper to feed your date, making this a fun cuisine if you know your date well. The best places to try Ethiopian food are in Shaw, which includes Little Ethiopia. Chinese food can still be found in D.C., though with much of the ethnic Chinese community having moved to the suburbs, most of the restaurants in Chinatown are tourist traps. While good to excellent authentic Chinese food remains available in the metropolitan area, these days the best Chinese restaurants are located in the suburbs. Two noteworthy suburban locations for authentic Chinese cuisine (in various regional styles) are Rockville, Maryland and Wheaton, Maryland. Rockville Station is on the Western Branch of the Metro's Red Line and Wheaton Station is on its Eastern Branch. Both stations are about 25 minutes from downtown D.C. The Rockville area is a bit more refined, and the restaurant quality is generally good to excellent. Wheaton is busier than Rockville, with a semi-urban density, and dozens of Chinese and other Asian ethnic restaurants. They tend to be smaller, with modest decor, and the food quality ranges from fantastic to just so-so. Check Washingtonian Magazine's annual "Cheap Eats" article on the web for reliable ethnic restaurant recommendations throughout the Washington Metropolitan area. Local Cuisine [ edit ] The closest thing that D.C. has to a unique local cuisine is the half-smoke: smoked half-beef, half-pork sausages. They have a firm "snap" when you bite into one, are served on a hot dog bun, and are often topped with chili. They are commonly sold at food trucks on the National Mall. If you want a true, quality half-smoke, you should visit the landmark Ben's Chili Bowl in Shaw. Cupcake fever in D.C. is fueled by tourists lured by TV shows such as Cupcake Wars (2009-present) and DC Cupcakes featuring Georgetown Cupcakes (2010-2013). The cupcake bakeries sometimes have lines running around the block. In addition to Georgetown Cupcakes ($3.25 each), popular cupcake establishments include Baked & Wired ($3.75 each), and Sprinkles in Georgetown and Red Velvet Cupcakery ($3.25 each) in the East End. Busboys and Poets, a local chain, is known for hosting social-justice focused events. Kosher dining [ edit ] There are only two kosher restaurants in D.C., and they are very casual: Char Bar (meat) near West End and Silver Crust (dairy) inside the JCC. However, there are several other options for kosher dining in neighboring Montgomery County. Metro accessible kosher restaurants in Montgomery County include: Max's Kosher Café (meat) and Nut House Pizza (dairy) in Wheaton; and Siena's Restaurant (dairy) near the Twinbrook metro station. There are also several kosher restaurants in Montgomery County accessible by car, mostly inthe three princesses (Cadance, Celestia, Luna). Twilight Sparkle visits Knight Light and enters his forbidden library. She opens a book where a nightmare
the new, fun and fast-paced multiplayer game Rocket League! Created by the experienced development crew at Psyonix, Rocket League makes its first official jump into ESL esports this Sunday the 12th of July with its inaugural kickoff cup! Do you have what it takes to compete and win cash prizes? What is Rocket League? At its core, Rocket League is football, but with cars instead of people! The aim of the game is to kick the oversized ball in your opponent's goal with the assistance of supersonic boosts, ramp-like edges and the power of the double jump. Your battle cars are completely customizable, and matches are perfect for pick up and play sessions without sacrificing high-level skill. Available on both PC and PS4, Rocket League is also availableto PlayStation Plus users for free for the entirety of July. Rocket League on ESL Play This Sunday the 12th of July marks the beginning of several Rocket League kickoff cups, which will then be replaced by a fully fledged Go4RocketLeague in August. Cups will run each Sunday from that point, with Go4RocketLeague teams to compete for €75 in 3v3 winner-takes-all matches every week. These weekly tournaments will also allow teams to earn points to qualify for the Go4RocketLeague monthly final, where €150 will be up for grabs for the winning team as well as in-game goodies for those who come in second to fourth place. So, what are you waiting for? Sign up now via one of the regional ESL Play portals below! For all the latest information about ESL Rocket League, be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter as well as check out the official Rocket League site. Share this article:BAUCHI, Nigeria (Reuters) - Suspected Boko Haram suicide bombers have killed at least 13 other people in an attack on a market in the northeast Nigerian town of Biu in Borno state, officials said on Saturday. The blasts struck while aid workers were distributing food to people affected by the eight-year conflict with Boko Haram, said Aliyu Idrisa, a community leader. In addition to the 13 victims, 53 people were injured and two bombers were killed, said Victor Isuku, police spokesman for Borno state. Saturday’s attack bore the hallmarks of Boko Haram, which uses suicide bombers, often women and girls, to attack crowded public spaces. Last week, a suicide bombing at a mosque in the northeastern town of Mubi killed at least 50 people, one of the deadliest attacks in recent years. The government has said its long-term plan for the northeast is to corral civilians inside fortified garrison towns and effectively cede the countryside to Boko Haram. That plan and a string of deadly attacks have raised questions about assertions by the Nigerian government and military that Boko Haram’s Islamist insurgency has been all but wiped out.Despite all the headway that science has made in understanding autism in recent years, knowing which children will one day develop autism is still almost impossible to predict. Children diagnosed with autism appear to behave normally until around two, and until then there is often no indication that anything is wrong. But by scanning the brains of babies whose siblings have autism and then running the data from those scans through a machine learning algorithm, researchers say they may have come up with a method for accurately predicting which children will wind up diagnosed with autism at as young as six months. Advertisement For autism researchers, this feat has long been elusive. Diagnosing autism spectrum disorder before children develop symptoms could allow families to begin treatments like behavioral therapy earlier in hopes of making it more effective, as well as allowing researchers to test potential treatments, enabling them to more accurately judge whether these treatments actually work. In a paper out Wednesday in Science Translational Medicine, researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Washington University School of Medicine scanned the brains of 59 high-risk, 6-month-old infants to examine how different regions of the brain connect and interact. At age two, after 11 of those infants had been diagnosed with autism, they scanned their brains again. After that, the researchers turned to artificial intelligence, using an algorithm that trained itself to identify patterns in brain connectivity that separated those six-month-olds who developed autism and those who did not. Using deep learning, they were then able to develop a model capable of predicting which six-month-olds would eventually develop autism. Using this method, researchers were able to accurately predict nine of the 11 infants who would wind up with an autism diagnosis. And it did not incorrectly predict any of the children who were not autistic. Advertisement “Our treatments of autism today have a modest impact at best,” said Joseph Piven, a psychiatrist at UNC Chapel Hill and author of the study, told Gizmodo. “People with autism continue to have challenges throughout their life. But there’s general consensus in the field that diagnosing earlier means better results.” Estimates suggest that about 1 out of every 68 children in the US has autism. Still, there are no good biomarkers to predict who is most at risk for developing it. Some rare genetic mutations are linked to autism, but most cannot easily be linked to genetic risk factors. While some findings have indicated that brain-related changes occur in children with autism before any behavioral symptoms emerge, those changes have been difficult to identify. The study was a follow-up to one published earlier this year that looked at whether brain growth could be a biomarker for autism, since children with autism tend to have larger brains than developmentally normal children. In that study, MRI scans revealed that the volume of the brains of infants with autism grew faster between 12 and 24 months. Based on those scans, an algorithm was able to detect which children between six and 12 months would develop autism about 80 percent of the time, though it also identified a few false positives. Advertisement By looking instead at connectivity, the new study shows a method of prediction that’s more accurate and identifies children at a younger age. In total, they found 974 functional connections that were associated with autism-related behaviors. “It’s a data driven approach,” said Piven. “We didn’t start with a particular hypothesis.” Piven said they hope to reproduce the study, as well as expand it to not just predict whether a child might wind up with autism, but how severe it will be and what sorts of behaviors they will exhibit. Autism is a spectrum disorder ranging from mild symptoms to ones that severely inhibit a person’s life, so this would make the tool much more useful and potentially also make treatment more impactful. Advertisement The study is only an early indicator of a good predictive measure. It will have to be reproduced before it’s ready for clinical use. And the test in its current form would unlikely be used in the general population, but rather as a measure to be taken after an infant has already been identified as high risk. One in five siblings of children with autism, for example, eventually develops autism. Developing other screening techniques for high-risk infants would make such a test more useful. “I would look at this study as a proof of principle,” he said. “Our intention is to provide early detection intervention just like we now do for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.”What was supposed to be a brainstorming meet convened by senior Samajwadi Party leaders to discuss the electoral strategy turned into an entertainment show of sorts with bar girls performing to Bollywood numbers. A meeting was held on Sunday evening to discuss the way ahead with party workers at the grassroot level in order to ensure victory for the Samajwadi Party nominee Sribhagwan Sharma alias Guddu Pandit from Bulandshahr Lok Sabha seat. However, the sight at the venue was not that of a serious meeting between the party leaders, reported Punjab Kesari. Shockingly, SP leaders and workers were shaking their hips with the dancers and showering currency notes on the bar girls. Oblivious to the fact that the Bulandshahr district administration was capturing the event on video, the leaders were too busy getting entertained by the girls only to realise later that a case of violation of the model code of conduct had been lodged against the village head and, SP leader and organiser of the meeting, the report said. According to the report, bar girls had also reportedly spiced up the ‘holi milan’, a community meeting programme organised after Holi, on Sunday hosted by senior Congress leader in Amethi Munna Singh Trisundi. This is also the Lok Sabha constituency of Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi. A case of violation of the model code of conduct was lodged against Trisundi also.A survivalist who allegedly killed his wife and two young daughters reportedly remains on the run seven months after the triple killing. Shane Franklin Miller, 45, is the sole suspect in the May 7 shooting deaths of his 34-year-old wife Sandra and the couple’s two daughters, 8-year-old Shelby and 5-year-old Shasta, in the rural community of Shingletown in Northern California. The case is one of the few instances of gun violence against children in the United States that remains without an arrest since the Newtown shootings, NBC News reports. “He better hope that the police get hold of him before a lot of the guys around here, because they would just as soon tar and feather him and string him up,” said Vera De Witt, president of a local nonprofit group raising money for a memorial for the girls. De Witt said the killings shocked the town of 2,300 residents, generating “painful questions” for children and parents alike. “Particularly,” she said, “little girls going home and asking, ‘Daddy, would you kill me, would you shoot me?’” Miller, who disappeared into the rugged mountains of Humboldt County, with its hidden marijuana farms, remains on the U.S. Marshals’ 15 Most Wanted Fugitives List. Investigators have received thousands of tips – roughly 30 per day – but none have proven fruitful. Authorities were called to the family’s residence for reports of domestic violence two weeks before the bodies were found. Investigators discovered Miller's abandoned pickup truck the next day near Petrolia, about 200 miles west of the home. But they have found no traces of Miller, despite the use of cadaver dogs and teams of investigators from several nearby jurisdictions. "We're going up and down the area trying to figure out where he may have disappeared to," Humboldt County Sheriff's Lt. Wayne Hanson said in May. Ground searches also included door-to-door checks of residences in the area and roadblocks were maintained on main roads between Petrolia and Ferndale in the event that Miller tried to leave the area.I am still bullying my kids. It is not intentional, and I wish I did not, but when the days are long, and I am tired, I lose my patience and yell, threaten, shame or withhold affection. This happens with less severity and frequency than it used to, but it still happens. Here are 5 ways I have learned to ensure that I am not bullying my kids: 1. I do not say “no” so that my kids will “learn how to hear no”. When I say no it is either because I do not have the money, time, or energy, or because I have not thought about the request being made. I do not say no so that my kids learn how to handle dissapointment, or so that I can remain steadfast to a previously given answer. I try to say no genuinely and legitimately, rather than establishing myself as the only person with power in the relationship. 2. I do not punish my kids. I have stopped exerting authority over my children in the form of punishment. This does not mean that my children are not learning right from wrong, how to be respectful, or are “running willy-nilly”. My husband and I model the behaviors we expect from our children and do not hold them accountable for things we cannot even do ourselves! When one of my children does something hurtful or disprespectful, it is brought to their attention and addressed. Sometimes this is done in the moment, and other times it is done hours- or even days- later while we are connected and snuggling. This allows some space between the emotion of the incident and our discussion of it. I have learned that this process can be extremely embarrassing for children, and that often times they genuinely did not know that what they were doing was wrong. During those moments of total embarrassment, I am grateful that my child has my loving arms around him for comfort. 3. I do not force my children to obey. I am learning to treat them like people- allowing them the same right to give input and have their preferences and opinions respected and heard. My choice does not “win” just because I am the mother. 4. I Change My Mind. If my child offers a reason for something that makes me see things differently, or expresses a desire for something greater than I initially understood, I change my mind. This is not back pedaling, inconsistent, or confusing. It shows my children that their mother is reasonable, and that their voices will be heard. It removes the notion that I have more power and that my word is more important. 5. I do not threaten fear. “If you get out of bed one more time I am turning the lights off”, “if you don’t hold my hand a stranger will take you”, “if you don’t come right now, I am leaving the store without you”. These are all things we have either said ourselves or heard others use to threaten their children. If we put ourselves in our child’s position- helpless, terrified, tiny… we can start to imagine what awful things these are to say to them. Generally, I have learned to treat my children like people. When we are experiencing tension and conflict, I try to pause and recognize if it is real, or if I am artificially creating it by pulling rank. Once we recognize the behaviors we want to change, shifting them becomes a whole lot easier. What have you changed to stop bullying your children?The first-ever GENERATOR Conference took place on January 26th in Shenzhen! The idea of holding a conference to promote electronics makers in the mecca of electronics (Shenzhen) has been in the back of our minds for a while and doing it as a welcome for the incoming HAXLR8R class was the perfect excuse to gather the hardware community for a solid afternoon… The Hardware Renaissance: it’s China’s turn Originally, Generator was expected to be a simple little ‘private’ gathering, since we weren’t sure if there was an appetite for this kind of event… and we only planned it 2 weeks prior to throwing it… but the result was mind boggling: we had a unexpectedly full house of 150 folks (sure, it doesn’t sound like that many, but we only planned for 80). The demand was actually even higher than that… sad in fact, because we had so much demand we had to fight to push people NOT to come. The audience strangely came from almost everywhere in China, with a logical contingency from nearby Hong Kong and Guangzhou, but also folks from Beijing and Shanghai. That was not really expected… Having an MIT Media Lab group visiting town was the cherry on the cake. In retrospect, the appetite we observed was the consequence of HAXLR8R being the ‘poster-child’ of the hardware renaissance (yaye! :-)), but also the fact that China is experiencing its own hardware revolution… the latter is probably the most interesting development of the ‘renaissance’ and you have never heard about it. Until now. What’s going on? We’ve literally been bombarded by local press requests of all kind (check things out at NYTimes, CBNWeekly, Ifanrjust to name a few – CCTV is now shooting a documentary as well). We also experience the rise of Chinese startups due to the “flat world” (Seeed Studio of course, alumni Makeblock and its 170K USD raised on Kickstarter; plus what’s currently baking at HAXLR8R and beyond). Xiaomi also just announced getting into wearable computing (is it the shoes?). And a few local crowd-funding platforms are picking up steam. Yeah, you’ve already heard about that! It’s nice and all but what does it really means? Say goodbye to crappy Shanzhai products. OK, we very much love our Hello Kitty smartphones here, so not entirely… but the overall quality of new local products on the market has SKYROCKETED in the past year or so. What’s coming out of the lines are well designed objects, working perfectly well, with all the flashy features and polish you would expect from the top-tier international quality brands: machines with great startup sounds, high-quality machined finish, easy bluetooth connectivity, low-power, innovative features and whatnot. We’ve seen it with the commodity electronics (TVs and the rest) but what we are talking about here is entirely new products which are being developed locally. Brand new. What we would call ‘innovative’ elsewhere (check out this presentation made by China.Axlr8r mentor Benjamin Joffe, talking about incremental innovation). With the growth of the maker movement in China and the number of startups experimenting with hardware, expect to see way more verticals attacked in the coming years by local entrepreneurs. They have quite a few things going for them when it comes down to manufacturing and finding developers. China produces three times as many engineers as India, and more than six times as many as the United States. And they won’t be only gunning at China market, which is conveniently fond of gadgets and willing to pay for it, providing a nice little cushion of dollars to go on and dream about bigger things. (The digital goods (apps, etc) market in China is not as strong as the gadgets market, but it’s getting stronger as well. The ecosystem is going to react to this and ‘realize’ its own potential. Simple stories like Zach’s home-made table (check the deck below) or the fact that we can get any electronic part within 5 minutes by suppliers in the same building as HAXLR8R is just the start. Shenzhen is a giant hackerspace where you can get anything you want within a few hours for cheap. Oh yeah, and MADE for you, perfectly, so that you don’t have to configure and be an expert in every single machine out there. This is why it’s almost silly to start prototyping anywhere else in the world. But here is what’s next: the manufacturing world is going to respond to the hardware startup evolution by adding more flexibility into their operations. Lower MOQ (minimum order quantity). Willingness to work with a startup at the zero stage, AND understanding of what it really means to work with them (that has already started as we have even had startups being OFFERED the tooling in exchange for a partnership!). New ways of producing small batches. Distribution will react to this. Local investors will react to this. Designers will flog to Shenzhen. You should, too. China as a market is going to become an attractive place sooner rather than later. E-commerce is figured out already (TMall is going toovertake Amazon shortly). Now it’s a matter of educating the market with the software while providing a product that just makes sense (that’s the hard part, actually). China can’t be ignored as it offers a natural monetization process for technology companies, and that’s rare enough to jump on the opportunity. Our small hardware world is going to benefit a lot from these trends, illustrated by some of our speakers that day. Hardware is a bitch Hardware hasn’t changed much when it comes to being difficult to handle, and the speakers of the day made that pretty clear! We’ve compiled all the presentations below, which ended with Bunnie Huang elaborating his theory about the deceleration of Moore’s law, which will open a new era for all tinkerers: Of course there was a ton of hardware to play with, from Necomimi to Makeblock to a few robots, it was a happy crowd who spent a few hours in an obscure place in the North of Shenzhen: GENERATOR V1.1 We’ve been toying with the idea of hosting GENERATOR in the Bay area for a while, since it would make sense to share hardware battle stories over there. But you know what? A conference about building hardware products should be in China, period. It should be paired with relevant visits of the hardware landscape, from Hua Qiang to SeeedStudio to rapid prototyping shops to manufacturers and more. It should be about sharing what’s up in the hardware ecosystem FOR REAL. And witnessing it. Touching it. The next GENERATOR Conference will therefore take place on September 28th (2013), with international speakers and hundreds of visitors. It will showcase the best of what hardware is about and feature product launches. It will be about the future of hardware. It will be in Shenzhen. It will be awesome. Welcome to the biggest makerspace in the world. [Sorry for the lateness of this article, but since HAXLR8R started we got, well, busy! 🙂 + Thanks to SeeedStudio for helping us out]One of the biggest problems currently facing the Bitcoin economy is the exchange market. The market suffers from continued concentration and price volatility. In order to maintain their links to the traditional banking world, these businesses have the unenviable task of attempting to shove Bitcoin into the world of bank accounts and anti-money laundering policies. New exchanges are joining the Bitcoin economy but regulatory compliance is no small barrier to entry. The few existing online exchange services continue to be significant points of failure for the Bitcoin economy. A network of small, peer-to-peer transactions would likely bypass many of these issues and would be a fitting solution for the brilliantly decentralized Bitcoin network. But is such a thing possible? The guys behind MetaLair, a UK based start-up, think so and are working hard to develop the software and find the investors to make it a reality. Their vision is a decentralised exchange mechanism which will facilitate peer-to-peer exchanges between crypto-currencies and in the future fiat to crypto exchanges. The MetaLair network would be similar in structure to the Bitcoin network featuring… No central servers Open-source software Incentives for all network operators A proof-of-work based system If they are successful in achieving funding, MetaLair will develop both a free open-source version and a pay version with added features. The business intends to make money by charging for the client software with additional features that will include added security, trading and analysis tools. They hope that this could become the defacto standard wallet and trading platform for Bitcoin and other crypto-currencies. MetaLair’s developers believe that the project will benefit the crypto-currency community as it is open-source and fully decentralized; this ensures that should MetaLair not be around the decentralised exchange will simply carry on. “For me personally I’m only ever interested in a business if it has a primary social benefit” explains lead architect Johnathan Turrall who just returned from a trip to Cuba and South America. “The reason I went to Cuba was to look at communism and the impact that it had on financial systems, processes, business and industry. … I think potentially this system could be of great benefit to people in those areas so that is one of the motivations behind it.” Johnathan and his business partner, Kerry Fraser-Robinson, will release their design papers whether or not the business obtains funding with the hopes that the project will eventually be developed even if they are unable to finish it themselves. MetaLair will create and distribute the exchange software, but will not handle any funds or transfers. All transfers happen between users of the network. The system uses an escrow service in all exchanges; however, all escrow actions are either automated, or are carried out by the human users of the system. The projects development will be in two phases with initial development focusing on crypto-to-crypto exchange. Theoretically MetaLair can work with any crypto-currency that uses a blockchain and has M of N transaction capability. This allows the exchange software to act as the escrow agent for the transfer of both crypto-currencies in the exchange. Explanation of M of N Transactions An M of N transaction is essentially an escrow system built into the Bitcoin protocol that removes most of the need for trust that a traditional escrow would require. This capability allows a party to the transaction to act as an escrow without actually having access to the funds held. The most common form of an m-of-n transaction is a 2 of 3 transaction. In this case there are three parties and three private keys, any two of which are needed to sign the transaction for it to be valid. All parties involved in the transaction can verify that the address belongs to the transaction they are participating in. All parties can view the funds in the destination address. Escrow requests must be signed first or second by the escrow in the chain of events. The escrow is able to grant access to the funds to sender or receiver. Escrow is unable to access the funds themselves. Sender and receiver can still cooperate so that one party receives the funds without the need to rely on the escrow. Any crypto-currency using the Bitcoin source code will support this feature and can therefore be used on the decentralised MetaLair exchange. For example a Bitcoin/Litecoin exchange would begin with two parties entering buy and sell orders via the MetaLair network. The system correlates the matching bid/ask and, using a 2 of 3 transaction, will act as an automated escrow agent for both the Bitcoin and the Litecoin transfer. Bitcoins are transferred between the parties via the Bitcoin network and litecoins are transferred between the parites via the Litecoin network with MetaLair acting as the escrow agent for both transfers. If MetaLair’s decentralised exchange mechanism notices that double spending has occurred before the maximum specified number of transactions has been reached it reverses the transaction and refunds each party. In the crypto-to-crypto scenario the MetaLair software is acting as the automated escrow agent, which makes for a very low trust system; but of course fiat to crypto exchanges would be more complicated. Fiat currencies in their digital form exist only on the servers of banking institutions. As such, fiat to crypto exchanges require the services of those who have access to the banking system. MetaLair sees a number of options for fiat exchange escrow agents. These options include very large and well respected businesses that may use their name and existing banking relationships to bring in a large volume of trades. Of course this scenario might look at lot like existing Bitcoin exchanges that have to take many steps to comply with regulation to appease their banking partners as they cannot offer exchange services with access to traditional banking. On the other end of the spectrum, there is the possibility of individuals offering escrow services in their spare time. For example you may have an exchange in India that would only involve a small amount of Rupees moving between local accounts and would likely not draw any attention from regulators. Essentially what MetaLiar is providing is an open protocol to allow anyone to set up as an escrow to facilitate fiat to crypto transactions, complimented with an underlying trust based system. The fiat exchange may simply be a small transaction between individuals or small businesses. “That’s an added benefit of this approach.” As Johnathan explains, “what we are creating is an open system. The details of how the fiat to fiat transactions occur between the entities are effectively between them, we are just providing an interface by which they can do that.” Fiat to crypto exchange also require an escrow service, however, due to the nature of the banking system, this escrow cannot be automated via the MetaLair software. Funds will have to be held by an intermediary individual or business acting as an escrow service. “The key innovation with our system is, because it’s fully decentralized, that it lets a lot of different escrows sign up from anywhere in the world and offer their services via an API.” There are many ways in which a fiat to crypto exchange could take place, but below is how possibility might work… Bob is looking to sell his bitcoins for Euros and enters a sell order (ask) via the MetaLair network. Alice is looking to buy bitcoins in exchange for her Euros and enters a buy order (bid). The MetaLair system connects Bob and Alice who both agree to use Ivan as the escrow agent. Ivan is a small time Europe based escrow agent who has a good trust rating via the MetaLair network. Ivan acts as the escrow agent for the fiat funds and holds Alice’s Euros in his bank account. Ivan therefore also acts as the escrow agent for the Bitcoin transfer which is done via the Bitcoin network using a 2 of 3 transaction. (or this may be automated) The Bitcoin transaction completes successfully. Ivan transfers the Euros to Bob’s bank account. Ivan receives a fee for his services. MetaLair will leave regulatory compliance as a decision for the users of the network and they do not expect to deal with any financial regulation themselves as the business is not an exchange. “In the same way that Satoshi has provided Bitcoin we’re providing the decentralized exchange mechanism. You don’t pay Satoshi for any of the transactions you do on the network. It’s distributed; you pay the people who are working on the network. It’s the same process with our decentralized exchange mechanism.” This is an attempt at setting up a network in which anyone is free to join and offer their services or exchange currencies between themselves. Should it succeed it could offer a wide variety of options in what is currently a concentrated and under pressure market. As the big exchanges face regulatory scrutiny and continue to impose more and more conditions on their users, the network that MetaLair is attempting to create could offer much needed options for consumers.The memorial is a sensory re-enactment of our experience of 9/11. Everything is falling down. Water is falling down into a black hole. The roar of the water, somehow an echo of the buildings falling down. That visceral experience does put us in the sense of being re-victimized. Re-enactment means you cannot go beyond the act. I would wish our memorials suggest paths to a future contemplation of what actually took place. Art historian Harriet Senie examines the ways American memorials shape ideology - from the utilization of form and space to create a dominant "civic religion," to the depoliticization of history and individualization of grief found in the contemporary memorial-cemetery paradigm - and calls for the building of memorials beyond victimhood, and towards contemplation. Harriet is author of Memorials to Shattered Myths: Vietnam to 9/11 from Oxford University Press.February 1, 2014 There is a pattern in JavaScript that I consider highly underused, because it leads to more concise code that is both easier to write and read. You probably all know of Function.prototype.bind. It’s used most of the time to get rid of all these var that = this or var self = this assignments you used to see everywhere. A common example would be: this.setup = function () { this.on('event', this.handleEvent.bind(this)); }; The first argument passed to bind will serve as this within the scope of the function it returns. A lesser known property of bind is that it accepts more than one parameter. Every parameter to bind after the first will be prepended to the list of parameters when invoking the bound function. That means we can create partially applied functions like this: var add = function (a, b) { return a + b; }; var add2 = add.bind(null, 2); add2(10) === 12; Exciting, eh? It’s more obvious when this can get helpful when we extend the initial event handling example. Another common pattern when handling events is that you want to provide some content when calling the handler: this.setup = function () { this.on('tweet', function (e, data) { this.handleStreamEvent('tweet', e, data); }.bind(this)); this.on('retweet', function (e, data) { this.handleStreamEvent('retweet', e, data); }.bind(this)); }; If the event handlers for tweet and retweet share much of their logic, it’s a good idea to structure your code like this. The downside, however, is obvious. You have a lot of boilerplate code. In both cases, you need to create an anonymous function, call the event handler in there, pass on the parameters and remember to bind the function so the this context is properly set up. Can’t we make this simpler? Indeed we can! this.setup = function () { this.on('tweet', this.handleStreamEvent.bind(this, 'tweet')); this.on('retweet', this.handleStreamEvent.bind(this,'retweet')); }; Beautiful, isn’t it? So what happened here? Instead of calling the function within an anonymous wrapper, we create two partially applied functions that take the this context and two different first parameters for both of them. e and data will be passed on without us having to worry about it. If you are like me a few months ago, this is the point where you raise your eyebrows in shock and go through your code to clean up all these occurrences. When you’re done, please tell your friends. 1,224 KudosLone wolf terrorist attacks are not on the rise as popular culture might lead one to believe -- but the attacks are changing for the worse, according to research by an Indiana State University professor. "We find no evidence that lone wolf terrorism is increasing," said Mark Hamm, criminology professor and terrorism expert. Before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Hamm counts 38 cases of lone wolf terrorism -- many cases involving multiple attacks, and in the past 13 years, he isolated 45 cases, most of which were single attacks. No decade was deadlier than the 1990s -- mostly because of the 1996 Olympics bombing, anti-abortion bombers, the return of the Unabomber and mass shooter Colin Ferguson, Hamm said. The targets, weapons and motives have changed in recent years, Hamm found. Before 9/11, these terrorists used bombs, but now high-velocity firearms are the weapon of choice, he said. The change might be a result of legislation enacted after the Oklahoma City bombing limiting the public's access to bomb-making ingredients. Police and military personnel are now the preferred targets of modern lone wolf terrorists, Hamm said. Look at the Fort Hood and Los Angeles International Airport shootings or police assassin Richard Poplawski or Abdulhakim Muhammad (aka Carlos Bledsoe), who committed a drive-by shooting at an Army recruiting center. Many of these attacks, too, are at close-range -- "close, personal, high velocity" is how Hamm described Christopher Dorner's attacks against police in California last year. Many pre-9/11 lone wolf terrorists never saw their victims or met them, Hamm said. For example, Mark Essex killed five police officers and wounded five more in a 1973 shooting in New Orleans. In this attack, he stood on the roof of a hotel and shot at police. Poplawski, however, was so close to his victims, he said he could read their name badges. For his research, Hamm defines a lone wolf terrorist by four characteristics: a person who perpetrates political violence, does not belong to (but often identifies with) an organized group such as al-Qaeda, acts alone (as opposed to the pair of Boston Marathon bombers), and does not commit violence out of grief or the pursuit of profit, vengeance or fame. Statistically, most lone wolf terrorists are white, unemployed single males with a criminal record, Hamm said. Because these terrorists are getting younger in the post-9/11 era, they have grown up in a, media-driven paramilitary or "Rambo" culture; however, less than a third of them have actual military experience and none fought in Afghanistan or Iraq, Hamm said. The research is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Justice, and Hamm's database will be turned over to the government for public use. Assisted by what Hamm jokingly describes as his "Sherlock Homies," (a play on the fictional investigator's name), he and his team started by examining 98 cases between 1940 and 2013 and analyzed the data for 21 variables, producing 2,058 searchable characteristics. It is the largest database ever created on lone wolf terrorism. While the quantitative review is complete, Hamm continues to work on the qualitative aspect, conducting prison interviews where possible. This phase of his research will fill the holes that statistics can't tell, he said. For instance, in the late 1960s, relatively few people were killed by lone wolf terrorists -- among them the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy. "We have no statistic to measure the political loss of those two men," Hamm said. He describes King as "the conscience of the civil rights movement," and Hamm met Kennedy on the Indiana State campus in 1968, several weeks before he was assassinated. Today, even the Islamic State (formerly, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria or ISIS) has links to lone wolf terrorism and prisoner radicalization. "You don't come out of your mother's womb a terrorist," Hamm said. ISIS is the "9th, 10th, 11th, 12th-order effect of prison radicalization" and traces its roots to the former Jordanian prisoner Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed by the U.S. in 2006, Hamm said. His followers formed the group after his death. A big concern for the U.S. State Department and the F.B.I. is Americans who identify with radicals such as ISIS. "The influence of the Internet is remarkable," Hamm said. While the practice of beheading someone is an ancient punishment in the Middle East, YouTube is new technology. Broadcasting the brutal event fulfills the definition of terrorism: "Kill one, frighten 10, 000," he said. "This is the thing about terrorism -- it affects an entire community. That's why we're so concerned about it," Hamm said. Domestically, attacks on the power grid are the next big threat, Hamm said. Lone wolf terrorist Jason Woodring successfully downed the electric transmission system of rural Arkansas in 2013. His vandalism affected 10,000 people and cost $3 million in repairs. A widespread attack could take two years to correct, Hamm said, and in the meantime, "we go back to cave man days."JERSEY CITY -- When training camps around the NFL open in two weeks, it will mark the start of a new season - and Ray Rice's third outside of professional football. Most know Rice's story. The former Rutgers star was cut by the Baltimore Ravens in 2014 after video surfaced of him punching his then-fiancee, now-wife Janay Rice in an Atlantic City casino in February of that year - an assault he was arrested for. But while many NFL players have managed to return to the field after high-profile off-field issues, Rice has not. The 29-year-old running back has been unable to find a second chance. Some say he has been blackballed by the league after commissioner Roger Goodell's handling of Rice's punishment became a high-profile embarrassment for the NFL. Others point to the fact Rice had perhaps begun to decline as a player before the incident, rushing for just 660 yards in 2013. Rice says he is not letting go of his comeback hopes anytime soon. But, in an interview with NJ Advance Media on Thursday night
me from getting sick but it couldn’t have hurt and I didn’t get sick… Riding a motorcycle is different from driving a car… I’ve found too that knowing your limits is as important as all the above. Of course this is continually evolving. Exceeding your limits will put you on shaky ground both physically and mentally. Staying within your limits makes for an enjoyable riding day. At the end of the day you can wind down and reflect on all the fun of the day instead of wishing you had made better choices. Having taken these steps to ride fit and smart, I can see myself riding for years to come. It was a great ride and an even better ride not having to deal with any above issues. I hope this is of some use to the older riders and the younger ones too. If you like this post you may also like these related posts… “Subscribe to Texas Rambler via Email” Click at the bottom left column to receive notifications of new posts by email. Also please take some time to leave us a comment. We always love hearing from y’all… I hope I see you down the road somewhere… Ride safe…"Just come back any time with madam to approve the kitchen design," the beaming modular kitchen consultant told me. I explained patiently, again, that there was no madam available and that I would be approving my own modular kitchen, cabinet colours and all. He nodded and said, “But we can wait few days if needed for madam.” When it finally dawned on him that there was no madam at all, he was aghast. I don't know what shocked him more – that a man might approve a kitchen design, or that I lived alone or that a man who lived alone wanted a kitchen. Living solo A recent story in The Guardian about the global rise in living solo says while countries like Sweden have the most number of singletons (47%), the countries where single person households are growing the fastest are Brazil, China and India. Apparently that statistic has not percolated its way down to the kitchen design store at our furniture mall in Kolkata. Living solo has usually been regarded as something profoundly abnormal, especially in a culture where a parent's job is not done until the children are "settled", ergo married. We like to think we were designed to live communally even if it's in shared misery. Our saas-bahu television soaps with their feuding extended families hammer that point home endlessly. Living solo carries with it the pathos of abandonment – the lonely widow sitting alone in front of a flickering television watching those soaps of great bickering families, her own children long gone to America and Australia, leaving her easy prey for robbers and thieves. But as Eric Klinenberg, the author of Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone, points out, “Living alone, and being alone are hardly the same, yet the two are routinely conflated.” In fact, who is truly more alone here? The couple sitting across each other at the dinner table, completely wordless, each engrossed in their own BlackBerry or the single person, alone at home, juggling four chats on Facebook and MSN messenger? Klinenberg spells out all the reasons why so many more of us are living on our own today. More of us can afford it. We have better internet. But most importantly we are viewing it not as a sign that we are losers but as “an investment in the self.” “Today, young solitaires actively reframe living alone as a mark of distinction and success,” he writes. This is the natural progression of what Emile Durkheim, the late 19th century sociologist, called the "cult of the individual" which was marked by the transition from the tight-knit rural community to a more anonymous urban one. When I first moved to America as a graduate student, I could not wait to live alone. It signified freedom, independence, and a sense of my own space - something I’d never known in India. The feeling of liberation of a town where no one knew your name was utterly enthralling. Not having to answer about where you were going and when you were coming back (even to a roommate) was exhilarating. Of course it also meant no more hot meals ready when you came home exhausted, bathrooms that didn’t clean themselves, and laundry that kept piling up in the corner. Yet as a society, the West is still geared towards singletons. In the, US you can do almost everything online. Dishwashers and vacuum cleaners are commonplace. You are apt to be far more isolated if you don't drive rather than if you live alone. How alone is alone? In India, first, you have to rejigger the very definition of living alone. My uncle, a bachelor, lived alone after my grandmother died. In our family lore, he was always held up as the cautionary tale of what happens if you do not get married. The fact is he lived “alone” with a cook and a maid and a mixed breed dog, not to mention the washerwoman next door whose children ran around the house all day and his electrician friend from across the street who visited every day. It is also a fact that he outsourced the management of the household to my mother who took hisaab every day from the cook about how much oil he had bought and how much fish. If you do try to live truly alone in India, society seems to actively conspire to thwart you. The postman doesn’t deliver anything anymore. Everything from magazines to bills to checks comes by courier. Make that a wide assortment of couriers. Unless someone is around to sign for you, nothing will ever reach you. Unless someone is at home, nothing will get repaired, nothing will get painted. The doorbell rings all day long and it always tolls for thee. There’s the cable guy, the electric meter check guy, the water filter guy, the inverter battery servicing guy, the furniture delivery guy, the ironing guy and the you-are-screwed-if-you-miss-him gas cylinder delivery guy. “Sir, I am standing outside your door and ringing the bell for a long time,” says the air conditioning service man plaintively. “But I am in a temple in Chidambaram,” I tell him. “I told you to call before you came.” “ I know. But there is no one else at home, sir, to let me in?” he asks. Even the traffic signals are against single living. “Please cross the road carefully. Remember someone is waiting for you at home,” intones a mournful female voice all day long in various languages at the traffic light near my apartment. As if one should immediately fling oneself into the path of an oncoming minibus if one was going home to an empty apartment. Perhaps the only thing that is singleton-friendly are our sabzi markets. You can still buy a few potatoes, a handful of onions, loose spices, two eggs and even a single cigarette. You don't need to get a shrink-wrapped value pack of a dozen apples and watch them slowly molder in your refrigerator. Continues on the next page Do you cook? But the biggest hurdle to living on your own is that we are a culture that actually thrives on this sense of dependency. We need this sense of interdependency to function, to feel alive. In a country of a billion-plus, we both crave to get away and at the same time are addicted to the warmth of a human body. An Indian friend who broke up with his partner in America said he could not bear the thought of coming home to a dark house. He put out an ad for a roommate not because he needed the money but because he needed someone, anyone to be there. That could be spouse, roommate, mother or maid. Anytime I talk about living alone, the first amazed question is always the same. “But what do you do about food? Do you cook?” Yes, I do when I need to. But it’s also true that try as I might, I am only a part-time soloist. I spend a chunk of the week at my mother and sister’s place because it’s incomprehensible that after years abroad on my own I’d now live in the same city as the family and still not physically be with the family. When I come back after three days, it’s almost the same as when I came back after a year abroad. American friends would tell me that living with someone was such hard work, so much adjustment, all that divvying up of kitchen cabinets and bathroom shelves. But it’s really not half as tough as trying to live alone in India. Now that you have to really work hard at. Firstpost is now on WhatsApp. For the latest analysis, commentary and news updates, sign up for our WhatsApp services. Just go to Firstpost.com/Whatsapp and hit the Subscribe button.Green Bay Packers wide receiver Geronimo Allison may be reticent to check his phone after scoring his first career touchdown Sunday against the Atlanta Falcons. Throughout his collegiate career, Allison sent numerous tweets in pursuit of meeting women, smoking marijuana, and other banalities. Below is a sampling of Allison's tweets. Be advised that the tweets are graphic and shouldn't be viewed at work: i fied dis bih up on sum loud we smoked half of da blunt den i hit da bih and wen i took her home i let her keep da blunt and now im mad — Geronimo Allison (@813MrFreakShow) July 15, 2012 I wonder if iowa females got dat drip drop wet wet pussy — Geronimo Allison (@813MrFreakShow) July 28, 2012 If ya head and ya pussy good baby wats happen — Geronimo Allison (@813MrFreakShow) July 20, 2012 I want me a college bih dat show her pussy to me under da table at dinner like here eat dis — Geronimo Allison (@813MrFreakShow) July 31, 2012 College got alot bad bitches freak hoes im talkin white girls black girls chico's — Geronimo Allison (@813MrFreakShow) August 19, 2012 Like most college students, Allison switched his style up eventually:Hello, Isiopolites! Re-run day today as I am working all weekend at my company’s annual Warehouse Sale…happy people buying sharp objects. Thought you might enjoy reading how Horus’ birth became associated with Dec 25. It doesn’t take much of an internet search to discover the “fact” that the Goddess Isis bore the Holy Child Horus on December 25th. Frequently, the statement is used to dismiss the Christian tradition of the birth of the Christ on that day (and by inference, Christian tradition in general) as “mere Pagan superstition.” Frankly, this has been driving me a little crazy for years—for a variety of reasons. First, there is absolutely nothing wrong with celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, the bringer of the light of Christianity to its believers, at that time of year when the light of the sun begins its return to the world. It is the perfect symbol and early Christians would have been silly to ignore it. The other thing that bothered me was that I thought that the December 25th date was stretching the truth to make a point; the point being that the “real meaning of Christmas” was, in fact, the celebration of a Pagan Deity. Why—when there are so very many legitimate connections between the Deities of all the world’s pantheons—should we have to distort the truth to make that point? (Please see my previous posts, Mary Christmas and Happy Easter for some of those Isiac-Christian connections.) Well, it finally bothered me enough that I decided to find out where that whole Horus-born-on-December-25th thing came from. I first checked in with my pal Plutarch since I know he mentions a couple of Egyptian winter solstice traditions—and since Horus-born-on-the-25th seemed likely to have been a late Pagan tradition. Writing in the late 1st and early 2nd centuries CE, Plutarch tells us that Harpocrates (from Hor-pa-khered, Horus the Child) is born on the winter solstice (I quote it here at length because I like the lead-in): Thus we shall attack the many boring people who find pleasure in associating the activities of these gods with the seasonal changes of the atmosphere or with the growths, sowing, and plowing of crops, and who say that Osiris is being buried when the corn is sown and hidden in the earth, and that he lives again and reappears when it begins to sprout. For this reason it is said that Isis, when she was aware of her being pregnant, put on a protective amulet on the sixth day of Phaophi, and at the winter solstice gave birth to Harpocrates, imperfect and prematurely born, amid plants that burgeoned and sprouted before their season... and they are said to celebrate the days of her confinement after the spring equinox. (Plutarch, On Isis and Osiris, 65B-c) Since Horus is a solar God, His birth at the winter solstice—even to the extent that He is “imperfect and prematurely born” at that time—makes symbolic sense. This tradition was still going strong by the 4th and 5th centuries CE, for another writer, Macrobius, famous for his book about the Saturnalia, notes that: …at the winter solstice, the sun would seem to be a little child like that which the Egyptians bring forth from a shrine on the apponted day, since the day is then at its shortest and the god is accordingly shown as a tiny infant. (Macrobius, Saturnalia, 1.18:10 So this was an Egyptian tradition at least from the time of Plutarch. But was it so earlier? Well, I’m still looking into that. (Please see the Addendum at the end of this post.) But at least one author has noted that in the time of Pharaoh Amenemhet I (approx. 1991-1962 BCE), the pharaoh took a new title as the sun approached winter solstice in the 17th year of his reign. The title was Nem-mestu, Repeater of Births, a title also given to the dead and which may refer to daily solar rebirth or even to reincarnation. In addition to the normal pharaoh-sun connection, the king is even more strongly associating himself with the sun by taking the title, and it would seen from the timing that he is particularly associating himself with the winter solstice sun. At the very least, this points to the importance of the winter solstice to Egyptian tradition. Just as there are today, there were other winter holy days around the time of the winter solstice. You’re probably familiar with the Roman Saturnalia (Greek Kronia) which took place from December 17th through the 23rd (at its most developed stage). It was a carnivalesque festival with plenty of partying and gift-giving on the last day, just a day or two from the astronomical solstice. The 4th century CE Christian polemicist, Epiphanius, notes two very interesting Pagan festivals that took place “on the very night of Epiphany,” which is Epiphanius’ preferred date for the birth of the Christos. He grouches that “many places deceitfully celebrate a very great festival on the very night of the Epiphany, to deceive the idolaters who believe them into hoping in the imposture and not seeking the truth.” (Epiphanius, Panarion, 22,8) Of the celebration in Alexandria, he writes: First, at Alexandria, in the Koreum, as they call it; it is a very large temple, the shrine of Kore. They stay up all night singing hymns to the idol with a flute accompaniment. And when they have concluded their nightlong vigil, torchbearers descend into an underground shrine after cockcrow and bring up a wooden image which is seated naked on a litter. It has a sign of the cross inlaid with gold on its forehead, two other such signs, one on each hand and two other signs, one actually on each of its two knees—altogether five signs with a gold impress. And they carry the image itself seven times around the innermost shrine with flutes, tambourines and hymns, hold a feast, and take it back down to its place underground. And when you ask them what this mystery means, they reply that today, at this hour Kore—that is, the Virgin—gave birth to Aion. (Epiphanius, Panarion, 22,9) Some scholars believe that the Alexandrian Virgin was Isis (some ancient Egyptian Hymns call Isis “virgin;” in the Hermetic text, Kore Kosmou, Isis is likely the “Cosmic Virgin” of the title) and that the “crosses” on Her limbs may have been ankhs. Could be, but doesn’t have to be; Alexandria was, after all, a polytheistic city. Epiphanius goes on to mention other identical and, in his mind, deceitful festivals in Petra and in Elusa celebrating the birth of the “only son of the Lord” of a Virgin Goddess. In Petra, the Holy Child is Dusares, an Arabian God identified with Dionysos, Who was, in turn, identified with Helios, the sun. (Epiphanius, Panarion, 22,11) Okay, so we have the solar Holy Child’s birth at or around the winter solstice. Makes perfect sense. But what about that December 25th date? Well, you see, the Roman calendar went through a certain amount of upheaval and—bottom line—December 25th was considered the “traditional” date of the winter solstice, even if that was off from astronomical solstice. (If you want to calendar geek on that, check this out or this.) We have from a number of sources, including Epiphanius, that “the eighth before the Kalends of January” was considered to be the winter solstice. (Epiphanius, Panarion, 22,3) Because of the inclusive way the Romans counted, this “eighth before the Kalends” was December 25th. What’s more, the early Christians who chose that date, chose it precisely because it was the winter solstice and was connected to the return of the light. In a work attributed, perhaps falsely, to the 4th century Christian church father John Chrysostom, the writer connects the birth of Jesus with the birth of Sol Invictus, the Unconquerable Sun, which was celebrated on Rome’s traditional winter solstice, December 25th: But Our Lord, too, is born in the month of December... the eighth before the calends of January [25 December]..., But they call it the “Birthday of the Unconquered.” Who indeed is so unconquered as Our Lord? Or, if they say that it is the birthday of the sun, He is the Sun of Justice. (Chrysostom, De Solstitia et Aequinoctia Conceptionis et Nativitatis Nostri Iesu Christi et Iohannis Baptistae; “On the conceptions and births of our Jesus Christ and John the Baptist on the solstices and equinoxes.”) Another interesting thing about the choice of December 25th is that—even just those few days after the astronomical solstice—you can begin to see that the light is indeed returning. Some scholars have suggested that the December 25th date for the solstice reflects this perceivable change, so that even though the exact moment of astronomical solstice is prior to the 25th, it becomes noticeable about the 25th. So there we have it. There actually IS reason to connect the winter solstice birth date of Isis’ Holy Child, Horus, with the traditional December 25th birth date of Mary’s Holy Child, Jesus. Yet, I don’t think early Christians “stole” the date from Horus (or any of the other solar Gods Who always were and always will be born on the winter solstice). Nor do I think the fact that the date has Pagan antecedents means Christianity was built on a lie or in any way denigrates Christianity, nor should we think that Christians merely copied their religion from the Pagans around them. For early Christians, as for ancient Egyptians—and indeed for both ancient and modern worlds—the return of the light at winter solstice is at once an uplifting environmental fact and a hopeful spiritual symbol. And so I wish you all Many Happy Returns of the Light on this holy day of December 25th. Addendum: I’ve reviewed my materials and confirmed that, yes—as you might expect from a sun-focused culture—the winter solstice was quite important in Egyptian culture and religion. There are plenty of inscriptions and texts to support that, and a number of temples and monuments are oriented toward the winter solstice sunrise, especially those dedicated to Re-Hor-Akhty, Re-Horus of the Horizon. AdvertisementsIN SEPTEMBER 1976 scientists in Antwerp received a Thermos out of Yambuku, in what was then Zaire, with two samples from a nun who was fatally ill. One of the vials had smashed, but after scooping the other out of a pool of icy water, blood and broken glass, they discovered that they were handling a deadly and unknown virus. To spare Yambuku from infamy, they named the infection after a local river, the Ebola. The next 36 years saw about 20 Ebola epidemics. Each was in a village or small town in central Africa and subsided after claiming fewer than 300 lives. Today’s crisis is of a different order. It has struck down three countries—Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone—with a combined population of over 20m. Almost 4,500 deaths have been recorded: the actual total is much larger. The epidemic is still rampant, destroying communities as it goes. It has spread sporadically to other African countries and to Spain and America. Get our daily newsletter Upgrade your inbox and get our Daily Dispatch and Editor's Picks. The World Health Organisation (WHO) fears up to 10,000 new victims a week by December, perhaps 70% of whom will die. Its chief calls the epidemic “the most severe acute public-health emergency in modern times”. Now that the world has woken up to the danger, the task is to stop the toll reaching hundreds of thousands, if not millions. That is feasible only with sustained international collaboration. And so far, collaboration is something the response has tragically lacked. This time it’s different Like any epidemic, Ebola is best stopped early. It kills health workers by exposing them to patients who, by the end, exude up to ten litres of virus-laden fluids a day. The number of infections seems to be doubling every two to four weeks. As health-care workers fall ill and the infection grows exponentially, a society’s defences against Ebola are rapidly overwhelmed. This time the response has been fatally slow. One reason is that an Ebola epidemic had never been seen in that part of Africa. The disease may also have been helped by urbanisation and development, which strengthen the transport links that shuttle virus from villages to the town and back into uninfected country. Perhaps it was only a matter of time before Ebola would find its way into a slum too chaotic and vast to cope. Recrimination is for later. The effort now must go into defending against Ebola’s spread. The disease poses only a slight risk in rich countries, because tracing, diagnosing and isolating scattered cases is within the scope of their health systems. Officials are minimising the threat by screening travellers, though apparently healthy people can be incubating Ebola. But to quarantine an entire chunk of west Africa would be both wrong and futile. Borders would be permeable. People would flee and pay bribes. As the virus conquered west Africa unchecked, more untraceable emigrants would carry it inside their bodies. When the epidemic spread, would you then slam the door on Ivory Coast and Nigeria? Dhaka? Mumbai? The way to make the world safe is vigilance outside west Africa and to drain the reservoir of infection within it. Because the disease kills fast and spreads only via direct contact with body fluids, patients infect an average of just 1.5-2.2 others. If you reduce that ratio, the epidemic will slow; if you can get it below one, it will subside (see article). Science can help. If instant-diagnosis kits work, health-care workers can isolate patients early on, when the disease is hard to tell from malaria or cholera. Eventually, new vaccines could offer protection for the general population—though they will not be ready for many months. Instead the first doses should be used to try to ensure that medical staff are safe, helping to eliminate today’s grave shortage of people willing to put themselves forward as carers. Other ideas include new antiviral medicine. Serum from survivors is promising, too: more could be done to get it to patients. But different treatments need to be tested against each other in a systematic way to see which ones work and which will not. A bad feeling In the meantime, the world must strive to turn back Ebola the old-fashioned way. The WHO has set the goal: 70% of burials must be safe and 70% of cases isolated locally or in clinics, both within 60 days. It is a daunting task. The plan will fail if people mistrust health advice. But fear and suspicion spread even faster than the virus. Some who try to teach people about the disease have been attacked. Conspiracy theories are rife. Some try to avoid the stigma of Ebola, by pretending they have caught something else. There is a black market in death certificates, so that families can bury their members in local graves. The good news is that safer behaviour is spreading—in the way people greet each other, and in rapid burials that shun rituals of touching and kissing. The plan will also fail without more treatment centres. Liberia has 620 beds but needs five times that number—and the demand is growing exponentially. By one reckoning, a 70-bed clinic costs $1m a month to run and needs two to three staff for each patient. America, Britain and the World Bank have between them promised almost $2 billion. Pledges are coming in fast. If more cash is needed, it will be found. Much harder is to get the treatment centres rapidly built, supplied and staffed. In desperation, planners are resorting to makeshift clinics and training local people to mind them—one idea is to recruit survivors, who have immunity. For the moment, more patients will use these than proper centres. Untested, and clearly second-best, their success will depend on how well the authorities can explain how to treat the sick. Nobody can say how easy that will be. It has never been tried. Ebola infects everything. People keep away from fields and markets—so the price of cassava has more than doubled and there is a risk of hunger. Children are orphaned, businesses close, political and tribal resentments flare up. All that will only make Ebola harder to beat. It is a test for the people of west Africa. But it is also a test for a globalising world. The slums of Freetown are closer to the streets of London than they have ever been. Some, like Cuba and Médecins Sans Frontières, have risen to the occasion. Too many still have not.Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The BBC's Damien McGuinness in Tbilisi spoke to Martine Dennis about the latest developments Georgia's governing party and the opposition have both claimed victory in the country's parliamentary elections. Early results suggest the opposition Georgian Dream coalition, led by billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, had a clear lead in votes for party lists. But President Mikheil Saakashvili said his ruling party was ahead in the race for seats decided on a first-past-the-post basis - nearly half the total. It is seen as his biggest popularity test since he came to power in 2003. The election could bring the first democratic transfer of power in Georgia's post-Soviet history. It is not yet clear when official results from Monday's vote will be announced. Georgia's Central Electoral Commission (CEC) said there had been no grave violations during the voting. Observers from the European security organisation OSCE are due to give their verdict at 14:30 (10:30 GMT). According to the CEC's early results, the rival blocs are running neck-and-neck in the 73 first-past-the-post constituencies. The other 77 out of 150 parliamentary seats in total are decided by the proportional, party list method. With 25% of the party list vote counted, Georgian Dream had secured 53%, while Mr Saakashvili's United National Movement (UNM) had 41%. 'Solid majority' Image copyright Reuters/ap Image caption Opposition leader Bidzina Ivanishvili (L) has accused President Saakashvili of human rights abuses Mr Saakashvili had sought to portray the election as a choice between his Western-leaning government, and a future in which he said Mr Ivanishvili would allow Russia to dominate the former Soviet republic. Mr Ivanishvili made his fortune in Russia in the early 1990s. Tensions between Mr Saakashvili's government and Russia escalated into a brief war in 2008 which saw Georgian troops expelled from two breakaway regions. Thousands of cheering supporters of the opposition Georgian Dream bloc gathered to celebrate in the capital Tbilisi after the polls closed late on Monday. "We have won! The Georgian people have won!" Mr Ivanishvili said in a speech broadcast on a Georgian TV station, the AFP news agency reports. Mr Ivanishvili, Georgia's richest man, said he expected his coalition to win 100 out of 150 parliamentary seats. In televised comments, Mr Saakashvili conceded the opposition "has won the majority in the proportional vote". But he added that "in single-mandate constituencies, the majority of votes has been secured by Georgia's (ruling) United National Movement". The UNM said it believed it had secured at least 53 of the 73 seats in the single-mandate constituencies, with a party's spokeswoman predicting that it would have "a solid majority". The single mandate, first-past-the-post system helps to ensure that rural voters still have a voice. An MP representing a small district in the mountains is equal to one representing a large district in Tbilisi. Prisoner scandal Under reforms scheduled to take effect after a presidential election next year the parliament and prime minister will have more power than the president. The Central Electoral Commission said in a statement that turnout had been around 61%. Earlier Mr Ivanishvili had staged a symbolic protest by refusing to vote, saying the authorities had "already resorted to very many violations". The BBC's Damien McGuinness in Tbilisi says that if the ruling party gets back into power despite failing to secure a majority of votes, the opposition could feel cheated of victory - and spark mass protests. The government's reputation has taken a battering in recent weeks because of a prisoner-abuse scandal. Videos broadcast on national television showed prison inmates being beaten and sexually abused by guards. The scandal sparked street protests and allowed Mr Ivanishvili to portray the government as high-handed. Human rights group Amnesty International says many of Mr Ivanishvili's supporters were "fined, fired, harassed or detained for expressing their political views" during the election campaign.Sony's Director of Third Party Production & Developer Relations, Gio Corsi, has revealed on Twitter that Sony has stepped into help Austin-based developer Stoic complete its PlayStation Vita port of strategy game The Banner Saga. The company's technical director, John Watson, recently took to the studio's forums to let everyone know that the Vita port had been back-burnered due to problems with the team initially contracted to complete the work of porting the game to Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Vita. While the console ports are go, the Vita port was off. Until Sony stepped in, that is. Sony's third-party team works behind the scenes to get games onto its platforms; that's the team that oversaw the port of Ultra Street Fighter IV to the PlayStation 4, for example. Despite it being a Capcom title, it was published by Sony on PS4. Corsi has, of late, made a big impression at Sony's PlayStation Experience keynotes -- generally announcing fan-favorite third-party games for PlayStation platforms, and helping keep hope alive for Sony's handheld console with Western and independent-developed games. Time and time again, the company has spoken of decreasing first-party development for the platform; while the Vita continues to be well-supported in Japan, and many of those games are localized, Western games often need a little first-party help. What's not clear, however, is how the team at Sony selects which projects to get behind. Our recommendation: If you're a PlayStation developer looking for help, talk to your Sony account rep.No matter what industry you are in, it is always a challenge to make every one of your customers happy and satisfied. By the time a customer specifically points out that your service or product is of extremely low quality, however, your reputation is gone. Before our deep dive today, let’s look at a true case below that was originally posted on Google Play Help forum. It’s obvious that today’s users are more demanding and intolerant with apps that don’t work. Rather than asking for a refund, they would even try to find a way and seek assistance from Google to get bad apps removed. While Google will probably not remove the app solely because of poor quality, as mentioned in the post, there is a severe punishment. In pursuit of improving the user experience on the Google Play Store, Google has enhanced its search and discovery algorithm to reflect app quality in order to promote high-quality apps more than similar apps of lower quality. In other words, the low-quality apps will be demoted in the app store search results and end up with low visibility as well as searchability. ‘We’ve seen that people go on to use higher quality apps more and uninstall them less. And by focusing on the quality and performance of your app, you’ll find more success on Google Play’, said by Google. Now you are curious how you will know if your apps get downranked by Google for any reason? That’s not the thing you should spend time on. As Google stated, ‘The change has had a positive impact on engagement – we’ve seen that people go on to use higher quality apps more and uninstall them less. And by focusing on the quality and performance of your app, you’ll find more success on Google Play.’ Yes, you read it right – Quality and Performance. Simple as it is. Stay away from the ‘low quality’ zone So how to keep your distance from being a low-quality app? First things first, you need to keep in mind what denotes a high-quality app. As the main focus here is to define ‘high-quality app’ in a different way, a widely accepted understanding is that a high-quality app should meet business requirements and provide the satisfying user experience. To take it further, an app seeking for long-term success cannot miss the following factors: Functioning Features The above case is very typical – When users can’t download maps, the navigation app is just malfunctioning. For any software (mobile, desktop or web), there’s a bottom line that the application should provide expected core functionalities to help end users accomplish their tasks, no matter how beautiful the app is designed. Lightning Fast Performance There is a reason that mobile dominates today’s digital world. It lets users finish tasks in a matter of minutes or even seconds. How does your app help them achieve that? By delivering lightning fast performance with no spinners and zero crashes. Device Compatibility Keeping up with the releases of new devices is challenging. But that doesn’t mean you have to accept the challenge and toss away any notions of making your app compatible with as many devices as possible. Pragmatic practices to settle down in the ‘high quality’ area If you are suffering from low visibility and negative user reviews due to poor app quality, you should take actions as soon as possible if you are still serious about your app and business. Test, test, test To ensure all of the features are working all the time on the majority of your target devices, you need to test your apps all the time. No matter what testing approach you may rely on, the goal here is to always be testing. Continuous testing at scale When you heavily rely on a manual process to validate your app quality, you will not able to respond to user feedback and market needs in an instant way. By the time you finish one testing cycle, in many cases, your app score and visibility will have already got downgraded. So the game-changing strategy here is deploying test automation. By automating everything at scale, you can achieve a faster issue resolution process. Your QA team will be able to understand app performance across hundreds of real devices and detect bugs as quickly as possible. For your Dev team, they can get higher visibility to bugs, dive into testing reports earlier and fix bugs immediately. The overall upside of continuous testing is obvious that you can reveal the risks in the release candidate at earliest. This greatly determines if your application is ready to progress through the delivery pipeline. Always delivering and monitoring The faster app quality gets verified, the higher possibility is that your Release team can increase the speed and frequency at which quality apps are delivered. From the standpoint of business objectives, a continuous delivery process assures that your end users are always enjoying the best app, which in turn will naturally increase your user retention ratio and user engagement. Now theoretically you’ve delivered the best app to the end users, but how do you exactly know if the current version is actually top-notch? Instead of acting passively to address users’ negative inputs, it’s highly suggested that your Operations team kickstart proactive mobile app performance monitoring, spot issues before your users do and constantly enhance end-user experience. Closure As Google mentioned already, the higher quality and better performance your app has, the more success you will eventually find. Even though you are not conventionally held accountable for app ranking and downloads, everyone involved in the DevOps process is responsible for app success as well. As for companies, no matter what business strategy or testing methodology (Agile or DevOps) is adopted, everyone should be in the front line of achieving one simple goal – business growth and success.Saudi Arabia said on Sunday it had severed ties with Iran over the storming of the Saudi embassy in Tehran, in a worsening diplomatic crisis between the regional rivals following the kingdom's execution of a prominent Shia cleric. Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told a news conference Iran's diplomatic mission and related entities in Saudi Arabia had been given 48 hours to leave. He said Riyadh would not allow the Islamic Republic to undermine the Sunni kingdom's security. Saudi Arabian
of Neon Shadow on Google Play, Crescent Moon replied with the reason why. "The premium model is already dead, unfortunately," the reply starts. "Its gone down 10x since 2 years ago. We made it in this game that if you have already purchased the game and played it, you won't see any ads, so no change for those who own it. Hope that helps!" As that reply states, if you've already purchased either Neon Shadow or Mines of Mars you shouldn't see the ads in the game. "If you plan to install on a new device, just let us know your order ID and we'll get you a copy of the previous paid build version," Crescent Moon said in an email. Crescent Moon also added that it hopes that making Neon Shadow free its multiplayer servers should fill up once again. You can download Neon Shadow for free on Google Play. Mines of Mars can also be downloaded for free on Google Play. Original story follows... Crescent Moon Games is spoiling Android players today. Two of the games it has acted as publisher for are available for free on Google Play today. Spoiled rotten you lot are. The first one is the Bronze Award-winning procedural mining RPG Mines of Mars. You dig down into Martian soils to find dark secrets as well as bigger weapons and items so you can get further down. Our reviewer said that it "doesn't give you a lot to play with, but it gives you a really intriguing sandbox for you to do it in." If that sounds like it's up your street then you can grab it for free on Google Play. It normally costs £3.99 / $4.99. The other game is the Gold Award-winning cyberpunk first-person shooter Neon Shadow. It's set in a future where you have to destroy the mechanoids who have taken over the space station you're on. It's a classic-style shooter with brings colours and big blasts. Our reviewer said that it's a "hugely entertaining shooter that works brilliantly on touchscreen," so there you go. You can grab that for free over on Google Play too. You'd normally be paying 79p / 99 for it. We're not sure how long these price drops will last but the wording from Crescent Moon implies that it'll just be today. So if I were you I'd pick them up immediately.A display at Clearview Regional High School raised eyebrows for its depiction of a black silhouette with its hands up. (Photo: Facebook) HARRISON – Clearview Regional High School's class project on police brutality in Camden has been removed the hallway, but not before the image of a black silhouette with its hands over its head sparked controversy among parents and police in two towns. The display, featuring "Hands up, Don't Shoot" written next to a black cutout of a person, sent local police officials into an uproar Wednesday morning when a photo of the project was posted to a public Facebook page. Gloucester County Chiefs of Police Association President Robert Zimmerman — Pitman's police chief and a Mantua councilman — addressed the issue publicly on his Facebook page, announcing Wednesday afternoon the display was removed after conversations with the superintendent. John Horchak, superintendent for the district serving Mantua and Harrison township, could not be reached. The project was assigned to a humanitarian studies class by teacher Jennifer Satterfield, according to Melody Randle, whose daughter is one of four students who worked on the display about police brutality. Randle told the Courier-Post it was "a good project" with "true facts about a real issue." Other students completed projects on feminism and human trafficking, Randle added. Portions of the poster too small to read from photos highlighted the progress Camden County Police have made, Randle claimed. "The writing you can't see is the decrease in crime in Camden County when police started to be involved and interact with the community," Randle said. The poster was hung in the hallway during Satterfield's third-period class. In online public commentary, Zimmerman said he took issue not with the overall project, just the silhouette and the "hands up, don't shoot" portion of the display. The gesture became a symbol of protest after the Aug. 9 killing of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teen in Ferguson, Missouri, and has become a symbol of police brutality protests nationwide. "That portion of the project was not approved by the administration and that's what the controversy is all about," Zimmerman wrote. "The approved silhouette would have painted the picture in a whole different light — a positive light — one that would create a bonding relationship between the police and community." Harrison Township Police, which has a school resource officer dedicated to Clearview High School, is "taking it with a grain of salt," according to Mayor Louis Manzo. Harrison's police officers are "connected to the community in a big way," he said. While the teacher may have been well-intentioned, Manzo called the project and resulting controversy "irresponsible and sad." Public comments on Zimmerman's Facebook statement called the project "tasteless" and the students "punk kids." "I think the students were violated. The school caused them to be harassed," Randle said. Her daughter is not likely to face disciplinary action, she indicated. "It's one thing that just got out of hand. The students are feeling tormented, and the school is perpetuating it." Read or Share this story: http://on.cpsj.com/1JI4wvOPerhaps the iconic image of developing-world poverty is a small collection of huts with thatched roofs. Unfortunately for those living in such places, these roofs are terrible. They leak and, when water-logged, often collapse. The grasses used to fabricate them are becoming scarcer. Insects and other undesirable critters live in them. People moving out of poverty quickly ditch thatch, upgrading to materials such as corrugated tin. Corrugated tin roofs are waterproof but have serious downsides. They trap heat, and though a super hot home may be less miserable than getting rained on, it is nevertheless is unpleasant. When it rains, the noise can be so deafening it drowns out everything. David Saiia, a professor of strategic management and sustainability at Duquesne University, has come up with a brilliant alternative: plastic thatch, sourced from the vast soda-bottle waste stream. Saiia specializes in developing business solutions that will help people out of poverty while preserving habitats. On one of his many trips taking university students to the Ecuadoran nature preserve, Maqui Picuna, he challenged them to think of something useful to do with all the plastic bottles littering this scenic Andes cloud forest. Saiia’s sculpture, painting, and drawing skills kicked in; shortly a proverbial back-of-the-envelope drawing launched his business transforming bottles into thatch strips. The tops and bottoms are sliced off; the remaining body of the bottle is flattened and then cut into strips. (Saiia and Carnegie Mellon’s Engineers without Borders are now tweaking a human-powered machine to do this work.) Next, the strips are adhered to a cross-strip using ultrasonic sealing machines provided by Dukane. If you’ve ever sliced yourself wrestling with a device encased in clam-shell plastic, you know how effective ultrasonic sealing is.The Janus project team has been dropping hints and updates in their Slack channel, as well as announced some significant changes for the Janus project, which are going to be implemented. Here's a summary, to Janus holders but also to those who still hold back from investing in Janus. Burn Janus, Burn! 22,500,000,000 Janus tokens were issued on 5-Aug-2016, 06:31 pm. There was an ICO. Then there was an NXT token sale. And community building. On April 13, Bjorn writes: We will reduce total Janus in existence to 25,201,489 JNS. 5 Million of that will be kept on the main Janus account (they receive none of the dividends, therefore do not detract). 2.5 million for our team's holdings, 2.5 million for community efforts/bounties in the future and the like, 2 million will go to the final JanusXT holder when he/she comes to us. This leaves 16,201,489 in circulation, assuming none of the JanusXT holders leave the project. When the 2nd distribution of Janus tokens on c-cex.com and on the Nxt AE have been sold out, NO MORE tokens will be sold by the Janus Team. July 3rd is the end date of the 2nd distribution, plus the last chance to support the Janus team directly. Remember that any buy from the team is an investment in the team's work, which aims to make your investment worth. bjorn_bb: After July 3rd the market will be fighting each other for tokens. We decided this is best to carry all who are in since December until this July with us. Then after latecomers will have to pay more premium. By premium I mean they gonna be buying it from you all. However sells could get ever scarce as the passive income becomes the level we want, and I plan to add Janus as a payment option to 2 sites for a continuous buy up driver. The key is making a discount enough to take the time to buy and use it as payment. If a service on social trading site is 400 USD for example a 25% discount paid via Janus tokens should motivate. This then feeds us tokens, causes market push, and should in theory drive volume. New sites, better Dividends A new game will be added to BetterBets.io this month. Janus holders can expect an addition to the monthly NXT profit share from the BetterBets.io Casino, “people who aren’t a fan of dice may really like this one,” bjorn_bb writes. Janus holders will get 90% of the NXT profit. A new blockchain based business site will launch soon after; This is an unexpected evolvement, and the new site's going to add an extra revenue stream to Janus and JanusXT holders. 10% to Janus holders, 10% to JanusXT holders, 10% to the "outside developers" for helping push the site + also helping Janus, and 70% to the Janus Team. In May, a new site will be added to the JanusXT holders' portfolio of income sources This site will easily be replicated to many areas of pop culture. And yup, it's just one of the advantages of being an XT holder. Janus XT Want to get JanusXT? New team member A new and influential member has joined the Janus team. Who this person is, will be announced soon. His work will begin with the launch of the social trading site. Bjorn writes: His job won't be like ours, he may work 20 hours a month but what he can provide is priceless. I am proud of what I can do, but he can open doors that are impossible for even top marketers. It's hard for a new guy to come into a team working together for so long, but he's everything I realized when we met last summer. I just didn't think he would be interested in joining until January. 30+ years of experience in numerous fields and industry very few have direct access to. We are coordinating with the Nxt Foundation to get his identity verified for you (I assume you all trust their word by now). Once that's done we can roll out the QA with him on a yet to be determined medium, end of the month. His passport has been sent to the Nxt Foundation who will talk with him and confirm his identity. When the QA comes there will be no doubts about his authenticity and we will see why this verification process was important. "So that we aren't making some crazy claims", writes Bjorn. The social trading site Bjorn has revealed the name of the future site: www.trademimic.com Janus' aims to hit the mainstream with this site, which will soon be beta-released and tested inside the community, then soft-launched in July. Bjorn writes: Trademimic.com is focused on Forex, but as we said in December, it will have altcoin options and Bitcoin. Subscription based. And there will be tiered packages. More options higher price. We'll finish up with the social trading fintech site by July. Then market like mad. Our new team member's first major assignment will be that site. - Do not miss a Janus update, join their Slack channel, and follow their social media channels. More Nxt assets can be explored on nxter.org/assethub.TORONTO – An Ontario judge who wore a hat in court bearing Donald Trump‘s “Make America Great Again” slogan has been suspended without pay after an oversight body ruled his behaviour constituted a “single aberrant and inexplicable act of judicial misconduct.” In a decision released Tuesday, the Ontario Judicial Council said it struggled to reconcile Justice Bernd Zabel’s actions with his stellar record as a judge, and found his conduct warranted the most serious reprimand possible short of removing him from the bench. “Justice Zabel’s conduct that day gave rise to a perception by many that he was a Trump supporter and that he agreed with Trump’s views and policies. In doing so, he violated a fundamental principle of judicial ethics and, particularly in view of the controversy surrounding Trump’s campaign, engaged in serious misconduct,” the council panel wrote. READ MORE: Ontario judge facing 81 complaints after wearing ‘Make America Great Again’ hat in court “His conduct on Nov. 9, 2016 was completely at odds with the exemplary judge he has been for the past 27 years. We are satisfied that Justice Zabel does not hold any of the discriminatory views that the complainants attribute to Donald Trump,” it said. The council received 81 complaints about the incident, including several it said expressed concerns that people from vulnerable communities would fear they would not be treated fairly by a judge who supported Trump. This, because of the U.S. president’s “many well-publicized statements perceived to indicate misogynistic, racist, anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant and homophobic views,” it said. However, the council said, “we are satisfied that members of vulnerable groups need have no fear about the treatment they would receive from Justice Zabel.” COMMENTARY: Trump hat “lapse of judgment” Zabel will be suspended for 30 days. The Ontario Court of Justice said in January that Zabel, who is based in Hamilton, was no longer being assigned cases. At his hearing last month, Zabel said he meant to lighten the mood by wearing a baseball cap with the Trump slogan while walking into court on Nov. 9, 2016 – the day after Trump won the U.S. election. He testified that it was only after his actions made headlines that he realized some believed he was showing support for the controversial American president and his policies. Zabel wore the hat while walking into a courtroom and said it was “just in celebration of a historic night in the United States,” according to an agreed statement of facts. He then took it off and placed it on the dais until the break, when he took it back to his office, the document says. VIDEO: Hearing begins for Hamilton judge who wore ‘Make America Great Again’ hat in court When asked about the hat’s disappearance later, Zabel quipped that he had taken it off because it had angered other judges who “all voted for Hillary,” according to the agreed statement of facts. “I was the only Trump supporter up there, but that’s OK,” he said. Zabel later apologized publicly for his behaviour, calling it a “lapse in judgment.” The judge testified at his hearing that he meant to say he was marking an unprecedented historic event rather than celebrating Trump’s victory, and was simply “gloating” at having predicted the outcome of the election better than his colleagues.YIN - Punitive and Personal This is the top placing PE deck at the 2015 World Tournament At worlds I finished 24th with 22 prestige: 11 Wins - 4 Losses - 1 Tech Loss (an unfortunate extra HQ access in a runner game) It went 6-2 on the day as well as 4-1 at King of Servers, our team got 6th. The only two people to beat it in Words Swiss were Spags and Lucas Li in a pair of intense and brutal matches. Yin is a vicious and heavy variation of PE that relies on being rich, hard advancing big agendas, and attacking when and where your opponent least expects it. It can kill with net, meat, and brain damage, but most terrifyingly it is reasonable to score out with. The raw threat this deck wields cannot be understated. One play in-particular has made me notorious in my local meta. I regularly construct multiple 5 advanced remotes, then, simply sit on them, and watch my opponent look for a way out that doesn't exist. Strategies and Card Choices Building the Flatline - The deck very rarely kills with only one tool or one type of damage, normally you will find yourself chunking and killing with a mix of angles. That being said, Punitive Counterstike is the absolute cornerstone of the deck. It is a savage and upsetting card that demands respect from both the user and the target. You should use it any chance you get. -Two copies cost as much Influence as Scorched Earth -No Tags required -It rewards you for running heavier agendas, freeing up vital deckslots -It crushes unsuspecting players of any caliber (Style points if you [C1-C2] Celebrity Gift reveal the punitive as the last card and then kill them [C3]) -Even when it is seen or expected all of your advanced remotes become explicit threats. In order to support the counterstrike the deck employs a fairly standard PE trap suite with special mention to the inclusion of Chairman Hiro, and the exclusion of Psychic Field (not enough drive by in the current meta and you want heavy advancable traps). Money at Any Cost - This deck needs money and is willing to do normally painful things to get it, trading information, runner credits, and even bad pub to balance the books. It is a freight train of event econ running 2 celebrity gift, 2 medical research, 2 hedge and 1 targeted marketing. But the biggest and flashiest play is scoring Profiteering, 15 credits for 3 bad pub is a trade this deck is willing to make over and over again. Bad Pub is useless for combating your shell game and more importantly unusable in beating a Punitive Trace. The pub will only help your opponent run centrals or trash Chairman Hiro, and thanks to a neat rule, the runner isn't allowed to do either of those things if they are dead. Tech and Counter Tech The main counter threats at Worlds were clear going in, Plascrete, FilmCritic, and Account Siphon. Deus Ex and Feedback Filter were literally non-existent on the floor and I've Had Worse was rare and surprisingly inconsequential. Plascrete Carapace - This is easy enough to play around with a single shattered remains and the constant threat of brain damage. It is also unnerving how many players will not drop it, as if a red ID must mean only Net Damage. Film Critic - a thorn in the side, and enough of a counter threat to justify profiteering into snatch and grab in some board states. But you don't need Punitive to kill and there is a bad habit thinking she makes it safe run. On the positive side her presence lets you play currents to better effect. Account Siphon - This deck is hard to bankrupt, the event econ and raw efficiency is strong enough, but an early profiteering throws it further over the top. But to ensure Siphon defence I chose targeted marketing over Cirisum Grid. Why? Its cheaper, it nets you money every time, you don't care about the runner gaining money, and most importantly it forces them to hard score agendas to turn off. Keeping the Mind Game Alive I believe, Yomi (reading/bluffing) play-styles are underrated in the current scene. This deck proves that a well honed mind games can still match the performance of hyper-mathed Glaciers. To pilot this deck well you need to focus your energy on understanding and empathizing with every person who sits down across from you. Every game I lost I lost because I either misjudged my opponents aggression level or took a turn too long to get a hard lock on their state of mind. Spags was particularly shocking/impressive, after beating him in the first game, he got very quiet... only to begin rushing my board like a berserk highlander. I couldn't over bluff or build a strong enough trap before he ripped 7 points out of my deck. While Lucas was in a constant state of pivoting between passive and aggressive action, he called one of my hard bluffs 1-2 turns sooner than I was expecting, and took 5 points off of me. I struck back with a punitive for 5 meat damage and gave him a heart attack right before drawing a card and letting him know I had no way to kill him at 0 health. He then proceeded to Levy > Indexing me to score out before he had time to worry about about my traps. Looking to the Future PE isn't going anywhere anytime soon, But with DLR-aggedon looming for now, I think I'll have some fun experimenting with Biotech or maybe even something in Teal.About 6 Identity Cards 76 Card Deck (50 Combat, 10 Associates, 10 Police, 6 Mob Job) 6 Hospital Cards 1 Target Card 6 Combat Reference Cards 1 Instruction Manual 1 Two Piece Game Box In the game of Snitch, players take on the identities of mobster characters in a highly thematic mafia world of crime and corruption. You and your friends are a team of mobsters, but one of you has been snitching to the police! You must identify and whack the snitch before it's too late. Snitch is simple to learn, immensely intense, and a whole lot of fun to play! Why should you support Snitch? Snitch brings innovative new mechanics to the hidden identity genre The mobster theme of Snitch is an homage to the original Mafia hidden identity game, with a twist! Common issues associated with player elimination games have been successfully and creatively resolved in Snitch No moderator is required to play Snitch The deck format of Snitch allows for maximum replayability as each game will be unique Meet the Snitch: The Snitch tries to conceal their true identity and outlast the Mobsters. There is 1 Snitch in every game. The snitch may be feeding information to the police, but this does not make him a good guy. He’s a criminal just like the rest of the mob. But to the mobsters, he’s worse; he’s a rat-fink, a no-good-two-bit-double-crossing-scoundrel, he’s the Snitch. What makes him such a threat? He’s blessed with cunningness and a will to survive. His best weapon is his ability to manipulate what people think and use that to his advantage. The mafia’s code of silence doesn’t mean much to the snitch, as he believes the only way you can silence a man is by putting him 6 feet under! Meet the Mobsters: The Mobsters try to work cooperatively with other players to whack the Snitch. Depending on the total number of players, there are 3 to 5 Mobsters in the game. Life was good for the Mobsters, as all their extortion, racketeering, and illicit activities were running smoothly. That is, until their illegal operations were hindered by the police. The Mobsters don’t think there's a Snitch, they know there's a Snitch, and there’s nothing they despise more than disloyalty. With paranoia swelling, they have been ordered by the Godfather to find the Snitch and take him out. The Mobsters put the Mafia family first, and for that reason have strength in numbers. But at this point, who can they trust? Meet the Police: The Police are trying to apprehend the Mobsters and put an end to their corruption once and for all. Their most crucial source of information is from a Snitch within the mob. The Police are willing to gamble with the Snitch's life to get the evidence they need. Combat Cards: Players use attack and defense cards to carry out the 'hit' on the target player. Associate Cards: Call upon the help of Mafia Associates to assist in committing your crimes. Mob Jobs: Mob Jobs are criminal missions the players take part in. The crew leader of the job chooses friends to participate in the job, trying to avoid the Snitch and possibly getting the job snitched on! If the Mob Job is snitched on, the Police get more evidence against the Mobsters and the Snitch gets closer to safety! The Snitch Expansion: Going Undercover is a thrilling addition to the Snitch game! The expansion increases the number of players to 6-8 players, and includes a new hidden identity card – Undercover Cop. Expands the game to 6-8 players New Hidden Identity – Undercover Cop New Associates New Mob Jobs New Police Cards New Combat Cards Two Piece Game Box 6-8 Player Instructions Meet the Undercover Cop: The Undercover Cop tries to conceal his identity and obtain evidence to apprehend the Mobsters. The Undercover Cop shares a win condition with the Snitch – get enough Police in play; however this cop has a duty and moral obligation to keep people alive. If the Snitch or two Mobsters get whacked, the Undercover Cop loses! “One of those ‘great moments’ games. Snitch has a lot going for it with the theme married to the mechanisms, but also just creating a situation, a tension filled room that only needs a little tiny bit of spark for the fun to happen. I love games that don’t take a lot of time to get me to the fun, and from the get-go Snitch is fun” – Lance Myxter, Undead Viking Videos “The sliding scale combat system, hospital, and target mechanics take away the sting of initial player elimination” – Jeff King, All Us Geeks “APPROVED. Snitch offers an innovative approach and new mechanics to the hidden roles genre. On a hilarious side-note, you can have your whole party talking in old mobster talk!” – Matthew Robinson, Broken Prism Reviews "Each game is a unique and terrifyingly fun experience. Every game I had to devise a new strategy to try and win. I look forward to playing this again" – Michael Ritchie, playtester "This game is seriously addicting! This is by far the best secret identity party game" – Tim Graner, playtester "This game ends in the most dramatic and memorable ways. You'll be discussing key moments well after its over!" – Erich Fisher, playtester "I'm always a Mobster! Or at least I can always convince everyone I am. Snitch has created serious trust issues among my friends!" – Katie Hedine, playtester "The Snitch Expansion adds a whole new level of strategy, stress, and suspense to an already amazing game!" – Ryan Hatton, playtester Snitch is designed and developed by Chad Dahlman. Chad is a licensed CPA in Minnesota and has extensive experienced in developing tabletop games, including being an official playtester for Fantasy Flight Games. The development of Snitch, however, was not accomplished by one person, as he worked closely with many artists, gamers, and experts in the tabletop industry to make this happen. We've had so much fun making Snitch and owe the progress of this game to the tremendous support we’ve received from local and online communities. The artwork for Snitch is by the renowned Jeff Lee Johnson, a top artist in Minnesota and the country. Jeff has recent work featured in Star Wars and The Lord of The Rings games for Fantasy Flight Games. Graphic design is by Lee Green, Art Director for the Professional Skaters Association. Lee is also a prolific freelance designer with expertise in branding, print, and packaging materials for countless clients. Printing and manufacturing is fulfilled by Johnson Printing in Rochester, MN. Our partners from Johnson Printing have been great to work with and are dedicated to providing exactly what we need at the highest quality. We're able to make Snitch 100% in the U.S.A. and support local industries. Last but not least, we'd like to thank our family, friends, and gaming groups for the extensive playtesting and support for our game. Follow us on: Twitter: https://twitter.com/dahlmanbros Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/snitchthegame BoardGameGeek: http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/183642/snitchAmid reports of teens spewing hate through their cell phones and pleas from some area principals for students to uninstall a particularly vexing application, officials in Chicago touted a new app this morning that they said could serve as a counterweight to vile online behavior. Teens who install the CombatHate app on their phones can take pictures or write descriptions of online hate speech or terrorism and anonymously send it to the Simon Wiesenthal Center. Officials at the Los Angeles-based Wiesenthal Center, an international Jewish human rights organization, said they would then relay information about online crimes to law enforcement and track broader patterns of online hate — criminal or not. Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the Wiesenthal Center's associate dean, said the app was a way to “empower our young people,” who he said “see this stuff every day.” The Rev. Christopher Harris, pastor of Bright Star Church in Bronzeville, said the app was a way to confront the problem inside the tech-centric world of teens. “It's going to cultivate hope for all the individuals who are victims or witnesses to hate crimes,” he said. The app was unveiled previously in other cities, but was pushed today in Chicago at a news conference with Wiesenthal officials and Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White. The press conference came as Chicago-area school leaders warn parents and students about the Yik Yak app, a recently released program that allows teens to post anonymously to others nearby. Educators said some students have used the service to threaten and malign others, prompting certain schools to block access to the application on their networks and urge parents to uninstall it from their child’s phone. CombatHate, already available for free on Apple’s app store, offers tips to cyberbullying victims on getting help. But the tools that allow teens to upload information about a particular incident should only be used if it rises to the level of hate speech or terrorism, the superhero-themed app instructs users. Users of the app can see a list of recent episodes of hate speech. Racist graffiti in Minnesota and Pennsylvania, KKK- and Nazi-themed playground vandalism in Florida and swastikas on vehicles in California were among the incidents detailed. CombatHate also has a list of online “hate games” and “hate sites” that it urges users to avoid. [email protected] who plays fantasy football would love to be that person who drafts a come out of nowhere late rounder that surprises everyone. Not only could it help propel you to a winning season, but it also gives the impression you’re a brainiac, even if everyone knows you’re not! However intriguing the possibility, cashing in on a late round flyer is as elusive as buying that winning lottery ticket you dream about. Fortunately, there are a few scenarios we can examine to help us narrow the field a bit. Unfortunately, most of them, if not all of them, must develop into the proverbial “perfect storm” for the player, and our fantasy teams, to reap the rewards: Is the player behind an aging veteran who’s production is declining, or someone who doesn’t seem capable of staying healthy, what are the teams offensive coaching philosophies, is there talent and stability on the offensive line, and last, but certainly not least, does the player have the talent to succeed if things work in his favor and offer him opportunity? So chill, enjoy your overcooked brat and cold beverage, FakePigskin.com has your back, and we’ve already done the heavy lifting for you. Let’s dig right in! • JOSEPH RANDLE– DALLAS COWBOYS: Starter DeMarco Murray is a mosquito bite from missing significant time and although not out the door yet, head coach Jason Garrett has certainly been handed his hat and needs a winning season in the worst way. Both are factors that could set up Joseph Randle to surprise a few people this season. You won’t be one of them! His versatility and durability as Oklahoma States workhorse, enabled him to exceed 500 touches and 3,000 yards rushing in his two seasons as the starter. He led the Big 12 in rushing yards in 2012 amassing a respectable 1,417 yards from scrimmage, and topped 100 yards rushing 8 times! His eyesight isn’t an issue, as he was able to find the end zone 40 times, and even if Murray does manage to stay healthy, Randle could see some goal line work. His pass catching ability is the cherry on top, and for those of you in PPR leagues, this should put him on your radar as well. • JOHNATHAN FRANKLIN– GREEN BAY PACKERS: At 5’10” and 205lbs, Johnathan Franklin isn’t the biggest running back in the NFL, but with a 4.46 40 yard dash time, he does possess some explosiveness and foot quickness, along with some rather impressive credentials. In the 2012 season at UCLA he rushed for over 1,700 yards, with an impressive 6.1 yards per carry, and is UCLA’s all time leading rusher…not too shabby! The Packers also nabbed Eddie Lacey in the second round, but he may have lingering health issues, which is why he fell in the draft and the Packers moved up in the fourth round to secure Franklin as insurance. If Franklin can keep his fumbling issues in check (6 fumbles in the 2011 season) and improve his pass protection skills, he could be a valuable asset should Lacey’s health issues re-emerge. • LATAVIUS MURRAY– OAKLAND RAIDERS: Can anyone say Alfred Morris? Latavius Murray was drafted by the Raiders out of Central Florida, but more interesting, both Morris and Murray were taken in the 6th round of their respective drafts. In his rookie season Morris rushed for over 1,600 yards and scored 13 touchdowns! Latavius Murray has both power, weighing 223 lbs., and speed, clocking a 4.39 in the 40 yard dash, to go along with some nice pass catching skills. In 2012 he had 50 catches for over 500 yards, to go with his 100 yard per game rushing average. It may take some time for him to adjust to NFL level talent, and he does have to leap frog the likes of Taiwan Jones and Rashad Jennings to get some playing time, but if Darren McFadden falters, yet again, he may get an opportunity to showcase his skills. • MONTARIO HARDESTY– CLEVELAND BROWNS: With Trent Richardson nursing a shin injury already and not participating in OTA’s (organized team activities), Montario Hardesty has been taking all the reps with the first team offense. Head Coach Rob Chudzinski had this to say, “Hardesty has been impressive during OTA’s, and has really worked on his hands in the passing game.” Additionally, the Browns have a much improving offensive line, anchored by perennial All Pro left tackle Joe Thomas, which should help overall offensive production. Hardesty could become one of the most sought after waiver wire additions considering T. Richardson’s health issues thus far, and it might behoove you to grab him late in your draft before the vultures start circling. • AHMAD BRADSHAW– FREE AGENT: Ahmad Bradshaw has had three surgeries on his right foot, one on his left, and surgeries on both ankles, which doesn’t bode well for any NFL running back, so he doesn’t come without risk. But he is only 27 years old and not far removed from two 1,000 yard seasons, averaging 5.4 yards per carry, and 30 touchdowns! In April he received full medical clearance to resume all football activities, but most of the teams reportedly interested in his services drafted a running back in the second round of the NFL draft, and interest, for now has diminished. Last season Cedric Benson wasn’t signed until August by the Packers and became their starting running back. With training camps fast approaching, injuries will surely mount, and I’m betting several teams already have A. Bradshaw on their speed dialer. UPDATE: A. Bradshaw signed with the Indianapolis Colts on Tuesday June 11, 2013. • DANNY WOODHEAD– SAN DIEGO CHARGERS: I would be remiss in my duties if I didn’t recommend whoever is behind Ryan Mathew’s on the depth chart, so I’m all in on Danny Woodhead to take up the slack, if, or when the wheels fall off the Chargers offense this year. I don’t consider D. Woodhead to be anything special mind you, and he will have to compete with Ronnie Brown for touches, as both have a similar skill set, but Woodhead is younger, and does possess a toughness that has served him well for 6 years in the NFL. In 2012 with the Patriots, he had 76 touches for a little over 300 yards and 4 touchdowns. Not great, agreed, but I have a strong feeling the Chargers will need to use him much more than that, especially if R. Mathew’s continues to be, well… R. Mathew’s! BOTTOM LINE: “If you dare nothing, then when the day is over, nothing is all you have gained.” Stay calm, be flexible, stick to your draft plan, and don’t be afraid to take chances! P.S. Our FakePigskin 2013 Draft Guide will be released on August 1st in PDF form for FREE! Simply go to our home page and sign up to receive it and our newsletter in the upper right corner right under our banner. Share this: Twitter Facebook Google Reddit Email LinkedIn- A furry feline greeted beach-goers on Siesta Key Wednesday, but this kitty was no house cat. Bobcats are somewhat common on Siesta Key, but seeing one on the beach was a rare sight for Jake Drost, who took a photo of the large cat. "There have been many people who saw multiple bobcats around that area," Drost told FOX 13 News. "I have been a local here all my life and never saw a bobcat on the beach." Drost said the bobcat, which some thought might be a panther due to how big the cat was, was at Crescent Beach near The Point of Rocks. He said he could tell it was
€1.5 billion ($1.8 billion) a month from Madrid to cover essential services. "This means that from now on (Catalan leaders) no longer have their money," said a spokeswoman for Spain's budget ministry. They won't have the right to carry out any "extra expense" beyond those already foreseen, she added. 'Less autonomy' "Does this mean they have less autonomy? Of course! But the seriousness of the measure goes hand in hand with the seriousness of the events," said Francisco de la Torre, a lawmaker with the centrist Ciudadanos party, an ally of Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's conservative government. Madrid announced the measure after the Catalan government said it would no longer comply with a request made in July that it provide weekly accounts of its spending to ensure no money was being used to stage the contested referendum. Junqueras said the freezing of the accounts is a disguised way of taking away Catalonia's autonomy, a measure which could in principle only take place after a debate and a vote in the Senate, Spain's upper house of parliament. "This implies not being able to devote one euro to spending in sectors such as industry, commerce, agriculture, livestock, culture, research, sports, youth, social affairs, housing" which are considered to be non essential, he said. For Madrid, paying the salaries of the roughly 170,000 employees of the Catalan regional government will not be an easy task. Spain's central government will needed their complete details such as bank account info or the number of sick leave days they have in order to calculate the amount they are due. Catalan regional vice-President and chief of Economy and Finance, Oriol Junqueras waves as he takes part in the official launch of the Catalan main separatist parties' campaign for an independence referendum, Photo: AFP 'Turn off tap' Junqueras avoided answering if his government would provide this information, saying only at a news conference on Tuesday that "we will act with our usual normality". If it does not, Spain's central government will "turn off the tap" of financing for the region since this means the Catalan government "is not cooperating, that they don't want the salaries of public workers to be paid by Madrid, the budget ministry spokeswoman said. Joan Escanilla, president of the Catalan branch of Spain's CSIF civil servants union, said the risk that salaries will be paid late was a "real worry". "Think of all that people who have to pay their mortgages, the problems they could have with their banks," he said. The Catalan government downplays the risk. "We have all the resources to face our obligations," said Junqueras. About a quarter of Catalonia's revenues comes directly from certain taxes which it collects itself as well as from university tuition fees. The Catalan government probably "still has a bit of margin" to pay salaries during the month of September, said Cuenca. To prevent it from using this money, Madrid has asked banks to control all movements in the accounts and credit cards managed by Catalan leaders. By Emmanuelle Michel / AFPIt looks like NVIDIA's GTX 980 Ti launch, which is imminent, won't be a repeat of the GTX 780 Ti, in that it won't be faster than the TITAN product at the time of launch. According to Korean tech publication HWBattle, the GTX 980 Ti will feature fewer CUDA cores than the GeForce GTX TITAN-X, at 2,816. NVIDIA gets that count by disabling 2 of the 24 SMM (streaming multiprocessor Maxwell) units on the GM200 silicon. The texture memory unit (TMU) count will be proportionately lower, at 176 (compared to 192 on the GTX TITAN-X). The ASIC bears the model number GM200-310, according to older reports.We can't take a call on the ROP count and L3 cache amount. Normally we would deduce that it has a full complement of 96 ROPs, but given that Maxwell allows SKU designers to disable components in a way they previously couldn't, it's possible that the GTX 980 Ti could have a different ROP count than the GTX TITAN-X, just as the GTX 970 has a lower "effective" ROP count at 56, compared to the GTX 980, despite the same memory bus width. We know from other reports, that the GTX 980 Ti will feature 6 GB of memory. The TDP is a very arbitrary number, and 250W shouldn't surprise us. What also wouldn't surprise us is NVIDIA reusing the PCB and NVTTM (NVIDIA Time-to-Market) cooler design from the GTX TITAN-X (and several older SKUs). NVIDIA could allow its AIC (add-in- card) partners to come up with custom board designs from day-one.Just a quick recap. 47 Comments on NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti Core Configuration Revealed 1 to 25 of 47 Go to Page 12 PreviousNext #1 the54thvoid To release a product weaker than the flagship and still very expensive means: 1) the Fiji XT is not as good as Titan X, or 2) the Fiji XT is better than Titan X and Nvidia want to get it to market before AMD steals the sales. Oh dear, flip a coin - what is it? EDIT: either way, looks like Titan or Fiji XT for me Posted on May 22nd 2015, 9:52 Reply #2 Luka KLLP As long as it's also cheaper, I'm fine with it being slower than the Titan X. It's definitely gonna be an exciting couple of weeks in Videocard Land :D Posted on May 22nd 2015, 9:54 Reply #3 dj-electric I love the smell of "we got the card, but gonna spill some info through pointing at other sources" before launches. :D I take all the info from now on as a fact. Thanks Posted on May 22nd 2015, 9:55 Reply #4 qubit Overclocked quantum bit Ugh, something had to give, didn't it? :shadedshu: I don't like cut down GPUs. With the 780 Ti, it was the same GPU as the Titan Black, but now they're giving us less, so the only way to get the top GPU is to spend £900. No thanks NVIDIA, I'm not that big a sucker. Posted on May 22nd 2015, 10:13 Reply #5 rtwjunkie PC Gaming Enthusiast Sooo, my PSU should be enough for this with the rest of my specs? I'm pretty sure 850W will have no trouble, just like reassurance. :) Posted on May 22nd 2015, 10:16 Reply #6 dj-electric ^ in SLI, yes. Posted on May 22nd 2015, 10:19 Reply #7 lilhasselhoffer Green team believes that the 3xx series of cards must be crap because Nvidea is rushing to market with a cut down card. Red team says this is a ploy by Nvidea to sell off its cards before the 3xx series comes and kicks its teeth in within a month. How about some real world numbers from either side? Until then a fanboy will draw whatever conclusion supports their particular delusion. I just want to know which card will be better for the money. Posted on May 22nd 2015, 10:20 Reply #8 15th Warlock If AMD's new card ends up being faster than the 980Ti, I can see Nvidia releasing a fully featured GM200 card a là 780Ti with 6GBs of RAM to combat Fiji-XT. Releasing a cut down card this soon may be a move to clear out the inventory of defective GM200 chips before AMD releases its new flagship card, either that or Nvidia anticipates Fiji is equal in terms of performance to a cut down GM200 or the high end model will be priced at around $800, making it more of a direct contender to Titan-X and/or a potential fully featured GM200 based card in the same price range. Posted on May 22nd 2015, 10:23 Reply #9 uuuaaaaaa Meanwhile on Johan Andersson's twitter: This new island is one seriously impressive and sweet GPU. wow & thanks @AMDRadeon! They will be put to good use :) https://twitter.com/repi (Fiji xt picture included?) This are getting hot!Meanwhile on Johan Andersson's twitter:(Fiji xt picture included?) Posted on May 22nd 2015, 10:25 Reply #10 rtwjunkie PC Gaming Enthusiast Dj-ElectriC said: ^ in SLI, yes. So even up to SLI, you're saying? So a single card no problem! So even up to SLI, you're saying? So a single card no problem! Posted on May 22nd 2015, 10:25 Reply #11 Petey Plane A 550W PSU is enough for a 980 and a 4790k, so yes, your 850W will be more than enough Posted on May 22nd 2015, 10:32 Reply #12 bogami yak, Again, to us will sell unsuccessfully cut processor for a lot of money!Typically known problems which we have had with GTX970 will be present. And it's not Nvidia card that has driven six monitors so there can not be a realistic comparison of the abilities of the processor. Hardly anyone knows compare only a FPS here nVidia serves many tricks at the expense of unfamiliarity with operation. AMD in to us new generation made a lot of technological advances and the 20 nm so I waited. On GTX980ti is nothing new, yet the new carrier substrate, they could not make even a year to us throw away lies the head, not to mention the price. Posted on May 22nd 2015, 10:33 Reply #13 GhostRyder Well looks like it is after all going to be a cut down chip because it makes little sense to release something like that to undercut the Titan X's place in the lineup. It would just butcher sales of it and make it less worthwhile than it already is compared to a lower priced version (980ti). Cannot wait to see the performance of this card and how well it overclocks, hopefully we get a little more wiggle room on clocking this card than the Titan X! Posted on May 22nd 2015, 10:39 Reply #14 rtwjunkie PC Gaming Enthusiast I'm still going to wait till both cards are out to decide what my next upgrade will be. I want to see some good benchmarks and user opinions from both camps first. Posted on May 22nd 2015, 10:45 Reply #15 2big2fail the54thvoid said: 1) the Fiji XT is not as good as Titan X, or 2) the Fiji XT is better than Titan X and Nvidia want to get it to market before AMD steals the sales. Considering the now confirmed crippled configuration of the 980ti and that nvidia is launching the 980ti 2 weeks earlier than Fiji, its definitely the second. The only thing amd has to do now to pull ahead until Pascal next year is either not ask Titan X prices or completely fuck up driver support. However, if nvidia cuts prices on the 980 to $375-450, amd might be in trouble from sales hemorrhaging after such a big product launch (i.e. Fiji). Considering the now confirmed crippled configuration of the 980ti and that nvidia is launching the 980ti 2 weeks earlier than Fiji, its definitely the second. The only thing amd has to do now to pull ahead until Pascal next year is either not ask Titan X prices or completely fuck up driver support.However, if nvidia cuts prices on the 980 to $375-450, amd might be in trouble from sales hemorrhaging after such a big product launch (i.e. Fiji). Posted on May 22nd 2015, 10:49 Reply #16 rtwjunkie PC Gaming Enthusiast 2big2fail said: Considering the now confirmed crippled configuration of the 980ti and that nvidia is launching the 980ti 2 weeks earlier than Fiji, its definitely the second. The only thing amd has to do now to pull ahead until Pascal next year is either not ask Titan X prices or completely fuck up driver support. However, if nvidia cuts prices on the 980 to $350-400, amd might be in trouble from sales hemorrhaging after such a big product launch (i.e. Fiji). All i know is it's going to be exciting to pull out the popcorn and watch this unfold, either way! All i know is it's going to be exciting to pull out the popcorn and watch this unfold, either way! Posted on May 22nd 2015, 10:52 Reply #17 Casecutter Given what W1zzard reported as "So what's all the fuss about?" with the TitanX this isn't looking as much. Knowing that TitanX Average/Peak power numbers where up like 42/32% respectively over a 980, moving the clocks on something like this won't make those numbers improve. The upside if they use Samsung modules instead of what came about from 12Gb of inefficient (aka hot) Hynix, Nvidia could find some the saving there with half and better memory. It probably going to come in slightly better perf/w, but as the TitanX wasn't a great 4K, this won't appear to fair better. Posted on May 22nd 2015, 10:54 Reply #18 64K 15th Warlock said: If AMD's new card ends up being faster than the 980Ti, I can see Nvidia releasing a fully featured GM200 card a là 780Ti with 6GBs of RAM to combat Fiji-XT. I'm thinking this has been Nvidia's plan all along. There's plenty of time before Pascal to release a cut down GM200 for gaming and then a maxxed out full GM200 6 GB for gaming later on. Like they did with 780/780 Ti. Nvidia knows how to profit from an architecture for all it's worth. rtwjunkie said: Sooo, my PSU should be enough for this with the rest of my specs? I'm pretty sure 850W will have no trouble, just like reassurance. :) I doubt with a single 980 Ti and the rest of your system at max with overclocks you will ever pull more than 450 watts so that puts you right in the most efficient zone for your PSU and you could even SLI them later on. I'm thinking this has been Nvidia's plan all along. There's plenty of time before Pascal to release a cut down GM200 for gaming and then a maxxed out full GM200 6 GB for gaming later on. Like they did with 780/780 Ti. Nvidia knows how to profit from an architecture for all it's worth.I doubt with a single 980 Ti and the rest of your system at max with overclocks you will ever pull more than 450 watts so that puts you right in the most efficient zone for your PSU and you could even SLI them later on. Posted on May 22nd 2015, 11:01 Reply #19 the54thvoid Got it figured out. When Fiji XT drops and Titan X looks threatened, Nvidia green lights Titan X-treme. This is very simply GM200-400 with all intact plus a balls to the walls unlimited power limit. Core clocks at 1400Mhz, Boost 1500+. It'll cost £1000 and be made only to say - we're still the best. 10 will be made. At which point, AMD release Bermuda (390X2) and because the memory chips are on die, it'll be small and easy to manufacture (relatively speaking pcb wise). The Bermuda dual card will be called Cronos, as this was the boss of the Titans. I rest my case and I'm off to the patent office. Posted on May 22nd 2015, 11:48 Reply #20 techy1 Worst case scenario for us - Nvidia got info that Fiji XT is nothing to be afraid of - can release gimped GM200 now and save non-gimped GM200 for latter (and for ridiculously rounded up price tags) Posted on May 22nd 2015, 11:53 Reply #21 rtwjunkie PC Gaming Enthusiast @the54thvoid you missed your calling! Very creative. Posted on May 22nd 2015, 11:53 Reply #22 Casecutter the54thvoid said: Got it figured out. This is very simply GM200-400 with all intact plus a balls to the walls unlimited power limit. Core clocks at 1400Mhz, Boost 1500+. The problem even with just 6Gb, I think "balls to the walls" clocks would end up with shocking Perf/W, and would make the legacy of Maxwell's design not remembered as significant when it was scaled up. The problem even with just 6Gb, I think "balls to the walls" clocks would end up with shocking Perf/W, and would make the legacy of Maxwell's design not remembered as significant when it was scaled up. Posted on May 22nd 2015, 12:20 Reply #23 Fluffmeister Casecutter said: The problem even with just 6Gb, I think "balls to the walls" clocks would end up with shocking Perf/W, and would make the legacy of Maxwell's design not remembered as significant when it was scaled up. Unlikely, the full GM200 running at 1410Mhz only increased the total system power consumption by 44 watts: http://www.hardocp.com/article/2015/04/14/nvidia_geforce_gtx_titan_x_video_card_review/13#.VV9iWJdViko Unlikely, the full GM200 running at 1410Mhz only increased the total system power consumption by 44 watts: Posted on May 22nd 2015, 13:08 Reply #24 Nejc is this going to be full 6GB of full speed ram or is it going to be cca. 5,5GB as is the case with the 970? (just curious) Posted on May 22nd 2015, 15:16 Reply #25 rtwjunkie PC Gaming Enthusiast ^^I wondered how long before this showed up. Posted on May 22nd 2015, 15:24 ReplyLowe wanted a better life for her kids. She was not one of these carefree, stay-at-home Sandy Duncan-type moms. She was sensitive to her status in life. She had gone to Berkeley in the '50s, before the California’s flagship university became a countercultural mecca. Her classmates tended to be the most diligent students from California rather than the brainiest students from the nation as a whole. Graduates were more likely to raise a large family; Lowe and her husband had five children of their own. This period at Berkeley was more local than national, democratic than meritocratic, and socially conservative than socially liberal. She loved it. "The '50s were a great time to grow up. We had a great education," she enthused. Lowe's later commitment to the anti-drug movement was unusually deep; among various accomplishments, she founded a political nonprofit that helped defeat California's pro-legalization initiative in 2010. But talk with anti-pot leaders and you find that many have a horror story about their children experimenting with marijuana. For them, pot is nothing less than a mortal threat to the success of their kids in schools and to a berth in the middle class. Marcie Beckett, an activist and a mother of two teenage boys in San Diego, described the problem this way: "I've seen grades plummet; I've seen kids not go to college, not hold a job." In the late '70s and early '80s, middle-class moms' status anxieties about their kids' future in the meritocracy fueled a powerful social movement and campaign. First Lady Nancy Reagan became the public face of "Just Say No" after she made a trip to a New York ad agency in October 1983. She watched a demonstration of an anti-drug campaign from the Ad Council, the major charity of the advertising industry. Parents were told to "(g)et involved with drugs before your children do." And school children were told that drug use and academic success don't mix. As one print ad, with the title "School Daze," put it: "School is tough enough without having to try to learn through a mind softened by drugs. So get the education you deserve. And learn how to say no to drugs." According to The New York Times, Nancy Reagan approved: "Both of these themes are exactly right.” Reagan is still alive at the ripe old age of 92. But her campaign against the Jeff Spicolis of the world is dead. And her “movement has evaporated,” as Ivy G. Cohen, the former president of the Just Say No Foundation, noted. Several large nonprofit groups—Families in Action and the foundation itself—either have been renamed or merged with other organizations. Other nonprofits, such as the National Federation of Parents for Drug-Free Youth, disbanded. Whatever you think of "Just Say No," its decline has warped the debate over the legalization of marijuana in this country. It has contributed to the fuzzy notion that generational replacement is and will be the driving force in American attitudes toward pot. "Millennials are at the forefront of the recent rise in public support for same-sex marriage and the legalization of marijuana," Pew Research concluded in a March report. Older Americans who oppose pot are dying off, the report added.Pakistani troops have fired shots into the air to stop US troops crossing into the South Waziristan region of Pakistan, local officials say. Reports say nine US helicopters landed on the Afghan side of the border and US troops then tried to cross the border. South Waziristan is one of the main areas from which Islamist militants launch attacks into Afghanistan. The incident comes amid growing anger in Pakistan over increasingly aggressive US attacks along the border. The latest confrontation began at around midnight, local people say. They say seven US helicopter gunships and two troop-carrying Chinook helicopters landed in the Afghan province of Paktika near the Zohba mountain range. US troops from the Chinooks then tried to cross the border. As they did so, Pakistani paramilitary soldiers at a checkpoint opened fire into the air and the US troops decided not to continue forward, local Pakistani officials say. Reports say the firing lasted for several hours. Local people evacuated their homes and tribesmen took up defensive positions in the mountains. The incident happened close to the town of Angoor Adda, some 30km (20 miles) from Wana, the main town of South Waziristan. A Pakistani military spokesman in Islamabad confirmed that there was firing but denied that Pakistani troops were involved. Diplomatic fury It emerged last week that US President George W Bush has in recent months authorised military raids against militants inside Pakistan without prior approval from Islamabad. The BBC's Barbara Plett in Islamabad says there is a growing American conviction that Pakistan is either unwilling or unable to eliminate militant sanctuaries in its border area. There have been a number of missile attacks aimed at militants in Pakistan territory in recent weeks. Pakistan reacted with diplomatic fury when US helicopters landed troops in South Waziristan on 3 September. It was the first ground assault by US troops in Pakistan. Locals in the Musa Nikeh area said American soldiers attacked a target with gunfire and bombs, and said women and children were among some 20 civilians who died in the attack. In the latest incident, the tribesmen say they grabbed their guns and took up defensive positions after placing their women and children out of harm's way. Pakistan's army has warned that the aggressive US policy will widen the insurgency by uniting the tribesmen with the Taleban. Last week the army chief declared that Pakistan would defend the country's territorial integrity at all cost, although the prime minister has since said this would have to be through diplomatic channels rather than military retaliation. E-mail this to a friend Printable version Bookmark with: Delicious Digg reddit Facebook StumbleUpon What are these?Calculus Now I hope you understand this, because I've never been able to make head nor tail of it. It must be some sort of a Black Magic operation, started out by the Luce cult -- some immoral people who are operating up in New York City, Rockefeller Plaza -- been thoroughly condemned by the whole society. Anyway, their rate-of-change theory -- I've never seen any use for that mathematics, by the way -- I love that mathematics, because it -- I asked an engineer, one time, who was in his 6th year of engineering, if he'd ever used Calculus, and he told me yeah, once, once I did, he said. When did you use it? And he said I used it once. Let me see, what did you use it on? Oh yeah. Something on the rate-of-change of steam particles in boilers. And then we went out and tested it and found the answer was wrong. Calculus -- if you want to know -- there is room there for a mathematics which is a good mathematics. And it would be the rate of co-change, or the rate of change when something else was changing, so that you could establish existing rates of change in relationship to each other, and for lack of that mathematics, nobody has been able to understand present time -- you just can't sum it up easily -- or let us say, for lack of an understanding of what present time was, nobody could formulate that mathematics. So, actually there's a big hole there that could be filled -- a thing called calculus is trying to fill that hole, right now, and it can't. But the rates of change -- it comes closest to it. I think it was one of Newton's practical jokes. Here we have Calculus, and it's trying to measure a rate of change. Well, if we had something that was really workable and simple, it would be formed on this basis. The present time, and gradients of time were gradients of havingness, and as one havingness changed, you could establish a constancy of change for other related havingnesses. But because the basic unit of the universe is two, you would have to have a rate of change known and measured for every rate of change then estimated. The mathematics won't operate in this universe unless it has simultaneous equations. If you have two variables, you must have two equations with which to solve those two variables. In other words you have to compare one to the other simultaneously. Otherwise you just get another variable. Of course, people laughingly do this. They take an equation with two variables, and then they solve it. And then you say "What have you got?" And the fellow says "K". And you say now just a minute -- you got "K", huh? Well, what is "K"? Well "K", we have established arbitrarily as being -- well, say, why did you work the equation out in the first place? You had "K", didn't you?""A scene from “Every Last Child,” playing in D.C. at the Angelika Pop Up Cinema. (Zeitgeist Films/Zeitgeist Films) If you’ve ever wanted to spend time in Pakistan — and let’s be honest, few among us have — there is a way to do so this weekend from the safety and comfort of Washington movie theaters. Three documentaries, related in content yet wholly unique, offer compelling reports on the country and some of its worst scourges: polio, drone strikes and Islamic extremism. “Every Last Child” (opening Friday at the Angelika Pop-Up cinema), “Drone” (screening Friday as part of the AFI Docs film festival) and “Among the Believers” (also at AFI Docs, Friday and Sunday) introduce us to the human beings who are often reduced to caricatures in coverage of Pakistan. In a country rent by crisis and at war with itself, the filmmakers manage to illuminate hopeful themes, showing some Pakistanis’ remarkable courage and resilience. Having spent a year and a half in Pakistan as The Washington Post’s bureau chief in 2012-2013, I wanted to test the authenticity and journalistic rigor of all three films. I covered polio vaccination efforts similar to those shown in “Every Last Child,” reported regularly on the impact of the CIA’s remote-controlled missile strikes that are detailed in “Drone,” and saw the insidious Talibanization of the country that is explored in “Among the Believers.” Each film impressed me. I learned things. Yes, each is emotionally difficult to watch — the needless tragedy and violence are unsparing — but Pakistan’s afflictions are not offered toward cheap ends. I recommend each of these movies. “Every Last Child” focuses on the bravery of World Health Organization workers who slog door to door through fetid slums to persuade Pakistanis to have their children vaccinated against polio. (The paralyzing disease remains endemic only in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria.) The vaccinators have been targeted for death by the Pakistani Taliban, which issued a fatwa in 2012 against vaccination until the United States stopped drone attacks that have killed children in the militant- infested tribal areas (collateral damage well explored in “Drone”). [Review: A dangerous and unnecessary struggle for ‘Every Last Child’] The film’s polio-battling heroine is a woman who continues her mission even though her niece and sister-in-law were gunned down in front of her while offering polio drops in Karachi. Army forces assist the vaccination effort, but the danger remains, infusing the film with tension. Terrorists could strike at any time. Then there is the obdurate skepticism of Pakistanis who view polio eradication as part of a Western plot against Muslims. Bizarre conspiracy theories, promoted by extremist mullahs, link the drops to sterility in boys and the early onset of sexual maturity in girls; others see the vaccine as poisonous. The Taliban’s hideous rationale — you are killing our children with drones, so there’s no way you would want to keep them healthy — is embraced by otherwise sensible-seeming parents who refuse vaccinations for their large broods. The health workers also face reasonable suspicion of being spies: During the hunt for Osama bin Laden, the CIA enlisted a Pakistani doctor to collect DNA through a hepatitis vaccination campaign. To powerful effect, the filmmakers contrast the refusers’ arguments with the desperation of a man seeking treatment for his stricken son and wrenching footage of the daily miseries of a man paralyzed by polio as a child. Still from the movie "Drone," which is being screened as part of the AFI Docs Film Festival 2015. (Courtesy of AFI Docs/Courtesy of AFI Docs) “Drone” is a remarkable document if only for taking viewers into rarely seen North Waziristan, the virtually lawless area that has long been a haven for the Taliban, al-Qaeda and Haqqani network fighters who often travel between Pakistan and adjoining Afghanistan to attack Western troops. (Incidentally, the back and forth migration of unvaccinated families also makes polio eradication more difficult.) The film puts faces on innocent victims through credible testimonials about wanton missile strikes. “It was a horrible day,” says a young man who survived an attack. “It felt like the end of the world.” The United States says it strives to stem collateral damage, but “Drone” raises rule-of-law and war-crimes questions about the use of these unmanned weapons in an essentially borderless and endless battle against non-state terrorist networks. Retired Army Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, one of the most noble men of conscience in Washington (he broke with his longtime friend and boss, then-Secretary of State Colin Powell, over Iraq and other issues), makes the case that drones amplify terrorism. “We’re killing a lot of innocent civilians,” he says in the movie, “and we are recruiting people to the arms of groups like... al-Qaeda. Tell me how we’re winning, if every time we kill four [militants] we create 10.” The film also introduces us to former drone controllers, including one who talks convincingly of suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder because of his video-game-like missions to blast people into oblivion. The operators revisit with remorse the killing they did from thousands of miles away. “You never knew who you were killing,” says one. A still from the film "Among the Believers," which is being screened as part of the AFI Docs Film Festival 2015. (Courtesy of AFI Docs/Courtesy of AFI Docs) The third documentary, “Among the Believers,” is a must for anyone who wants to understand how fundamentalist Islam manufactures zealots who become suicide bombers and otherwise kill to glorify God. It explores what have, in Pakistan, become jihad factories: the thousands of madrassas where young Pakistani boys are sent by impoverished parents because they can’t afford to pay for regular schools (which is an abject failure of the Pakistani state). In these boarding facilities, the boys spend endless hours memorizing the Koran in Arabic, told that if they master this feat, when they die, they will be able to take to heaven 10 of their relatives who would otherwise go to hell. Students confess they have no idea what the verses mean; they just memorize them. As for the goal of their education, that’s simple: “We are mujahideen,” one says. “We kill infidels for the sake of Allah.” The pro-Taliban cleric at the center of the film, Abdul Aziz of the notorious Red Mosque in Islamabad, talks approvingly of molding young minds and thus setting their intolerant perspectives for life. His goal is to impose sharia law in Pakistan — also the aim of the anti-state Taliban insurgency that has cost the lives of tens of thousands of Pakistani soldiers and civilians. The heroes here are progressive, secular Pakistanis and mainstream Muslims, such as the man who builds a village school to counter the Red Mosque’s influence. Also fighting for tolerance and pluralism are leaders of protests after the killings of more than 130 schoolchildren in Peshawar in December; they forced the government to put Aziz under house arrest after he refused to condemn the massacre. Most movie audiences prefer to look away from places like Pakistan, except perhaps in implausible Hollywood thrillers set in stand-in countries. These three films are real, and painfully so. There is little of beauty therein; they will not make Americans want to visit our turbulent, double-dealing ally. But the documentary-makers have done an important service by visiting the difficulties of Pakistan upon us so we may see on the screen, in the swathing cool and dark, these instructive, heartbreaking and even uplifting stories.Villagers gather around the elephant’s carcass at Kultang village in Bodam block of East Singhbhum district on Saturday. Picture by Bhola Prasad Jamshedpur, July 4: A 35-year-old female elephant, touted to be the "pride" of Kultang village in Bodam block of East Singhbhum, died after coming into contact with a low-hanging 11,000W transmission line in the wee hours of today with state forest officials planning to sue the state power board for negligence. The incident occurred at 4am when the animal was coming downhill to Kultang, some 10km from Jamshedpur. Villagers informed the authorities of Dalma Wildlife Sanctuary, under which the area falls, after which range officer Mangal Kachhap, forester Ravinder Kumar and guard Kaleshwar Bhagat rushed to the spot. N.K. Tirkey, a government veterinary doctor from Bodam, certified that the jumbo died due to shock. Guard Bhagat said the elephant came downhill and was walking through a bushy route when she came in contact with the transmission line. "The elephant, unaware of the lurking danger ahead, climbed a mound and her head suddenly touched the power supply line. Yeh hathi hamari shaan thi. Kabhi bhi kisi ke kheto ko nuksan nahin pahuchaya. Bahut dukh ho rahan hain ki woh hamare beech nahin rahi. Bijli supply karne walo par mukadma hona chahiye. Hamne bhi bahut shikayat ki par kuch nahin hua (. "I am not aware that our transmission lines are hanging low," he said. But JUVNL junior engineer Dileshwar Mahto claimed the forest officials never complained about the low height of power lines. "The poles will be erected in a day or two." On why JUVNL did not inspect the area and assess the danger, Mahto said they were short of manpower. "Most of the times, we are busy repairing snags. So, attention is seldom paid to maintenance."Officials investigate at the encounter site in Dinanagar. (Source: PTI photo) The United States has presented Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif with evidence that the terror strike in Gurdaspur three months ago was carried out by groups operating from his country, diplomatic sources told The Indian Express. Advertising The evidence, based on Global Positioning System (GPS) sets recovered from the terrorists, was discussed during Sharif’s recent visit to Washington. Sharif was warned that large-scale civilian fatalities in the attack could have forced India’s political leadership to order cross-border strikes on jihadi training camps and infrastructure, which could have potentially sparked off a full-scale war. ’Pakistani diplomats initially insisted that the Gurdaspur strike had nothing to do with their country. But when the US insisted that the technical data was irrefutable, they argued that there was no official complicity in facilitating it,’ said a Washington-based diplomat. Advertising The United States, sources said, will push for further assurances on Pakistan’s plans to act against the Lashkar-e-Taiba and other terrorist groups during army chief Raheel Sharif’s upcoming visit to Washington. In the wake of 26/11, the UN Security Council had added Lashkar to a list of organisations all members are obliged to act against. On the Gurdaspur strike, Indian intelligence agencies had determined that the GPS sets used by the terrorists were first turned on in Sargodha — home to Pakistan’s largest airbase — on July 21, six days before the attack. The sets were then programmed with digital waypoints, which led the attackers across the border to their targets in
; 3) Outreach to External Resources consisting of open source software development communities engaged in private URAVS development activities; 4) Recommendations and Opportunities (Lessons Learned) report published by the Open Technology Center at Camp Shelby Joint Forces Training Center. Expected results include identifying common technology usage and sharing results across government URAVS agency programs; identification, documentation, and publishing of data collection and analysis; identification and contact with independent open source URAVS development communities; publishing of Lessons Learned report and facilitation of information sharing and technology transfer across government agencies. Ultimate goal is to increase technical and administrative efficiency and reduce cost for government URAVS through increased awareness and access to quantitative data regarding open source software technologies. Participating entities include: U.S. Army, Camp Shelby Joint Forces Training Center; U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Science & Technology Directorate; Arizona State University; Georgia Tech Research Institute; Hinds Community College; and the Open Source Software Institute. Additional information available at: http://os-uravs.org Source: Open Source Unmanned Remote & Autonomous Vehicle Systems Program – Open Technology CenterAs Home Capital Group Inc.’s shares were in freefall last week, the fight to stop the bleeding at the Canadian mortgage lender had already begun. [np_storybar title=”What exactly is Home Capital and why is it so important to the mortgage industry?” link=”https://business.financialpost.com/news/fp-street/what-exactly-is-home-capital-and-why-is-it-so-important-to-the-mortgage-industry”%5D Here’s a look at the company, its role in the Canadian mortgage landscape and how the discovery of fraud among its brokers two years ago continues to have ripple effects today. Read on [/np_storybar] It was late Tuesday night, Ottawa time, when federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau received his first briefing from department officials just as he was boarding a plane in Beijing to head home. Home Capital had been reeling for a week after the Ontario Securities Commission accused the company of misleading investors over fraudulent mortgages. That was sparking a run on deposits, forcing the company to take on a $2 billion emergency credit line at an effective interest rate of 22.5 per cent on funds drawn so far. Last Wednesday, with Morneau en route home, Home Capital’s shares dropped 60 per cent by lunchtime as investors bet the onerous terms of the loan would squeeze the company. There was also contagion risk. Canada’s major banks saw their shares slump, while Equitable Group Inc., a rival of Home Capital, plunged by almost a third. Morneau landed in Ottawa Wednesday night, calling his departmental officials as he got off the plane for the latest information, according to people familiar with the discussions. He later spoke with Jeremy Rudin, head of Canada’s Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, who is responsible for regulating what the World Economic Forum has called the “soundest” banking system. On Thursday, Morneau’s office pledged his support for Rudin’s OSFI and the banking sector. “Our government has full confidence” in OSFI to “manage the situation,” Morneau spokeswoman Annie Donolo said in an email. The pledge wasn’t enough to calm investors. While Home Capital’s stock recovered on Thursday on speculation a buyer for the company might emerge, the deposit run continued, totaling $892 million over three days to close the week. What’s more, the onerous terms of the high-interest lifeline, later revealed by Bloomberg News to be from Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan, resonated beyond the company. Run on Deposits “We looked and felt, what on earth are they doing?” Equitable Chief Executive Officer Andrew Moor said in an interview. “We thought that might cause issues of confidence in the market, frankly, and so immediately we started reaching out to our bankers.” Equitable started to face a rash of withdrawals too, losing about $75 million daily between Wednesday and Friday — even though the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation provides a safety net by guaranteeing deposits of up to C$100,000. OSFI, meanwhile, put out requests to lenders asking for updates to get a handle on the damage, though spokeswoman Annik Faucher called it part of “ongoing supervisory activities.” In a separate statement, she acknowledged the situation has increased “our level of activity and vigilance.” Canada’s alternative lenders, such as Home Capital and Equitable, typically offer mortgages to borrowers who have trouble getting home loans from big banks because they lack a credit history, such as the self-employed, new immigrants and small business owners. Just as Moor was reaching out to banks, Morneau was doing the same. On the weekend, he spoke with heads of the biggest commercial lenders to discuss Home Capital — though precisely which bank executives he called isn’t clear. While Morneau doesn’t consider Home Capital a systemic problem, he was focused on assessing the risk its woes could spread to other alternative lenders, according to people familiar with the talks. A core Morneau message over the past week has been to ensure market stability. ‘System is Working’ By Sunday night, the commercial banks — including Toronto-Dominion Bank and Bank of Nova Scotia — agreed to a $2 billion loan for Equitable at a rate of about 1.6 per cent to 1.7 per cent. “Not many people can go around and borrow $2 billion off Bay Street in five days,” said Moor, who said he received commitments from five of Canada’s six big banks by Sunday night, with the sixth now on side. It was Monday that Morneau — a veteran of Toronto’s financial sector — issued his first public comments. “Financial stability and security are the backbone of a strong and resilient economy,” he said in a statement. “What I’ve seen over the last few days is proof the system is working as it should.” The credit line ring-fenced Equitable, which soared by a third on Monday morning, though bank shares continued to slide. Next Steps The question now is what to do next with Home Capital. While it only accounts for 1 per cent of Canada’s $1.4 trillion mortgage market, it still has almost $18 billion in mortgages. If withdrawals continue, it could be unable to renew them or bring in new business. That could deprive potential home buyers of credit, adding to a slowdown that’s already showing signs of developing in Toronto and Vancouver. “This could be just an isolated situation and that’s the higher-probability outcome at this point, but you cannot ignore the risk that this can get messy,” said Aubrey Basdeo, head of Canadian fixed income at BlackRock Inc. “The focus now is on the potential for a systemic issue across the economy and it would be folly just to ignore that.” OSFI has a four-stage intervention process — stage four being non-viability or imminent insolvency. That scenario could include OSFI assuming temporary control of the institution’s assets, as well as it or CDIC seeking government approval for a wind-up order. It’s not clear what, if any, stage Home Capital is at. OSFI and the company declined to comment. In some cases, if a company is considered solvent but illiquid, the Bank of Canada can provide a loan if the affected firm provides plans for recovery. A spokesman for the central bank declined to comment. Home Capital has hired investment bankers for a possible sale, though buyers are scarce — banks, pensions funds and private equity firms such as J.C. Flowers & Co. and Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. have so far passed. A piecemeal sale of the mortgage portfolio is another possibility. Government’s Role Morneau’s job may not be done. Though the big banks would have passed on the customers that took out mortgages with Home Capital, a co-ordinated pick up of the loans is also an option. Some in the financial industry argue government should take the lead. “It certainly should be driven by Ottawa, for sure,” said Moor, Equitable’s chief executive. “They have the resolution authority.” Morneau has stressed the importance of market-based solutions. After an effort that stretched through the weekend, he downplayed any risk Home Capital could trigger a market correction. “We do not see those two things as linked,” he said Tuesday in parliament, adding the response so far “is exactly the way the system should work.” Direct government intervention could encourage reckless behavior, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce analyst Robert Sedran wrote in a note to clients. Likewise, letting a lender fail “would create unnecessary instability in the housing market, causing fear to mount and potentially spread over to the banks.” If current fears are any measure, efforts so far have worked. Many analysts see Home Capital — regardless of its ultimate fate — as an isolated issue. “It’s not the beginning of the end,” said Benjamin Tal, deputy chief economist at CIBC, noting the housing market is instead more vulnerable to a recession or rising interest rates. “Home Capital is not the ultimate test.” Bloomberg.comAustralia failed to capitalise on a once-in-a-lifetime mining boom because politicians put short-term vote-winning policies ahead of the long-term interest of the nation, economists say. The private interests of the powerful mining lobby were equally to blame for the squandering of a golden opportunity to strengthen Australia’s economic future. • Will Joe and Tony tax the rich? • India uranium deal faces legal challenge An unprecedented boom in demand for commodities – mainly from China – saw Australian exports of iron ore and coal skyrocket in the early 2000s. But rather than use the associated tax revenue to strengthen the non-mining sectors in preparation for the inevitable end of the boom, the Howard government passed the savings straight to households in the form of income tax and superannuation tax concessions, a move which Labor supported. “I’ve never seen something so squandered in my life,” says Mr Richard Robinson, associate director of economics at BIS Shrapnel. “What happened in the 2000s [when the mining boom began] is that corporate tax revenue increased. Instead of putting that into a future fund, their first response was to recycle those increases into personal tax cuts. The household sector was therefore the main beneficiary of the mining boom.” This, he says, translated into increased investment in property and rising house prices. What the government should have done Mr Robinson says the government should have kept income tax where it was, and put the revenue into a ‘future fund’ or sovereign wealth fund that could be used to fund other sectors when times were tough. While Howard’s treasurer Peter Costello did indeed set up such a fund – the Future Fund – its scope is limited to funding the government’s pension obligations. No contribution has been made to the Future Fund since the Howard administration. Monash University economics researcher Professor Jakob Madsen agrees with Mr Robinson. “The mining sector is driven by global demand, so we were just lucky. But today Australia doesn’t look good,” he says. “The government should have taxed the mining boom and spent the money on research and development, and education, because that’s where the long-term future is.” In particular, Professor Madsen says it should have been used to improve Australia’s agricultural knowledge and technology, particularly by funding the CSIRO. “The global population is going to grow and there will be a shortage of food in the future. We need to boost our productivity in agriculture, and we have not done that. “Yes, we have squandered it [the mining boom] away. We should have kept taxes up.” Ironically, Mr Robinson says one of the main recipients of research and development funding has been the mining sector. While he says this makes sense up to a point – as Australia’s mining sector is world class – he also agrees with Madsen. “The government could be putting more money into CSIRO, which they are actually cutting,” he says. It could also have been used to invest in renewable energy technology – a policy vigorously opposed by the mining industry for obvious reasons. The mining lobby Both Mr Robinson and Professor Madsen agree that the combined power of the mining industry was a major factor in preventing the Rudd-Gillard Labor government from getting its hands on the spoils through a mining tax. “The [benefits of] the mining boom has gone to the billionaires, and that has made them more powerful,” says Professor Madsen. “We have seen it in the African mining sector: the bigger it becomes, the bigger the industry’s political power becomes.” In the case of Australia’s mining boom, he says in the battle over the mining tax, it was no contest. “It’s infuriating – the mining industry won the whole thing.” Mr Robinson says the mining lobby’s $20 million anti-mining tax advertising campaign was a major factor in swaying public opinion. He says the government could never have justified spending that amount of money to the electorate. Meanwhile, to the mining industry $20 million is “chicken feed, petty cash”, he says. However, the economists agree that the mining tax was badly designed, allowing mining companies to write off potential taxable income as necessary expenditure. Hence the final tax introduced by the Gillard administration failed to raise much money at all. The money: what we missed out on In the year 2000, the total value of energy, minerals and metals (hard commodity) exports was just under $45 billion, according to BIS Shrapnel figures. By 2012, at the end of the mining boom, the figure had more than quadrupled to $188 billion. To put that in context, agricultural (soft commodity) exports accounted for $25 billion in 2000, and $36 billion in 2012. Non-commodity manufacturing and other exports went from $28 billion in 2000 to $42 billion in 2012. But over the past two years, investment in mining has fallen off as demand from China levelled out after its meteoric rise. Iron ore, one of the two stars of the boom, halved in price in 2014. The other star, coal, also plummeted. So far other sectors have failed to pick up the slack, meaning unemployment has been on the rise and tax revenue is falling. According to China’s Customs Bureau figures released on Tuesday, trade between Australia and China grew by just 0.3 per cent in 2014, compared to 11.5 per cent in 2013, a dramatic and ominous drop.FOUR European countries were forced to scramble fighter jets after two Russian Blackjack bombers blasted across the continent, it has been revealed. The UK, Norway, France and Spain all intercepted the TU-160 planes as they made a daring flight from Norway to northern Spain and back. PA:Press Association 3 The UK, Norway, France and Spain were all forced to intercept the bombers 3 The bombers headed across the top of Scotland from Norway, before skirting Ireland's west coast towards France and Spain During the flight, the bombers swooped across the top of Scotland, before skirting the west coast of Ireland, completing their route near northern Spain. Spanish media has reported it is the furthest south such an operation has had to take place - while the frequency of Russian bombers being intercepted by Nato aircraft has significantly increased. Related Stories FIGHTER JET SHOWDOWN US and Russian warplanes in dramatic face-off over Syria after Moscow's bombers target rebels MOSCOW ON THE OFFENSIVE Russian state papers predict 'direct military conflict' with the US over Syria Exclusive ROBOT WARS Superpowers locked in top secret killer robot arms race, Russian defence experts warn RUSSIAN BOMBERS SIGHTED RAF war jets intercept Russian bombers capable of carrying 16 nuclear missiles off coast of Scotland PUTIN OURSELVES AT RISK War with Russia 'would see us wiped out' as Britain is 'ill-equipped' for threat, expert warns Although the incident occurred on September 22, the full details only emerged following an statement from the French Ministry of Defence. According to the statement, the two bombers were first detected by Norway, which scrambled two F-16 jets to accompany them to the north of Scotland - where they were then intercepted by RAF Typhoon aircraft. French Rafale fighter planes then picked up the bombers after they skirted Ireland's west coast, before Spain sent two F-18 jets to intercept the Russian planes north of Bilbao. The RAF has confirmed that the Russian jets did not enter UK airspace at any point. Relations between Russia and the West have plummeted in recent years However, for the UK, the incident was the latest of several involving Russian military aircraft. Relations between Russia and West have declined since 2014, when Russia annexed the Ukrainian territory of Crimea. Recently, they worsened even further as the United States ended military co-operation with Russia over Syria. For the latest news on this story keep checking back at Sun Online, where we will bring you live updates as soon as they happen, before anyone else. Like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/thesun, and follow us from our main Twitter account at @TheSun, where we will bring you this story and all the rest of the top news and exclusives of the day. Thesun.co.uk is your go to destination for the best celebrity news, football news, real-life stories, jaw-dropping pictures and must-see videoWASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Friday criticized proposals to build a European communication network to avoid emails and other data passing through the United States, warning that such rules could breach international trade laws. A man types on a computer keyboard in Warsaw in this February 28, 2013 illustration file picture. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/Files In its annual review of telecommunications trade barriers, the office of the U.S. Trade Representative said impediments to cross-border data flows were a serious and growing concern. It was closely watching new laws in Turkey that led to the blocking of websites and restrictions on personal data, as well as calls in Europe for a local communications network following revelations last year about U.S. digital eavesdropping and surveillance. “Recent proposals from countries within the European Union to create a Europe-only electronic network (dubbed a ‘Schengen cloud’ by advocates) or to create national-only electronic networks could potentially lead to effective exclusion or discrimination against foreign service suppliers that are directly offering network services, or dependent on them,” the USTR said in the report. Germany and France have been discussing ways to build a European network to keep data secure after the U.S. spying scandal. Even German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cell phone was reportedly monitored by American spies. The USTR said proposals by Germany’s state-backed Deutsche Telekom to bypass the United States were “draconian” and likely aimed at giving European companies an advantage over their U.S. counterparts. Deutsche Telekom has suggested laws to stop data traveling within continental Europe being routed via Asia or the United States and scrapping the Safe Harbor agreement that allows U.S. companies with European-level privacy standards access to European data. (www.telekom.com/dataprotection) “Any mandatory intra-EU routing may raise questions with respect to compliance with the EU’s trade obligations with respect to Internet-enabled services,” the USTR said. “Accordingly, USTR will be carefully monitoring the development of any such proposals.” U.S. tech companies, the leaders in an e-commerce marketplace estimated to be worth up to $8 trillion a year, have urged the White House to undertake reforms to calm privacy concerns and fend off digital protectionism. In the report, the USTR also criticized restrictions on Internet telephony in India and China, foreign investment limits in countries, including China, and efforts to increase the rates U.S. telecommunications operators must pay in order to connect long-distance calls in Pakistan, Fiji, Tonga and Uganda.Firefighters battled a wildfire on Highway 71 near Smithville, Texas, in May. (Erich Schlegel/AP) Updated and corrected 5:54 p.m. ET Tens of thousands of firefighters employed by the federal government battled flames last year that scorched more than 8 million acres and caused billions of dollars in damage. And what were the Capitol Hill staffers responsible for their fates doing? Playing games — literally. Officials with the Federal Wildland Fire Service Association, representing thousands of federal firefighters, complained this week to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee after learning that some committee staffers ran an office pool to guess how many acres are burned by wildfires each year. The contest, run since 2003 by veteran staffer Frank Gladics, was open mostly to Republican staffers on the House and Senate energy and appropriations committees that oversee federal firefighting operations. While no money exchanged hands, Gladics would bequeath the winner one of several hats in his office, including a Wizard hat, a “When Pigs Fly” hat and the mechanical “Holly-Jolly Christmas Hat.” News of the contest was first reported last week by the environmental news service Grist.org, which quoted the committee’s Republican spokesman, Robert Dillon, as saying the contest was for the benefit of eastern lawmakers less familiar with wildfire season. “It’s not an official way to educate them,” Dillon said. “It’s a fun, backroom way to do it.” FWFSA President Casey Judd said Wednesday that the contest “was somewhat of a shot to the gut.” “While we’ve been burying wildland firefighters and aviation folks and citizens, this odd pool has been going on supposedly out of frustration with the U.S. Forest Service,” Judd said. “Well, let’s fix it.” Lynnette Hamm, who first alerted The Federal Eye to news of the office pool, called the contest “truly appalling.” Her son, Caleb Hamm, 24, died last July while fighting a wildfire with a Bureau of Land Management Hot Shot crew, one of dozens of firefighters — local, state and federal — who die in blazes each year. “How dare they!!” Hamm said in an e-mail. “These men and women put their lives on the line daily, and to be so belittled by something like this? I would be ashamed of myself. Maybe they should trade a ‘cushy’ office chair for a spot on the fireline, and let’s bet how long they last at it.” McKie Campbell, the committee’s Republican staff director, said the contest has been stopped. “It will never happen again,” he said in an interview Wednesday. “It was in no way indicative of disrespect for any of the folks who put their lives on the line to battle the fires.” Gladics (who didn’t return requests for comment) used to be a firefighter and “has great respect” for federal firefighters, according to Campbell. “He’s paid a close attention to what we feel is a poor job that the Forest Service does to fight forest fires,” he said. “Unfortunately, that frustration boiled over into his running this office pool.” Five federal agencies work to prevent and fight wildfires — the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The Forest Service is by far the largest firefighting agency, employing about 25,000 firefighters on a full-time or seasonal basis. But a chorus of bipartisan lawmakers has called for management and structural reforms at the Forest Service, especially with the way the agency manages an aging fleet of fixed-wing aircraft that dump thousands of gallons of water and flame retardant. Judd said he understands that the office pool wasn’t meant to disparage federal firefighters, but added: “If both sides of the aisle are frustrated, why don’t we try to fix the problems? We provide them with all of this data and information, everybody nods their head, and yet the Forest Service continues to be who it is and what it does.” Gladics apologized to Hamm in an e-mail, saying his actions were insensitive and that as a former wildland crew member he understands the plight of federal firefighters. Considering his background, Gladics “should know better,” Hamm said. Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this report incorrectly said 2011 wildfires caused millions of dollars in damage. At least two major 2011 wildfires caused more than $1 billion in damages. Follow Ed O’Keefe on Twitter: @edatpost Further reading: Video appears to show troops urinating on corpses Supreme Court: Discrimination laws do not protect certain employees of religious groups For more, visit PostPolitics and The Fed Page.Pholon Profile Blog Joined March 2008 Netherlands 6056 Posts Last Edited: 2012-05-18 09:56:40 #1 The Altitude ISL3 is climbing to great heights, soaring through the clouds with our 16 remaining players. Over the last two weeks we lost half of the 32 players qualified and the tension is rising as we advance one more step in the final rounds. Come Saturday the 19th of May, these brave warriors will once more enter the arena, battling it out in eight Best of 5s, to determine who will advance to the Quarterfinals, and guarantee themselves at least part of a total of 500$ in the process. The match-ups for this week are listed below. The full bracket, as always, can be found on: AltitudeISL.net Round of 16 Sziky vs Bizzy TechnicS vs AstrO Bibiane vs LancerX DragOn vs Pro7ect dOTY vs Karate Kolll vs Sneazel Southpark vs Semih Dewalt vs Michael Sziky vsBizzyTechnicS vsAstrOBibiane vsLancerXDragOn vsPro7ectdOTY vsKarateKolll vsSneazelSouthpark vsSemihDewalt vsMichael Repeating their feat of getting to the Ro16 from ISL2 are AstrO, Pro7ect, Michael, Sneazel and Bibiane, with Sziky and Southpark as well-knowns having managed so in ISL1 and ISL2 both. Interview with Kolll You beat skzlime in the Ro32. How did that go? Everything according to plan? To be honest, I didn't really practice for the Ro32 and I think skzlime would've beaten me had he played standard. But instead he decided to try some strange cheese/semicheese/1base strats, and this stuff rarely works against me plus he made a few crucial bad decisions/micro mistakes which made everything even worse. So I'm lucky to be in the next round =). You're playing Sneazel next. Are you confident you can win? Are you well prepared? The last time I played Sneazel was a while ago and at that time I felt that he would be a guy i would definitely beat in a bo3 or bo5, but since then I have not seen many games from him so I can't really tell for myself if I have a good chance or not. But I definitely am always confident, not being confident in any game would be disaster for anybody, including me. Altough I don't know yet how well I will prepare myself against him, I will definitely ask some guys about his playstyle as of recent and download some replays. If you beat Sneazel you have to play either dOTY or Karate - who would you rather face and why? ZvZ being my favorite matchup I would really prefer Karate altough he might be the better player of the two. But that decision is based purely on matchup, I haven't really followed how good they both have gotten in the last months. Karate, I think, has always been kind of good. dOTY, though, I have no clue about. How about the rest of the tournament - what do you think about the overal results so far, is there anyone you're rooting for and would you like to say anything else? I haven't really watched any of the games but I'm definitely surprised dOTY beat Ace 3-0 I definitely wouldn't have expected Ace to drop out so early. And the only one I'm rooting for is me, with so much money on the line, but I wish everyone all the luck they can get. To be honest, I didn't really practice for the Ro32 and I think skzlime would've beaten me had he played standard. But instead he decided to try some strange cheese/semicheese/1base strats, and this stuff rarely works against me plus he made a few crucial bad decisions/micro mistakes which made everything even worse. So I'm lucky to be in the next round =).The last time I played Sneazel was a while ago and at that time I felt that he would be a guy i would definitely beat in a bo3 or bo5, but since then I have not seen many games from him so I can't really tell for myself if I have a good chance or not. But I definitely am always confident, not being confident in any game would be disaster for anybody, including me. Altough I don't know yet how well I will prepare myself against him, I will definitely ask some guys about his playstyle as of recent and download some replays.ZvZ being my favorite matchup I would really prefer Karate altough he might be the better player of the two. But that decision is based purely on matchup, I haven't really followed how good they both have gotten in the last months. Karate, I think, has always been kind of good. dOTY, though, I have no clue about.I haven't really watched any of the games but I'm definitely surprised dOTY beat Ace 3-0 I definitely wouldn't have expected Ace to drop out so early. And the only one I'm rooting for is me, with so much money on the line, but I wish everyone all the luck they can get. Interview with Southpark You beat Bakuryu in the Ro32. How did that go? Everything according to plan? I think the outcome would be different if Baku has not committed a few errors. Fortunately for me, SC: BW is also a game where just such a mistake can change the outcome. In ZvZ I handle pretty well because I had a good chance of winning this well and made it You're playing Semih next. Are you confident you can win? Are you well prepared? Semih is a strong opponent. Playing with him will be very difficult especially since everyone knows my style :D But I think everyone is to be overcome and that if I win it already soon. Are they getting ready? Neither the game nor the Baku now nothing I trained and I will not (except for a few games, 2x2) because of that I feel like a little game In this game the first time I put on his rival because he feels that the chances of winning are much, much smaller than vs Baku If you beat Semih you have to play either Dewalt or Michael - who would you rather face and why? However, if I manage to win it's obvious that I would rather play vs Michael because that would ZvZ where I am strongest. Dewalt But I think it may be that I could be even better with him than with Michael but unfortunately in a duel winner Michael Dewalt vs. I'm 100% sure of course, will be up again, zerg. How about the rest of the tournament - what do you think about the overal results so far, is there anyone you're rooting for and would you like to say anything else? As for the fans. Of course, cheering Sneazel that if he wants to reach top4. And who will be my opponent if I win anything up to this point As in every tournament Sziky is the most powerful but it is not indestructible. Anyone can lose to anyone. Almost everyone is very prepared for their opponents, maps, each preparing any strategies and this is interesting From Sziky I play only in the finals and such would be the most enjoyed, but for now this can only augur. Haha I wanted to greet fans and wish everyone good luck. I think the outcome would be different if Baku has not committed a few errors. Fortunately for me, SC: BW is also a game where just such a mistake can change the outcome. In ZvZ I handle pretty well because I had a good chance of winning this well and made itSemih is a strong opponent. Playing with him will be very difficult especially since everyone knows my style :D But I think everyone is to be overcome and that if I win it already soon. Are they getting ready? Neither the game nor the Baku now nothing I trained and I will not (except for a few games, 2x2) because of that I feel like a little gameIn this game the first time I put on his rival because he feels that the chances of winning are much, much smaller than vs BakuHowever, if I manage to win it's obvious that I would rather play vs Michael because that would ZvZ where I am strongest. Dewalt But I think it may be that I could be even better with him than with Michael but unfortunately in a duel winner Michael Dewalt vs. I'm 100% sureof course, will be up again, zerg.As for the fans. Of course, cheering Sneazel that if he wants to reach top4. And who will be my opponent if I win anything up to this pointAs in every tournament Sziky is the most powerful but it is not indestructible. Anyone can lose to anyone. Almost everyone is very prepared for their opponents, maps, each preparing any strategies and this is interestingFrom Sziky I play only in the finals and such would be the most enjoyed, but for now this can only augur. Haha I wanted to greet fans and wish everyone good luck. The bracket stage is straight forward: good old Single Elimination. The Round of 16 starts out with Best of 5 matches. The maps, to be played in order, are: Sniper Ridge, Ground Zero, Benzene, Neo Aztec NOTE: We will be using the original versions of the current Proleague maps. Find the full Bracket on AltitudeISL.net The match-ups for this week are listed below. The full bracket, as always, can be found on:Repeating their feat of getting to the Ro16 from ISL2 areAstrO,Pro7ect,Michael,Sneazel andBibiane, withSziky andSouthpark as well-knowns having managed so in ISL1 and ISL2 both.The bracket stage is straight forward: good old Single Elimination.The Round of 16 starts out with Best of 5 matches.The maps, to be played in order, are: Tau Cross We will be using theversions of the current Proleague maps. The Round of 16 will be played on: May 19thth As per usual, the matches will be played at 19:00 CET from channel OP ISL3. Full Casting Schedule May 19th Casted by Sayle and Elegant at Sayle's stream starting from 21:00 CET. TechnicS vs AstrO Bibiane vs LancerX DragOn vs Pro7ect Dewalt vs Michael May 20th Casted by hacklebeast on hacklebeast tv starting from 19:00 CET. dOTY vs Karate Kolll vs Sneazel Southpark vs Semih Sziky vs Bizzy Casted byandatstarting fromTechnicS vsAstrOBibiane vsLancerXDragOn vsPro7ectDewalt vsMichaelCasted byonstarting fromdOTY vsKarateKolll vsSneazelSouthpark vsSemihSziky vsBizzy + Show Spoiler [Tournament Rules] + 1) Rules Concerning Executive Decisions and Over-Rulings - All Players are subject to administrative discretion. - LRM)Game reserves full discretion over all decisions and procedures. 2) Rules Concerning Behavior - No bad manner during the tournament, period. This applies to bad manner of staff, fellow participants, in write-ups, in the official channel, or in game. Professionalism is mandatory, and will be absolute. 3) Rules Concerning Server and Launcher - All games must be played on Fish Server - If under special circumstance Fish is down for an extended period of time, an announcement will be made in the applicable round's threads. - All games must be played using Mini-Launcher or ChaosLauncher - All games must be played using the #l2, #l1 or #ll settings. 4) Rules Concerning Replays - All replays must be sent to [email protected] immediately after the completion of a round. The winner must send in both wins and losses. Failure to do so will result in replacement. If a failed send occurs, however the player has proof of the attempt, the player may advance as long as the replays are delivered before the start of the next round. 5) Rules Concerning Lag - If a player is experiencing an unplayable quantity of lag, they must leave the game before the two minute mark. Beyond this point, the player will be forced to play out the set. - If one player has unplayable lag, one the referees will set a time for that set to be finished given the availability of the player who is not lagging. - Under the circumstance of a lag conflict, the set will be forced into postponement. The postponed time and date will be set by the league commissioner. On this time and date, both players must have either found a LAN cafe in which they will be forced to surrender the IP from, or playing from a different, but applicable location. Examples being a friends house, school, library, etc. IP's will also be mandatory from these locations. 6) Rules Concerning PP matches - If a player makes one of the referee's aware that he cannot play the day of his match within 72 hours of the set playing time, he will then be allowed to then contact his opponent 48 hours ahead of time to pre-play or postpone the match. The time frame is very tight, and thus must be obeyed. Upon proof via screenshot of contact back and forth between player and opponent, the referee handling the case will then assign a date and time to be played, earlier or later than set time, at a time of mutual availability. The circumstance of a match played earlier is first at the discretion of the opponent who is being inconvenienced, and then must be confirmed reasonable by said referee. 7) Rules Concerning W.O Timers - A player who finds himself without an opponent will be granted a W.O victory for every 15 minutes of waited time. - The above rule is applicable not only to situations of tardiness, but those of neglect. - Technical issues do not apply and will be handled case to case. 8) Rules Concerning Abuse - Any form of abuse will result in the offending player's ban from the Altitude International Starleague. This player will not be allowed to re-enter another qualifier, nor any league operated by the organization of Altitude's International Starleague. 9) Rules Concerning IP - Players may be required to surrender their IP address again at any given time during the league without notice. " "There is no doubt in our minds that StarCraft 2 has elevated eSports to a new level over the last year or so. However, it's important to give credit to the game that catalyzed the genesis of eSports as we know it - StarCraft: BroodWar. We at TwitchTV are happy to see
that's close. The Portland Timbers and Seattle Sounders, currently the league’s best rivalry, play about 175 miles apart. There’s nearly four decades of history and some genuine hostility between the two, but they’re competing for points and trophies, not neighborhoods, ticket sales and column inches. The same goes for the LA Galaxy and San Jose Earthquakes or the Colorado Rapids and Real Salt Lake. It’s regional. It’s different. Both Kljestan and Hernandez played in MLS’ first intra-market rivalry, the ill-fated SuperClasico between the Galaxy and Chivas USA. The two teams shared a stadium and, for some, represented clear points of division. The Galaxy were the established, star-studded club while upstart Chivas, launched in 2005, endeavored to appeal to the area’s Spanish speakers. But proximity can do only so much. Eventually, results matter. Chivas USA was competitive at first, making the playoffs from 2006 through ’09, but it managed to win just four of the 34 matches between the clubs. Two of those victories, each by 3-0 scores, came during a dizzying three-week spell in the summer of ’07, when both Kljestan and Hernandez were on the team. Back then, it appeared the the SuperClasico eventually might live up to it name. “There were definitely ups and downs in those games and obviously a lot of big moments, but every time we played them, whether we were in first place or last, it felt like a big game. You never want to lose to your rival,” Kljestan said. “You were kind of friendly [with the Galaxy players] all season long, except for maybe those three weeks that led up to the game and then it was like, you saw them in the weight room that week and you didn’t even talk to them. That would go on maybe for a week or two after the game. The rest of the time, we’d coexist really well.” Hernandez said there was a common thread connecting Chivas USA, which folded last year, and his new club, which played its first game two months ago. “We were an expansion team,” he said. “We didn’t really have much respect at the time as far as being a quality and valued opponent. When I was with Chivas, it was more personal. We’re going out here to fight for respect and show we’re a good squad and we’re not just the city’s little stepchild. We had a right to be there and compete and those battles were really good and really fun.” The Chivas USA concept proved unsustainable, and NYCFC might empathize with some of Chivas’ struggles. Despite a strong start at the gate—NYCFC ranks third in MLS attendance at more than 27,000 fans per game—there’s some uncertainty. From its status as Yankee Stadium tenant to the concerns about a subservient relationship to Manchester City, the crown jewel in City Football Group’s crown, NYCFC’s claim to be the five boroughs’ authentic soccer representative are more fighting words than fact, at least for now. There are on-field issues as well. Superstar striker David Villa has been battling injury, Frank Lampard is arriving mid-season and an 0-5-2 slide left head coach Jason Kreis wondering, “Maybe I forgot how very hard it is to build a team in this league,” after last weekend’s loss to Seattle. The Red Bulls, despite a 19-year head start, hardly own New York either. The Hudson River represents a barrier for some, the Cosmos are making noise out on Long Island and season after season of upheaval, from coaching changes to early playoff exits to the controversial 2006 rebrand, haven’t made the lives of Red Bulls fans any easier. Roots require stability and in New York, trophies. Prospects are a bit brighter this season as new sporting director Ali Curtis and coach Jesse Marsch have promised to lay a more permanent foundation, but there’s still a lot of work to do. And third-place New York is 0-1-2 in its past three games. For now, apart from the diehards who’ve already declared their allegiance, the Hudson River Derby (or whatever it winds up being called) has yet to take shape. Whatever history there is at this point is anchored by the relationships forged in American soccer’s “small fraternity,” as Hernandez put it. The animosity is absent. There’s no defeat to avenge, no slight to put right and no tangible stakes beyond the three points. And both clubs have plenty to focus on internally. So the tone, at the start, will be set by fans. NYCFC’s supporters club, The Third Rail, will number some 1,500 members to RBA. There surely will be more light blue scattered among the red and white in Harrison, N.J. There’s been plenty of back and forth on Twitter and for those who have chosen sides, Sunday represents the opportunity to establish a bit of history and momentum. That, in turn, will fuel the players on the pitch. “I feel it from these fans already. We had an event at the Adidas store [on Tuesday] night and were meeting them, taking some pictures, and hearing, ‘You gotta win on Sunday.’ You feel that from the fans and how much that game means to them,” Kljestan said. “Let’s be honest—if there’s a new team coming into the city you don’t want to lose the first game against them and give them the bragging rights for the next couple of months. I understand where they’re coming from.” So does Hernandez. “If it was an empty stadium, you wouldn’t see two teams flying at each other, fighting for every inch. But the Red Bulls are going to have a lot of supporters to drive them on, and we’re going to have a lot to drive us on, and the environment it creates will bring some energy to the match,” he said. Kljestan said that one of his most prominent SuperClasico memories was how good Landon Donovan was in those matches. “Almost every time they won, it was because of him. Those games brought out the best in him, almost like USA-Mexico brought out the best in him. I hope, personally, that this game brings out the best in me.” When players are at there best, memories are made. And no one likes to lose to their brother. “For the match on Sunday, there is no history,” Hernandez said. “We’re kind of writing history as we go. We’ll see how it goes.”Alleging "one-sided action" by the Uttar Pradesh Police and administration in the triple murder case that took place in Kawal village of Muzaffarnagar on August 27, certain khaps in western UP had mobilised people for the massive mahapanchayat on Saturday which led to communal violence. Two boys of Malikpura village in Muzaffarnagar were beaten to death after they had allegedly killed a boy of the minority community on August 27. Both were Jats. The initiative by the khaps was taken after the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) was asked by local administration to postpone a "condolence meet and Jansabha" scheduled for August 31 and BKU announced to postpone it further for 15 days. Upset villagers, who had reached Nangala Mandaur village August 31, decided that if police failed to arrest those involved in the killing of the two boys in a week, then a mahapanchayat would be called on September 7 to decide future course of action. Later, the call for mahapanchayat on September 7 in Nangala Mandaur village of Muzaffarnagar district was given by heads of different khaps. While the lead was taken by Har Kishan Malik, chaudhary of Gathwala Khap, as the two boys Gaurav and Sachin who were killed on August 27 belonged to this khap, heads of other khaps in western UP also joined in mobilising the crowd. Locals said two days before the mahapanchayat, Malik had called a panchayat in Lisard village of Shamli district on September 5, which had also seen a huge gathering. Villagers had raised the issue of "one-sided action" by administration in Kawal incident and demanded compensation of Rs 25 lakh each for the family members of the two boys killed on August 27. Sources said initially BKU had backed out from the programme fearing action by the administration but after they faced criticism by the locals, they also announced support to the mahapanchayat. Please read our terms of use before posting commentsIn keeping with the season, relax with a mince pie (or four) with this month’s special Christmas-themed article. ’12 – Shades of Blue’: The title of Everton’s calendar released in aid of the club’s official charity, ‘Everton in the Community’. The cheeky calendar features a number of Everton stars, including Tim Howard and Kevin Mirallas, who stripped off for the charity’s 25th anniversary. 11 – Despite Everton’s dramatic 2-1 victory over Tottenham, the Toffee’s extended their stretch of league games without a clean sheet to eleven. Although taking the plaudits for challenging the top four positions into the Christmas period, their consistent conceding of goals could prove a major hurdle if their goals begin to dry up. 10 – Years as Everton manager that David Moyes celebrated back in March. After an initial few years of inconsistency (which included a 17th place finish followed by 4th the year after), Moyes has steered the club to at least a top-eight finish for the past six seasons. 9 – This classic centre-forward’s shirt number, worn by former Everton legends such as Dixie Dean and Graeme Sharp, is currently vacant at Goodison. There is a case for Jelavic to be given the honour of wearing the famous number after his clinical finishing for the Blue’s last season, but it remains to be seen if he will be the choice to inherit the honour. 8 – The amount of games Everton have drawn this season, the most in the league. Although the Toffee’s are currently snapping at the heels of the Premier League’s elite, slip-ups at various points of the season have meant that draws have had to be accepted when maximum points were well within Everton’s grasp. 7 – Years since Everton last made an appearance in the Champions League qualifying round, where they were eliminated by Villarreal. Their fourth placed finish the previous season had given them the opportunity to battle with other clubs for a place in the group stages of the prestigious European tournament. Although unsuccessful in their pursuit in 2005 (Everton fans need little reminding of Duncan Ferguson’s disallowed ‘goal’ by Pierluigi Collina), the Toffee’s are pushing for another chance in the tournament through a Premier League top four finish. 6 – Total number of senior appearances Ross Barkley has made for the Toffee’s. The Everton academy, a resource even more important for a squad with a limited transfer budget, has helped nurture a number of Premier League players, and Barkley has been tipped as being a definite future star from the youth set-up at Finch Farm. Barkley’s progress in Everton’s under-21 squad has helped to develop a buzz around the nineteen year old, putting him in pole position to inherit the ‘rising-star’ title adorned by successful youth-developed Everton players of recent years (Rodwell, Rooney and Osman amongst others). Along with Fellaini’s increased utilisation in a more advanced role, and with Mirallas, Gibson and Neville all picking up various injuries and niggles this season, there is a growing opportunity for Barkley to build upon his six senior appearances. 5 – Transfer fee of striker Nikica Jelavic in millions of pounds. Last season, the Croatian forward ended the campaign as Everton’s top scorer, despite only joining the club in the January transfer window. Fans will be hoping that Jelavic can re-capture this blistering form in the new year. 4 – Everton’s highest finishing position during David Moyes’ era, and one which the Toffee’s have a not-so unbelievable chance of achieving again this season. Phil Jagielka this month has summarised how the top four is becoming much more open, and considering Everton’s far from traditional opening start to the season, the potential is there for the Toffee’s to be well within the mix on the home straight. 3 – Number of LMA Manager of the Year awards David Moyes has received, matched only by Sir Alex Ferguson. Notably, these awards have spanned his entire tenure at Goodison, with his first award coming after his opening season with the Toffee’s, and his most recent being achieved in Everton’s 2008-09 season, where Moyes managed to guide the team to the FA Cup final. 2 – Fellaini’s position in the official Premier League player performance index after fifteen games, beaten only by Manchester United’s Robin Van Persie. The Belgian’s success has included eight goals, a haul which is already more than double his entire tally for last season. 1 – The number of games this season in which Everton have failed to score. This league record is only matched by Tottenham. It was no surprise then that both teams managed to find the net when the teams played each other at the beginning of December (albeit with Everton waiting to the final minute to do so). Follow me on Twitter at @liamanewman AdvertisementsAs cannabis regulations shift across North America, a few commercial cannabis producers are building facilities that balance technological advancements with environmental stewardship. Medical cannabis has traditionally been cultivated under a veil, in bunkers and basements. To provide the light necessary for photosynthesis and plant growth in this scenario, artificial lights are used. But now, with the introduction of federal cultivation licenses in Canada, companies can now optimize for both the plant and the environment. Bunker grows are being replaced by structures that allow for strict environmental control while allowing the penetration of natural sunlight into modern, high-tech greenhouses. One company on the forefront of the cultivation shift, Tantalus Labs, is nearing completion of their landmark facility North America’s first closed-system greenhouse, tailored from the ground up for the cultivation of cannabis. Shafin Diamond, a prominent Canadian angel investor, has called Tantalus the “Tesla of cannabis.” “It’s an advancement for cannabis that Canadians can be proud of,” says Dan Sutton, Managing Director of Tantalus Labs, who points to potential for significant carbon offset and a drop in production costs. “We are building a brighter future for credible and technical cannabis agriculture.”By Michelle Kessel and Jessica Hopper Rock Center Elaine Riddick was 13 years old when she got pregnant after being raped by a neighbor in Winfall, N.C., in 1967. The state ordered that immediately after giving birth, she should be sterilized. Doctors cut and tied off her fallopian tubes. “I have to carry these scars with me. I have to live with this for the rest of my life,” she said. Riddick was never told what was happening. “Got to the hospital and they put me in a room and that’s all I remember, that’s all I remember,” she said. “When I woke up, I woke up with bandages on my stomach.” Riddick’s records reveal that a five-person state eugenics board in Raleigh had approved a recommendation that she be sterilized. The records label Riddick as “feebleminded” and “promiscuous.” They said her schoolwork was poor and that she “does not get along well with others.” “I was raped by a perpetrator [who was never charged] and then I was raped by the state of North Carolina. They took something from me both times,” she said. “The state of North Carolina, they took something so dearly from me, something that was God given.” It wouldn’t be until Riddick was 19, married and wanting more children, that she’d learn she was incapable of having any more babies. A doctor in New York where she was living at the time told her that she’d been sterilized. “Butchered. The doctor used that word… I didn’t understand what she meant when she said I had been butchered,” Riddick said. North Carolina was one of 31 states to have a government run eugenics program. By the 1960s, tens of thousands of Americans were sterilized as a result of these programs. Eugenics was a scientific theory that grew in popularity during the 1920s. Eugenicists believed that poverty, promiscuity and alcoholism were traits that were inherited. To eliminate those society ills and improve society’s gene pool, proponents of the theory argued that those that exhibited the traits should be sterilized. Some of America’s wealthiest citizens of the time were eugenicists including Dr. Clarence Gamble of the Procter and Gamble fortune and James Hanes of the hosiery company. Hanes helped found the Human Betterment League which promoted the cause of eugenicists. It began as a way to control welfare spending on poor white women and men, but over time, North Carolina shifted focus, targeting more women and more blacks than whites. A third of the sterilizations performed in North Carolina were done on girls under the age of 18. Some were as young as nine years old. For the past eight years, North Carolina lawmakers have been working to find a way to compensate those involuntarily sterilized in the state between 1929 and 1974. During that time period, 7,600 people were sterilized in North Carolina. Of those who were sterilized, 85 percent of the victims were female and 40 percent were non-white. “You can’t rewind a watch or rewrite history. You just have to go forward and that’s what we’re trying to do in North Carolina,” said Governor Beverly Perdue in an exclusive interview with NBC News. While North Carolina’s eugenics board was disbanded in 1977, the law allowing involuntary sterilization wasn’t officially repealed until 2003. In 2002, the state issued an apology to those who had been sterilized, but the victims have yet to receive any financial compensation, medical care or counseling from the state. Since 2003, three task forces have been created to determine a way to compensate the victims. Officials estimate that as many as 2,000 victims are still alive. Riddick was one of several victims to speak at a public hearing this summer. It was the first time that many survivors had told their stories publicly and that others heard of North Carolina’s tarnished past. “To think about folks who went in…and their doctor told them this was birth control and they were sterilized…the folks who didn’t have the capacity to make the decisions, the uninformed consent,” said Perdue. “Those types of stories aren’t good for America and I can’t allow for this period in history to be forgotten, that’s why this work is important.” Only 48 victims have been matched with their records, something necessary for them to eventually be compensated. State Representative Larry Womble has been advocating for the survivors of the state’s sterilization program for nearly 10 years. He helped fight for the repeal of the state’s law. Womble said that if the government is “powerful enough to perpetrate this on this society, they ought to be responsible, step up to the plate and compensate.” In August, a task force created by Gov. Perdue recommended that the victims be compensated, but they were unsure how much to award the victims. Previous numbers pondered range between $20,000 and $50,000. The task force also recommended mental health services for living victims and a traveling museum exhibit about North Carolina’s eugenics program. Perdue said it’s a challenge to determine how much money each victim should be given. “From my perspective, and as a woman, and as the governor of this state, this is not about the money. There isn’t enough money in the world to pay these people for what has been done to them, but money is part of the equation,” she said. Riddick once sued North Carolina for a million dollars. Her case made it all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States, but the court declined to hear the case. “I would like for the state of North Carolina to right what they wronged with me,” she said. Some victims and their advocates have questioned whether North Carolina is procrastinating in compensating them, hoping they’ll die before a solution is reached. “It’s an ugly chapter in North Carolina’s book, we have a wonderful book, but there’s an ugly chapter,” Womble said. “We must step up to the plate and we must realize and take responsibility.” Perdue, for her part, said that she is committed to helping the victims. “I want this solved on my watch. I want there to be completion. I want the whole discussion to end and there be action for these folks. There is nobody in North Carolina who is waiting for anybody to die,” Gov. Perdue said. Despite the state social workers who declared Riddick was “mentally retarded” and “promiscuous”, she went to college and raised the son born moments before she was sterilized. Her son is devoted to his mother and a successful entrepreneur. Elaine is proud of her achievements. “I don’t know where I would be if I listened to the state of North Carolina,” she said. Editor's note: If you think you or someone you know was a victim of North Carolina's eugenics program or for more information about the ongoing efforts to compensate the victims, visit the website for the N.C. Justice for Sterilization Victims Foundation: http://www.sterilizationvictims.nc.gov/W. G. Sebald The movie writer/director Ron Shelton once told me he figured he had enough material for a movie when he had enough for twelve movies. Something like that must be at the back of Patrick Madden’s essays because he will wander and digress and quote and ponder and talk about himself and reflect and quote again. This essay is notionally about W. G. Sebald’s discursive, essayistic novels, especially The Rings of Saturn, but then Patrick wanders off and talks about the nature of the essay itself, the nature of creative nonfiction, the fictional aspects of nonfiction and the nonfictional aspects of fiction, and the way he likes to write his own essays (maybe a dozen different topics—you count). In effect, he incarnates the form (of the essay) in his discussion of the essay and Sebald as essayist in the most amiable and slyly convincing manner. “Walking, Researching, Remembering” is, yes, an extremely amiable and charming tour de force, which, to me, also has the advantage of drawing attention to one of the differences between North American and European fiction — the Europeans (see Kundera’s The Art of the Novel) have never been averse to mixing their essays with their novels, whereas North Americans have been stunned into minimalism by that show-don’t-tell nonsense. Don’t get me started. dg In his book Understanding W. G. Sebald, Mark McCulloh contends that “Even more than The Emigrants, The Rings of Saturn defies description; it does not seem to fit into any conventional prose or fiction category.” This sentiment has found its way into praise and criticism from the beginning, ever since Sebald’s books began to appear in English. Yet I disagree; unless we remove the essay from the ranks of “conventional” genres, it fits what Sebald wrote very aptly. But I would do well to begin by defining terms. The word essay has been misused and abused for long centuries since Montaigne appropriated it to describe his writings. School teachers and children use it to mean a written test of knowledge, usually with an expected correct answer. Colleagues of mine use it to refer to academic articles, which may have somewhat in common with essays, but which are quite different in direction and intent. In fact, the best theoretical works on the essay, including those written by Georg Lukacs, Theodor Adorno, and William Gass, pit the essay in opposition to this very thing. This is how I’ve grown to think of the essay, not as non-fiction, but as non-article. It is a malleable literary form that admits experimentation and imagination. More on this in a minute. It is not usually my nature to make arguments. I’m more likely to content myself with leisurely explorations that churn up questions but not answers. So I expect to go back and forth, circle around my claim, perhaps contradict myself (it was Walt Whitman who declared it so memorably, but we should remember that Montaigne made a genre out of it). And, speaking of Montaigne, here’s his justification for drifting, rambling a bit: It is the inattentive reader who loses my subject, not I. Some word about it will always be found off in a corner, which will not fail to be sufficient. In any case, before I get lost in the branches, let me return to the trunk of my argument: Sebald was an essayist. I’ll focus my here today on my favorite of his books, The Rings of Saturn, but not only on that book. I’ll divide my argument into two considerations: Fiction vs. Nonfiction and The Essay as Form. # Part I: Fiction v. Nonfiction Although it’s rarely professed explicitly, far too many of my academic colleagues seem to espouse a one-drop theory of creative nonfiction: if a writer invents even a small detail, the prose is deemed fiction. Of course, this view immediately becomes problematic, as any nonfiction writer will attest to inventing dialogue, or crafting it to recall approximately what was said, not offer a verbatim transcript. A more theoretical view argues that all writing is fiction, either because it is a made thing or, more in line with our colloquial definition, because it is a recreation in words of an exterior reality. This is sometimes fun to ponder, but I think we’re arguing about the wrong thing. After all, poetry is not divided along factual lines; it is a literary form that admits invention as well as re-creation. Nevertheless, the essay as a literary genre has been swept up in the current trend of “creative nonfiction,” and as it has traditionally been a nonfictional genre—one that utilizes real-life experience as a springboard to thinking—this has come to be a sort of requirement or expectation. I am not saying that this is always a bad thing—in my own writing I make it a point to stick to the facts as I remember or can discover them—but that the essay form is big enough to admit some fictionalizing. Virginia Woolf # Fictionalizing essayists An easy case may be made for essays that use fiction in a way that is not deceptive. Take, for instance, Virginia Woolf’s “Street Haunting,” whose plot is utterly undramatic—she goes in search of a pencil—and yet whose technique is highly imaginative—she invents thoughts and backgrounds for the strangers she encounters along the way. No critical reader believes that Woolf knows the details she writes. She obviously makes them up. Similarly, no critical reader believes every detail in a James Thurber essay, or a Christopher Morley or Robert Benchley or David Sedaris. And what can we make of Joseph Addison writing in the voice of a shilling that has traveled the world or of George Orwell perhaps borrowing the haunting central scene of “A Hanging” from a comrade’s recollection? What of Ian Frazier writing as one of Elizabeth Taylor’s ex-husbands? Or as a coyote captured in Central Park!? Essayists have been utilizing fiction for as long as the essay has existed. There is also the question of an essayist’s persona. Much is made, directly and indirectly, of Sebald’s narrators. Critics are careful not to associate author and speaker, to make such an amateur’s conflation. Yet, I would argue that an essayist always speaks through a persona, at least through a necessarily partial version of him- or herself. Was Sebald as neurotic or morose as his narrators? No, say those who knew him. Was he as interested in history and biography? He must have been, to write his books. Martin Swales assures us that “the persona clearly overlaps with the author…there is a good deal of shared identity between the narrative voice and the person who wrote and published the text.” Mark McCulloh assents: “The self-references, the literary references, the references to art and music, and the seemingly tangential digressions are indeed drawn from the author’s life and researches” (82). Most readers I know seem to agree and accept this notion. But again let’s look at a few examples of old to trouble this question: Charles Lamb wrote his essays under the pen name Elia, an Italian immigrant, a clerk, a person very much like “the real” Lamb, but not entirely. To complicate matters further, “Charles Lamb” appears as a third-party in some of Elia’s essays, including “Christ’s Hospital Five-and-Thirty Years Ago,” written by Elia to debunk an overly sunny Lamb composition on the same subject. A third level of difficulty arises as Elia appropriates Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s troublesome experiences as a youth at the boarding school both Coleridge and Lamb attended. This resembles very much the nature of Sebald’s ficionalizations: conflating two acquaintances to create the painter Max Ferber (whose name was changed in the English translation to be less recognizable), and two others to create Austerlitz, changing the names of certain characters, moving buildings, rearranging events, etc. There are other examples, too, of essayists trying on fictional personas, perhaps most notably Oliver Goldsmith, an Irishman posing as a visiting Chinese man writing about eighteenth-century England. Edith Maude Eaton performed a similar self-revision, writing as Sui Sin Far. Violet Paget wrote her essays as Vernon Lee, and other women likewise wrote as men. And while critics may argue the literary merits and meanings of their works, the question of their genre seems to have been settled. They wrote essays. # Sebald’s nonfiction Still, lots of us want to know what really happened, whether Sebald wrote true to life. On the one hand, it seems naïve, unsophisticated, to wonder if or to hope that Sebald’s books are nonfiction. On the other hand, this very question has given a number of academics projects to investigate and write about. And they seem to enjoy their quests. Certainly I enjoy reading Jo Catling’s revelation that the Eccles Church Tower Sebald places in Dunwich is really far north of there; Silke Hostkotte’s puzzlement at the library date-stamp on the newspaper that Sebald supposedly bought in Switzerland; Adrian Daub’s conclusion that the Eastern Daily Press article about Major George Wyndham LeStrange must be a forgery created by Sebald. These researchers seem genuinely pleased with the treasure hunt Sebald has left them. I myself have twice set out on my own brief treasure hunt, a tour of some of the places Sebald (and his narrator, if you prefer) visited in The Rings of Saturn. Thankfully, then, a lot of interviewers were interested in just this very subject, and Sebald was never coy. Carole Angier, in an interview for the Jewish Quarterly, asks about the real people behind the four narratives in The Emigrants. They were real, says Sebald, “with some small changes.” He explains these changes, adding that “What matters is all true…The big events…you might think those were made up for dramatic effect. But on the contrary, they are real.” He adds “The vast majority of factual and personal detail that I use is very viable.” Nevertheless, Angier has her answer: the book is fiction. Very well, the books fit that bill, but it is still heartening to hear Sebald detail the nonfictional elements of his books. Ninety percent of the images are authentic (41), he says. His narrator’s travels mirror his own travels. He does a great deal of historical research, searching for connections. Sometimes these connections present themselves from the long shadows of memory. Certain epiphanies “can be achieved only by actually going to certain places, by looking, by expending great amounts of time in actually exposing oneself to places that no one else goes to” (85). “The changes that I made, i.e., extending certain vectors, foreshortening certain things, adding here and there, taking something away, are marginal changes, changes of style rather than changes of substance” (38). Theodor Adorno # Part II: The Essay as Form There must be something, then, that distinguishes the essay as a genre. In terms of form, the simplest way to distinguish genres is by their shape on the page. My children can tell a poem from a play from prose. They can also tell country music from jazz from rock-n-roll. This is where the essay differs from the short story or the novel. Theodor Adorno, as I have mentioned briefly, begins his “Essay as Form” railing against the tendency of humans to categorize, compartmentalize, and therefore cage. He singles out what he calls a German binary: art is irrational, science is knowledge. This is not only a German tendency, nor is it relegated to the past, of course. Adorno returns regularly to this dichotomy: on the one hand the systematic article, on the other, art, and in the middle, the confluence of the two, in good deconstructivist style, is the essay, free of restraint or obligation to either camp. The “intellectual freedom” here symbolized by the essay seems as much praise and rebellion as description, and Adorno’s tone is often exasperated, his words a counterattack on those “enemies of the essay” who “hire out to stupidity as a watchdog against the mind” (4). Central to Adorno’s idea of the essay form, then, is its fragmentariness (a mirror of fragmentary reality), its intuitiveness, its “luck and play” (4), its individuality, its uncertainty, its incompleteness, its focus on the “transient and ephemeral” (10), its dealings in experience, its contingency, its situatedness within culture, its immediacy, its skepticism, its non-linearity, its direct treatment of complexity, its resistance to reduction, its grounding in language, its musical logic, its self-reflexivity, its heresy. He is often quoted for this last sentiment, with which he ends his essay on the essay: “The essay’s innermost formal law is heresy” (23). He means, I think, a rejection of the norms of thought, of the fear of thought, of the fear of losing the solid ground created by the illusion of objective knowledge. The essay is cast in relief (perhaps with a double meaning: “standing out” and “refreshing”) against the rigid systems of science, positivism, the reification of methodical provable truth. An essay, in this sense, is a kind of anti-genre, or at least, in O. B. Hardison’s words, a “protean” form. Georg Lukacs, who preceded Adorno and who offers many similar statements, seems to deal specifically with an essay that begins with an external, not a personal subject, much as Sebald’s work is derived from studies of other people, places, and events. Lukacs’s rendition of the science/art split hinges on his statement that “science offers us facts and the relationships between facts, but art offers us souls and destinies” (3). He justifies the need for essays in contrast with drama (or, I imagine, fiction) by pointing out that some reactions can be shown visually and aurally, but thought is invisible. Thus the essay deals with the inner workings of a mind. The essay is needed also as intermediary between concepts (abstractions) and things (concretions), between image and significance. For Lukacs, then, the essay form is marked by its questioning, its avoidance of didactic or simplistic answers, its fragmentariness, its humor, its modesty, its consideration of the quotidian, its irony, its fight against tradition, its visionary nature, its friction with fact (perhaps this is key), its interruptions, its primacy of point of view over feeling. He sees the essay as process, not product, journey, not destination. The essay, according to Phillip Lopate [Against 75], “allows one to ramble in a way that more truly reflects the mind at work,” struggling, grasping, circling, but never preaching. Adorno deals with the misguided view of essay as simply nonfiction when he writes, “The bad essay tells stories about people instead of elucidating the matter at hand” (6). Lukacs would seem to agree: “Every event [is] only an occasion for seeing concepts more clearly,” he writes (14), and “The idea is the measure of everything that exists….Only something that is great and true can live in the proximity of the idea.” (16). Both writers stress that the essay is an ordering of things already present, not a creation ex nihilo. This calls to mind an Sebald interview with Michael Zeeman, [Netherlands TV, 12 July 1998] in which he says, “Making in prose a decent pattern out of what happens to come your way is a preoccupation, which, in a sense, has no higher ambitions than, for a brief moment in time, to rescue something out of that stream of history that keeps rushing past.” To Zeeman’s amazement, Sebald claims that as he’s writing, necessary and fitting items seem to present themselves to him. He quotes (he thinks) Adorno: “If you’re on the right track, then the quotations come and offer themselves to you; you don’t have to look for them.” # Others’ statements about Sebald’s form I hope you have read some of Sebald’s works, have marveled at their complexity and swooned in their beauty. If you’re like me, you’ve noticed that the traits Adorno and Lukacs (and others) attribute to the essay fit Sebald. Critics and academics have made similar statements to describe Sebald’s strange prose. Susan Sontag said The Emigrants was “like nothing I’ve ever read…an unclassifiable book, at once autobiography and fiction and historical chronicle. A roman d’essai?” Margo Jefferson of the New York Times wondered about categorizing Sebald’s books: “What does one call them? meditations, elegies, mutations grown from memoir, history, literary biography and prose poetry.” W. S. Merwin said that Sebald’s writing conjures from the details and sequences of daily life, and their circumstances and encounters, from apparent chance and its unsounded calculus, the dimension of dream and a sense of the depth of time that makes his books, one by one, indispensable.
on civil and military structures, radiation and bio-medical studies, and aircraft structural tests. Operation Plumbbob had the tallest tower tests to date in the U.S. nuclear testing program as well as high-altitude balloon tests. One nuclear test involved the largest troop maneuver ever associated with U.S. nuclear testing. Approximately 18,000 members of the U.S. Air Force, Army, Navy and Marines participated in exercises Desert Rock VII and VIII during Operation Plumbbob. The military was interested in knowing how the average foot-soldier would stand up, physically and psychologically, to the rigors of the tactical nuclear battlefield. Almost 1,200 pigs were subjected to bio-medical experiments and blast-effects studies during Operation Plumbbob. On shot Priscilla (37 kt), 719 pigs were used in various experiments on Frenchman Flat. Some pigs were placed in elevated cages and provided with suits made of different materials, to test which materials provided best protection from the thermal radiation. As shown and reported in the PBS documentary Dark Circle, the pigs survived, but with third-degree burns to 80% of their bodies.[2] Other pigs were placed in pens behind large sheets of glass at measured distances from the hypocenter to test the effects of flying debris on living targets. Studies were conducted of radioactive contamination and fallout from a simulated accidental detonation of a weapon; and projects concerning earth motion, blast loading and neutron output were carried out. Nuclear weapons safety experiments were conducted to study the possibility of a nuclear weapon detonation during an accident. On July 26, 1957, a safety experiment, Pascal-A, was detonated in an unstemmed hole at NTS, becoming the first underground shaft nuclear test. The knowledge gained here would provide data to prevent nuclear yields in case of accidental detonations—for example, in a plane crash. The John shot on July 19, 1957, was the only test of the Air Force's AIR-2 Genie missile with a nuclear warhead.[3] It was fired from an F-89J Scorpion fighter over Yucca Flats at the NNSS. On the ground, the Air Force carried out a public relations event by having five Air Force officers and a photographer stand under ground zero of the blast, which took place at between 18,500 and 20,000 feet altitude, with the idea of demonstrating the possibility of the use of the weapon over civilian populations without ill effects. In 2012, the photographer and the last survivor of the five met in a restaurant in Dallas to reminisce.[4] The five officers were: Colonel Sidney C. Bruce, later professor of Electrical Engineering at Colorado University, died in 2005; Lieutenant Colonel Frank P. Ball, died in 2003; Major John w. Hughes II, died in 1990; Major Norman B. Bodinger, died February 2, 1997; Major Donald A. Luttrell, died in December 20, 2014.[5] The photographer, Akira "George" Yoshitake, died in October 2013.[6] The Rainier shot, conducted September 19, 1957, was the first fully contained underground nuclear test, meaning that no fission products were vented into the atmosphere. This test of 1.7 kt could be detected around the world by seismologists using ordinary seismic instruments. The Rainier test became the prototype for larger and more powerful underground tests. Some images from Upshot-Knothole Grable were accidentally relabeled as belonging to the Priscilla shot from Operation Plumbbob in 1957. As a consequence many publications including official government documents have the photo mislabeled.[7] Propulsion of steel plate cap [ edit ] During the Pascal-B nuclear test, a 900-kilogram (2,000 lb) steel plate cap (a piece of armor plate) was blasted off the top of a test shaft at a speed of more than 66 km/s (41 mi/s; 240,000 km/h; 150,000 mph). Before the test, experimental designer Robert Brownlee had estimated that the nuclear explosion, combined with the specific design of the shaft, would accelerate the plate to approximately six times Earth's escape velocity.[8] The plate was never found, but Dr. Brownlee believes[9] that the plate did not leave the atmosphere, as it may even have been vaporized by compression heating of the atmosphere due to its high speed. The calculated velocity was sufficiently interesting that the crew trained a high-speed camera on the plate, which unfortunately only appeared in one frame, but this nevertheless gave a very high lower bound for its speed. After the event, Dr. Brownlee described the best estimate of the cover's speed from the photographic evidence as "going like a bat!"[8][10] List of tests [ edit ] Notes [ edit ] ^ The US, France and Great Britain have code-named their test events, while the USSR and China did not, and therefore have only test numbers (with some exceptions – Soviet peaceful explosions were named). Word translations into English in parentheses unless the name is a proper noun. A dash followed by a number indicates a member of a salvo event. The US also sometimes named the individual explosions in such a salvo test, which results in "name1 – 1(with name2)". If test is canceled or aborted, then the row data like date and location discloses the intended plans, where known. ^ "Timezone Historical Database". iana.com. To convert the UT time into standard local, add the number of hours in parentheses to the UT time; for local daylight saving time, add one additional hour. If the result is earlier than 00:00, add 24 hours and subtract 1 from the day; if it is 24:00 or later, subtract 24 hours and add 1 to the day. All historical timezone data are derived from here ^ Rough place name and a latitude/longitude reference; for rocket-carried tests, the launch location is specified before the detonation location, if known. Some locations are extremely accurate; others (like airdrops and space blasts) may be quite inaccurate. "~" indicates a likely pro-forma rough location, shared with other tests in that same area. ^ Elevation is the ground level at the point directly below the explosion relative to sea level; height is the additional distance added or subtracted by tower, balloon, shaft, tunnel, air drop or other contrivance. For rocket bursts the ground level is "N/A". In some cases it is not clear if the height is absolute or relative to ground, for example, Plumbbob/John. No number or units indicates the value is unknown, while "0" means zero. Sorting on this column is by elevation and height added together. ^ Atmospheric, airdrop, balloon, gun, cruise missile, rocket, surface, tower, and barge are all disallowed by the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Sealed shaft and tunnel are underground, and remained useful under the PTBT. Intentional cratering tests are borderline; they occurred under the treaty, were sometimes protested, and generally overlooked if the test was declared to be a peaceful use. ^ Include weapons development, weapon effects, safety test, transport safety test, war, science, joint verification and industrial/peaceful, which may be further broken down. ^ Designations for test items where known, "?" indicates some uncertainty about the preceding value, nicknames for particular devices in quotes. This category of information is often not officially disclosed. ^ Estimated energy yield in tons, kilotons, and megatons. A ton of TNT equivalent is defined as 4.184 gigajoules (1 gigacalorie). ^ Radioactive emission to the atmosphere aside from prompt neutrons, where known. The measured species is only iodine-131 if mentioned, otherwise it is all species. No entry means unknown, probably none if underground and "all" if not; otherwise notation for whether measured on the site only or off the site, where known, and the measured amount of radioactivity released. See also [ edit ](CNN) A new national poll shows Hillary Clinton carrying a six-point lead over Donald Trump with both presidential primaries now in the rearview mirror, though both major party presumptive nominees remain challenged by controversies weighing on their campaigns. According to a CBS poll released Thursday, Clinton leads Trump 43% to 37% -- numbers that are down significantly for both candidates from a couple months ago, when they garnered closer to 50% and 40%, respectively. Clinton's advantage remains when Libertarian presidential nominee Gary Johnson is included. In that scenario, Clinton draws 39% support to 32% for Trump and 11% for Johnson. The poll, which was mostly conducted before the Orlando terror attack, also asked voters on their view of the candidates' ability to manage terrorism and national security. Clinton received the edge on this issue, with 50% saying she would do a better job than Trump at 43%. Voters expressed significant disapproval of Clinton's use of a private email server and Trump's ethnicity-based attacks on the federal judge overseeing the Trump University lawsuit. Read MorePower supplies can be one of the most often overlooked component of a computer, and yet it is one of the most important pieces in a computer. A good power supply will give you years of trouble-free operation, while a bad one can be the source of any problem imaginable from transient program glitches to random shutdowns to full-on catastrophic hardware failure. NZXT is a somewhat new player in the power supply business, and recently sent Icrontic their Hale90 750W unit for evaluation. The NZXT Hale90 750W power supply is white. Shockingly and oddly white. The only parts that aren’t white are the fan grill, bits of the label, and the sockets for the modular cables. Included with the power supply are the modular cables, a nice bag to contain the unused cables, and four thumb screws. Connectors and Cables The hard-wired cables are exactly what is needed, and nothing more. A 20+4-pin motherboard power cable and 4+4-pin CPU power cable are the only permanently attached cables on the supply. The cables are split to allow their use in older systems that may not use the additional power connections. Everything else is available via modular cables. Eight detachable cables are included with the Hale90 750W power supply. Those cables provide: 7 x 4-pin molex 8 x SATA 1 x floppy 2 x PCIe 6-pin 2 x PCIe 8-pin (6+2) The cables are all 550mm (~21.5 inches) in length, which should cover every ATX mid-tower and most full-tower configurations. How dummy-proof can a company make a modular power supply? Looks like NZXT may have found the answer: There is only one way to plug the cables in, and all eight sockets are interchangeable. This is quite the change from other power supplies that require certain cables to go into predetermined sockets and therefore have different connector shapes. How is NZXT able to allow such interchangeability? The answer is simple: a single 12V rail. Single 12V rail vs multiple rails Some manufacturers divide the 12V power into a number of different rails, each providing power to one or more sets of outputs (PCIe, CPU, etc). Others, such as NZXT, use a single 12V rail for the entire supply. Is one way right or wrong? According to the latest ATX standards (v2.3, released in 2007) the answer is “not anymore”. That revision removed the ceiling on the maximum amperage through 12V rails (20A or 240VA). The curious thing is why NZXT advertises their power supply as ATX 2.2 since it appears to be 2.3 compliant (at least according to their specs). Now, this isn’t to say that a multi-rail PSU wouldn’t be able to supply enough power to a particular component. In reality the rails are split such that every component attached should receive ample power. For example, I own an Antec TruePower Quattro 850W PSU. As its name implies there are four 12V rails, each providing 18A (or 216W). Presumably two of these rails are dedicated to the PCI Express power connectors (two each of the 6- and 8-pin), one rail for the CPU, and one for the rest of the system. According to the label, a maximum of 768W may be delivered through 12V power. Considering the largest draw for current desktop CPUs is 130W, it can pretty safely be assumed that one rail is dedicated to the CPU. Two rails for GPUs would provide enough power at least for dual video cards requiring two PCIe connections each (8-pin gives 150W, 6-pin is 75W). This leaves a single rail for the rest of the system components, which should be more than sufficient. Case in point, this same Antec power supply powers my current gaming/storage server system, which is mostly detailed here. Add in an additional 120mm fan and five more hard drives (and another Beta Evo sitting next to the first to hold the additional drives) and you’ve got the complete picture. Incidentally, Antec’s wattage calculator says that system should require just over 660W at a 90% load. Newegg says upwards of 900W for fewer components than what are actually there (I say the Egg is off by a bit). But enough with the rabbit trail. Back to the review. Testing the claims There are two claims NZXT makes about their Hale90 power supplies that can be tested either through direct observation or the use of easily obtained software and hardware (and without opening the power supply). Here are the claims and the test data: 80+ Gold Unfortunately we don’t yet have the equipment to test each rail individually, but we do have a Kill-A-Watt to measure total system power draw. Since the Hale90 claims an 80+ Gold rating, in theory it should consume less power than an 80+ rated, or non-rated, power supply. Comparing this power supply to a non 80+ rated Thermaltake Evo Blue 550W shows the benefits of the 80+ standards: As you can see, the Hale90, despite being a much larger power supply, is more efficient at idle and under several CPU/GPU loads than the Evo Blue power supply. The gap starts at 13W and only grows as the load increases. Video rendering (full CPU load) brought the difference to 14W, while the biggest difference came during Metro 2033 where the gap jumped to 23W, or an 8% reduction in power. It may not seem significant, but folks running their computers at full load for long periods of time (such as the Folding@home project) might notice a dip in their power bills by switching to a more efficient supply. Maximum noise levels of 20db (up to 750W) I don’t have any sound measuring equipment outside of my ears and a video camera. But a very quiet system configuration can be made. Our previous test bench GPU was a passively cooled Radeon 4850, and the CPU is cooled by a nearly silent Noctua NH-D14. The Thermaltake Armor A90 case fans are similarly quiet. Twenty decibels is roughly equivalent to a quiet room, so there really shouldn’t be much to hear from the PSU. The video below should give an idea of noise levels. It was shot with the camera very close to the components. Since it’s been on the bench, the Hale90 hasn’t made a sound I could detect above any other components. Price The Hale90 750W currently sells for $139.99 on Newegg (plus shipping). This places it as one of the lowest priced 750W power supplies with an 80+ Gold rating. In fact it is one of the lower priced Gold-rated supplies available regardless of wattage. Less efficient power supplies are available at lower prices, but the lower power consumption makes the extra up-front cost worth it. Conclusion The Hale90 has been in the test systems for a few weeks now, and I’ve got to say I’m pretty happy with it. It certainly is more power efficient than the Thermaltake EVO_Blue 550W from the old benchmark system. The white casing at first seemed like an odd choice, but I’ll admit it makes finding the modular cable sockets quite a bit easier. Speaking of modular cables, the “any cable, any socket” layout of this PSU is great. Add in the quiet operation, and this power supply could be in a larger HTPC. The bottom line here is the NZXT Hale90 is an excellent, efficient line of power supplies, and has earned the Icrontic stamp of approval.As the Trump administration embarks on a deregulatory frenzy aimed at weakening federal climate action, Congress is matching his enthusiasm. Dozens of GOP-sponsored bills have been introduced that seek to hamstring the government’s ability to protect the environment, cut greenhouse gas emissions and consider peer-reviewed science in its decisions. Legislation introduced since January includes a bill to undermine science used by the EPA, one to prevent the treatment of CO2 as a pollutant, a measure to end federal oversight of fracking and even one that abolishes the EPA altogether. Advertisement: Some bills are revived versions from factions in Congress who have long opposed federal action on climate change and environmental regulation. With the Trump administration’s stated mission to roll back regulations of all kinds, Republican lawmakers are seizing the moment. “I would still put long odds on any of them making it through the Senate,” said Michael Wara, an environmental law professor at Stanford Law School, noting the Republicans have only a 52-48 edge in that chamber. “So in some sense, not much has changed, and we should not put too much weight on legislation that has been introduced or even passed in the House until there is strong Senate sponsorship of a parallel bill.” Only a few pieces of anti-climate or anti-environmental regulation legislation have gained traction in both houses. Still, climate scientists and watchdogs are alarmed by what they see, and fear that some bills could end up with Trump’s signature on them. “These bills are aimed at making it more difficult for policymakers to use solid science in policymaking,” said Michael Mann, a Penn State climate scientist who testified before the House Science Committee on March 29. “Great for the fossil fuel industry, the tobacco industry and the other corporate interests whose bidding they’re doing; bad for the rest of us who bear the brunt of lost protections and safeguards.” David Archer, a University of Chicago geophysicist who studies the carbon cycle, said the proposed legislation and Trump’s deregulatory efforts show contempt for science and the low-income and minority communities most likely to be harmed by policies that weaken environmental protection. “I think it’s a kind of institutionally subconscious racially motivated genocide,” Archer said. Advertisement: Taken together, however, the deregulatory bills amount to little more than political theater and have almost zero bipartisan support, said Michael Burger, executive director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University “To the extent Republicans expect anything to pass into law, it seems they are more interested in advancing special interests than protecting public health and welfare,” he said. These are among the dozens of such bills — none of them with significant Democratic support — currently being considered by Congress: The "Honest" Act The bills generating the most anxiety in the scientific community are those requiring federal environmental regulations to be based only on research that is fully available to the public, in particular, the Honest and Open New EPA Science Treatment Act. Passed by the House last week, the bill would limit the science used by the EPA to that which is publicly available and reproducible. Advertisement: The bill, which has failed to pass the House in the past, was revived by climate change denialist Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas. He aims to discredit peer-reviewed climate science, including research underlying the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change climate assessment reports that he falsely claims was not conducted following the scientific method. “The goal here is to create the opportunity to better challenge the science underlying agency actions,” Wara said. The science underlying EPA regulations is vigorously reviewed and transparent, and the bill could prevent the agency from using the best science to substantiate its policies, said Gretchen Goldman, research director at the Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists. Advertisement: The raw data, models and code that form the basis of many studies are often not publicly available because it is proprietary intellectual property or private health data that cannot be legally made public, Goldman said. The EPA would be barred from using research that fell into those categories, she said. The mandate for the research to be “reproducible” would also prohibit research from being used as the basis of policy, said Ken Caldeira, senior scientist at the Department of Global Ecology at the Carnegie Institution for Science. “All of the climate science and related environmental science that I read in the peer-reviewed literature is in-principle reproducible,” Caldeira said. “The reason it is not in fact reproducible is that the federal funding agencies rarely provide resources to redo work that someone else has already done.” Advertisement: The bill is being heard by the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. EPA Science Advisory Board Reform Act Scientists are also nervous about the EPA Science Advisory Board Reform Act, which passed the House with the support of two Democrats on March 30. The act would prohibit the board from “communicating uncertainties” and making policy recommendations to the EPA, while encouraging dissenting board members to speak out. The board provides scientific advice to the EPA administrator. Most climate science involves uncertainty. For example, it’s impossible to know precisely when human climate pollution will warm the atmosphere to levels scientists consider dangerous — 2°C (3.6°F) — but it’s likely to happen before 2050. Advertisement: Understanding the uncertainties around climate pollution is key to many climate regulations because it’s necessary for the federal government to understand how deeply emissions need to be cut for climate regulations to be effective. But the bill, if passed, would bar the EPA administrator from hearing anything about uncertainties, which means the Science Advisory Board couldn’t discuss much science at all. “Science is all about communicating uncertainty,” Caldeira said. “Science is about expanding the range of what we know to be false. Truth lies in the range of what we don’t know to be false — that is the uncertainty range. People who don’t want scientists to communicate about the uncertainty range are people who don’t understand what science is all about.” The bill is being heard by the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. Advertisement: Stopping EPA Overreach Act The Stopping EPA Overreach Act, if passed, would prevent the federal government from using the Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse gas emissions — the basis of the Clean Power Plan and other EPA climate regulations. The bill would overturn the EPA’s “endangerment finding,” a 2009 scientific determination that carbon dioxide pollution is a threat to human health because it causes climate change. The EPA released the finding after a 2007 Supreme Court decision allowing greenhouse gases to be regulated under the Clean Air Act. “Stripping greenhouse gases out of the Clean Air Act would do enormous damage to the prospects of regulating greenhouse gases under a future administration,” Wara said. “This is in part because the Clean Air Act is the only existing tool to do so.” Advertisement: While the bill has more sponsorship than any climate- or EPA-related bill to pass the House so far — 120 co-sponsors, all of them Republican — legal experts do not expect the bill or any of the others to gain much traction in the Senate if it is passed in the House. However, the Senate is considering its own limits on federal greenhouse gas regulation. Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., are among the sponsors of the Agency PAYGO for Greenhouse Gases Act. If a proposed greenhouse gas emissions regulation imposes costs to other federal agencies, the EPA must offset those costs with cuts to its own budget. The bill is being heard in the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Advertisement: Other bills that aim to hamstring federal environmental and climate protection, but still have a lot of traction to gain in Congress, include: Fracturing Regulations Are Effective in State Hands Act. This bill, sponsored in the House by seven Republicans and in the Senate by 12 Republicans, would prevent the federal government from regulating any aspect of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, handing that responsibility to individual states. Fracking is a method of injecting sand and chemicals to crack open rock formations deep underground to release oil and natural gas. Advances in fracking technology brought about the shale oil and gas boom of the past decade, helping to cause the 2014 crash in oil and gas prices and encouraging electric power plants to switch away from coal. The fracking process also pollutes the atmosphere with methane, a gas about 34 times as strong as carbon dioxide in warming the climate over the span of a century. The Obama administration attempted to control air and climate pollution from fracking operations, but Trump overturned those efforts with an executive order in March. Advertisement: The Recognizing Protection of Motorsports Act, or “RPM Act.” This bipartisan bill exempts emissions from cars used in competition, such as stock car racing, from regulation under the Clean Air Act. The legislation has 112 sponsors in the House and a corresponding bill has 27 sponsors in the Senate. Both bills are being heard in committee. The Ozone Standards Implementation Act. This bipartisan Senate bill, sponsored by six senators from coal-dependent states, amends the Clean Air Act to delay implementation of 2015 ozone pollution standards implemented by the Obama administration. The bill requires the EPA’s Science Advisory Board to provide advice about how meeting the ozone pollution standards would have adverse public health and economic impacts. The bill remains in committee. H.R. 861. This bill, sponsored by Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., with six GOP co-sponsors, would terminate the EPA at the end of 2018. The bill is stalled in the House. The Wasteful EPA Programs Elimination Act. Sponsored by a single Texas Republican congressman, this bill would kill nearly all EPA climate programs, and terminate the EPA’s environmental justice programs and state grant programs. The bill is stalled in committee.ITV has commissioned a new panel show from Harry Hill, to air in 2017. In Harry Hill’s Alien Fun Capsule, two teams must find evidence that humans are fun and so worth saving, should Earth be invaded by hostile extra-terrestrials. Teams present clips, people and other ‘fun stuff’ and Hill must decide whether each item is worthy of inclusion in the Fun Capsule. The format has echoes of a more positive version of Room 101, but also promises sketches, studio items, special guests, ‘and the occasional appearance of an alien’. Hill said: ‘It's great to be back on ITV with an all new format that finally tackles the problem of an imminent and prolonged war with space aliens, by proving to them that us humans are really a lot of fun to hang out with!’ The show was piloted in front of audience in London last year, as Chortle reported at the time. Hill has long been the channel's comedy figurehead, having hosted TV Burp for 11 years from 2002, and voicing You've Been Framed since 2004. He also hosted a revived Stars In Their Eyes last year, although his subversive take on the format divided critics, and the show was axed. ITV has struggled to find a panel show hit, although Keith Lemon has had some success reviving Through The Keyhole. Harry Hill’s Alien Fun Capsule was announced at the Edinburgh TV Festival by Kevin Lygo, ITV's director of television, this afternoon. It was ordered by ITV’s comedy commissioner Saskia Schuster, who said: ‘We’re really excited to have Harry back on ITV, and we're confident that the human race will be safe in his hands.' It will be produced by Nit Television, the joint venture between Harry Hill and CPL Productions, with Mob Dar, Murray Boland, Danielle Lux and Harry Hill, executive producing. Published: 25 Aug 2016Loonatics Unleashed is an American animated television series produced by Warner Bros. Animation that ran on Kids' WB for two seasons from 2005[1] to 2007 in the United States, Teletoon in Canada, Kids Central (now known as Okto) in Singapore, Cartoon Network's Boomerang in Australia, Cartoon Network in the UK, Italy, Southeast Asia, and Latin America, and Canal 5 in Mexico and rerun until September 15, 2007. It is still broadcasting in reruns on the Clan channel of the Televisión Española network in Spain. The series was based/inspired on the Looney Tunes cartoon characters, with the series described by Warner Bros. as an "action-comedy." Loonatics Unleashed is meant to be a mixture of the Looney Tunes shorts' irreverent style of humor and a modern action animated series, with the characters designed in a more action cartoon inspired style. Unlike previous Looney Tunes-related shows, Loonatics Unleashed has a darker tone and takes place in a post-apocalyptic setting, as well as multiple minor story arcs. The Looney Tunes TV franchise went on hiatus after Loonatics Unleashed ended, until The Looney Tunes Show was released in 2011. Story [ edit ] The events of Loonatics Unleashed occur in the year 2772, the year that a meteor strikes the fictional city-planet of Acmetropolis, knocking it completely off its original axis. Instead of destroying the planet, the meteor crashes in a waterfront, releasing waves of supernatural energies causing some of the planet's citizens' genetic codes to be severely altered, granting them special abilities and strengths. A mysterious and powerful woman named Zadavia calls upon six teenagers of the affected residents to form a team of superheroes. She becomes their commander, dispatching them for the purpose of combating any and all threats to Acmetropolis and its citizens. The newly formed team is known as the Loonatics and reside on the 134th floor of a large tower. These characters are the descendants of the classic Looney Tunes characters, according to multiple press releases and official sources. Descendants of other Looney Tunes are unverified, though they can be inferred in certain situations. It is later revealed that Zadavia is in fact an alien and had used her powers to knock the meteor slightly off-course, preventing the total destruction of the planet. It is also revealed that a mysterious figure, later revealed to be Zadavia's older brother named Optimatus, caused the meteor to strike Acmetropolis in an attempt to destroy his sister. In the second season, the show takes on a lighter tone and many more descendants of other Looney Tunes characters are introduced, the majority of which only appear once in the series. The super villain characters from the previous season are rarely mentioned or rarely appear. Zadavia becomes a less mysterious figure and regularly participates with the Loonatics in their adventures. Two more aliens from Zadavia's home planet are also introduced, Deuce and Keyboard Man. In the season's finale, the Loonatics are temporarily joined by Sylth Vester, and Optimatus is replaced by Deuce as the series arch-villain. Main characters [ edit ] Ace Bunny: Descendant of Bugs Bunny. Before the meteor hit the city, Ace worked as a stunt rabbit in movies. [2] Lexi Bunny: Descendant of Lola Bunny. Before the meteor hit the city, Lexi was trying out to become a cheerleader at Acmetropolis University. [2] Danger Duck: Descendant of Daffy Duck. Before the meteor hit the city, Duck was employed as a pool boy. [2] Slam Tasmanian: Descendant of Taz Tasmanian. Before the meteor hit the city, Slam was a fighter in a ring. Due to the nature of his combat, it is implied that he was a pro wrestler in staged fights. [2] Tech E. Coyote: Descendant of Wile E. Coyote. Before the meteor hit the city, Tech was a college student at the Acme Institute; although it was never explicitly stated, it is implied he was kicked out under the pretense of being "mad" after one of the faculty misused his machine, though, in his defense, he installed the self-destruct button for extra credit. [2] Rev Runner: Descendant of Road Runner. Before the meteor hit the city, Rev was a delivery boy and invented things to help him on his delivery jobs.[2] Equipment [ edit ] The weapons and gear used by the Loonatics are usually made by Tech E. Coyote. They are referred to as "the toys" by Ace, despite Tech's insistence that they are "hand-crafted precision alloy instruments." Retrofire Master Blaster (First used: "Loonatics on Ice"): The Retrofire Master Blasters were used to melt the giant iceberg that appeared in Acmetropolis. They were specially equipped with a 'Thaw' mode to melt it, but it seemed to have no effect whatsoever. Zoomatrixes (First used: "Loonatics on Ice"): The Zoomatrixes are a series of motorcycles developed by Tech for urban transport. They are capable of changing into an alternate mode which give the vehicles flight capabilities. They are also able to join together to form a flying platform capable of launching missiles and disruptor discs. Exo-Vac 2400X (First used: "Attack of the Fuzz Balls"): The Exo-Vac 2400X was constructed by Tech to suck up all the Fuz-Zs in Acmetropolis when the Loonatics learn that the Fuz-Zs transform into monsters whenever they eat chocolate. When Lexi and Danger are caught by Professor Zane, the rest of the Loonatics drop off the Fuz-Zs at HQ and initiate the "Turbo Vac-Jet Mode" of the vehicle to speed to Zane's lair to rescue their captured comrades. Tech has also called the Exo-Vac the "Ultimate Urban Vacuum." Ninjizer 500 (First used: "The Cloak of Black Velvet"): When the Loonatics head into the zeppelin to rescue Tech, who is now brainwashed by Black Velvet, Ace brings along the Ninjizer 500, which is powerful enough to cut through steel walls with its "Beam" mode. It also shoots nunchakus and shurikens, which somehow reflects the martial-arts expertise of Ace Bunny. Supersonic Transport (First used: "The Cloak of Black Velvet"): The Loonatics use this ship to get into Black Velvet's zeppelin. It can travel at a remarkably high speed and has amazing maneuverability. This high-altitude aircraft is also used in "Apocalypso". Grapple Gun (First used: "Weathering Heights"): All that is known about the Grapple Gun is that it was used by Ace and Tech to pull themselves and their comrades out of Weathervane's tornadoes. Port-a-Lab (First used: "Weathering Heights"): A ship Tech built which he flew to the biggest and hottest volcano on the planet to defeat the Storm Dragon. However, he had to leave it as it was destroyed by lava. Mobile Magma Mover (First used: "Going Underground"): A big drilling machine Tech built to drill through solid rock. It was used by the Loonatics to search for Dr. Dare. However, a sudden stop short circuited the engines. Luckily, Tech was able to divert reserve power to the front thrusters but since he didn't have a long extension cord, he used himself as a conductor, which jump started the engines. The vehicle is cylinder-shaped with three drills at the front and protected by titanium double shielding. The Tech E. Coyote Space Stream 8000 (First used: "The Comet Cometh"): The Space Stream 8000 was built by Tech to get to Optimatus' second meteor. On the way to the big chunk of rock, a wave of cosmic energy strikes the ship and sends it tumbling back down to Acmetropolis. Rev quickly downloads a copy of the piloting software from HQ and gets the ship moving again. The ship has a built-in Laser Amplifier that increases Ace's laser vision power to a 'googol' times (a googol is a one followed by one hundred zeros). When it was used, however, it only peeled off a layer of atmospheric dust. Duck has often called the Space Stream 8000 a "flying dinner plate" because it is based on a flying saucer. Gluco-Gel 9000 (First used: "The World is My Circus"): The Gluco-Gel 9000 was designed by Tech to encase targets in a cube of gel. He first used it when he was being transformed into a Galactic Oddity by shooting the DNA Scrambler, thus destroying it. He next used it after the battle with an Oddity version of the Ringmaster by encasing the Ringmaster and Otto in gel cubes. This invention was used again in "The Music Villain". DNA De-Scrambler (First used: "The World is My Circus"): The DNA De-Scrambler counteracts the effect of Otto's DNA Scrambler, returning anything that was affected by the latter to regular form. Normally it would take at least two weeks before one could be made, but Tech said he could make one in five minutes with Rev's super-speed. Tech first used it on the transformed children, then himself and the other Loonatics, and finally Zadavia. In the battle with the Ringmaster Oddity, it was destroyed when one of its tentacles smashed it. Gravity Stabilizer Gyro (First used: "Stop the World, I Want to Get Off"): Built to nullify the effects of Massive's powers, the Gravity Stabilizer Gyro restores anything that it is pointed at to normal gravity. Tech was able to make a handcuff version to prevent Massive from using his powers. Tech also used it on a robot Massive in "The Hunter". Nano Bionic Armor (First used: "Sypher" Redesigned: "Acmegeddon - Part II" Redesigned: "The Fall of Blanc, Part I" and "In Search of Tweetums, Part II"): When all the Loonatics' powers have been stolen by Sypher, Tech constructs six unique exosuits that are designed to replicate and deflect their individual powers. Ace's exosuit has Laser Goggles, copying his laser vision. Lexi's exosuit has a Supersonic Scream to turn Sypher's ultra-sensitive hearing against him. Tech's exosuit has Electromagnetic Palms. Rev's exosuit has Speed Accelerator Technology. Slam's exosuit has Circular Jets so he can spin into his Tasmanian Tornado form. Danger's exosuit has "jellybeans" that randomly change constantly (when one hit Sypher's face, it turned into tar). Danger was rather put off by this,
off the mulligan strategy for this deck is insanely simple. Against non hunters - Do I have a fish? If no mulligan everything. If yes - you then mulligan for removal, pandas, and shadow steps. (and the other fish Against hunters - you need to get a way to kill under taker and any minion you can throw down. How do you win??Against non hunters - play fish as much as possible, and don't let it die. Using vanish, kidnapper, and sap as kill spells is really important to survival. Fish + Prep + Vanish is one of the nastiest combos in this deck. Another big deal to playing this deck is remembering you can kidnapper your own minions. This allows you to replay oracles which is the point of the deck as well as let you replay your death lord to give it full hp, and your voodoo doctor to give you more hp, or heal a priest minion to make them draw more. Why Cho? Cho is used to retain board control, or allow you to pressure with your assassins blade. Cho makes them worried about casting spells even if they are needed. He also allows you to give your opponents "useless" cards such as deadly/blade flurry against non weapon classes, and low value cards such as sap (sap is only low value against decks playing sub par creatures, or ones that have battlecry) Lastly, there are the situations where they have 9 cards in hand and playing Cho lets you turn sap into a 2 mana assassinate because the spells go to their hand before going off therefore their hand gets filled then sap kills their minion. Can you replace Cho? yes, and no. There is no other card in the game that does what cho does so you can not replace his effect. However, if you do not have him I'd just play a farseer. (I'm never upset healing myself in this deck. Why no Mukla?? Mukla doesn't provide enough to warrant the use. He is helpful if you are going to be vanishing to wipe the board, but mostly just helps your opp do more damage. It also actually gives them a good target to use their otherwise "useless" removal. Why no Dancing Sword?? I don't think dancing sword is good enough, paying 3 mana to get your opponent 1 card when they decide they can afford to is not the way, I want to play the deck. It's also very easy to deal with a 4 hp minion so it'd not even stick to the board long enough to impact their board/life total. GvG. I can't wait to test new decks for GvG, and this deck is defiantly making me anxious for clock work giant, and goblin sapper. =========================================================================== http://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/142824-fishy-tempo - for the version that uses clockwork giant and goblin sapper This list has now been updated -1 voodoo doctor +1 Antique Healbot I have tested multiple versions since gvg and I have found the most success for actually getting fatigue kills with this list. The healbot provides some extra needed health for the burst spells late in the game. Additionally I have found out that if you want to add the other "mill" supported cards it changes the style of the deck completely you should check out my other guide for that.× Expand View larger image A North Carolina banana is small but sweet. About half the size of its Costa Rican counterpart, it grows from a single tree in Chatham County. There it winters inside a building at the Plant in Pittsboro. After the April frost, it sunbathes in the North Carolina heat and humidity until late fall. "My husband wants to be able to say bananas can be grown in North Carolina," laughs Tami Schwerin, executive director of The Abundance Foundation, which is located at the Plant. The group educates people about local food and renewable energy. It also is exploring local solutions for agriculture in the face of climate change. Although the Schwerins don't have enough bananas to sell now, the tropical fruit could pop up in North Carolina farmers markets by mid-century. And if global temperatures continue to rise, as they're expected to do, it's not unthinkable that by 2100 local bananas could sit in bins alongside new heat-tolerant varieties of North Carolina apples. The results of climate changehellfire summers, intense hurricanes, long droughts punctuated by deluges of biblical proportionsare already altering the way crops pollinate, mature and produce. Over time, they could change what we eat and when we eat it: Local farmers could grow new types of fruits and vegetables that were traditionally raised farther south, and local food could become scarcer in summer and more abundant in late fall. That's the good news. The bad news was released in a U.S. Department of Agriculture report last month: "Climate change poses unprecedented challenges to U.S. agriculture." The report concluded that while in the short-term farmers should be able to adapt their operations to a changing climate, by mid-century crop yields are projected to decline because of rising temperatures and extremes between rain and drought. To call it farmaggedon would be overreaching, but unless farmers and consumers rethink how they interact with the planet, there could be less food, and what there is could be expensive. As State Climatologist Ryan Boyles noted at a recent conference in Pittsboro about farming and climate change: "From an emissions scenario we're in territory not seen in 800,000 years. We are living on a different planet." Blame hairspray. And gas-guzzling cars without catalytic converters. And coal-fired power plants that lacked today's improved, albeit anemic, environmental controls. The climate change we're experiencing today is the effect of greenhouse gas emissions and pollutants, such as aerosols, that were released into the air 50 years ago. And the carbon dioxide and methane we're pumping into the atmosphere in 2013 from our cars, power plants, fracking operationsand even our massive livestock farmswill come back to haunt future generations by century's end and later. In Pittsboro last month, about 150 farmers and a handful of food activists gathered to share ideas about how to counter the effects of extreme weather. "A key part is the creativity of farmers," Laura Lengnick, a professor of sustainable agriculture and environmental studies at Warren Wilson College in the mountain town of Swannanoa, N.C., told the conference audience. She was among five co-authors of the USDA report, which included input from 68 scientists. The creative brainstorming that day bore the hallmarks of sustainable agriculture: Adjusting what to plant and when to plant it. Fighting new insects and diseases with integrated pest management instead of pesticides. Raising new breeds of heat-tolerant livestock and plants. Finding new ways to irrigate and manage scarce water resources. Saving seeds and breeding new resilient plants that can withstand such extreme weather. "I've been increasingly concerned about climate change and I've started thinking about very hot days," said Chatham County farmer Laurie Heise. A few weeks after the conference I met her at her farm southwest of Pittsboro where starts of arugula, kale and other leafy vegetables percolated in the warmth of a greenhouse. "In the short-term it feels like an opportunity, with slightly longer growing seasons and winter markets. But we're not going to stop getting hotter and hotter." Global climate models predict the average world temperature will rise by 2 to 4 degrees Fahrenheit over the next 35 years. Ice caps will continue to melt, resulting in sea level rise. Because of warmer temperatures and additional moisture in the atmosphere, overall weather patterns will change over the next century. The global models aren't yet sophisticated enough to accurately predict local conditions that far out, but, as Boyles said, it's time to adapt: "We can't wait that long." Granted, the state's weather is notoriously erratic. "We get every kind of weather, every kind of extreme," Boyles said. Yet that unpredictability has increased over the last decade. In the past five years, we've experienced warm weather in early spring, but this climatological bait-and-switch fools fruit trees and berries into buddingonly to be killed by a typical April frost. (A local farmer at the Pittsboro conference reported he had strawberries bear fruit in early February.) In the North Carolina mountains, farmers are putting apples trees on north-facing slopes to delay flowering and make the plants less vulnerable to late spring frosts. "You're taking a lot more risk," said Heise, who bought Wiseacre Farm in 1987. Last year she planted tomatoes in March; previously, she had not put them in the ground until April 10. Even though the last frost happened on April 12, her tomatoes survived. Storms are intensifying. Last year, North Carolina recorded the second-highest number of severe weather reports1,100in the nation. In 2011, the state ranked first, with 1,700 reports. Summer temperatures are rising. January through July 2012 was the hottest period in North Carolina in 118 years, with temperatures nearly 3 degrees above average. Last year Raleigh-Durham International Airport scored an all-time record high of 105 degrees three timeson June 29 and 30 and July 8. Hot days are hard on crops and livestock, but hot nights do the most damage. One farmer noted at the conference that for the past three years, her tomatoes dropped their blooms in July but didn't bear fruit. That's because when temperatures fail to dip below 74 degrees at night, the heat sterilizes the pollen. Last summer the nighttime temperatures stayed above that magic 74-degree mark 16 times, including on Sept. 5, when the thermometer bottomed out at 75 degrees, breaking the record for high minimum temperature set in 1983, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "Extreme weather is the new normal," Boyles said. "North Carolina is sensitive to weather. And North Carolina will get it all." Byond the barn that houses Heise's Massey Ferguson and John Deere tractors lies a quarter-acre of bare apple trees. This orchard represents climate change limbo, in that the current weather patterns are kind enough to provide enough "chill hours"a minimum period of cold weather in which a fruit tree will bloom. "But in 2025, who knows?" Heise says. Thus her dilemma: It's too soon to plant more heat-tolerant varieties, such as those grown in Georgia and Alabama, but an apple tree takes 20 years to matureso ideally, she would plant now. "The fruit growers will get the worst of the late spring frosts," said Alex Hitt of Peregrine Farms, which grows vegetables, blueberries and flowers about 20 minutes west of Chapel Hill. "The berries will make it. But apples, pears, peaches won't." In his 32 years of farming, he said, "I've seen a lot of change. I'm seeing more extreme storms." His primary concern is the amount of water available for irrigation. He has two ponds that are fed by a major stream on the perimeter of the farm. "The stream has gone dry every year." North Carolina can expect fewer rainy days, but when it does rain, it will be heavy. That results in runoff, erosion, even flooding. Unless farmers can catch and store that water, in ponds, tanks or other underground systems, they can't capitalize on the scarce but vital rainfall. At the conference, other farmers said they worried about water, especially in Chatham County. Rural subdivisions rely on well water, which can dry up the wells on neighboring farms. Fracking, which uses millions of gallons of water in its operations, also threatens water quality and quantity. It is expected to begin in Chatham County by 2015. Hitt is adjusting his planting schedule to try to sidestep the worst of the summer heat. Although tomatoes and peppers thrive in hot conditions, they won't set fruit in extreme heat. This is why in July, at what is ostensibly the height of tomato season, there can be a shortage of local tomatoes. In fact, summers could get leaner for fresh produce. While growing seasons will lengthen, that will occur in the fall. "We see that now at the Carrboro market," Hitt said. "There is plenty of stuff in November through January. It's an extension of the cool season. "We can adapt. We'll get ahead of it." It's a sunny, dry, chilly day in early March, perfect for Tandy Jones to work on his farm. For 30 years he's raised cattle on Grassy Fork Farm, 100 acres of pasture in northern Chatham County. Although Jones' farm is small and sustainableno more than 100 beef cattle that graze freely, not in feedlotslarge livestock operations in particular contribute to global warming and climate change because they emit methane from animal manure. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, even more so than carbon dioxide. While methane digesterssystems that capture and burn methane from lagoons and manure pitscan help reduce the greenhouse gas emissions, less than 160 of them operate in the U.S. "I love cattle, but I recognize it's very resource-intensive," said Jones, 60, whose two daughters are vegetarian. "People need to realize that the industrial meat system is just bad for the climate. We can't do it." The key to Jones' success is not only cows but also grass: white clover, crabgrass and fescue. Each cow bears a calf every year, and after it's weaned at 7 to 9 months, when it weighs 600 or 700 pounds, he sells it to other farmers. The mother's job is to nurse that calf to weaning, "and to do that she has to eat grass." If she's not getting the right grass or enough of it, the calf won't grow. So when a drought occurs, as it did in 2007Chatham County was classified as being in extreme droughtit can economically devastate livestock farmers. "The grass isn't growing, so you feed the cattle hay," Jones said. "And then you have to replace that hay for the winter or you sell the cattle." Drought also devastates corn and soybean crops, which are used in feedlot operations. As the price of feed increases, so does the price of meat. "When the price of beef goes up, people generally turn to pork and chicken," Jones said. "But those animals are fed exclusively on grain and the prices will rise for them." High heat and humidity also affect livestock. They eat less, don't reproduce and produce less milk. Jones expects livestock farmers to introduce heat-tolerant breeds, such as Brahmans, which are rare in North Carolina but common in Texas. Cattle with red hide also do better in the heat than those with black hide, yet they command up to 15 percent less at auction because of aggressive marketing for Black Angus beef. "You match your animals to your micro-environmentand it's changing," Jones said. "There isn't any question about the science. Farmers will be the first to deal with climate change. In my lifetime it will affect my operations." At the end of The Abundance Foundation conference, farmers placed checkmarks next to strategies they could use to help them adapt. There were many checkmarks next to seed saving. Doug Jones of Piedmont Biofarms has been saving seeds and breeding varieties of sweet bell peppers for 20 years. He now has 100 breeding lines that produce a pepper that is sweeter and, he says, "full of phytonutrients. It's a superfood." He also breeds plants for yield, uniformity and hot weather. Like tomatoes, peppers don't set fruit in extreme heat. Jones saves the seeds from the most heat-resistant plants in hopes of breeding new varieties that can thrive in a new climate. Most vegetables in North Carolina aren't grown from North Carolina seeds, Jones said. "Ninety-five percent of the seeds come from all over world, and because of that those seeds aren't well adapted to our climate." Despite the worrisome climate news, Lengnick of Warren Wilson College told local farmers at the conference that they can continue to do the vital work of feeding North Caroliniansbut they should act now: "Recognize you're farming on a new planet." This article appeared in print with the headline "The heat is on."LIVING off $17 a day may sound impossible to most people but Greens senator Rachel Siewert will do just this for a week, in an attempt to highlight the struggle people on the dole face. The Greens are calling for a $50 a week increase to the Newstart allowance. Such an increase would cost $1.2 billion in its first year but the Greens say this can be funded through abolishing fossil fuel industry subsidies, maintaining the 30 per cent tax rate for big business and a more comprehensive mining tax. From tomorrow Senator Siewert will live on $17 a day, which is what the Australian Council of Social Services has worked out people on the dole have for daily living expenses, after rent has been factored in. The $119 week budget includes $15 for electricity, $10 for petrol and $85 for all food. Senator Siewert will give up all her parliamentary entitlements for the week. A Senator's base salary is $185,000 a year, and Senator Siewert is also entitled to extras because she is the chair of a parliamentary committee.During all the commotion last week surrounding the release of a new Ashes of the Singularity DX12 benchmark, Microsoft's launching of the Gears of War Ultimate Edition on the Windows Store and the company's supposed desire to merge Xbox and PC gaming, a constant source of insight for me was one Andrew Lauritzen. Andrew is a graphics guru at Intel and has extensive knowledge of DirectX, rendering, engines, etc. and has always been willing to teach and educate me on areas that crop up. The entire DirectX 12 and Unified Windows Platform was definitely one such instance. Yesterday morning Andrew pointed me to a GitHub release for a tool called PresentMon, a small sample of code written by a colleague of Andrew's that might be the beginnings of being able to properly monitor performance of DX12 games and even UWP games. The idea is simple and it's implementation even more simple: PresentMon monitors the Windows event tracing stack for present commands and records data about them to a CSV file. Anyone familiar with the kind of ETW data you can gather will appreciate that PresentMon culls out nearly all of the headache of data gathering by simplifying the results into application name/ID, Present call deltas and a bit more. Gears of War Ultimate Edition - the debated UWP version The "Present" method in Windows is what produces a frame and shows it to the user. PresentMon looks at the Windows events running through the system, takes note of when those present commands are received by the OS for any given application, and records the time between them. Because this tool runs at the OS level, it can capture Present data from all kinds of APIs including DX12, DX11, OpenGL, Vulkan and more. It does have limitations though - it is read only so producing an overlay on the game/application being tested isn't possible today. (Or maybe ever in the case of UWP games.) What PresentMon offers us at this stage is an early look at a Fraps-like performance monitoring tool. In the same way that Fraps was looking for Present commands from Windows and recording them, PresentMon does the same thing, at a very similar point in the rendering pipeline as well. What is important and unique about PresentMon is that it is API independent and useful for all types of games and programs. PresentMon at work The first and obvious question for our readers is how this performance monitoring tool compares with Frame Rating, our FCAT-based capture benchmarking platform we have used on GPUs and CPUs for years now. To be honest, it's not the same and should not be considered an analog to it. Frame Rating and capture-based testing looks for smoothness, dropped frames and performance at the display, while Fraps and PresentMon look at performance closer to the OS level, before the graphics driver really gets the final say in things. I am still targeting for universal DX12 Frame Rating testing with exclusive full screen capable applications and expect that to be ready sooner rather than later. However, what PresentMon does give us is at least an early universal look at DX12 performance including games that are locked behind the Windows Store rules. Continue reading our look at the new PresentMon tool!! So let's look at some data provided by PresentMon and how it compares to other tools in the market. Intel Core i7-5960X + X99 NVIDIA GTX 980 Ti (364.00) AMD Fury X (16.3) If you want to use PresentMon for yourself, you can download the source code at GitHub today. You'll need to run it in an elevated command prompt in Windows 10 and the output is clean enough to sort through with Excel. Ashes of the Singularity (DX12) This graph shows a 60 second segment of frame times as produced by PresentMon. This test Ashes of the Singularity was set to Vsync off and uncapped frame rendering, showing frame times faster than the 16ms / 60Hz of the display it was connected to. There appears to be quite a bit of variance in the frame times as they are shown, though the average range is in the 60-65 FPS mark. Specific performance of the system aside, this shows us that gathering data of Present commands in DX12 is possible through the PresentMon tool. Gears of War Ultimate Edition (DX12/UWP) In a similar vein, this result shows that we can gather frame time data for the Gears of War Ultimate Edition UWP based game, something that was impossible until yesterday! Also note that we have gone with a higher refresh rate display (120Hz) to give this game that caps at the maximum display refresh rate more room to show performance deltas. No frame time ever goes below 8.33ms but the margin between that and 16.6ms gives a much more granular view of performance. But how does PresentMon compare to other tools? To check on that I ran Fraps, PresentMon and our Frame Rating / FCAT-based system through the DX11 version of Rise of the Tomb Raider. Rise of the Tomb Raider (DX11) - PresentMon vs. Frame Rating Here is the same run of the game being compared between the PresentMon data that looks at the Present calls from the OS and our Frame Rating / FCAT / capture-based testing with an overlay, etc. Interestingly, the blue line of Frame Rating shows a much smoother experience with more consistent frame times than the green line from PresentMon. It's obvious that something occurs between the OS present commands and the image being displayed on the screen, something we have posited from the very beginning, and thus the results are somewhat contentious. Rise of the Tomb Raider (DX11) - PresentMon vs. Fraps Maybe its not a surprise to anyone then that the data from PresentMon looks very similar to results from Fraps, more or less the consumer standard for performance evaluation. The frame time swings are much larger in both cases though it appears at least in this test run, Fraps results have even wider swings. Rise of the Tomb Raider (DX11) - PresentMon vs. Fraps vs. Frame Rating A quick look at all three results overlaid on each other shows the differences in data between capture-based testing and the OS-level Present call data. There are arguments for the value of each data set to be sure, and maybe even the relationship between them on a per-game level, but I can tell you that my "feeling" of how Rise of the Tomb Raider played in this testing relates more with the Frame Rating result than PresentMon or Fraps. All of that being said, for today, the best and only way to measure frame time performance of UWP apps is with PresentMon or with other tools built off of the open source PresentMon code. Let's look at what Gears of War Ultimate Edition shows when comparing a GTX 980 Ti and a Radeon R9 Fury X. Gears of War Ultimate Edition - PresentMon I made the red line representing the Fury X semi-transparent to help with visualizing the results, but otherwise we are looking at PresentMon data as provided and described above. The green team is consistently running at lower frame times (higher frame rates) with the GTX 980 Ti and it shows significantly fewer spikes in frame times than the Fury X. It should be noted that the benchmark and game play of Gears feel SIGNIFICANTLY better with the recently released 16.3 driver from AMD than with 16.2 even though the overall advantage still lies with NVIDIA. This is just some sample data we have been gathering over the last 24 hours with PresentMon and I am excited to continue playing with the application to measure performance and driver improvements on DX12 and UWP games going forward. That being said, I am hopeful that the community will take the code provided by Andrew and his team to build applications with additional features and perhaps a UI that can improve usability. I know we are working on some early changes and BAT files to work around this application; I expect many others in forums are on the same path. The Windows Store and UWP PresentMon is a great tool that gives us a better look at DX12 and UWP applications previously unavailable to us, but we are still dedicated to the capture-based testing that has brought about such significant change in the industry over the last few years. Hopefully I will soon be able to combine results from this application and an updated suite of capture-based tools to really dive into the differences between reported results, getting closer to the holy grail of performance and animation measurement.Sean Hannity of Fox News. (Carolyn Kaster/Associated Press) Media critic Enmity between Fox News hosts Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity was a pretty-well-substantiated item of gossip on the media beat back in the day. Roger Ailes, who founded the network, once admitted in an interview that O’Reilly, who was bounced from Fox News in the spring over a sexual harassment scandal, “hates” Hannity because of his accomplishments as a radio host. The two once tussled over — get this — an interview with Sarah Palin. When O’Reilly has a book to promote, however, bygones are bygones. On Monday, Hannity announced that O’Reilly would be appearing on his program on Tuesday night, a development first reported by Yashar Ali at HuffPost. Topics for the chat, said Hannity, would be the “news of the day” and “Killing England,” the umpteenth in the series of deadly books that O’Reilly has produced with co-author Martin Dugard. O’Reilly previously appeared on Hannity’s radio show, on which Hannity mused about bringing his former prime-time peer back to the network. Guest bookings on cable news usually don’t rate a mention. This one is different, because of what happened in April. After a blockbuster article in the New York Times disclosing that O’Reilly and Fox News had reached settlements with women who had allegedly been sexually harassed or mistreated by the longtime, ratings-killing host, an assault on O’Reilly’s advertisers got underway. Though Fox News had recently renewed O’Reilly’s contract, it parted ways with him. Since then, O’Reilly has hinted in a number of venues that he has more to reveal about his firing. “In the weeks to come, there will be a bunch of news stories that will explain what happened and why it happened,” said O’Reilly in June. In another interview in June, he said, “We’re going to drop it in the next few weeks, and it’s really, really stunning how organized that was and what these people did.” Still waiting! In a stunning interview last week with Matt Lauer of “Today,” O’Reilly did his best to distort the circumstances surrounding his departure. “If you look in totality, this was a hit job — a political and financial hit job,” he said. Also: “There are billions of dollars of stake in business deals and they made a business decision that they could possibly prosper more without me. It was as simple as that. It was a business decision,” O’Reilly told Lauer in a statement clearly designed to minimize his workplace misconduct. He also said that in more than 40 years in the news business, he never had “any interaction with HR,” perhaps because, at least at Fox News, HR was a wholly owned subsidiary of Ailes, who went down in his own sexual harassment scandal. Try as he did, Lauer was no match for O’Reilly’s glib spin. The rapprochement between O’Reilly and Hannity appears to serve both parties, though not equally. Pushed off his nightly platform that he shamelessly used to sell his books, O’Reilly now needs help. This blog has spotted Fox News advertisements for “Killing England,” and Hannity’s show will help as well. In addition to ruling cable news ratings, Fox News is a powerhouse when it comes to moving books. Consider that “Fox & Friends” host Brian Kilmeade can claim that he’s a New York Times bestselling author. And what does this all say about Hannity? Something that we already knew: He can do whatever in the world he wants on his show, as he demonstrated in the spring in flogging the Seth Rich conspiracy story.ETCDEV Team launches homepage at etcdevteam.com Classic Ether Blocked Unblock Follow Following Feb 23, 2017 The ETCDEV Team has launched their official website, located at the web address etcdevteam.com. The Ethereum Classic development group’s new homepage introduces the advisors, staffers and engineers behind the blockchain’s independent programming initiatives. Chief technology officer Igor Artamonov (Splix on Github) leads the initiative. A core developer whose contributions include playing a vital role in January’s Diehard protocol upgrade and the deployment of the BitEther (BEC) mining token contract, he is being joined by Go coder Pascal de Kloe and Rust coders Dmitry Ulanov and Stewart Mackenzie. Having published the ETC Weekly Development Report updates via Reddit, Colibry will contribute in an organizational capacity to ETCDEV. She is joined by strategic analyst Matthew Mazur (Snaproll on Github). Prior to presenting at the Ethereum Classic Year One event in London, Mazur authored the ECIP-1017 monetary policy proposal, which places an upper bound on the issuance of ETC tokens. ETCDEV Team advisors include Dr. Avtar Sehra, founder of the Fundonomy ETC fundraising platform and organizer of the Year One London event. Core developer Elaine Ou also serves as an advisor, having presented for ETC during January’s Construct 2017, CoinDesk’s first blockchain developer conference. They are joined by project coordinator Arvicco, a contributor to the Ethereum Classic Blog at ethereumclassic.github.io, and developer Cody Burns, who adapted Taylor Van Orden’s MyEtherWallet’s Chrome Extension for use with Ethereum Classic. The new website hosts information on several core projects, including Mackenzie’s new implementation of the Ethereum Virtual Machine. Written in Rust programing language, the EVM will focus on improved performance and reliability. Ulanov is contributing toward the design of an official desktop wallet featuring a flexible SDK, codenamed “Emerald.” Pascal de Kloe will focus in March on prepping ETC Geth, a fork of the Ethereum Foundation’s original Geth client, for ECIP-1017 integration. ETCDEV’s ECIP-1017 research will entail a full testing cycle, examining potentials for new attack vectors. Operating in a similar fashion to the Bitcoin blockchain’s cap, the upgrade proposal will serve to reduce uncertainty for institutional investors considering ETC’s potential as a store of value. Parity client support will be tested in April, followed by a private and public testnet release. Main network configuration of the ECIP is targeting a July release. Donations benefiting the team’s research are being accepted in both Bitcoin and Ethereum Classic via the support page of the ETCDEV website. ETCDEV — Advisors, Staffers and EngineersDepartment of Treasury Seal Now that John McCain has been forced to disavow his long-time mentor, Phil Gramm, for saying Americans are just economic whiners suffering from a made up "mental recession," the defenders of privilege have been trying to rescue McCain by reassuring us that Gramm was right, if a bit impolitic. However, neither Secretary Paulson nor Fed Chairman Bernanke got the memos. Despite reassurances from Fox News, George Will, who called Americans the "cry babies of the Western world," and a "consumer psychologist" ABC found to claim that the economy has been great, there really does seem to be a crisis in the housing/lending industry (not to mention the auto industry, banking, manufacturing, energy, health care, student loans, jobs, stagnant wages, etc) that threatens a prolonged US recession and possible global financial crisis. That would explain why Paulson and Bernanke, not exactly your typical populist whiners and alarmists, spent the weekend concocting emergency schemes to ensure that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the nation’s largest mortgage lenders, would be able to raise capital to keep the housing industry from completely collapsing. Via Bloomberg: Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson put the weight of the federal government behind Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the beleaguered companies that buy or finance almost half of the $12 trillion of U.S. mortgages. Paulson, speaking on the steps of the Treasury facing the White House, asked Congress for authority to buy unlimited stakes in and lend to the companies, aiming to stem a collapse in confidence. The Federal Reserve separately authorized the firms to borrow directly from the central bank. The announcements followed weekend talks between the firms, government officials, lawmakers and regulators, after Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac lost about half their value last week. Paulson and Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke are trying to prevent a collapse that would exacerbate the worst housing recession in 25 years and deepen the economic slowdown. All of this comes after years of official denials that the government would back up, and if necessary, bail out Fannie and Freddie. Hence, these companies, though government sponsored, were "private" and need not have their lending practices nor executive compensation closely overseen and regulated. The market always saw through the non-bailout nonsense; the only folks who were forced to accept it were American taxpayers, who will be left holding a very devalued bag. "Buying unlimited stakes" is an interesting euphemism: it means the US Treasury plans to purchase the companies’ stocks, whenever it wants, as much as it wants. Just announcing that it plans to do so seems intended to keep stock prices up for the moment, with shareholders knowing that a huge buyer that can print money is out there willing to buy shares [if the companies need further capital]. So to put off facing an even worse bailout, Paulson is proposing to shield shareholders from a further fall — 75 percent his year — in stock prices. As Krugman reminds us: Privatize the profits, socialize the losses, and moral hazard be damned, because as we all know "they’re too big to fail." I don’t know how George Will, ABC, and the Fox/McCain/Gramm Network are going to explain this. When an Administration that claimed to despise government interference in markets wants authority for the US Treasury to bail out trillion dollar "private" companies to keep the financial community from collapsing, that’s not a sign that the economy is doing just fine. But being consistent is not their goal. This is all about deflecting blame in November, which is why they’re whining so loudly that there’s no problem. Helpful background from PBS’s News Hour. More from the New York Times here and here, and from Ian Welsh. And see Hale Stewart on various measures of economic health.Gulag: An Introduction By Anne Applebaum, author of "Gulag: A History" This virtual museum is devoted to the history of the Gulag, the vast network of labor camps which was once scattered across the length and breadth of the Soviet Union, from the islands of the White Sea to the shores of the Black Sea, from the Arctic circle to the plains of Central Asia, from Murmansk to Vorkuta to Kazakhstan, from central Moscow to the Leningrad suburbs. The word "GULAG" is an acronym for Glavnoe Upravlenie Lagerei, or Main Camp Administration, the institution which ran the Soviet camps. But over time, the word has also come to signify the system of Soviet slave labor itself, in all its forms and varieties: labour camps, punishment camps, criminal and political camps, women’s camps, children’s camps, transit camps. Even more broadly, “Gulag” has come to mean the Soviet repressive system itself, the set of procedures that Alexander Solzhenitsyn once called “our meat grinder”: the arrests, the interrogations, the transport in unheated cattle cars, the forced labor, the destruction of families, the years spent in exile, the early and unnecessary deaths. The Gulag had antecedents in Czarist Russia, in the forced labor brigades which operated in Siberia from the seventeenth century to the beginning of the twentieth. It then took on its modern and more familiar form almost immediately after the Russian Revolution. By the end of the summer of 1918, Lenin, the revolution’s leader, had already called for “mass terror” to put down his opponents, demanding that “unreliable elements” be locked up in concentration camps outside major towns. A string of aristocrats, merchants, and other people defined as potential “enemies” were duly imprisoned. By 1921, there were already 84 camps in 43 provinces, mostly designed to “rehabilitate” these first enemies of the people. From 1929, the camps took on a new significance. In that year, Stalin decided to use forced labor both to speed up the Soviet Union’s industrialization, and to excavate the natural resources in the Soviet Union’s barely habitable far north. On his instructions, the secret police took control of the Soviet prison system. Helped along by the mass arrests of 1937-38, the camps entered a period of rapid expansion. By the end of the 1930s, they could be found in every one of the Soviet Union’s twelve time zones. Contrary to popular assumption, the Gulag did not cease growing in the 1930s, but rather continued to expand throughout the war and into the 1940s, reaching its apex in the early 1950s. By that time the camps had come to play a central role in the Soviet economy. Prisoners worked in almost every industry imaginable - logging, mining, construction, factory work, farming, the designing of airplanes and artillery – and lived, in effect, in a country within a country, almost a separate civilization. The Gulag, which eventually came to include at least 476 camp systems
I’m still hopeful the new administration will realize that any crackdown against broadly popular laws in a growing number of states would create huge political problems they don’t need and will use lots of political capital they’d be better off spending on issues the new president cares a lot more about. “A clear majority of Americans support legalizing marijuana and supermajorities across party lines believe that states should be able to implement their own cannabis laws without federal interference. The truth is, marijuana reform is much more popular with voters than most politicians are, and officials in the new administration would do well to take a careful look at the polling data on this issue before deciding what to do. “During the campaign the president-elect clearly pledged to respect state marijuana laws, and he should keep his word — both because it’s the right thing to do and because a reversal would be a huge political misstep.” National Cannabis Industry Association: National Cannabis Industry Association executive director Aaron Smith issued the following statement in response to President-elect Donald Trump’s decision to nominate Senator Jeff Sessions for attorney general: “Voters in 28 states have chosen programs that shift cannabis from the criminal market to highly regulated, tax-paying businesses. Senator Sessions has long advocated for state sovereignty, and we look forward to working with him to ensure that states’ rights and voter choices on cannabis are respected.” NORML: Washington, DC: Today, President-Elect Donald Trump tapped Republican Senator Jeff Sessions from Alabama for the position of United States Attorney General. The selection of Sen. Sessions, a long-time opponent of marijuana law reform, comes just days after voters in eight states decided in favor of legalizing marijuana. The selection raises immediate concerns that the incoming Trump administration may renege on campaign promises to respect the will of the voters in states that have elected to pursue alternative regulatory schemes for cannabis. Said NORML Executive Director Erik Altieri: “Trump’s nomination of Senator Sessions for the position of Attorney General should send a chill down the spine of the majority of Americans who support marijuana law reform, and who respect the will of voters to enact regulatory alternatives to cannabis prohibition. Senator Sessions is a militant marijuana prohibitionist who believes that ³good people don¹t smoke marijuana.(source) This archaic mentality is not what we need from our nation¹s Attorney General and we must put pressure on President-Elect Trump to ensure that Sessions upholds Trump’s campaign promise to not interfere with state marijuana laws.” Said NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano: “Trump ascended to the Presidency by tapping into the divide between the views of ordinary voters and the policies espoused by Washington. One of the issues where this greatest divide exists is on the subject of marijuana policy, as evidence by the fact now more than half the country lives in jurisdictions that have legalized marijuana in some manner. Unfortunately, the appointment of Sen. Sessions — a longtime anti-marijuana zealot — will simply accentuate this divide and cost Washington, DC further respect and credibility with the ordinary American voter.” Senator Sessions received a failing grade from NORML¹s 2016 Congressional Report Card, released this past fall. Drug Policy Alliance: Several outlets reported this morning that Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) has been selected by Donald Trump to be the next Attorney General. “Jeff Sessions is a drug war dinosaur, which is the last thing the nation needs now,” said Ethan Nadelmann. “Those who counted on Donald Trump’s reassurance that marijuana reforms ‘should be a state issue’ will be sorely disappointed. And not just Democrats but the many Republicans as well who favor rolling back the war on drugs had better resist this nomination.” Sessions, who once said that the Ku Klux Klan was, “OK, until he learned that they smoked marijuana,” has a track record of opposition to marijuana reform. Earlier this year, Sessions spoke out against marijuana legalization in a Senate hearing, and urged the government to send the message to the public that “good people don’t smoke marijuana.” He has also said in a separate hearing that marijuana cannot be safer than alcohol because, “Lady Gaga says she’s addicted to it and it is not harmless.” He is likely to use his power as Attorney General to close down state-legal marijuana and medical marijuana programs. Sessions is also a proponent of harsh sentences for drug offenses. Sessions was the chief opponent of recent bipartisan efforts to reduce sentences for drug offenses, demagoguing that, “this proposal would provide for leniency for illegal alien drug traffickers,” and voting against the bill in the Judiciary Committee. “Donald Trump’s decision heralds a return to the worst days of the drug war,” said Bill Piper, Senior Director of Drug Policy Alliance’s Office of National Affairs. “Trump promised to ‘drain the swamp’ but he’s gone to the very bottom of the drug war barrel for this pick.” Sessions also criticized the Obama Administration’s attempts to reduce the prison population by encouraging U.S. Attorneys to use mandatory minimums only for high-level drug traffickers. It is likely that Sessions as Attorney General would push for harsher sentences and increase the prison population. Sessions has to be confirmed by a majority of the Senate Judiciary Committee – on which he currently sits – as well as on the Senate floor. In 1986 Sessions served as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama and was nominated to be a federal judge by President Ronald Reagan – an even less prominent position than Attorney General – and he was rejected by a Republican-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee for his racist views. He was only the second person in 50 years to be rejected, with the late Senator Ted Kennedy commenting that it was “inconceivable … that a person of this attitude is qualified to be a U.S. attorney, let alone a United States federal judge.” The Drug Policy Alliance is mobilizing their members to fight back and oppose Senator Sessions for Attorney General. image via NBC NewsNEW YORKNEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose on Wednesday after stronger-than-expected U.S. economic growth outweighed concerns about escalating tensions between the United States and North Korea and uncertainty in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. Gross domestic product was revised higher to show a 3.0 percent annual growth rate in the second quarter, due partly to robust consumer spending as well as strong business investment. Adding to the positive sentiment, U.S. private-sector employers beat economists' expectations as they hired 237,000 workers in August, marking the biggest monthly increase in five months. ADVERTISEMENT "I have doubts how sustainable the macro economy is, but perceived fundamentals are still okay. GDP confirmed that," said John Velis, macro strategist at State Street Global Markets in Boston. "You can come up with plenty excuses to remain (invested) in the market." President Donald Trump said he wants to see the U.S. corporate tax rate drop to 15 percent but the White House offered no new tax plan, leaving the proposal in the hands of Congress. Tax reform was one of Trump's main talking points during his campaign and expectations for its passage have been a main driver of stock gains since he won the presidency. The Dow Jones Industrial Average.DJI rose 27.06 points, or 0.12 percent, to end at 21,892.43, the S&P 500.SPX gained 11.29 points, or 0.46 percent, to 2,457.59 and the Nasdaq Composite.IXIC added 66.42 points, or 1.05 percent, to 6,368.31. The Nasdaq closed within 1 percent of its record closing high set in late July. Tensions between the United States and North Korea seemed to escalate after Trump dismissed any diplomatic negotiations via a tweet, saying "talking is not the answer," a day after Pyongyang fired a ballistic missile that flew over Japan. ADVERTISEMENT However, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis later said the United States still has diplomatic options. H&R Block (HRB.N) fell 8.3 percent to $26.81 after the tax preparation service provider reported a bigger-than-expected loss. Aerovironment (AVAV.O) rose 18.2 percent to $46.52 after the drone maker reported a smaller-than-expected loss and revenue that beat estimates. Analog Devices (ADI.O) closed up 5.2 percent at $83.72 after the chipmaker's quarterly earnings and forecast exceeded expectations. Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.66-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.69-to-1 ratio favored advancers. Some 376 U.S.-traded issues posted new 52-week highs and there were 245 new lows. Highs were well below their average over the past year while lows were slightly above theirs. ADVERTISEMENT About 5.12 billion shares changed hands in U.S. exchanges, below the 5.84 billion daily average over the last 20 sessions.Kyle Okposo Kyle Okposo will have plenty of suitors when he hits free agency on Friday. (The Associated Press) (MLive.com periodically will profile a potential Detroit Red Wings free-agent target until the start of free agency on Friday). Kyle Okposo 2015-16 team: N.Y. Islanders Position: Right wing Height/Weight: 6-0/217 Age: 28 Shoots: Right 2015-16 stats: (regular season) 79 games, 22 goals, 42 assists, 64 points, minus-4 rating, 51 penalty minutes, averaged 18:12 in ice time; (playoffs) 11 games, 2 goals, 6 assists, 8 points, minus-3 rating, 4 penalty minutes, averaged 22:03 in ice time. Career stats: (regular season) 569 games, 139 goals, 230 assists, 369 points, minus-60 rating, 310 penalty minutes; (playoffs) 24 games, 7 goals, 8 assists, 15 points, minus-3 rating, 11 penalty minutes. 2015-16 salary: $4.5 million ($2.8 million cap hit). The lowdown: If the Red Wings don't land center Frans Nielsen or right wing Milan Lucic - who is expected to sign with Edmonton - Okposo might be their next choice. Okposo has good offensive skills. He can finish and facilitate. He has a good shot and a nose for the net. Notable: Led the Islanders in assists and was second in points.... He has tallied 18 or more goals in six seasons, including a career-high 27 in 2013-14.... Had a career-high 69 points in '13-14.... Was an alternate captain for the Islanders.... Has posted a minus rating in seven of the past eight seasons, most of that time with a below average to bad club.... Has not been durable, missing many games over his career with injuries.... Played for the U.S. in two World Junior Championships (2007 and 2008) and three World Championships (2009, 2010 and 2012).... Selected in the first round (seventh overall) by the Islanders in the 2006 entry draft. Why he would interest the Red Wings: He's relatively young with proven offensive ability. It's an area of concern for a team that had trouble scoring and lost Pavel Datsyuk. His right shot would be valued on a team loaded with left shooters. How he could fit in with the Red Wings: He would play first- or second-line right wing and on the power play. He doesn't kill penalties. What it might take to get him: Perhaps a five- or six-year deal in the range of $6 million a season. Three key questions: 1. Should the Red Wings pursue a center instead? 2. Does Okposo's age make him a more desirable target than someone like David Backes, Troy Brouwer or Andrew Ladd? 3. How important is it for the Red Wings to have a right-handed shot among their top-six forwards? -- Follow MLive Sports on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram -- Download the Detroit Red Wings on MLive app for iPhone and Android -- Follow Ansar Khan and Brendan Savage on TwitterToshiba is readying two 3D televisions that can produce images with the illusion of depth but don't require the user to wear glasses, it said Monday. It will launch the televisions in Japan in December. By dispensing with glasses, the TVs answer a key complaint of would-be buyers -- but they won't come cheap. Toshiba will offer a 12-inch model and a 20-inch model. They'll cost around ¥ 120,000 (US$1,430) and ¥ 240,000 respectively. Toshiba didn't announce launch or pricing plans for markets outside of Japan. (A video of the new TVs is on YouTube.) The company is waiting on larger screens before it launches the TVs outside of Japan, said Masaaki Oosumi, president of Toshiba's digital media network unit, at a news conference. Markets such as the U.S. demand televisions with screen sizes starting at about 40 inches, making these first models a little small. The 20-inch model packs the Cell Broadband Engine, a version of the same processor found in Sony's PlayStation 3 console, that supports several advanced image processing features. Toshiba said these include the ability to convert conventional 2D images to quasi-3D images on-the-fly. 3D TVs can simulate depth because they deliver a slightly different image to each eye. In current 3D TVs, images for each eye are displayed rapidly one after the other. Filters in the glasses flash on and off in sync with the TV picture so the right eye sees one image and the left eye sees the next. Toshiba's new TVs have a thin sheet of small lenses in front of the display. Behind this lens screen is a custom-developed LCD (liquid crystal display) panel. Each screen has 8.29 million pixels -- four times the number of pixels in a conventional "full HD" television -- organized into groups of nine pixels of each color. The nine lenses split light from each bank of pixels and send it to nine points in front of the TV If the viewer sits in one of these sweet spots they get the 3D illusion. The nine spots should enable several family members to watch a 3D image at the same time. The set-up means that despite the large number of pixels in the screen, the resulting picture seen in each of the nine spots is equivalent to a 720p high-definition image, said Toshiba. Similar technology is used in Nintendo's recently announced 3DS handheld gaming device. The 3DS has a screen from Sharp and sends the image to just one spot -- something that isn't a problem with a handheld Toshiba unveiled the new TVs on the eve of the Ceatec electronics show. At the event the company is also demonstrating the same glasses-less technology on a 56-inch prototype TV. The need to wear special glasses has been a common complaint about early 3D televisions. The glasses are required for each viewer, they generally weigh more than a typical pair of eye glasses, and because they contain an electronic circuit, they also need to be regularly recharged. Martyn Williams covers Japan and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Martyn on Twitter at @martyn_williams. Martyn's e-mail address is [email protected] suspected Silicon Valley wouldn’t have it easy under President Donald Trump’s protectionist trade and immigration policies. Trump deepened those fears Friday when he signed an executive order barring citizens of several Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S. The move sent the market cap of the five biggest tech companies on the S&P 500 down by $32 billion Monday, as investors worried Trump’s anti-immigration policies may cut into the workforces of tech companies. Shares of Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, and Facebook (fb) together fell roughly 1% for a total market cap of $2.4 trillion on Monday. Alphabet alone shed $13.8 billion in market cap. Tech companies quickly condemned Trump’s executive order over the weekend. Google CEO Sundar Pichai called the order “painful” in a company memo that noted over 100 of his employees were affected by the order. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote on his social media site that, “we should also keep our doors open to refugees and those who need help.” Microsoft on the other hand called the order “misguided.” But tech companies might have to brace for further headwinds from the White House: On Monday, Bloomberg obtained a draft of an executive order from the Trump administration that could discourage U.S.-based companies from hiring foreign workers by directly targeting the work-visa programs tech giants frequently use. An exchange-traded fund tracking the technology sector, the Technology Select Sector SPDR fund fell nearly 1% in trading Monday. That was roughly in line with the broader stock market, with the S&P 500 falling 0.9%. Shares of Apple have fallen 0.67%; Alphabet 2.6%; Amazon 1%; Facebook 1.4%; and Microsoft 1.3%. Correction, Jan. 30, 2017: The original headline of this story misstated the loss incurred by the companies. They lost billions in value, not revenue.Game mechanics are meant to simulate and model elements of a story to create an RPG. A story without game mechanics can’t be an RPG. Without game mechanics of some sort, you haven’t got an RPG, though you may have an interesting narrative. So mechanics, yeah; you need them, and preferably good ones. But sometimes mechanics are over-valued, which isn’t great. In fact, an RPG that puts game mechanics before the story that the mechanics are meant to simulate begins to lose its way. Here’s why. The “magic” of an RPG mechanical effect is created when an interesting description of what’s happening in the world is paired with that effect. That description–the story–provides the context that gives the mechanical effect meaning, weight, and relevance. Without the story (also called flavor, and sometimes even “fluff”), naked game mechanics quickly lose their luster. And when I say “paired with” I mean that the description of what’s going in the world, complete with color, smell, and any other relevant story information, is provided in one seamless mechanical description. Poor presentation style that separates the mechanics from story text is ultimately just as bad. A description under its own header or other separating feature removes the context from the mechanics, thus creating a perceptual problem. RPG players and GMs are subtly directed to pay attention to the mechanics text, while simultaneously signaled that the description, found in a different header, really isn’t all that important. Take, for example, an encounter player character might have with a creature of The Strange called a variokaryon. The underlying game mechanics for the variokaryon could be encapsulated in two sentences of game mechanics: The PC takes 5 damage each round until she escapes. While caught, the PC can do nothing other than use her action to attempt an escape. Pretty simple, right? But being utterly devoid of context and story, the variokaryon’s attack, while powerful, seems somewhat flat. Try on the following description of the ability instead: A variokaryon attacks by vomiting a billowing sheet of white tissue that inflates to engulf a target in immediate range in a many-layered shroud, which is the variokaryon’s expelled stomach. The PC takes 5 damage each round until she escapes. While caught, the PC can do nothing other than use her action to attempt an escape. People and animals caught inside are digested, then sucked back in. Whatever’s left over after a meal, usually only a face, the variokaryon grafts to its own flesh. [Side callout: (Something caught in the expelled stomach can’t see anything but suffocating folds of white. A victim can’t tell which way to run. Sound is muffled. But the victim’s sense of touch comes alive like paper to a flame, and burns.)] The previous few paragraphs take up more space, granted, but they paint the full picture of what’s happening when a PC is attacked by a variokaryon. And what’s happening is horrifying. The variokaryon is not alone when it comes to underlying mechanical simplicity. In fact, most RPG combat abilities (whether creature or PC) boil down to just a handful of effects. Broadly speaking, those effects include dealing damage, moving the target, restricting the target’s movement, and restricting the target’s actions. And that’s about it. Varying the amount of damage, the amount of movement, and how restricted a target’s actions are will only get you so far. To make up the rest of the gap, you have to provide compelling context. (Illustration of variokaryon by Cathy Wilkins.) Another example: When I was telling Monte about this blog topic, he responded with an example of his own. “Remember that D&D trap you guys triggered in Ggornorall’s room? It dealt only 1d6 fire damage, followed next round by 1d6 physical damage. But because it was called ‘worm fire’ and described as fire followed by worms burrowing up out of the burns on each victim’s body, you guys freaked out.” Yeah, I do remember that. Today’s takeaway: When combining story with an RPG mechanic, you’re adding variety, context, and life. Instead of having only a small piece of paper to draw on, you have a canvas of almost unlimited size on which to paint. Stories are possibly infinite in variety, which means that PC abilities, cyphers, creature abilities, artifacts, and other traditionally “crunchy” game objects have the same nearly unlimited scope. And for that, we’re glad.About TO BACK IT, CLICK HERE! © George Pratt. All rights reserved WHAT IS THE SKETCHBOOK? THE SKETCHBOOK is an ANIMATED SHORT FILM about a young soldier enlisting in the First World War attempting to be reunited with his father, who is serving in another battalion. His amazing story is told through the pages of the sketchbook of an artist he meets on the front lines. When it's complete, the film will BLEND 3D COMPUTER ANIMATION with TRADITIONAL 2D ANIMATION techniques to create a living and breathing sketchbook. It will also honor the memory of those who fought in the First World War, and of course, recount an incredible story of a son's search for his father. Our funding date is precisely 100 years after the First World War began. WHY IS IT A GOOD PROJECT TO BACK? Firstly, there's the EXPERIENCE. The Sketchbook team is comprised of FEATURE FILM ARTISTS from every facet of the industry. I will start introducing our contributors soon enough, but for now you can see just some of the films we've worked on by scanning the posters below. You'll find all the great animation studios are well represented. BLUESKY, PIXAR, SONY, DISNEY, and ILM just to name a few. Great projects! Great people! Then there's COMMITMENT. From the moment I began until today is the better part of ten years. I believe in this story, and I'm motivated to seeing it through at the highest quality possible. But that doesn't happen without a third crucial component, and that's YOU. By backing this project, you will provide the film with an operating budget that will allow it to transition from its current script form into animation and beyond. With your support, we will be able to bring together the perfect team to help this film grow. And you'll be there with us ever step of the way. REMEMBER WWI THROUGH ONE SOLDIER'S UNIQUE STORY If you decide to back this project, you will be helping me share an amazing story, but you will be doing so much more than that. In 2014, the world will recognize the 100th ANNIVERSARY of WW1, and making this film allows us to acknowledge the sacrifices made all those years ago. One of the ways we hope to achieve that is by connecting our project dates with some of the more notable dates of the Great war. In fact, the end date for our funding drive at 11 AM on June 28, 2014 is exactly 100 years to the minute after the start of WW1. If you scan our rewards, you'll find a few more too! Staying connected and helping to bring some of their stories forward is something I'd personally be very proud of. SUPPORT GREAT ARTISTS But this isn't just about the history. It's about the artists too! Backing The Sketchbook enables us support some fantastic artists who have taken that first step to launching their own studios. In fact, The Sketchbook's first studio collaboration is already in the books! Samantha Youssef's STUDIO TECHNIQUE in Montreal was gracious enough to host a WW1 drawing night, and it's just the kind of place we love support. Thanks to Rich Lees and Justin Walsh over at 46th PRODUCTIONS, we were able to have an amazing night of drawing with an authentic WW1 uniform. Remembering the Great War with passionate artists. It was a perfect night! Hopefully, we can do some more! © Samantha Youssef MY EXPERIENCE I have been working as an ANIMATOR or SUPERVISOR in feature films for over 13 years, and have been really fortunate to have been a part of some amazing projects. They include summer blockbusters like SPIDER-MAN and ALICE IN WONDERLAND, animated features such as CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS and WRECK-IT-RALPH, and even a couple of Oscar winners including SPIDER-MAN 2. If you'd like to see some of my animation, you can do so below. I'm also completing my first graphic novel, RED FOG, that found its first breaths right here on Kickstarter. The talented artists I have worked with over the years have taught me so much, but perhaps the most important lesson is that collaboration is above all the single most important element to producing a film you can be proud of. Work with people that you like, that you trust, and that you respect. The results will surely follow. YOU ARE THE GREEN LIGHT! It's one of the most amazing feelings in filmmaking - Learning your project has been 'Green lit'. In this instance, you're the GREEN LIGHT! Your contributions will determine not only 'IF' I will be able to make this film, but 'HOW' it's made as well. That all depends on the budget. Your contributions will largely be allocated in the following areas: CHARACTER DESIGN CHARACTER MODELING CHARACTER RIGGING STORY BOARDING VISUAL DEVELOPMENT ANIMATION TESTING ENVIRONMENT AND SET DESIGN ENVIRONMENT AND SET MODELING 100% OF YOUR MONEY IS GOING TO ARTISTS. I'm asking you to help me build this world. Then once we get to animation, well, I've got that covered. Now, how do we want this to look exactly? Allow me to introduce you to George Pratt. THE INFLUENCE OF GEORGE PRATT ON THE SKETCHBOOK © George Pratt. All rights reserved. GEORGE PRATT is an award winning illustrator, painter and comic book artist. It was his graphic novel ENEMY ACE that not only turned me on to comic books, but inadvertently sowed the seeds for my first writing venture. I bought that book in 1992, and ten years later I began writing The Sketchbook with George's gorgeous WW1 sketches providing the inspiration for the artist in my story. Now, all these years later, he will be making a variety of important contributions to a project he helped ignite. This will be the second time I have been fortunate enough to collaborate with George. Last year, he painted the cover art for my first comic book RED FOG. What a privilege! RED FOG © Chris Williams & Mike Docherty, RED FOG Cover Art © George Pratt THE SKETCHBOOK STYLE GUIDE The Sketchbook will first be animated in CG, but the final look will lean heavily on traditional hand drawn animation. To mimic a sketchbook, the animators will blend the finished computer animation with a variety of traditional drawing media, including conté, charcoal, pencil, ink, and watercolor washes. George's drawings below illustrate the kind of range we will be striving for. They provide great inspiration and a challenging target. © George Pratt. All rights reserved. The final results will produce a vibrant and textured finished film. If we manage to hit our initial pledge goal, I will send out a 'Backers only' video outlining in greater detail the look, the artists that have influenced the film, and also point to a couple of shorts that really inspired this project! Hopefully, you'll all be inspired too! THE REWARDS © George Pratt. All rights reserved Whether you're a backer or a creator, there's no question the rewards are a special part of the Kickstarter experience. For The Sketchbook, great art inspired me to make this film, so it only makes sense to offer great artwork as a reward. FOR THE COLLECTOR - GEORGE PRATT has offered to lead the charge by contributing ORIGINAL SKETCHES and LIMITED EDITION PRINTS pulled from his SKETCHBOOK pre-production artwork. You can select one print, or walk away with the full set plus an original piece if you select our top rewards! George's work is nothing short of world class and having one of his pieces on your wall would be an incredible keepsake. If you or a loved one has a passion for comics, drawing or World War I history, then this reward is for you. © George Pratt. All rights reserved. © George Pratt. All rights reserved In addition to George's work, The Sketchbook's visual development team will also be offering up prints to collect. Just like George, they are world class artists at the top of their game. You won't be disappointed. FOR ANIMATION FANS, I will be sending out design packs that cover the ins and outs of building this short film. I'll include rough to final character designs and some environment studies too. Basically, I will fill it with the types of images I love to see in the 'Art of' books we all collect. These packs will tell the story of how the visual language for The Sketchbook grew from an idea to a finished film. Don't forget, the team on this short worked on some our favorite films. The artwork will be amazing. FOR THOSE THAT WANT TO CONTRIBUTE SOMETHING MORE PERSONAL - A couple of rewards that have me particularly excited depend on you the backers participating. Would you be willing to share a favorite memory? Or perhaps take the time to submit a drawing? The MEMORY REWARD will be comprised entirely of your cherished memories and I anticipate that it will be just an incredible thing to read. THE SKETCHBOOK is a father/son story, but your memory doesn't have to be limited to just that. Have fun with it! If the DRAWING REWARD has you intrigued, then you simply need to have a love of drawing to participate! There are no age restrictions and you certainly do not need to be a professional artist. All I ask is that the drawings stay within the confines of WW1 and THEY MUST BE TASTEFUL as I will ultimately decide if it can be included. Need inspiration? How about these guys: John Singer Sargeant Captain Harvey Dunn Muirhead Bone Alfred Bastien You can draw from all kinds of subject matter and you don't need to stay inside the trenches. Get into the air in your Red Baron Triplane, or inside a Mark I tank! Just remember to fire me a mail if you have any questions on what is and what isn't appropriate. Finally, for those of you pledging $1000 or more, you will enjoy complete behind the scenes access to our project. Our video diaries will enable you to take the journey with myself and some of the other artists involved as we move through the complete filmmaking process. Then when it's all over, you'll have gorgeous artwork to display and share. And as for the screen credit, all I can say is that it is a pretty special feeling having your name on the big screen. It will definitely be something you will cherish for a long long time, and I hope the film we create will be something you can be proud of as well. © George Pratt. All rights reserved BACKER REFERRAL REWARDS Obviously I am trying to raise as much as I can to fund this film, and digital rewards help me to do that. Although The Sketchbook's digital rewards will only be available here to backers, that doesn't change the fact that sometimes you just want something in the mail too. I completely understand! So with that in mind, I created some referral rewards. The referral rewards allow you to stay under $30, but still get cool stuff. All you need to do is pledge, then enlist some of your friends to become backers too! Send me their names, email addresses and pledge amounts, and you could earn some of these great rewards as a thank you. For pledges totaling at least $25, you'll get a SMALL PRINT , you'll get a or for pledges totaling at least $50, you'll get the SIGNED DVD , you'll get the or for pledges totaling at least $75, you'll get the DVD and T-Shirt , you'll get the or for pledges totaling over $100, you'll get a LARGE PRINT As an extra incentive, I will send the backer with the most referrals one of my ORIGINAL DRAWINGS. This referral program will help me get the word out, and you will get some great keepsakes. We all come out winners! BUT WHAT HAPPENS IF YOUR FUNDING GOAL IS EXCEEDED? Our funding goal is the ABSOLUTE MINIMUM to see the project through. If we are fortunate enough to surpass that goal however, any additional funds will ENRICH both THE LOOK of the finished film, and HOW we reach the finish line. Here's how: VISUAL DEVELOPMENT AND EXPLORATION - Bringing a sketchbook to life is a great challenge, and I'd love to explore a variety of ways to do that. As it stands today, we will achieve the final look by doing a full drawing pass over the CG animation. But is there a better way, or a combination of techniques? Getting into the stretch goals helps us explore those ideas. - Bringing a sketchbook to life is a great challenge, and I'd love to explore a variety of ways to do that. As it stands today, we will achieve the final look by doing a full drawing pass over the CG animation. But is there a better way, or a combination of techniques? Getting into the stretch goals helps us explore those ideas. ART DIRECTOR - This position is crucial for any feature film, and it would be an amazing addition to the project. They would oversee the overall look of the film and offer all kinds of insight into how we can make the visuals all the more striking. As of right now, the designers, animators and myself will take care of this, but it would be advantageous to be able to bring an art director into the fold. - This position is crucial for any feature film, and it would be an amazing addition to the project. They would oversee the overall look of the film and offer all kinds of insight into how we can make the visuals all the more striking. As of right now, the designers, animators and myself will take care of this, but it would be advantageous to be able to bring an art director into the fold. VISUAL EFFECTS SUPERVISOR - They work directly with the Art Director making sure everyone knows what can and can't be done on the technical side. As of right now, this position will be made up of the technical set up team and myself. - They work directly with the Art Director making sure everyone knows what can and can't be done on the technical side. As of right now, this position will be made up of the technical set up team and myself. SPECIAL EFFECTS - Having an opportunity to work with a special effects professional will no doubt bring a lot to this project. They will bring unique software know how and finding the right team will elevate the final look of the project immensely. - Having an opportunity to work with a special effects professional will no doubt bring a lot to this project. They will bring unique software know how and finding the right team will elevate the final look of the project immensely. PROMOTION & FESTIVALS - My ultimate goal with the film is to take it through the festivals. Entrance fees and travel are part and parcel of that endeavor and they can really add up. This is our film. Please help me share it. So, fingers crossed that we get to the stretch goals! Being able to expand the team would be excellent as their added expertise would make the project both more beautiful, and of course easier to tackle! As for the rewards, I will announce stretch goal rewards once we move into striking distance. ACHTUNG! BEFORE YOU BACK! Well, clearly I'd love every single one of you to back my project, but I also want to make sure you are clear on a few items before you make that commitment. 1) FILMS TAKE TIME I know I've just stated the obvious here, but it's an important point. My production schedule depends on the budget and artist availability, among other things, and I really won't be able to plan in earnest until we cross the finish line here at Kickstarter. What I can say based on early projections is that I can aim for a Fall 2016 completion date. No matter what the end date is though, rest assured you will be getting lots of updates outlining our progress. 2) DVDS, DIGITAL DOWNLOADS & FESTIVALS This is an incredibly exciting aspect to this project. My hope is to take The Sketchbook to some great film festivals and show off what we've achieved together. That being said, there are some very strict rules of eligibility and I need to adhere to those rules. Distribution of any kind is prohibited by many of the festivals UNTIL the film has been screened there first. This means I will not be able to send backers DVDs or even send digital cuts until those screenings occur. I apologize for this inconvenience, but the goal here is to show off the film on the big screen. Rest assured, all of the other rewards will be sent well ahead of the film's completion date. You will also get exclusive access to the making of this film, and it will be be sent to you as soon as possible. Finally, I will certainly have local screenings and will announce dates and locations once we wrap! Please take this into consideration before you back this project. I hope you still become a backer! 3) TRAVEL For the rewards that involve travel, please be aware that travel costs and lodging are the responsibility of the backer. SHIPPING I'm going to go on record and say this could be the trickiest part of my page! Until I wander down to the post office to mail your rewards, I'm really only providing an educated guess
just “spoiled brats.” A syndicated column from the Vancouver Sun by Licia Corbella was titled, “How rioting students help make me grateful.” She discussed her latest visit to church where the pastor advised: “Parents, do not provoke your children to anger by the way you treat them,” and mentioned how parents anger their children by “belittling them, underestimating them and not treating them as individuals.” Corbella then took particular note of how parents provoke and enrage children “when we give them a sense of entitlement.” With the word “entitlement,” Corbella naturally then began thinking about Quebec students, as according to Corbella’s pastor, “entitlement leads to rage.” Corbella wrote that rioting “is, in essence, what a spoiled two-year-old would do if they had the ability.” She further wrote: “In Quebec, these entitled youth, who believe the rest of society MUST provide them with an almost free education or else, have blocked other students from accessing the educations they paid for, burned vehicles, smashed shop windows, looted property and severely beaten up a police officer who got separated from the rest of his colleagues.” Again, no mention of the two students who were almost killed by police at the same event. Corbella quoted someone interviewed on TV, endorsing the claim that the student protests are “starting to resemble terrorism,” though she took issue with the word “starting.” This is the result of creating, according to Corbell, “an entitlement society.” Apparently, the pastor’s lesson about not “belittling” the young did not sink in with Corbella. An article in the Chronicle Herald asked, “What planet are these kids on?” The author then wrote that, “the irony is that these students now want the system to accommodate their desires and for someone else to pay the bill,” and that, “students should stop making foolish demands.” Other articles claim that students “need a lesson in economics.” After all, the fact that the majority of economists, fully armed with “lessons in economics,” were unable to predict the massive global economic crisis in 2008, should obviously not lead to any questioning of the ideology of modern economic theory. No, it would be better for students to learn about the ocean from those who couldn’t see a tsunami as it approached the beach. Another article, written by a former speechwriter to the Prime Minister of Canada, wrote that the student arguments were vacuous and that the youth were in a “state of complete denial.” Rex Murphy, a commentator with the National Post and CBC, referred to the student strike as “short-sighted” and that student actions were “crude attempts at precipitating a crisis.” Student actions, he claimed, were the “actions of a mob” and were “simply wrong,” and thus, should be “condemned.” The CBC has been particularly terrible in their coverage of the student movement. With few exceptions, the Canadian media have established a consensus in opposition to the student protests, and use techniques of omission, distortion, or outright condemnation in order to promote a distinctly anti-student stance. 10) The student movement is part of a much larger emerging global movement of resistance against austerity, neoliberalism, and corrupt power: In the coverage and discourse about the student movement, very little context is given in placing this student movement in a wider global context. The British newspaper, The Guardian, acknowledged this context, commenting on the red squares worn by striking students (a symbol of going squarely into the red, into debt), explaining that they have “become a symbol of the most powerful challenge to neoliberalism on the continent.” The article also adopted the term promoted by the student movement itself to describe the wider social context of the protests, calling it the “Maple Spring.” The author placed the fight against tuition increases in the context of a struggle against austerity measures worldwide, writing: “Forcing students to pay more for education is part of a transfer of wealth from the poor and middle-class to the rich – as with privatization and the state’s withdrawal from service-provision, tax breaks for corporations and deep cuts to social programs.” The article noted how the student movement has linked up with civic groups against a Quebec government plan to subsidize mining companies in exploiting the natural resources of Northern Quebec (Plan Nord), taking land from indigenous peoples to give to multibillion dollar corporations. As one of the student leaders stated, the protest was about more than tuition and was aimed at the elite class itself, “Those people are a single elite, a greedy elite, a corrupt elite, a vulgar elite, an elite that only sees education as an investment in human capital, that only sees a tree as a piece of paper and only sees a child as a future employee.” The student strike has thus become a social movement. The protests aim at economic disruption through civil disobedience, and have garnered the support of thousands of protesters, and 200,000 protesters on March 22, and close to 300,000 on April 22. Protests have blocked entrances to banks, disrupted a conference for the Plan Nord exploitation, linking the movement with indigenous and environmental groups. It was only when the movement began to align with other social movements and issues that the government even accepted the possibility of speaking to students. Unions have also increasingly been supporting the student strike, including with large financial contributions. Though, the large union support for the student movement was also involved in attempted co-optation and undermining of the students. At the negotiations between the government and the students, the union leaders convinced the student leaders to accept the deal, which met none of the student demands and kept the tuition increases intact. There was a risk that the major unions were essentially aiming to undermine the student movement. But the student groups, which had to submit the agreement to democratic votes, rejected the horrible government offer. Thus the Maple Spring continues. Quebec is not the only location with student protests taking place. In Chile, a massive student movement has emerged and developed over the past year, changing the politics of the country and challenging the elites and the society they have built for their own benefit. One of the leaders of the Chilean student movement is a 23-year old young woman, Camila Vallejo, who has attained celebrity status. In Quebec’s student movement, the most visible and vocal leader is 21-year old Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, who has also achieved something of celebrity status within the province. Just as in Quebec, student protests in Chile are met with state violence, though in the Latin American country, the apparatus of state violence is the remnants of a U.S.-supported military dictatorship. Still, this does not stop tens of thousands of students going out into the streets in Santiago, as recently as late April. Protests by students have also been emerging elsewhere, often in cooperation and solidarity with the Occupy movement and other anti-austerity protests. Silent protests are emerging at American universities where students are protesting their massive debts. California students have been increasingly protesting increased tuition costs. Student protests at UC Berkeley ended with 12 citations for trespassing. Some students in California have even begun a hunger strike against tuition increases. In Brooklyn, New York, students protesting against tuition increases, many of them wearing the Quebec “red square” symbol, were assaulted by police officers. Even high school students in New York have been protesting. Israeli social activists are back on the streets protesting against austerity measures. An Occupy group has resumed protests in London. The Spanish indignado movement, which began in May of 2011, saw a resurgence on the one year anniversary, with another round of anti-austerity protests in Spain, bringing tens of thousands of protesters, mostly youths, out into the streets of Madrid, and more than 100,000 across the country. Their protest was met with police repression. Increasingly, students, the Occupy movement, and other social groups are uniting in protests against the costs of higher education and the debts of students. This is indeed the context in which the ‘Maple Spring’ – the Quebec student movement – should be placed, as part of a much broader global anti-austerity movement. So march on, students. Show Quebec, Canada, and the world what it takes to oppose parasitic elites, mafia-connected politicians, billionaire bankers, and seek to change a social, political, and economic system that benefits the few at the expense of the many. Solidarity, brothers and sisters! For a comprehensive analysis of the Quebec student strike, see: “The Québec Student Strike: From ‘Maple Spring’ to Summer Rebellion?” For up to date news and information of student movements around the world, join this Facebook page: We Are the Youth Revolution. Andrew Gavin Marshall is an independent researcher and writer based in Montreal, Canada, writing on a number of social, political, economic, and historical issues. He is also Project Manager of The People’s Book Project. He also hosts a weekly podcast show, “Empire, Power, and People,” on BoilingFrogsPost.com.“Next Dc Bus” is an app that tracks real-time bus information in Virginia, Washington DC. Following are the features of the app. 1. Detects your location and lists down all the nearer stops. 2. First app to list all the metro bus alerts and advisories. So you stay connected to WMATA all the time and plan accordingly. 3. First app that tracks all the buses for a stop for the next 100 Minutes (If available with WMATA). 4. Enter a specific Stop ID and monitor all the bus schedule information (Filters by your selected time). 5. Once a stop is selected, it draws the route plotting your current position and the selected stop. Just follow the route and you can reach the bus stop! 6. Plots the entire scheduled route of a bus in the map for present and future dates. 7. First app to plot the real-time position of a bus in the map. 8. Auto refreshes every 60 seconds in the maximum (configurable). 9. Completely configurable and very user friendly. 10. Last but no the least! All these for free of cost and its totally Ad-free! We are working very hard to give you more features in the next release very soon. We really appreciate your feedback and any ideas/feature that you would like to see will be considered for the next release which is coming very soon. So, please feel free to review and post your ideas/feedback. Please find the screenshots below. AdvertisementsSo the question goes, is there a bridge between the game denialists who say that looks are everything and the dating coaches who say that game is everything? There is, the truth is somewhere in between. The true definition of game is simple; game is the means to obtain and retain women in your league. Game, at its core, is just sales and customer service. Despite what every sales book tells you, selling is 90% product. You’re a salesman, the product is you, your demand is based on your sexual market value, if you have a shit product no one will want you no matter how good your game is. On the other hand, without game, you won’t even be able to order girls off Tinder. To get hot women you need value and game, not either or, that’s why there are so few legitimate players. Despite what pua’s say, attraction can’t be created it can only amplified. Game is important but it can’t perform miracles. You can have great game but you still have to play in your league. Just like a 14 year old junior high basketball player can have great game in his league but can’t compete in the NBA. You can be 80 years old and the most pimping motherfucker in the nursing home but you are not getting that hot 20 year old no matter how good your game is. My game allows me to get women but my value is the limiting factor, my ticket to play, without my value I’d be denied entry and have to play in a lower league. The opposite is also true, you can be a good looking, wealthy, successful guy but with no game, you’re still going home to jerk off to Bangbros in your Herman Miller Aeron. Being good looking and well dressed will not automatically get you women, you can’t just walk into a date and take a shit on the floor and expect to take a girl home with you because you’re good looking. There is a structure to picking up and keeping women that you have to learn. You can’t be needy and retain women. You can’t be a pussy and have women respect you. Having game is important, it’s just not as important as dating coaches want you to believe it is. It’s also not a question of looks vs. game, you need both, women are hypergamous and only want to fuck the best, if you’re not in the top 20% you’re invisible. The term game in its original form comes from the black underworld. Until recently black men weren’t allowed to earn an honest living and had to survive by any means necessary. To get the things he wanted the black man had to play for them, and to win he had to play by the book, an oral traditional passed down from successful hustlers. With it came an outlaw mentality, of not wanting to live like a square. A man who played by the book was said to have tight game, a man who didn’t was said to be leaking game. Game is any type of hustle that isn’t a square job, dope dealing, conning, pimping, all are considered games. Pimps have the best game of all the hustlers because they can get women to sell for them what every other man has to pay for, pussy. To break things down even further, when it comes to dealing with women there are three types of men, pimps, who get money and ownership of prostitutes, macks, who get money, favors, gifts and sex from women, and players, who get pussy without paying for it. With the rise of hip hop you had guys like UGK, Pimp C and Too Short blasting game to the masses in the late 90’s and the label eventually went mainstream with white guys picking up the idea of becoming a player. Since high school being a player was always the thing to be for me. I watched girls talk about players as assholes or dicks but they always got girls and always got respect. That was the guy I wanted to be so I watched what the older guys did and emulated them. I went from being the cute little brother to being a legitimate sexual option, it also helped that I grew 6 inches in the summer of grade 11. Since then I’ve considered myself a player. I first heard about the seduction community 8 years ago when a coworker told me about “The Game” by Neil Strauss. I was riveted, I couldn’t believe there were other guys out there with more in depth knowledge of social interactions then I had. Until then I naively thought I was the only person who analyzed social interactions so ruthlessly. I didn’t believe for a second that looks didn’t matter but I knew these guys were on a different level analysis wise. I eventually discarded the book as mostly hype and shitty writing but the community I found at Pua Zone (specifically fast seduction in its former incarnation) offered me the crowdsourced experience of thousands of men to absorb. I devoured it like a rabid dog and put my game on steroids. I think there are some great guys to learn from in the pick up community like Blackdragon, but despite all the value I’ve got from the community I’ve always considered myself a player and never wanted to be a pickup artist. The difference between a player and a pickup artist is a subtle difference but an important one. A player prides himself on getting laid by women, a pick up artist prides himself on talking to women. A player realizes that women are attracted to your value and game is an extension of that. A pua views game as the great equalizer and value an undefined factor. A player lives the life 24/7. A pick up artist puts on his peacock clothes and fake persona to go out “gaming”. A lot of guys still think a pick up artist is something to aspire to. In reality, no one gives a fuck how good you are at cold approach pickup except a handful of guys on the internet. In fact, thanks to Mystery’s corny ass VH1 show, girls think pick up artists are losers. A player understands his sexual market value determines 90% of his success in cold approach pickup. A pickup artist values himself solely on his cold approach pick up skills and looks down on guys who “rely on their looks”. The problem with this logic is that you can’t separate yourself from your looks, you can’t put someone else’s head on your body, you can’t turn off your looks and just use your game. The problem with pickup artists is that they’ve turned pickup into an art. Cold approach is the means not the end and is just a small part of having game. Game extends well beyond getting a phone number and a quick lay. Game is knowing how to overcome objections like LMR and ASD. Game is not spam approaching your extended circle and burning down your social bridges. Game is not sweating rejection. Game is knowing how to manage a harem. Game is knowing when to tease a girl and when to apologize for going too far. Game is controlling your emotions and always selling the best position for you. Game is understanding a woman better than she understands herself. A pick up artist prides himself on nightclub cold approach skills when if you truly want to bang club skanks, the smartest thing to do is build a social circle around getting these women or become a promoter. Trying to be the best at cold approach pickup is like like trying to be the best at the stationary bike. The stationary bike is my means for having good cardio, if I never had to do another HIT session on the bike I wouldn’t. In the same way I would never do another cold approach if I could have an abundance of women without having to harass girls on the street. I don’t enjoy the challenge, challenge is overrated, I like to dominate things that are easy. No one, outside a small handful of guys on the internet cares about how good my cold approach pickup game is, my family doesn’t care, my blue pill friends don’t care and any girl I date doesn’t want to hear about what a rake I am. Compare that to business success and everyone cares, every person on the planet respects a successful businessman. If you’re going to devote yourself to something fully, devote yourself to your mission and develop your value around that. Cold approach pickup is work, I know I have to approach 15 girls to get laid, in the same way in sales I knew I had to make 200 cold calls to get a deal. I would never do another cold approach again if I didn’t have to because cold approaching is just the means to an end for me. It’s the grunt work of my part time job as a player. Cold approach pickup is just the cost of doing business. The secret to getting women is to build your value, refine your game through trial and error and give it time, real personal change takes years. Be a player not a pickup artist and don’t worry about what guys on the internet think. Live a well rounded life and don’t focus all your time picking up girls. Build your value for yourself first and the girls will come. Take what’s useful from the pickup community but don’t let the mentality consume you. Being a player doesn’t mean you need to have a harem. You can have a girlfriend or a wife, the difference is you recognize game, accept the nature of it, and recognize that the game doesn’t stop. You’ll have good days and bad days, don’t get discouraged, just keep going, 90% of success is just showing up every day.In this file photo, Attorney General Eric Holder speaks to reporters following his meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington on June 19, 2012. (Susan Walsh/AP) The Justice Department has told House leaders that Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.’s decision to withhold certain documents about a flawed gun operation from Congress is not a crime and he will not be prosecuted for contempt of Congress. Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole explained the decision, which was expected, in a letter to House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio). The letter was released publicly Friday, just over a week after President Obama invoked executive privilege to withhold the documents. In his letter, Cole said the decision not to prosecute Holder conforms to long-standing Justice Department practice in both Democratic and Republican administrations. In May 1984, Theodore B. Olson, then assistant attorney general, wrote that U.S. attorneys are not required to refer congressional contempt charges to a grand jury or prosecute an executive branch official “who carries out the President’s instruction to invoke the President’s claim of executive privilege before a committee.” In July 2007 and February 2008, Attorney General Michael Mukasey cited the Olson analysis in letters to House Democratic leaders, informing them that Justice would decline to press charges against White House chief of staff Joshua Bolten and White House counsel Harriet E. Miers, who were held in contempt after failing to appear before the House Judiciary Committee. “Consistent with this uniform position and practice, the Department has determined that the Attorney General’s response to this subpoena issued by the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform does not constitute a crime, and therefore the Department will not bring the congressional contempt citation before a grand jury or take any other action to prosecute the Attorney General,” Cole wrote. On Thursday, Holder became the first attorney general to be held in contempt of Congress after he withheld internal deliberative documents that Republican lawmakers demanded as part of an investigation into the “Fast and Furious” gunrunning operation. The Justice Department’s decision concerns only criminal action, so the House can still pursue civil litigation against Holder. On Thursday, the House voted to authorize civil action, which paves the way for a federal court challenge to Obama’s decision to invoke executive privilege. Republicans dismissed Cole’s decision and said the U.S. attorney for the District — who technically has the authority to prosecute Holder — should be able to do so, noting that he is already leading an investigation into the possible leak of classified information by Obama administration officials to reporters. “If he’s neutral enough to independently look for leaks from the administration and not be conflicted, then he has to be equally independent in weighing the statute” approved by the House, said House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who is leading the “Fast and Furious” investigation. Staff writer Ed O’Keefe contributed to this report.During disgraced former FBI Director James Comey’s highly-anticipated Senate testimony on Thursday, several bombshell revelations were made. From Comey’s admission that President Trump was not under FBI investigation to acknowledging that he was never pressured by the White House to end any investigation, Comey’s testimony crushed the dreams of Democrats and the liberal media looking to take down this administration. While the focus of Comey’s testimony was related to President Trump, the former FBI Director broke some news when he revealed that former Attorney General Loretta Lynch pressured him to refer to the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s illegal email server as a mere “matter.” More from The Political Insider Well, Michael Mukasey, President George W. Bush’s Attorney General, refused to hold anything back in his condemnation of Lynch’s conduct, saying that her actions made the Department of Justice “an arm of the Clinton campaign.” In an interview with Newsmax, Mukasey blasted Lynch, calling her actions “egregious”: What makes it egregious is the fact — and I think it’s obvious that it is a fact — that the attorney general of the United States was adjusting the way the department talked about its business so as to coincide with the way the Clinton campaign talked about that business. In other words, it made the Department of Justice essentially an arm of the Clinton campaign. That is a betrayal of the department and of its independence to illustrate that clearly that the attorney general was essentially in the tank for Secretary Clinton. Check out video of Mukasey’s full comments: After listening to Comey’s claim that Lynch pressured him, there is a strong case to be made that Obama’s Attorney General willfully obstructed justice, with the goal of aiding Hillary Clinton’s campaign. In his testimony, Comey made it clear that Lynch wanted the FBI and Clinton campaign to have same message, essentially have the FBI collude with Clinton’s team. Comey explained that the order “gave the impression that the attorney general was looking to align the way we talked about our work with the way the political campaign was describing the same activity, which was inaccurate.” As Mukasey explained, Lynch’s actions made it clear that she was openly politicizing the Department of Justice to benefit Ms. Clinton’s campaign, something that cannot be tolerated. If Comey’s claims are accurate, then this Department of Justice should seriously consider charging Ms. Lynch with obstruction of justice, as she severely interfered with the Clinton investigation to protect her party. Read this Next on ThePoliticalInsider.com ‘Avengers’ Star Compares Donald Trump to a Plantation Owner Do you think Lynch obstructed justice? Should she be charged with a crime? Share your thoughts below!Last week I wrote a bit about how I use Guardian and Canary together. This week I want to go into more depth on how I’m using Canary. Routes In the previous post, I went over a few of the routes I’m using. Let’s review the routes for building and editing rentals: scope " /", MyApp do pipe_through [ :browser, :browser_session, :require_login ] resources " /rentals", RentalController do resources " /addresses", AddressController, only: [ :create, :update, :delete ] resources " /images", ImageController, only: [ :create ] end end We can create or edit rentals as well as create images and addresses for those rentals. That is, Rentals have many Images and Images belong to a Rental. Similarly, Rentals have one address and an Address belongs to a Rental. The Rental Controller Here’s part of the Rental controller that I’m using defmodule AgoraBase. RentalController do use AgoraBase. Web, :controller alias AgoraBase. Rental plug :scrub_params, " rental" when action in [ :create, :update ] plug :authorize_resource, model: Rental # Actions follow... end I use Canary’s :authorize_resource plug to check if the user is authorized to modify this rental. But how does Canary know which users are authorized and which aren’t? Canary uses the Canada package to do this and Canada defines a protocol that I can implement for my User type. That protocol includes the function can?/3 which allows Canary to ask if my User can? perform a given action. I’ve implemented the Canada.Can protocol for my User like this: defimpl Canada. Can, for: MyApp. User do alias MyApp. User alias MyApp. Rental def can? ( user, action, Rental ) when action in [ :new, :create ] do user. role == " owner" end def can? ( user, action, rental = % Rental {}) do if rental. owner_id == user. id, do : true, else : false end def can? ( subject, action, resource ) do raise """ Unimplemented authorization check for User! To fix see below... Please implement `can?` for User in #{__ENV__.file}. The function should match: subject: #{inspect subject} action: #{action} resource: #{inspect resource} """ end end I decided to store this file in web/modules/user_can.ex. And in this file I’ve implemented a few different cases for can?/3. I also thought that it might be confusing when things blow up due to cases being unimplemented. To make this easier to debug I included the final case which raises an exception with a helpful error message. The message will let me know which file needs to be updated and what to match on. This has already been pretty helpful for me as I’ve been implementing the app. The Image Controller Here’s a portion of ImageController which is used to create new Image records: defmodule AgoraBase. ImageController do use AgoraBase. Web, :controller alias AgoraBase. Rental alias AgoraBase. Rental. Image plug :scrub_params, " image" plug :authorize_resource, model: Rental, id_name: " rental_id", persisted: true # Actions follow... end In this case an Image belongs to a Rental so I’ve used Canary’s support for nested models. I do this with the :authorize_resource plug by setting the model explicitly to Rental, and specifing the id name as "rental_id". This lets Canary find the Rental in a route like /rentals/:rental_id/image. Finally, I set the :persisted option to true to enable the nested resource support. In this case Canary will invoke can?/3 on the Rental itself. This is different than checking if the User can create a Rental. In this case Canary will pass in the Rental struct identified by rental_id. As we can see back in my implementation of can?/3 def can? ( user, action, address = % Rental. Address {}) do address. rental. owner_id == user. id end I check that the User is the owner of the rental. The Address Controller A Rental also has an address. Here’s the controller I use to set it up: defmodule MyApp. AddressController do use MyApp. Web, :controller alias MyApp. Rental alias MyApp. Rental. Address plug :scrub_params, " address" when action in [ :create, :update ] plug :load_and_authorize_resource, model: Rental, id_name: " rental_id", persisted: true, preload: :address def create ( conn, %{ " address" => address_params }) do rental = conn. assigns. rental #... end def update ( conn, %{ " address" => address_params }) do rental = conn. assigns. rental changeset = Address. changeset ( rental. address, address_params ) #.... end end Here I’ve done things a little differently. Again, I’ve use the nested resource case. The permissions for creating or updating and Address are basically the same as for creating an Image. But, I’ve also switched over to using the :load_and_authorize_resource instead of just :authorize_resource. This helps me to simplify my controller actions. I like to think about :load_and_authorize_resource this way: Canary has to load up the Rental data in order to check the authorization. My controller also needs the Rental so I should be able to use the Rental copy loaded by Canary. :load_and_authorize_resource lets me do exactly that. When Canary does the authorization is stores the Rental in conn.assigns.rental. You can see where I access this in the create action. In AddressController I also need the rental.address association preloaded. The :preload options to :load_and_authorize_resource takes care of this. And you can see that I use rental.address when building a changelist in the update action.A man who fell in front of a CTA train which hit him, temporarily halting Red Line service between the Thorndale and Belmont stops this afternoon has died, authorities said. Mark White, 52, of the 5400 block of North Broadway, was pronounced dead at 7:21 p.m. at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office. The man ended up on Red Line tracks at the Bryn Mawr station about 4:50 p.m. and suffered facial injuries, said Chicago Police News Affairs Officer Darryl Baety. It was not known whether the man fell or jumped in front of the train, Baety said. Power was temporarily shut off in both directions as emergency crews dealt with the situation, but service was restored with residual delays on the Red and Purple lines by about 5:20 p.m., according to the CTA web site. The person who fell on the tracks was not trapped and had been rescued by about 5:15 p.m., according to the Chicago Fire Department. An autopsy is scheduled for today. [email protected] Twitter: @ChicagoBreakingBob Dylan Shadows in the night “It was a real privilege to make this album. I’ve wanted to do something like this for a long time but was never brave enough to approach 30-piece complicated arrangements and refine them down for a 5-piece band. That’s the key to all these performances. We knew these songs extremely well. It was all done live. Maybe one or two takes. No overdubbing. No vocal booths. No headphones. No separate tracking, and, for the most part, mixed as it was recorded. I don’t see myself as covering these songs in any way. They’ve been covered enough. Buried, as a matter a fact. What me and my band are basically doing is uncovering them. Lifting them out of the grave and bringing them into the light of day.” – Bob Dylan We have finally gotten the track list to Bob Dylan’s new album! Shadows In The Night is Bob Dylan’s newest studio album, and marks the first new music from the artist since 2012’s worldwide hit Tempest. Featuring ten tracks, the Jack Frost-produced album is the 36th studio set from Bob Dylan and marks the first new music from the artist since 2012’s worldwide hit Tempest. I have collected Frank Sinatra’s songs into a playlist, enjoy! Track Listings: 1. I’m A Fool To Want You 2. The Night We Called It A Day 3. Stay With Me 4. Autumn Leaves 5. Why Try to Change Me Now 6. Some Enchanted Evening 7. Full Moon And Empty Arms 8. Where Are You? 9. What’ll I Do 10. That Lucky Old Sun Frank Sinatra playlist with all the chosen songs: – Hallgeir Please share: Facebook Twitter Pinterest More Print Email LinkedIn Pocket Reddit TumblrThe brewing debate about how much must be worn by baristas could be decided by voters. Three Spokane moms say they will gather signatures in hopes of asking voters to make it a misdemeanor to expose at least half of a female breast, any part of a female areola or nipple, or any part of male or female genitals or anus at any place the public has a right to be or see. “I feel like what I expose my children to should never be out of my control,” said Kimberly Curry, who has three children ages 3, 5 and 7. Curry and two of her friends, Hillary Van Akin and Beth Solscheid, have spearheaded the initiative. They say they have never worked on a political campaign before but are committed to gathering enough signatures. The Spokane City Council voted 5-2 Monday to reject their request to place the initiative on the ballot without making them collect signatures. They’ll need 2,477 signatures of registered city voters to qualify for the November 2015 ballot or 7,431 for an earlier vote. The initiative has an unlikely ally in Sarah Birnel, the owner of Devil’s Brew, the local espresso stand chain that sparked calls last summer for rules forcing baristas to cover up as a result of a “topless Tuesday” promotion. That’s when baristas wore only G-strings and pasties. Birnel recently changed the name of the business from XXXtreme Espresso. Birnel told the council that voters should set nudity standards. “As an American, this is what we should stand for,” Birnel said. Initiative backers stressed that they respect Birnel. “We don’t want to shut them down,” Van Akin said. “We don’t feel that a few inches of fabric would affect their business.” Councilman Mike Fagan first proposed nudity restrictions similar to what are proposed in the initiative, but they were rejected in a 2-4 vote in October. The Spokane Valley City Council approved nudity rules in November that the initiative is based on. The initiative would create the misdemeanor crime of “unlawful public exposure.” Exempt from the rules would be nursing mothers, children under 10, and people at art and medical classes, medical offices and “bathrooms, saunas and changing rooms associated with licensed businesses.” Fagan and Council President Ben Stuckart voted to place the initiative before voters without making supporters gather signatures. Stuckart noted that when he opposed the rules in October, he stated that it was a matter that would be better decided by voters. But the majority said supporters should gather signatures like all other recent initiatives in Spokane.A Letter From The Editor What can you say about Oliver Nelson…He’s one of the hardest working, highest-profile, most dedicated, NuDisco producers. He’s also down to earth and as humble as pie. Download Mixtape DnM: Hey Oliver, thank you for taking time out of your day to be here. It’s a privilege to have you. Oliver Nelson: Hey! Thanks for having me. DnM: I want to start by breaking the ice with a nice easy question. Ham and pineapple in a calzone…yes or no? Oliver Nelson: No, I hate warm fruit, haha. DnM: Hahaha. Oliver Nelson: Especially pineapple. DnM: Fair enough, I know you’re a big fan of calzones. Oliver Nelson: Yes I love calzones! But I’m a child when it comes to food, I want the normal stuff, ham, sauce and garlic. I never go crazy like adding pineapple. DnM: The classics. As delicious as folded pizza is…we are here to talk music. You’ve stated Tourist is a one of your influences (and a great artists), did you ever listen to his earlier work Little Loud? Oliver Nelson: Yes, I absolutely love his productions! The sounds he uses, the melodies, everything! The first track I heard was ‘I Can’t Keep Up’ featuring Will Heard, I think. So I don’t think I’ve heard his earlier stuff to be honest. I’ve just fallen in love with his later productions like ‘Run’ and ‘To have you back’. DnM: It’s very much like his new work just a little more stripped down and bare. The reason I ask is did you producer under a name before you were Oliver Nelson? If so, what was the name and style of music. Oliver Nelson: Haha yeah actually I tried to make music like Danger, one of my favorites! I think my name was Mr. Nelson, which is the most lame name ever. I try not to remember. I think I went under “Figure” for like a week as well, til I saw that it was taken by a d&b artist in London. But this was waaay back, you know the time when you uploaded tracks on Soundcloud and deleted it after 1 hour. I remember having a really hard time thinking of a name, so i just took my birthname or maybe you say given name? DnM: haha yup, given name. So you experimented with a few genres and names and ultimately landed on Nu-Disco and your own name. Oliver Nelson: Yeah exactly, I started out with electro, like harder stuff. Justice, Danger, stuff like that
Ferguson, Staten Island, and Baltimore, the overwhelming majority of demonstrators assembled in peaceful protest, yet the small segments of violent, destructive dissenters become inextricably linked to the organization. The pattern appears to be happening in Dallas, where police have identified ex-Army reservist Micah Xavier Johnson as seemingly the lone gunman responsible for the carnage. Dallas police chief David Brown said Johnson told negotiators during the standoff that he “was not affiliated with any groups” and that “he did this alone”. Multiple news organizations have cited law enforcement sources as saying Johnson had no criminal record nor any direct ties to any terror organizations or political groups, including Black Lives Matter. Which begs the question, why doesn’t African American Micah Johnson get the same lone wolf label as Charleston shooter Dylann Roof? Why the need to link the thoughts and actions of individual Black Americans to a larger group? BLM representatives condemned Thursday’s shootings in a message titled, “The Black Lives Matter Network advocates for dignity, justice, and respect”, published to the official website Friday. “In the last few days, this country witnessed the recorded murders of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile at the hands of police, the latest victims in this country’s failed policing system. As we have done for decades, we marched and protested to highlight the urgent need to transform policing in America, to call for justice, transparency and accountability, and to demand that Black Lives Matter. In Dallas, many gathered to do the same, joining in a day of action with friends, family, and co-workers. Their efforts were cut short when a lone gunman targeted and attacked 11 police officers, killing five. This is a tragedy—both for those who have been impacted by yesterday’s attack and for our democracy. There are some who would use these events to stifle a movement for change and quicken the demise of a vibrant discourse on the human rights of Black Americans. We should reject all of this. Black activists have raised the call for an end to violence, not an escalation of it. Yesterday’s attack was the result of the actions of a lone gunman. To assign the actions of one person to an entire movement is dangerous and irresponsible. We continue our efforts to bring about a better world for all of us.” The petition has until August 5, 2016, to obtain 100,000 signatures – the number that elicits a response from White House officials.This is a rush transcript from "The Ingraham Angle," November 14, 2017. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated. LAURA INGRAHAM, HOST: Good evening, everyone from Washington. Thanks for joining us. This is "The Ingraham Angle." All right. We have so much news for you tonight. We could actually use two hours, but we are going to take one. We have an infuriating opening segment for you. Congress is spending your money to cover up sexual harassment. And some major developing stories for you on other fronts. President Trump returned moments ago from his 12-day trip to Asia. We're going to have a report about what he's doing next. And why are immigration agents complaining about the president? We'll tell you that as well. Attorney General Jeff Sessions testified today before Congress about possible investigations into Hillary Clinton and that Uranium One deal. What's coming? We'll tell you. But first our top story, pulling back the curtain, sexual harassment inside the halls of Congress and how you're paying for the secret settlements. Sexual misconduct scandals have engulfed Hollywood, media, and now politics with the Roy Moore revelations. But did you know that you've been funding payoffs for congressional harassment claims for decades. According to the Congressional Office of Compliance, between 1997 and 2014, hundreds of women have been paid $15.2 million in total in awards and settlements for Capitol Hill workplace violations. The House Administration Committee held a hearing on the matter yesterday. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JACKIE SPEIER: In fact, there are two members of Congress, Republican and Democrat right now, who serve who have been subject to review or not have been subject to review but have been engaged in sexual harassment. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This member asked the staffer to bring them over some materials to their residence and the young staffer is a young woman, went there, and was greeted by a member in a towel. It was a male who then invited her in. At that point, he decided to expose himself. She left and then she quit her job. (END VIDEO CLIP) INGRAHAM: Joining us of our reaction here in Washington is Jenny Beth Martin. She is a cofounder of Tea Party Patriots. She has a new piece on this growing scandal. And Scott Bolden, former chairman of the Democratic Party in Washington, D.C., and a former sex crimes prosecutor. Jenny Beth, let's start with you. This is so ridiculous. It's $15.2 million and this is started by a senator I really respect and admire, Chuck Grassley, what was the thinking behind this? We'll go through the procedures that women have to go through. JENNY BETH MARTIN, PRESIDENT, TEA PARTY PATRIOTS: It was part of the Congressional Accountability Act, which -- at the time, they were trying to make congressmen live under the law. So, they had passed including Title VII under Civil Rights Act. They are trying to make sure that they lived under several other laws and they also wanted to create something to deal with sexual harassment. But in doing this, they have instituted a culture of corruption and they have created much more intimidation for people who want to step forward. INGRAHAM: Scott, let me share this with you. This is the Office of Compliance, the steps a woman has to go through to file a complaint. First the victims have 180 days to complain, that's not bad. You should get a little bit more if you are traumatized. Victims who wants to continue must start 30 days of mediation. So, they force you into mediation, then finally, the Office of Compliance Administration does a hearing, or you can file a federal lawsuit and it's all confidential. The problem, of course, is pushing women into mediation. It seems to be geared toward stopping the claim. If I look at this as a former attorney, this is kind of pushing -- you don't really want to file this. SCOTT BOLDEN, CHAIRMAN, NATIONAL BAR ASSOCIATION, PAC: This is all about power. Within the mediation, it's also a counseling pieces and when I first read this, I said, what are they counseling the women on? Either this happened, or it didn't happen, but again, this is all about power. Remember, elected officials on the Hill are products, if you will, and the other thing that you didn't show was the lack of disclosure unless they go to court. So, this is all very confidential and it's all about taking care of each other. As opposed to pulling the sheets off of it, if you will, and say, listen, we have a problem. I think the Republicans and the Democrats on the Hill have a chance to lead by fixing this. INGRAHAM: It's a slush hush fund. Don't say anything. MARTIN: Its mandatory counseling. If you've been traumatized, do you really want your employer mandating that you must go to counseling before you can go to mediation? INGRAHAM: So, now the Senate is working on mandatory sexual harassment training in the Senate. The House still hasn't really been able to push through changes. I know Congresswoman Speier, who I usually don't agree with on much, but she's right on this. They want to get rid of that wait time for being able to push through and actually file an actual complaint. BOLDEN: But, Laura, you know, in the reformation or the amendment of this legislation on both sides, you've got to make it uncomfortable for bad behavior. You have to be intentional about it. One of the most shocking things you lead with was that the public tax dollars are paying for these settlements. A little less than a million a year. You know what? If you remove that rule and make the congressman either get employment, defense insurance or made them pay out their campaign PAC funds and stuff. I tell you, you would force a lot less of this bad behavior because that hits them where their pocketbooks are. INGRAHAM: I have a question. There was a point in this research that I was reading today, apparently, a congresswoman was warning about the congressmen who sleep in their offices like those are the ones -- I don't know if that's fair, because I know some who sleep in their offices and they are great people, but apparently that's a problem. What is really going on here, though? Is it's just the usual stuff where you get into a position of power? Maybe you were kind of a geeky guy -- they didn't have a lot of chicks, and then you get to Capitol Hill. It's all these 22-year-old gals running around. This is nothing new. I mean, I remember being in the White House elevator during the Reagan administration and Strom Thurmond made a few interesting comments to me and I was 22 years old. I was laughing, is not a big deal. You don't want to chill the workplace. That's another thing I am a little bit worried about here. You can't even say to someone you look at great, nice dress like people are afraid. I know men who are afraid to have any interaction at any time with a woman alone. Because it ten years later, even if you didn't do anything you could be accused -- where do you go to defend yourself? You can't defend yourself. So, we have to look at the other side here as well and not make it so sterile and antiseptic a workplace, that no one even enjoys the job. You're so afraid of saying anything. BOLDEN: You always have to be careful because the (inaudible) made it that way. The reality, though, is that women are standing up now in the last six months to a year and saying me too. And I think that's the difference because as you see each of these industries go with these disclosures whether it's Hollywood or some other industry, now you're seeing the government. And now the government who enforces and makes laws, if they won't lead on this, then I got to tell you, where in the space of the hypocrisy bucket, if you well. INGRAHAM: Grassley said if this law isn't working, should revise it, change it. I mean, I guess, after the (inaudible) thing, I thought this is actually going to accomplish something. But why did it take so long for this to get so much notice? It's just Harvey Weinstein and all the other stuff swirling around, I guess, this is just what people are talking about? (Inaudible), OK, Congress, what are you doing? SMITH: Yes, I think that may be some of it and now we are getting a little bit of light shed on it. Until a week and a half ago, I didn't even know this fund existed. But I'll tell you what it's intimidating, if you are a woman, who truly has been harassed by a member of Congress, you need to be able to address that and to have it handled. Not to be told you must go to counseling. You must go to mediation. We are going to have you sign an NDA. You can never tell anyone. It's all designed to shame the woman. Whether it's intentional or not, you wind up shaming the victim, and I understand also you've got to make sure -- INGRAHAM: Harvey Weinstein went around trying to get nondisclosures too, right? BOLDEN: Well, he paid a lot of money also -- (CROSSTALK) INGRAHAM: Let's not forget men and young boys have been victimized, abused, and often times this happens in Hollywood but not only Hollywood. It happens in a theater. I've been hearing about this for a long time. We are talking about Congress because, you know, we are here in Washington, and they are the one supposed to be the lawmakers, but this is across the board. It's people in positions of power, who usually have some problem within themselves. They have no self-esteem or their father didn't love them. I don't know what it is. They don't know how to treat people and maybe, just maybe will learn how to treat people better. BOLDEN: That's transparency that were talking about. It's going to make it uncomfortable. This is a place of power, careers are made or lost. You've got to make it a safe space for women and men, who are victimized by sexual harassment to come forward, to be protected. And quite frankly, if there is transparency, I think you'll see less bad behavior. INGRAHAM: There are people who make false charges, it does happen. You can't say anyone who makes a charge, you know, we are going to throw laurels around your neck. I mean, it's not necessarily the case. I mean, you do have a presumption of innocence and sometimes I think in this climate, it's so white-hot, I'm not talking about Roy Moore. I'm talking just in general. It's so white-hot that if a woman who seems fairly credible makes a charge, your career is over. SMITH: You have to allow people -- if you've been accused of it, you have to be given the opportunity to defend yourself and clear your name. You can't just try everything in the court of public opinion, there has to be a proper process. INGRAHAM: Is that where the confidentiality comes into play? I mean, are you going to go into Congress and have all these interns running around if you think that my gosh, at any moment, you know, I open the door for someone, I'm going to be accused of being demeaning. You've got to be careful how you do this. You can go way overboard on the other side. BOLDEN: But one way to address that issue, as a former sex crimes prosecutor, we would require corroboration. I mean, the cases where it's one person's word against another. There is no scientific evidence. There is no corroboration whether there was more about sexual touching or not. It's still has to be corroborated and I think that standard would be good in Congress too because then you have that balance, if you will, because congressmen want to get reelected, OK. They don't want bad press and they don't want to have to go -- INGRAHAM: I have a question about that with sex crimes. In how many cases, it's usually men, of course, who are accused of sex crimes, domestic abuse, is substance abuse involved? BOLDEN: You know what? Quite a bit. Your testing my memory, but I would say, not the majority but at least over 50 percent, I just don't know how much. There are other socioeconomic factors that come into play. And the other thing is getting women to come forward and prosecute if the father or the husband is the top of the breadwinner or is needed at home with the kids, I've got to tell you some women in that position don't feel like they have many choices, and they dropped charges against the very people who have abused them. SMITH: A lot of times abuse is simply about power. It's not about -- BOLDEN: It's not about sex. SMITH: It's substance abuse. It's not even about sex. It's about power, raw power. INGRAHAM: You guys, great to see you. Thanks for coming in. Directly ahead, new fall out in the Roy Moore scandal, how will Alabama voters deal with Washington meddling in the state Senate race? Plus, Roy Moore just addressed this controversy moments ago. We'll play you the tape. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ROY MOORE, ALABAMA REPUBLICAN SENATE CANDIDATE: I'm the only one that can unite Democrats and Republicans because I'm being deposed by both. They spent over $30 million to try to take me out. (END VIDEO CLIP) INGRAHAM: Those comments from Roy Moore just moments ago after uneventful and chaotic day in the Alabama Senate race. The Republican National Committee has announced it is withdrawing support for Judge Moore's candidacy and pulling out of a joint fundraising agreement for the Alabama special Senate election. This is all in response to multiple allegations now that Moore had made unwanted sexual advances toward teenagers back in the '70s. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is even floating the idea of Attorney General Jeff Sessions returning to his old Senate seat. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SENATOR MITCH MCCONNELL, R-KY., MAJORITY LEADER: The Alabamian who would, you know, fit that standard will be the attorney general and he is totally well-known and extremely popular in Alabama. I haven't spoken with the president. He called me from Vietnam largely about this on Friday. I talked to General Kelly on Saturday. Obviously, we are in discussion here about how to salvage this seat if possible. (END VIDEO CLIP) INGRAHAM: But it's not all bad news for Judge Moore, Alabama Republican Party Chairwoman Terry Lathan has not turned Moore yet and told local media yesterday, quote, "It would be a serious error for any current elected GOP official or candidate to publicly endorse another party's candidate, an independent or a third-party candidate or a write-in candidate in a general election as well," closed quote. And a new poll from Fox 10 in Alabama shows Moore leads his Democratic opponent, Doug Jones, by six points. Joining us now for reaction in Birmingham is Alabama's Secretary of State John Merrill, in New York, conservative commentator, Monica Crowley, and here with me in Washington is Katherine Mangu-Ward, who is editor-in-chief of Reason magazine. Great to see all of you. Monica, let's start with you. This has been a wild few days in this Roy Moore situation. You got the establishment types turned on him pretty fast, but then you had Mike Lee in Utah, senator of Utah. You had Ted Cruz, and now my colleague, Sean Hannity, says basically you have 24 hours to clear up the discrepancies in your statement. How can Roy Moore possibly hang in under these circumstances? MONICA CROWLEY: I'm not sure he can, Laura. I mean, there are certain political realities at play here and gravity does tend to (inaudible) especially when the money starts to disappear. The RNC pulled the funding as well as the field operation that they are going to implement to get out and vote for Roy Moore. With those two things missing, Laura, I don't see how he is able to survive. It doesn't sound tonight like he's willing to go anywhere yet, but when these realities start to kick in over the next 24 hours, when the money disappears, you know, you can't run a campaign on fumes or love. That I think is when the hard choices are going to come in front of Roy Moore when he doesn't have the institutional support to continue this campaign. INGRAHAM: Let's go to the secretary of state, John Merrill. John, what happens if the election is held, and those absentee ballots are left over if in fact Roy Moore steps aside. The party, you know, relinquishes any connection to Roy Moore. Do the absentee ballots still count in that case? JOHN MERRILL, SECRETARY OF STATE OF ALABAMA: Well, Laura, they do. And I think it's very important for your viewers to know that our people have been voting since October the 18th. That's when the absentee ballots first went out for consideration and for our voters to be able to have their opinion known and have their voice heard. And that's just not (inaudible) military overseas voters, that's the number of voters throughout the entire state of Alabama. I think it's important to note that if Judge Moore withdraws from the campaign or if the state party disavows their association with Judge Moore and determines that they no longer support him. And both of those actions have to take place formally by them indicating to our office that they no longer wish to pursue the candidacy of Judge Roy Moore in the U.S. Senate, that even though Judge Moore's name will still be on the ballot, if he gets the most votes as a plurality winner on December 12th, then our election will be null and void. INGRAHAM: Katherine, now Mitch McConnell is saying perhaps they won't seat him or that once he's in if he gets elected that they'll move to remove him. Now if you're someone in the south and you know, you don't follow this much and maybe think Roy Moore like dating 17-year-olds or 18-year- olds. It might come across to you as this is the old guard tell the southerners they are stupid bunch of hayseed types. And they might just be like, you know, something, he is seated. This is another example of the elites kicking people like us around. KATHERINE MANGU-WARD, REASON MANAGING EDITOR: I think this is Congress reaping the fact that they are wildly unpopular. Congress has like a 19 percent approval rating. The idea that they don't have the trust of the American people. That they are not in a position to say this is an extraordinary circumstance. We want to take the high road here. We want to do an investigation. I would love to see them do an investigation through a trusted third party. They don't have to think The Washington Post (inaudible). They don't have to believe that (inaudible) research if that's what they think is going on, but I do think they need to take it seriously. Particularly, if they want to say, listen, we are better than the Democratic Party, who is constantly apologizing for their guys when they get accused of this kind of thing. INGRAHAM: Monica, need we go back to the Menendez trial. There was a time where there were allegations and the Daily News and a lot of publications went with them that, you know, allegedly, he took trips to the Dominican Republic and had sexual relationships with underage hookers. I don't recall a single Democrat calling for his resignation. Same thing with the old story about Barnie Frank all those years ago and many others. So, you know, the Democrats seem to cover for their own, but I guess, the Republicans, they want to come across with a lot better than that. CROWLEY: Well, Democrats have always circled the wagons and protected their candidates and protected their presidents and protected their own for a really long time. Republicans always went into the circular firing squad, Laura. But I think what makes these cases so different right now is that we are in a completely different cultural moment with all of these stories of sexual harassment coming out of Hollywood and the media elites, the modeling world, the music world and so on. Given this moment, these folks cannot survive it. Even folks at the high ends of leadership of both parties and both establishments, et cetera, are now no longer saying that this is acceptable, and are less willing, Laura, to cover for these folks. You are seeing is now happening on both sides and that's why I think in the Roy Moore situation, in many ways, he is going to be a casualty of this moment. Perhaps he may have survived. Look, Donald Trump in the tail end of the campaign with the Access Hollywood tape, he was able to sort of harness a boomerang effect where people felt that that was a pile on and they came out and rallied around him. But Donald Trump was an exceptional figure. I'm not so sure that Roy Moore is going to be able to do it. INGRAHAM: Moore is not Donald Trump. Secretary of State, I just want to close out with you. In your estimation right now, I know you are still kind of standing behind Roy Moore. Does he stay in this race? Does he get elected? MERRILL: Well, I think it would be highly unusual for Judge Moore to step aside. That would be against every type of example that he has set. I don't see him getting out of the race. INGRAHAM: Does he win? MERRILL: Well, I'll tell you it's going to be extremely close, Laura. I hear mixed reviews all around the state of Alabama. This is a very disconcerting time for our state. This is not how we like to be featured in the national limelight. INGRAHAM: Thanks for joining us, John. I'm going to hold over Katherine and Monica because President Trump just a short time ago returned to Washington after that a very long 12-day, five-nation Asia trip where America's trade deals were a major topic. We are going to go right to it right now. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: From a standpoint of security and safety, military, very proud, and trade, you will see numbers that you won't believe over the years. They will be treating us much differently than they have in the past. People were taking advantage. Countries were taking advantage of the United States. More than just as we do but the world and those days are over. We are going to be fair and reciprocal as I said in my remarks before. If they are doing it, we're doing it. (END VIDEO CLIP) INGRAHAM: Katherine, what did you think about this trip? Give us your assessment. MANGU-WARD: So, my real assessment is I'm glad that the president didn't do anything that isn't fundamentally reversible. That (inaudible) because there was a real risk that he was going to make good on his campaign promises, go to Asia, and just light the whole thing on fire. INGRAHAM: What do you mean? MANGU-WARD: Well, he's been quite clear that he doesn't like the status quo in terms of U.S. trade agreements in Asia and -- INGRAHAM: Do you like the status quo? MANGU-WARD: I like the status quo. INGRAHAM: Which part of a $350 billion trade deficit do you like? MANGU-WARD: I like more open trade. I think the idea of thinking about in terms of deficits is wrongheaded. We absolutely benefit from trading with other -- INGRAHAM: You can buy a $7.99 pair of pants? MANGU-WARD: Absolutely. INGRAHAM: (Inaudible) with the American workers back here, it doesn't matter? MANGU-WARD: I think $7.99 pair of pants -- INGRAHAM: It fundamentally changes the country. MANGU-WARD: I don't think it fundamentally changes the country where our country -- INGRAHAM: You don't have a problem with enriching -- every president put in tariffs. Republican presidents, Democrat presidents, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan. MANGU-WARD: When their goal was to get a one-upsmanship on other nations. INGRAHAM: You don't think America should have a one-upsmanship attitude toward other nations? MANGU-WARD: No, I think we should have a cooperative attitude and I think if they want to sell their stuff, we should be allowed to buy it. INGRAHAM: You don't think bilateral trade agreements are better for policing them and for making sure they actually enforced? What's wrong with that? MANGU-WARD: I would take any trade agreements. What I don't want to see is us pulling back from the world at a time that we are anxious, and we are not necessarily good to make -- INGRAHAM: I see what Katherine is saying, but I don't see any indication frankly that Donald Trump is pulling back from the rest of the world. He went to Saudi Arabia, Israel, went to see the pope, did the trip to Europe. He's gone to Asia. I mean, I think his foreign trips frankly have been pretty successful, especially the trip to visit our NATO allies and the first trip to Saudi Arabia, and I think this trip turned out great. CROWLEY: I totally agree, Laura. I think in some ways he's much more effective when he is abroad rather than at home. His speeches abroad have been absolutely magnificent. What he was able to accomplish on this Asia trip has been quite extraordinary. What we are hearing behind closed doors, this president applied a lot of pressure on the Chinese leadership. There were two main issues that he was there to discuss. We are talking about trade and the structural trade imbalance with a Chinese that has been in place now for decades. It's going to be incredibly difficult to reverse. What the president is saying is I need to deal with structural trade imbalance, I'm going to do it via economic and trade policy tools. INGRAHAM: He also turned up the heat, Monica, on North Korea and told the Chinese we need your help, we need real help, and we are not going to be patsies on the trade deal. We want to work with other nations. We want to trade with them. We want to have relationships -- the only country we can have a relationship with his Russia. The Chinese communists are great, but the Russians are the worst. Every time someone says we should do more with China, I say, OK, then why should we work more with Russia? CROWLEY: And to that point, Laura, what the president was able to do, and we'll see whether this really bears fruit. He coupled the North Korean cooperation on North Korea with the economic policies. INGRAHAM: All right. Both of you we could talk forever about this, thank you so much for joining. When we return, Jeff Sessions grilled on Capitol Hill today and a special counsel maybe appointed to investigate Hillary Clinton, really? Stay tuned. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's it going to take if all that not to mention the dossier information, what's it going to take to actually get a special counsel? (END VIDEO CLIP) (COMMERCIAL BREAK) INGRAHAM: Welcome back. As we've been reporting, after years of rumors, comedian Louis C.K. has finally admitted to sexual misconduct. In the fall out C.K. was dropped from performing at John Stewart's annual Night of Too Many Stars. It's a charity event which benefits autism programs. Stewart, a longtime friend of C.K.'s was out promoting the event today. Throughout his entire career, remember, Louis C.K. told filthy, disgusting sexual jokes touching on his own proclivities, yet Jon Stewart offered this response when questioned on the "Today" show. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "TODAY"/NBC) MATT LAUER, CO-HOST: What was the impact on you when you heard not only the accusations but his admission? JON STEWART, COMEDIAN: Stunned, I think. You give your friends the benefit of the doubt. (END VIDEO CLIP) INGRAHAM: You were stunned about the accusations and revelations, really Jon? I heard the man's act for three minutes and knew he was a total perv. Comedians joked about his habits for years, and rumors of his misdeeds have been reported since back in 2012. So I guess Mr. Daily Show wasn't as well-informed as we all thought. The only thing I can support is his autism fundraiser, which is great. And as for Louis C.K., he was dealt another setback today. International distributors announced that they were joining their American counterparts in dropping distribution of his latest movie, "I Love You Daddy," which is another filthy thing, and I'm sure it will be available on his website so all the dirty old men who chase underage girls can have a good laugh. What a degenerate. Attorney General Jeff Sessions was in the hot seat today testifying before the House Judiciary Committee. Republicans wanted to know why the Justice Department hasn't investigated Hillary Clinton's scandals. And as for the Democrats, surprise, surprise, they spent their time focusing on Mr. Sessions past statements about meetings with, wait for it, Russians, and his private conversations with President Trump. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JEFF SESSIONS, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: You made statements that he did in fact at the meeting, I pushed back. I can't be put into a position where I can't explain. I'm not going to be able to answer if I can't answer it completely. REP. TED LIEU, D-CALIF.: Did Donald Trump ever ask you to pledge an oath of loyalty to him? SESSIONS: No. LIEU: If Donald Trump were to ask you to pledge loyalty to him or take such an oath, would you do so? SESSIONS: Well, I don't know what a pledge of loyalty oath is. I met with the ambassador in my office with at least two of my staff, senior, respected patriots, colonels retired in the Army. And nothing improper occurred at all. REP. ERIC SWALWELL, D-CALIF.: Once and for all can we answer the question? SESSIONS: I am once and for all answering the question, Congressman. I don't understand why you won't take my answer. (END VIDEO CLIP) INGRAHAM: Joining us now for reaction is a member of that House Judiciary Committee Andy Biggs, a Republican from Arizona. I also think about what I would do if I was a member of Congress and I had to be at these hearings, Congressman. But this kind of took the cake. Jeff Sessions is sitting there and every five seconds from a Democrat, you are basically lying, Attorney General Sessions. You really met with the Russians and you're really part of the collusion. Give us a sense inside that room today. REP. ANDY BIGGS, R-ARLIZ.: You're exactly right. So it showed the stark difference between the Republicans who were trying to get the attorney general to do something, about a special counsel to investigate, and the Democrats who are fixated on trying to paint him as some kind of lying colluder with Russia with no evidence. It's just amazing to me. INGRAHAM: And by the way, we invited Sheila Jackson Lee on, but apparently she was involved in a late night briefing on the tax reform bill so maybe they're going to come all along with you guys on tax reform. BIGGS: It could happen. INGRAHAM: We invited a bunch of other Democrats because we wanted to have both sides on the show tonight. So I have to say that. Let's talk about that flash point today, and we'll play the sound bite. This is Congressman Jim Jordan who was on with us last night. I think this was probably the most interesting moment at today's hearing. Let's listen. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REP. JIM JORDAN, R-OHIO: If you're now just considering it, what's it going to take to get a special counsel? We know that former FBI Director James Comey misled the American people in the Summer of 2016 when he called it the Clinton investigation a matter. Obviously investigation. SESSIONS: It would take a factual basis that meets the standards of the appointment of a special counsel. JORDAN: That's what it looks like, and I'm asking you, doesn't that warrant in addition to all the things we know about James Comey in 2016, doesn't that warrant naming a second special counsel? SESSIONS: Looks like is not enough basis to appoint a special counsel. (END VIDEO CLIP) INGRAHAM: What's your sense here? Are you on the special counsel bandwagon on this, because there's an argument against special counsel that I find fairly persuasive? BIGGS: In this case I am because you've got an attorney general who has kind of left it away. He's stepped away from it. We have to get to the bottom of this. We know that there's conflicts of interests, all of that A.G.'s office. So we need a special prosecutor, a special counsel in my opinion. I think Jim is right. We've been waiting for a long time. Yesterday we get the notice saying we're considering it after months of asking. INGRAHAM: Don't you think that looks like a tit for tat. You've got the Mueller investigation of Trump. It looks like to some people that President Trump is pressuring Congress to do a special counsel to go after Hillary and Clinton Foundation, Uranium One. And Jeff Sessions really isn't recused from anything involving Hillary Clinton. He's recused himself from anything involving the Russian investigation. But I think he's well within his right in this case to appoint a terrific prosecutor with a great team of assistant prosecutors to do this job. And then you won't have this sprawling investigation that goes on and on forever, frankly wastes the taxpayers' dollars, and I don't think it's necessary in this case. Sessions can just appoint a great prosecutor and do the real investigation. Why do you need a whole merry band of prosecutors to waste our money? BIGGS: I think you're right in the sense that Jeff Sessions could, but look at who his chief deputies are. You've gone Rod Rosenstein, and you've got Andrew McCabe still in that office influencing things. And I think walking away today, I think many of us said I don't know if Attorney General Sessions believes he has the authority or if he doesn't have the authority. And that's why we kept coming back to the same questions. So we want to get this investigated. If it doesn't take one, fine. INGRAHAM: Congressman, it's great to see you, as always. BIGGS: Thank you. INGRAHAM: And for more analysis let's bring in two top legal experts, from Columbia, South Carolina, Sol Wisenberg who was Ken Starr's deputy in the investigations into Bill Clinton's scandals. And here in Washington, Joe DiGenova, former U.S. attorney in Washington D.C. All right, gentlemen, take it away. Let's talk first about the idea of a special counsel. Andy McCarthy at "National Review" I think makes a compelling case with in this issue of Uranium One, the Clinton Foundation, Hillary's emails, that a well-respected prosecutor could actually handle this case well. Joe? JOE DIGENOVA, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY: Yes, clearly this does not require a special counsel. I agree with Andy 100 percent. And there's ample predicate, factual information for an investigation right now for a grand jury based on the Clinton Foundation, the $500,000 to the president during the consideration of Uranium One, $145 million to the Clinton Foundation. Everything involving all of the things you've listed, especially the email server involving Mrs. Clinton. There is no doubt that the standard Justice Department criminal division can handle this. There's no need for a special counsel. And by the way, what I found fascinating about the attorney general's answers today
. The semiofficial Mehr news agency Sunday quoted a regional government official confirming the two deaths. WATCH: Amid Protests Across Iran, Trump Lashes Out at Tehran's Leaders Video posted to social media purported to show the two victims following the shootings. Other online videos showed thousands of people protesting in several cities throughout Iran, including some attacking government buildings and violently confronting police. There were reports that mobile devices were unable to access the internet for a period of time, but coverage was eventually restored, AFP reported. Biggest protests since 2009 The uprisings, the biggest and most sustained since the 2009 presidential election protests, were sparked by high food prices. As many as 72 people died in the 2009 unrest after the regime cracked down on demonstrators challenging the re-election of then-President Mahmud Ahmadinejad. Little information about the current protests is available, however, because state-run and semi-official news media have not widely reported on the demonstrations. As a counter to the violence, separate state-sponsored rallies took place around the country to mark the end of the unrest that shook the country in 2009. State television reported pro-government rallies were held in about 1,200 cities and towns. Cautions on social media use Iran’s telecommunications minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi sent a public message to the CEO of the messaging service Telegram, telling him, “A Telegram channel is encouraging hateful conduct: use of Molotov cocktails, armed uprising, and social unrest.” Telegram responded saying it had suspended the account. Telegram CEO Pavel Durov also tweeted a public message, explaining why the account was suspended. “A Telegram channel (amadnews) started to instruct their subscribers to use Molotov cocktail against police and got suspended due to our ‘no calls for violence’ rule. Be careful,” Durov said. “There are lines one shouldn’t cross.” A prominent cleric, Ayatollah Mohsen Araki, told thousands of pro-government demonstrators in Tehran that “the enemy” wanted to use social media and economic issues to “foment a new sedition.” Araki’s comments echoed an earlier statement by Senior Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri, who said Friday that some political factions were using the economy as an excuse to criticize the government. State television broadcast images of the protests Saturday, something it rarely does, including acknowledging that some of the demonstrators were chanting the name of Iran’s last shah, who fled the country during the Islamic Revolution in 1979. Anti-Rouhani rhetoric The chants were seen as a cry against President Hassan Rouhani, who won re-election in May with promises to revive the economy. Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal is seen as Rouhani’s major achievement. The deal, made with the United States and five other world powers, curbed Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for relief from international sanctions. But economic growth has not followed, and people are struggling to cope with the high cost of living. Some protesters have also been heard chanting slogans against Iran’s foreign policies, including its support for the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Social media postings, many of which were unverifiable, said protests took place Saturday in cities including Tehran, Shahr-e Kord, Kermanshah and Zanjan. Reports said that in some cities protesters set government buildings and police vehicles on fire. Social media video purporting to be from the city of Mashhad seemed to show protesters overturning a police car and setting police motorcycles on fire. The Mehr news agency posted videos purporting to show protesters attacking a town hall in central Tehran, overturning a police car, and burning the Iranian flag. Amateur videos posted online appeared to show clashes at Tehran University, where police forces reportedly used tear gas to disperse protesters. Protesters at the university chanted, “Seyed Ali [Khamenei] Shame On you. Leave The Country Alone,” according to a video sent to RFE/RL’s Radio Farda from the Iranian capital. U.S. President Donald Trump denounced the Iranian government Saturday, tweeting excerpts from his September 19 speech to the U.N. General Assembly. He charged Rouhani’s government, and those before it, have long oppressed the Iranian people. Three days of protests Demonstrations were held in several cities and towns Thursday and Friday in protest against rising prices and the country’s high unemployment rate. Iran’s unemployment rate is 12.4 percent, its economy stagnant and inflation rampant. In a statement Friday, the U.S. State Department said, “Iran’s leaders have turned a wealthy country with a rich history and culture into an economically depleted rogue state, whose chief exports are violence, bloodshed and chaos.” The State Department urged “all nations to publicly support the Iranian people and their demands for basic rights and an end to corruption.” RFE/RL contributed to this report.That’s the pitch that has been circulating on social media for the past couple of days, and Sanders himself has done some of the pitching. “Game on. I look forward to debating Donald Trump in California before the June 7 primary,” the Vermont senator tweeted on Wednesday night. That came shortly after Jimmy Kimmel, the host of “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” relayed an invitation to Trump, which he said had come from Sanders, to debate the Democratic insurgent. “If he paid a nice sum toward a charity, I would love to do that,” Trump replied. It wasn’t immediately clear how serious Trump was: some sources close to him told reporters that he was just kidding. But Sanders appeared to be offering in earnest, prompted in part by the Clinton campaign’s decision, announced Monday, not to follow through on an earlier pledge to debate him in California. On Thursday, he tweeted, “I am delighted that @realDonaldTrump has agreed to debate. Let’s do it in the biggest stadium possible.” Sanders delivered the same message in a speech, and his campaign manager, Jeff Weaver, told CNN, “We are ready to debate Donald Trump. We hope he will not chicken out. I think it will be great for America to see these two candidates and the different visions they have for America going forward.” On Friday, Sanders tweeted a link to a petition gathering support for a debate with Trump. It’s not entirely clear what the Sanders campaign is up to here. The most straightforward explanation is that it thinks debating Trump could shake up the race in California, where the poll averages show Clinton retaining a double-digit lead over him, and that a victory for Sanders in the Golden State would upend the Democratic contest. (Indeed, a poll released Wednesday by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California has the race within the margin of error.) Even if Sanders did come out ahead of Clinton there, he would almost certainly remain unable to overtake her in the pledged-delegate count. But getting defeated in California would undoubtedly be a blow to Clinton, and Sanders could conceivably seize upon it to try and persuade some superdelegates to change sides. Another possible explanation is that the Sanders campaign expects Trump to change his mind and drop out. With Trump now focussed on uniting the Republican Party behind him, at least some of his advisers will likely tell him not to risk debating Sanders, who would doubtless go after him with merry abandon. If Trump decided not to take up the offer, Sanders could say that he had intimidated the presumptive Republican nominee, which would also give his campaign a lift. A third theory is that the overture to Trump was designed to put pressure on Hillary Clinton to follow through on her earlier pledge to debate Sanders in California. It isn’t entirely clear who would come out the winner in a Trump-Sanders debate, but it seems likely that Clinton would lose, since she wouldn’t be there to defend herself against any attacks. Her absence from the stage would be palpable. If this is what Sanders is doing, it’s a cynical move, though Clinton’s refusal to debate Sanders in the largest state in the country was also cynical: the Clinton campaign didn’t see any advantage in another head-to-head session, so it refused to participate. Now Sanders has raised the stakes, saying that he’ll debate Trump instead. But what if Clinton stands her ground and Trump does show up? Some Democrats fear that a Trump-Sanders encounter would turn into the sort of media circus that Trump revels in, and that it would only heighten the divisions in the Democratic Party at a time when it needs to unite against Trump. If a debate did take place, it would certainly get good ratings, and Trump would surely use the occasion to bait Clinton, appeal to the “Bernie or Bust” contingent, and generally try to sow more dissension in the Democratic Party. “Sanders should think long and hard about giving Trump a forum,” Chris Kofinis, a Democratic strategist who was formerly the chief of staff to Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, told Reuters. “It crosses a line, but apparently in this election there is no line.” Brad Bannon, another Democratic operative, told The Hill, “This is just an unbelievable spectacle. It really upstages Hillary at a critical time for her. The Clinton folks must be furious.” When CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asked Clinton on Thursday about the possibility of a Trump-Sanders debate, she dismissed it, saying, “I don’t think it’s serious. It’s not going to happen.” Perhaps not. But many of Clinton’s supporters will regard Sanders’s willingness to even countenance such an event as another sign of disrespect for a front-runner who has, according to FiveThirtyEight, a lead of more than 2.9 million in the popular vote, including the caucus states. And that means the bitterness between the two sides is likely to increase. In fact, it has already done so. On Twitter on Thursday, Sanders supporters revelled in the prospect of a debate with Trump, while Clinton supporters accused Sanders of being a sore loser, and even of teaming up with Trump to undermine Clinton. “Frankly, the fact that Hillary has achieved a level of visibility, power, and influence that few women ever have makes me all the more furious that two men are still trying to show, ‘jokingly’ or seriously, they can gang up to push her around at will, that they don’t respect her agency or her right to say no,” Melissa McEwan, the founder of Shakesville, a feminist blog community, wrote at the pro-Clinton Blue Nation Review. “By every conceivable metric, Bernie failed this test. Badly.”The Arizona Republic-12 News Breaking News Team Wed May 29, 2013 8:05 PM A former prison guard has been convicted of sexually abusing two inmates at a federal facility in Phoenix. A jury found Jose Arnulfo Martinez, 49, of Phoenix, guilty of six counts of sexual abuse of a ward Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Phoenix. Martinez sexually abused two inmates three times each in 2008 and 2010, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona. Martinez worked for the Bureau of Prisons at the Federal Correctional Institution in Phoenix and supervised federal inmates. “Federal prison inmates have a right to serve their court-ordered sentences without having to endure sexual abuse by anyone, and especially not at the hands of those who are entrusted with their care,” U.S. Attorney John S. Leonardo said in a prepared statement. Each count of sexual abuse of a ward faces a maximum penalty of up to 15 years in prison, a $250,000 fine or both. The sentencing has been scheduled for Aug. 26.If you claim mocking ISIS is mocking Islam, you’re not making the point you think you are. This is the type of edgy comedy Saturday Night Live would produce, if it had the guts to offend the thought police. Instead, it’s from the BBC2 show Revolting: The satirists behind a controversial BBC sketch depicting “The Real Housewives of Isis” have argued that comedians must be allowed to tackle religious fundamentalism. The sketch is due to feature in the first episode of Revolting, the new BBC2 series by Heydon Prowse and Jolyon Rubinstein, the duo behind the Bafta-winning The Revolution Will Be Televised. Shot during a turbulent year, ripe for satire, Revolting’s mix of political stunts and scripted sketches targets racist Brexit voters, Boris Johnson, Southern Trains and the NHS budget deficit. The most daring sequence is a mock reality show, called The Real Housewives of Isis, which depicts Western women who are groomed online by Islamic extremists. I think it’s satire in the best sense, mocking a horrible situation in a way that proves the point of how evil ISIS is. Hysterical! “The Real Housewives of #ISIS“. Can’t believe BBC would produce such hilariously un-PC sketch. pic.twitter.com/O9hcbz07Z0 — Eylon Aslan-Levy (@EylonALevy) January 4, 2017 I can just hear the PC police whining now once they watch this video… The Real Housewives of ISIS lmaooohttps://t.co/1DQ7nZnHBq — Charlie Fenner (@CharlieFenner32) January 4, 2017 Apparently some people aren’t happy because they feel it stigmatizes Islam, The Telegraph reports: A new BBC satire sketch, ‘The Real Housewives of Isis’, has caused controversy online for being ‘insensitive’. The sketch, which is based on the Real Housewives series popular in the US and recently exported to the UK, depicts actors dressed as brides of Isil fighters taking selfies and showing off suicide belts. The trailer can be seen here. One critic wrote on Facebook: “All the fun of an off-base Amy Schumer skit with the same lack of awareness of anything other than itself. It’s a bit like Carry On films. “The humor is only funny if you look down on someone else and enjoy seeing them unhappy because they are not white and Christian. “ Here are some Twitter reactions: I'm amazed by the amount of Muslims replying to this video, saying that....mocking ISIS is OFFENSIVE!????????‍♂️ https://t.co/MUi8Vg26un — Lalo Dagach (@LaloDagach) January 4, 2017 Wait, I'm told moderate Muslims hate #ISIS. So why would they think a video that mocks ISIS is "disgusting"? #confusing???? pic.twitter.com/sIIIaER4fI — Lalo Dagach (@LaloDagach) January 4, 2017 ISIS is a race????? Mocking ISIS is "disgusting"????? pic.twitter.com/Twa8kVcm6F — Lalo Dagach (@LaloDagach) January 4, 2017 'Real Housewives of ISIS' will make Hijabis feel more isolated n targeted by Islamophobes. Thanks @BBC for adding to the negative stereotype — aѕн (@AshKaneSkittles) January 4, 2017 'The Real Housewives of ISIS' characters are following extremist terrorist rulings (i.e. the opposite), thus mocking the whole religion. — Sehri Stories (@SehriStories) January 4, 2017 If you claim mocking ISIS is mocking all of Islam, then you’re not exactly making the point you think you are. I have a feeling BBC will cave and take down the trailer. So I’ve downloaded it.My second date with this girl just ended. You can read about how I met her and how the first date went by clicking here. There’s a few things I learned here that I’d like to share with you all. As I mentioned in the other post, I have great 1st date ideas and 3rd date ideas. But what about the second date? You clearly did well enough to earn this second date, but it still feels like you have a lot of pressure riding on it. But let me add, there is significant less pressure if you kiss-close on the first date. This is why I always try to go for the kiss on the first date. No matter what, you have to try. You get rejected, so what? Okay, so I decided to take her to dinner. But if you’ve been following my blog here, you would know that I try to do things a little differently than what all the other guys do. I take her to an Ethiopian restaurant, Das Ethiopia, in Georgetown. This idea was brilliant and let me tell you why. If you’ve never had Ethiopian food, this is how it works; You are given a large plate with all of your food on it. Yours and hers. Underneath the food is a fermented bread. You pick off pieces of the fermented bread and scoop up the food with your fingers. There are no utensils at all and you are sharing the food between the two of you. You can even feed each other if you are feeling good vibes from her. This is just excellent rapport and bonding right here. Also, be super nice to the servers. I am like the nicest person in the world when the servers come over. I joke with them and act really appreciative of their service. I usually have them laughing. You do this in front of your date and you’ll just be an even more awesome person to her. Besides, not many people have actually had Ethiopian food, so it will be a new experience for her. Also, Ethiopian food is extremely tasty. Give it a shot. Look for some local Ethiopian restaurant and check it out. Okay, so my Ethiopian recommendation aside, we have a nice dinner. I paid for it, no problem. It was a great dinner and we learned a lot more about each other. We then leave and go for a walk. We walk around campus and end up a couple blocks away from my place. I ask her if she wants to come up to my apartment. She hesitates, so I throw in You can only stay for a little while though, because I have to wake up in the morning. She wants to go up. Turns out she’s a huge Mad Men fan which is awesome. She’s almost done with season 2 so I put on Netflix and the next episode for her. At this point, we’re sitting on our futon and she’s all over me while watching the episode. I mean, we know where this is going. Episode ends. We have sex. We take a shower together afterwards and then I walk her back to the metro station. We tentatively planned for Saturday so we’ll see what happens. I’m still not sure if I want to pursue a relationship with her. I mean, I’ve never had so many potential girls before. It would be hard to just become exclusive right now when I have all these options. I have to remind myself not to make the same mistake as I did with the last girl by not setting expectations early.This article is by Nigel Phair, director at the Centre for Internet Safety at the University of Canberra. It was first published on The Conversation and is re-published here with permission. analysis Earlier this week, Kim Williams, CEO of News Limited, spoke at the Australian International Movie Convention on the Gold Coast and called for new copyright laws to better protect digital property rights. Back in February, my colleague and friend Bruce Arnold opined a similar view, stating that in “the age of the internet and multinational business models, many of the existing laws are under strain, their suitability and ultimate purpose called into question”. Williams complained the NBN would make illegal file-sharing and downloads worse and called upon the NBN to be included in any future code and be obligated to take reasonable steps to stop piracy. Additionally, he requested ISPs to take stronger action against unlawful activity on their networks. But what can be done and are new laws really the solution? ISPs, as the focal point of the pipe which delivers content, certainly play a major role in many issues of online trust and safety. In this instance we need to look at whether ISPs have either contributory or vicarious liability. This could be based on if an ISP knows or has reason to know of copyright infringement and induces, causes or materially contributes to the infringing conduct of another. But just as ISPs could do more to stop malicious software, so too they could contribute to and could assist in the reduction of copyright theft. Recent legal precedence is illuminating. After three years of legal argument, the Roadshow v iiNet case ended with the High Court unanimously deciding iiNet never supported or encouraged unauthorised sharing or file downloading by its users. The Court held that an ISP “is not to be taken to have authorised primary infringement of a cinematograph film merely because it has provided facilities for making it available online to a user who is the primary infringer”. Many content rights holders have lobbied for strategies to address online copyright infringement, including the implementation of a graduated response scheme designed to compel ISPs to forward notices and apply sanctions against users the rights holders allege are engaging in copyright infringement, for example, via peer-to-peer file sharing. The ability for a rights holder to be able to send a copyright infringement notice to a relevant ISP for forwarding on to their subscriber is a good idea. But in the iiNet case, the High Court determined “[i]t was not unreasonable for iiNet to take the view that it need not act upon the incomplete allegations of primary infringements in the AFACT Notices without further investigation which it should not be required itself to undertake, at its peril of committing secondary infringement”. The next biggest players after ISPs are search engines. Search engines trawl content on the web and reproduce text, images and sound recordings. Copyright law raises a number of challenging legal issues for search engines as they do not own content, but instead organise, rank and display vast amounts of material that is posted on, or to websites. Other copyright issues for search engines include caching of copyright material, the extent to which fair use applies, authorisation liability and the impact of safe harbour provisions. But what about other industries? The recent Finkelstein Report discussed charging for online content and found highly-differentiated online content would normally command a scarcity premium. “For such content, charging for access could work provided that the producer can retain control over the related property right. But it may not be an easy proposition given the current level of piracy and unauthorised use of content on the internet.” Online media companies are also similar to search engines and generate revenue by selling advertising. So what does the government think? Principle 8 of the Australian Government Convergence Review Interim Report states “Australians should have access to the broadest possible range of content across platforms, services and devices”. There is no mention though of copyright protection or the role of ISPs and search engines. And the NBN – well, that will transform the way we live and operate in the online environment – but we can hardly blame it for copyright infringement. NBN Co are an important stakeholder, but do not hold the answer. Clearly, there is a problem. Williams raises some valid concerns. We need industry to collaborate with government to assist content rights holders to be able to enforce their copyright and change the behaviour of those who engage in online copyright infringement. New laws are not the answer. Rather, we need to look at education, technical mechanisms, licensing solutions and responsibility of ISPs and search engines to find a workable balance between the right to own and creative content and the ability of users (and intermediaries) to access and reuse such content. Nigel Phair does not work for, consult to, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has no relevant affiliations. This article was originally published at The Conversation. Read the original article.This comprehensive course is around 5 hours long and goes into great depth to explain just what loudness really is, why it matters and how you can make your own music play loud and clear. In this course, Echo Sound Works will teach you how to get louder mixes every time with a proven process to getting mixes that are commercially loud, full and still dynamic. Mixing loud music that sounds clean and pleasing to the ear is one of the biggest mysteries in music production. Loudness is one of the more complex issues in a mix because loudness is perceived by the ear, it isn’t a finite measurement. Learn how to make every mix sound epic – no matter what genre you’re working in Module 1: UNDERSTANDING LOUDNESS This first module looks at all the fundamental building blocks to loudness. Highly technical but great information to know! > Introduction – This video introduces the course and layout of the subsequent videos. > The Loudness Wars – This section dissects the loudness wars and why we want our music to be as loud as “_________” Insert track here. > Gain, Volume, Level and Loudness – Believe it or not these are all different things and muddying up their definitions makes it harder to get a LOUD mix. > dBFS, dBU, and VU – This video will teach you all about various metering options so you can accurately measure the loudness of your tracks. > RMS Vs Peak Metering – This section debunks a myth that just because something is close to peaking or clipping, it will be perceived as loud. Learn the differences between these two important metering types. > LUFS Metering – The new kid on the block is a great way to reference your mixes. > Metering Plugins and Calibration – Believe it or not, not all metering plugins are calibrated the same way. Some give misleading readouts. Use the included pink noise sample to calibrate your preferred metering plugin(s). > Common RMS/LUFS Values – This video gives us a comparison point to reference for future mixes so you know if your mix is within a certain RMS/LUFS range it will in fact be loud. Module 2:RECIPE FOR LOUDNESS Module 2 expands on what is covered in the first module by creating a unique recipe for creating a loud track. If you follow this recipe, your tracks should be quite loud. > Part 9 – The Recipe For Loud – A great way to conceptualize the needed components of a loud track. > Part 10 – What is a Big Mix? – This video looks at a term we hear all the time in the production world and that is, “big”. How can a sound be big? This video shows you how. > Part 11 – What is a Full Mix? – Yet another common buzz word we hear all too often. This video defines what it means to have a full mix. Module 3: COMMON LOUDNESS MISTAKES The third module covers some common mistakes that will hurt your mix in the loudness department. > Part 12 – Mistake #1 Not Making Room For Important Elements – This video will teach you the secret to why your favorite mixes have huge lead synths or bass lines. > Part 13 – Mistake #2 Not EQ’ing Enough – EQ isn’t just for shaping the tone of a sound. It’s also a highly valuable tool that will allow you to shape out louder mixes. > Part 14 – Mistake #3 Forgetting To Side Chain – Side chaining can be more than just a way to get a kick and bass to sit together nicely in the mix > Part 15 – Mistake #4 Compressing All At Once – This section teaches you how to maximize (not max out) your loudness while compressing. > Part 16 – Mistake #5 Forgetting About the Equal Loudness Contours – Loudness is perceived by our ears. Our ears don’t hear everything equally, so it makes more sense to mix for the human ear.WASHINGTON, DC - AUGUST 27: U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan waits to be introduced prior to speaking to students at School Without Walls August 27, 2013 in Washington, DC. Duncan participated in an event to discuss '50 Years of Struggle: Youth Driving Economics, Education, and Social Change,' which was to mark the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'I Have a Dream' speech. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images) The U.S. Department of Education is nearing a deal with Navient Corp., the student loan giant formerly known as Sallie Mae, over allegations the company cheated active-duty troops on federal student loans, a department official said Thursday. The agreement likely would end the Education Department's much-delayed and heavily-criticized probe into whether the nation’s largest student loan specialist -- a major government contractor -- broke the law that caps interest rates and provides other special financial protections for active-duty members of the military. Thomas Skelly, the department’s acting chief financial officer, told a Senate Appropriations subcommittee on Thursday that the Education Department was “finalizing” an agreement with Navient that would be completed by May 1. Denise Horn, an Education Department spokeswoman, declined further comment. Patricia Christel, a Navient spokeswoman, didn’t respond to messages seeking comment. For a department that has been called a lapdog in holding its contractors accountable -- especially one that’s been called out by President Barack Obama over its customer service -- the settlement risks inflaming Democrats and student advocates who have badgered the Education Department to take a tougher line against corporate wrongdoing. “I continue to be deeply concerned about the allegations that a student loan servicer knowingly overcharged service members while they were on active duty,” said Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who along with other Senate Democrats has made student debt central in their economic and political agenda. “This is an issue I’m going to continue to be focused on to make sure our men and women in uniform are treated fairly [and] can continue their education without the fear of predatory practices.” The Education Department’s investigation followed a May deal with the government in which Navient settled federal accusations that it had intentionally overcharged about 60,000 active-duty troops on federal and private student loans over nearly a decade. The company, which neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing, agreed to pay $60 million to troops as part of its settlement with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Department of Justice. Despite the Justice Department’s detailed complaint, which followed a referral by the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Education Secretary Arne Duncan later announced a “thorough” review to determine whether the company indeed overcharged troops. Duncan’s department was unaware of the alleged wrongdoing while it was occurring, federal officials have said. The Education Department was unaware that federal banking regulators planned to publicly accuse the company of violating the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act until after Navient warned its investors. The results of the Education Department review were due in September 2014. But after an initial investigation by department employees cleared the company of wrongdoing, the department paid about $95,000 to hire Ernst & Young to further investigate Navient's compliance with the servicemembers law, federal records show. Last month, the American Legion, the influential veterans organization, accused the Education Department of favoring its loan contractors over service members. “The department seems to be doing everything possible to undermine the Justice Department and the CFPB, and they’re doing a hell of a job,” Steve Gonzalez, an assistant director in the Legion’s veterans employment and education division, said at the time. To mollify potential critics, Duncan said in May that “every option is on the table” including considering whether his department would terminate Navient’s lucrative contract to collect monthly payments on student loans. A few weeks later, according to Navient, the department quietly extended the company’s contract for an additional five years. Meanwhile, Navient’s revenues from its loan-servicing contract continue to soar. In the last half of 2014, its revenues increased nearly 10 percent, to $68 million, compared with the first six months of 2014, according to its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Navient would lose about $130 million in annual revenues if the Education Department terminated the company’s loan-servicing contract. Prominent groups, including the AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest labor federation, have urged Duncan to dump Navient. The Education Department has enjoyed a cozy relationship with Navient and its predecessor company, Sallie Mae. Some company executives formerly held prominent positions at the department. In 2009, the department's inspector general recommended it recoup some $22 million in alleged overpayments to Navient. As of last month, some six years after the recommendation, that money had yet to be collected.The Chinese and North Korean national flags are seen on a sign along the Yalu River on the border between the two nations. (Young/Epa-Efe/Rex/Shutterstock/Young/Epa-Efe/Rex/Shutterstock) China's trade with North Korea fell sharply in September as sanctions finally began to bite, data released by the Chinese government Friday showed. China says it has implemented successive rounds of sanctions, agreed to by the U.N. Security Council, that are meant to pressure Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. China is North Korea's economic lifeline, and Beijing's role in the sanctions effort is critical. On Friday, China's General Administration of Customs announced that China's imports from North Korea fell 37.9 percent in September, the seventh successive monthly decline. China's exports to North Korea dropped a more modest 6.7 percent in September, Huang Songping, spokesman for the customs department, said at a news conference. Although there is room for considerable skepticism about official Chinese data — and the numbers can swing wildly month to month — there is reason to believe that there has been a recent slowdown in trade, experts say. Chinese traders in the border city of Dandong told The Washington Post this month that they were feeling the effect of the sanctions, which were being imposed with unprecedented determination by the authorities. Nevertheless, fishermen and seafood traders said smuggled seafood was still moving across the border. Successive rounds of U.N. sanctions have cut off more than 90 percent of North Korea's publicly reported exports — including coal, iron ore, seafood and, most recently, textiles — and have restricted the regime's ability to earn foreign currency by sending workers abroad. China accounts for roughly 85 percent of North Korea's external trade and is seen by many as the key to forcing Pyongyang to at least freeze its nuclear and missile programs. But China has balked at imposing a complete trade embargo on North Korea, and continues to send the regime the crude oil it needs to keep its military and economy alive. North Korea's deficit with China more than tripled in the first nine months of the year from the same period in 2016, to $1.07 billion, Huang told a news conference, according to Bloomberg News. There are no records of seafood imports from North Korea, Huang said, while shipments of coal, iron ore and clothing all declined. Read more: On China’s border with North Korea, a constricted economic lifeline is still a lifeline Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign newsMike Pence urged Republican leaders to "join millions of Americans and support the Republican nominee" Tuesday. \| Getty Pence ‘disappointed’ with Ryan’s rebuke of Trump Mike Pence said he was “disappointed” with House Speaker Paul Ryan’s decision to effectively abandon Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, offering some modest backup for his running mate, who has lashed out at Ryan over the past day. “Paul Ryan is my friend but I respectfully disagree with his focus in this campaign,” he told NBC News’ Kelly O'Donnell Tuesday on a campaign swing in Iowa. “I truly do believe Republican leaders should join millions of Americans and support the Republican nominee. … Certainly we're disappointed.” Story Continued Below Ryan made an extraordinary announcement on a call with House Republicans Monday that he would no longer defend Trump. Instead, Ryan told GOP lawmakers he would focus all his efforts on protecting a newly endangered House GOP majority — and said he won't campaign with the controversy-plagued Republican nominee. That’s led Trump to level harsh criticism at one of the Republican Party’s most prominent figures. “Despite winning the second debate in a landslide (every poll), it is hard to do well when Paul Ryan and others give zero support!” Trump tweeted Tuesday. “Our very weak and ineffective leader, Paul Ryan, had a bad conference call where his members went wild at his disloyalty.” Pence and Ryan are longtime friends and allies — Ryan introduced Pence at the Republican National Convention in July. Pence said that Ryan did let him know in advance about his decision to cut Trump loose.If you’re on Run the Jewels’ mailing list, you’ll have gotten a rather exciting email this morning: according to the duo themselves, their new album Run the Jewels 3 is done, and scheduled for release in January 2017. Specifically, the album’s release date will be January 13. Huzzah! There’s also a new single to listen to, and you can hear it right here, goddammit: The album artwork is photographed by Tim Saccenti, and the email announcing the album includes the following quote from the duo about the imagery: “For us, the RTJ1 hands were about ‘taking what’s yours’ — your world, your life, your attitude. The RTJ2 hands were wrapped in bandages, signifying injury and healing, which for us represented the growth in ideas and tone of that album. For RTJ3 the bandages are off, the chain is gone and the hands have been transformed into gold. For us this represents the idea that there is nothing to take that exists outside of yourself. You are the jewel.”With no attacks on each other and substantial attacks on Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio did exactly what was necessary: Put aside their differences and tackle the Beast (yes, Biblical implications intended). They hit Trump from every angle, and Trump was sweating the whole way through. Tonight was certainly the least substantive Trump has been this entire cycle (if you could possibly be any less substantial…) and he was left making childish retorts in order to try to appear strong. So, what does this mean? Have the calls for a unity ticket been heard? Are the two U.S. Senators on the same page? It’s hard to tell, but it’s a good sign. When the very first headlines to come out of a major debate are “Donald Trump Defends The Size Of His Penis,” then you know things are only going to get more awkward for the real estate con man. One can hope that the two are going to work together to take out Trump, and if this debate is any indication, there is at least a ceasefire. It’s unclear, but tonight was a positive night for the anti-Trump crowd.I'm waiting in line for a cappuccino. It's gonna be a good one: short, intense, the foamed milk emulsified with the syrupy shot. I glance up from my phone and look around at the cafe. It is, for lack of a better adjective, a hipster joint. There are the artfully branded items for sale (T-shirts, espresso cups, etc.) and a long list of single varietal beans. Hot water is being poured out of sleek Japanese kettles; the baristas are wearing fedoras. And then I look at the other people in line. I notice their costumes: the slim dark jeans, flannel shirts, scuffed boots, designy glasses, mussed hair. Everyone
for earned credits from previous Edgewalks or be found on the grid directly. The final itemchips you will receive with your game. Furthermore Cyntopia - the future is now comes with a set of 7 uniquely designed d6-dice to complete the setting for all of your missions. Custom cyberpunk themed dice for each member in your team. The setting - a collection of floortiles Various rooms and spaces with lots of opportunities - your future playground! Randomize your board in a selection of 40 already included floortiles. Each room offers different possibilities for you or the enemy to take cover in combat, as well as the chance to loot containers afterwards. Combined with your unlimited freedom in choice of story and quests, none of your Edgewalks need ever to be the same. Print & Play Since you've come this far, surely you must be interested in Cyntopia - the future is now, so we would like to give you the possibility to test it before the campaign is even finished!. The Print & Play doesn't feature the whole rulebook, nor all game elements, but is meant to give you brief overview of the game. It features enough material for three Edgewalker and one GM. Last but not least, we ask you to keep in mind that we are a small, independent group of people trying to realize this project with your help and participation. We are not backed by an already-established company. We are not using Kickstarter just as a pre-order and promotion platform. We planned and created everything out of nothing - but to reach the final step and offer you the game, we need your help. How to help? We can safely assure you, every dollar will help us succeed in this project and will definitely be rewarded by us with a token of gratitude - and the option to offer you the final game and hours of fun. It doesn't have to be a large sum of money, it will still be support. Also, since your interest has brought you this far in the script, we'd like to encourage you to share it with your friends or groups who might be interested as well. At the moment we have a thunderclap campaign running as well, could you lend as a hand over there, too? To explain our calculated sum of money and make our goals more transparent to you, we've created this chart to give you insight into our costs: Stay tuned, and don't forget to drop by on our Facebook or our Twitter for new information and updates! Be aware of the Edge and meet us on the Grid. Stretchgoals During the development of Cyntopia - the future is now, we had so many ideas and one of the hardest parts was to make cuts and decide what should actually become part of the game. Since we didn't want to discard those ideas, we've put them aside for you to unlock as stretchgoals. If your interest in Cyntopia - the future is now is as great as ours, we're sure we'll be able to unlock some great new content together. Here is a short overview of the first stretchgoals - the more we achieve, the more stretchgoals will be revealed. Shipping information - please take note We want to keep the shipping costs as low as possible for all of our Edgewalker, so all shipping fees will be charged via our pledge manager, before the shipping starts. Charging a flatrate shipping price wouldn't be fair and we want to offer everyone the lowest possible shipping price. As of right now, the rates for shipping the "Cyntopia" pledgelevel would be estimated around: US&CA: $20 - DE: $15 - UK: $15 - EU: $25 - RoW: $33 Keep in mind, that those are just approximate numbers and might change during the later stages of development. At the moment we've found a great partner in Wayland Games, which will arrange the shipping and packaging for us, so that every Edgewalker gets what was backed. Shipping costs for smaller pledgelevels and future add-ons will vary, based on location and weight. For more questions regarding shipping just send us a message and we'll answer them as soon as possible.This time of year it’s important to watch out for ghosts. Especially creepy ones that want to give you shoulder rubs. More generally, it’s a good idea to watch out for Halloween themed RPG sessions. Just as surely as the treants lose their leaves and all your potions begin to taste of pumpkin spice, your GM is guaranteed to be hard at work making a vampire/werewolf/haunted house scenario. And while there are plenty of guides out there that can help him to run a spooky game, there’s not much guidance for players. It was a Savage Worlds Firefly game of all things where I first learned this lesson. Our ship had been forced to make an emergency landing at a derelict station. Our comms were dead, and so we had to scavenge for spare parts to get flying again. Our GM did a great job describing the station’s flickering lights, the echoes down its elevator shaft, and in general making the place foreboding. By the time we encountered the Reavers (because of course there were Reavers) the fight came as a welcome relief from the oppressive atmosphere. We managed to survive a difficult combat, but afterwords the sense of foreboding was gone. We were still jazzed from our victory as we continued to explore the ship, and so the horribly mutilated bodies, when we encountered them, lacked some of the punch they should have had. We’d already seen the monster. We’d beaten the monster. We were big damn heroes, dammit! And so I described my character throwing up. As players it’s natural to crack jokes and deliver one-liners. It’s natural to want to feel like a badass, to make your character a fearless action guy with nerves of steel. But in a horror game, if you want to keep that atmosphere going, it’s important to put a check on the bravado every once in a while. I’m not here to tell you how to play your character, and maybe you really are the fearless warrior type. But when my gruff ship’s mechanic reacted to those flayed bodies with actual horror, it added something to the session. The group seemed to collectively recall that, oh yeah, there’s some terrifying shit going down, and so the horror atmosphere began to rebuild. Just something to keep in mind going into this Halloween weekend. Question of the day then: What’s the creepiest moment you’ve experienced in a game? How did the GM achieve the effect, and how did your fellow players react?US President Barack Obama has signed into law tough new sanctions targeting Iran's banking and oil sectors. Effectively, the measures will force companies and financial institutions throughout the world to choose between the United States and Iran as their business partner. The sanctions, conceived to punish Iran for its nuclear program, are part of a $662 billion (511 billion-euro) defense spending bill Obama signed on Saturday, December 31, during his vacation to Hawaii. Firms and financial institutions, including foreign central banks, could be barred from trading on US financial markets if they continue ties with Iran's central bank or oil industry. Iran's central bank is essential to processing income from Iranian oil exports. 'Toughest sanctions yet' A third of the world's tanker-borne oil passes the Strait of Hormuz The Obama administration has called the sanctions America's toughest yet against Tehran. Until now, most sanctions have focused on preventing nuclear industry products from entering Iran. "Our intent is to implement this law in a timed and phased approach so that we avoid repercussions to the oil market and ensure that this damages Iran and not the rest of the world," said an unnamed senior US official quoted by Reuters news agency. The measures have sparked fears that Washington could damage ties with Iranian trade partners China and Russia, and that global markets could reel if Iran fires back, sending oil prices sky-high. However, the measures will not go into effect for 180 days, giving Obama's administration nearly half a year to consider how to implement them. The president will also be granted discretion to give temporary waivers from the sanctions if he judges them to be in US national interest. Securing oil Iran's oil industry is reliant on the country's central bank The international dispute over Iran's nuclear program - which the West suspects is bent on developing weapons capabilities - currently threatens to impact global oil supply. Iran announced earlier this week that it would begin testing missiles in the Strait of Hormuz, a move the US warned against. Iran also threatened that, if the US passed new sanctions, it would block the Strait, through which over a third of the world's oil tankers pass. The US responded to the threats on Friday by announcing a $3.45 billion arms deal with Iran's neighbor across the Strait, the United Arab Emirates, in an effort to build up defenses against Iran. During 2011, the US also sold billions of dollars worth of missiles to neighbors Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. The Wall Street Journal reported in December that the US and European officials were seeking assurances from other major oil producers including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates that they would up their imports to the West and Asia if Tehran's energy sector came under tighter sanctions. Terrorist suspect policy Also included in the new law are new provisions for the detainment of terrorism suspects, to which Obama responded with concern. "The fact that I support this bill as a whole does not mean I agree with everything in it," the president said in a statement, suggesting that limits on the US's ability to transfer suspects from the military prison at Guantanamo to the United States or a foreign country for trial were poorly conceived. "I want to clarify that my administration will not authorize the indefinite military detention without trial of American citizens." "The executive branch must have the flexibility to act swiftly in conducting negotiations with foreign countries regarding the circumstances of detainee transfers," he said. Obama came under political fire in early 2011 for allowing the Guantanamo prison on the island of Cuba to remain open, despite a history of rights violations. Author: David Levitz (AP, AFP, dpa, Reuters) Editor: Toma TasovacAs a graduate student, you might find yourself well on the way with your education and 'ABD' (all but dissertation). Day after day, you tell yourself that you really, really intend to start writing your paper. After all, you've collected all the data, analysed them many times and entered them into tables. But then you start thinking that maybe you need just a few more data. Perhaps, too, you should try a different analysis technique. And what if the tables you used aren't the right ones, or need to be formatted differently? Many of the thousands of researchers we have worked with are constantly being tripped up by finicky, niggling details that keep them from writing up their research. Every day, they mean to start, but every day, something gets in their way or seems more important — and this can go on for years. Some very common obstacles get in the way of high-quality, high-quantity scholarly writing, but powerful, evidence-based techniques can help researchers to overcome repetitive and unhelpful habits and get moving (see 'How to get out of a dissertation-writing rut'). Box 1: Top tips: How to get out of a dissertation-writing rut Write before you feel ready — because you might never feel ready. It's amazing how people magically feel ready when there is an imminent deadline. Don't wait to have a clear picture of the paper. As you start putting down your ideas, you may actually clarify them. Snack write — work in short, frequent bursts instead of waiting to sit down for big blocks of time. Those blocks hardly ever come, and when they do, they don't usually get used very productively. Set specific times in your schedule for writing — don't leave it to chance, because chances are it won't happen. Writing means putting new words on the page or substantially rewriting old words. It does not mean editing, reading, referencing or formatting — and it definitely does not mean composing e-mails. If you refrain from writing because you worry that what you write won't be good enough, try noting the adage that to write well, you first have to write. To really increase the quality and quantity of your writing, get feedback from mentors and colleagues — it can be painful, but it works. M.G. and H.K. Writing Myths The biggest impediments to scholarly writing are long-held myths that seem to get passed down through the academic ranks like precious but unhelpful ancient wisdom. The first is the Readiness Myth — “I should write when I feel ready, and I don't feel ready yet”. The secret to high output is that you have to write before you feel ready, because you might never reach that point. Researchers read endlessly and conduct countless experiments in the belief that it will eventually make them feel ready to write — we call these habits readitis and experimentitis. But ironically, all that reading and experimenting often makes them less likely to write, and more confused. So the first way to speed up your writing is to stop waiting, stop reading and experimenting, and start writing. You won't feel ready, but you have to do it anyway. This brings us to the second myth, the Clarity Myth — “I should get it all clear in my head first, and then write it down”. This isn't how writing works in practice. You have probably had the experience in which you were sure about how a paper would go until you started to write it. Then you discovered that there were inconsistencies, or it didn't flow well or the links didn't make sense. This tells you that it wasn't all that coherent in your head, after all. In fact, writing clarifies your thinking. Writing is not recording — you don't just take a photocopy of what is in your head and put it on the page. It is a far more creative and interactive process. As you write, you develop your thoughts. Writing is, in fact, rigorous thinking. So the second way to turbocharge your writing and improve its quality is to get the words down on the page — no matter how bad you think they look or sound at first. " Get the words down on the page — no matter how bad you think they look or sound at first. " Snack Writing Once researchers get beyond the myths that stop them writing, they often declare that they can't possibly write anything eloquent, insightful or clever unless they have a whole day or week to do it in. And because they don't have that amount of time, they conclude that there is no point in starting. We call this 'binge writing'. Binge writing isn't inherently wrong; it's just that, for busy people, it can greatly reduce the amount of writing they do. The alternative is'snack writing'. This means short — but regular — writing sessions. We suggest about 1–2 hours a day for graduate students who are writing a dissertation, and about 45–90 minutes a day for researchers trying to increase their publication output. IMAGEZOO/CORBIS Many researchers tell us that they couldn't possibly get anything useful written in that amount of time. The good news is that studies (which we have replicated many times in practice) show that academics who write for 30 minutes a day produce, on average, more peer-reviewed publications than academics who write for big blocks of time. But the'snacks' have to be regular — 45 minutes once a week doesn't work, but 45 minutes a day 5 days a week does wonders. When possible, try snack writing first thing in the morning. Our experience suggests that this increases the chances of success by minimizing distractions and ensuring that you have sufficient energy to write clever things. However, for snack writing to lead to really high-quality results, you also need to write in a very specific way. What is Writing? Before we tell you what writing is, we should tell you what it isn't, at least for the purposes of snack writing. Writing isn't editing: you should not spend your brief snack-writing time trying to find the perfect word or getting your grammar right. Writing isn't reading journal articles for research: write first and read afterwards, so that your writing shows you what you need to read. Writing isn't referencing: when you make that killer argument and want to reference Smith and Brown (2006; or maybe it was 2007?), don't stop and look it up. Write “Smith & Brown (200??)” and keep going. You can look up the reference later. Furthermore, writing is not formatting, literature searching, photocopying, e-mailing or nosing around on Facebook. Writing — at least for your snack-writing sessions — means putting new words on the page or substantially rewriting existing words. So, you might ask, when do you do all the editing, reading and other associated tasks? The answer is, any time in the other 23 hours and 15 minutes of the day — just not during your snack-writing time. So stop waiting to feel ready. Get started with some short and regular writing snacks. What you write won't be perfect at first, but you will be on your way to becoming a prolific academic writer.Individual responsibility is a dead-end While the Snowden revelations have sent an unprecedented shockwave across the world, most of us have gone back to our old habits, checking our Gmail account with the morning coffee, making phone calls from our smartphones and occasionally browsing through Facebook looking for the odd or funny status update. Even though we know Google, Apple, Facebook and several other companies will hand that data directly to the NSA, and that the NSA is very likely to trade it in bulk with several European intelligence agencies. We now know for sure that our lives are tracked, and that every single one of our online clicks and keystrokes slowly builds a more detailed profile of us in the databases of intelligence agencies and advertising corporations in the US and in every member state of the European Union. Yet we do not really care and go on with our lives like nothing happened. At the individual level, we already have several answers as to why this might be the case. Low digital literacy, the complexity of encryption, the habit of using easy to use commercial software as opposed to privacy-oriented yet more difficult one (compare Max OSX to Linux or TAILS, Internet Explorer to the TOR Browser) certainly matter. But more importantly, the problem of mass digital surveillance appears to have slipped in our subconscious. Like a famous study in social psychology, we are behaving similarly to the inhabitants living near a nuclear plant. Although we are the most aware of the potential dangers of a radiological leak or a nuclear explosion that would severely hurt us and our families, we lead our lives convinced that nothing wrong can happen. In fact, the more we are made aware of the danger, the more confident we have become in the government’s reassurances that everything is under control, and that our privacy is not in danger. Comparisons with the dark days of East Germany’s secret police, the Stasi or Romania’s Securitate do not really work. There are no direct consequences of mass surveillance on our daily lives, so why should we really bother? What should be done then? The main message that appears to emerge from Snowden’s interviews and Glenn Greenwald’s media interventions is the moralistic insistence on the individual responsibility of every one of us to ensure that we protect our data adequately. While we fully agree with these prescriptions, this bears the risk of ending in the long list of New Year’s resolutions, alongside with the promises to eat healthier foods, drink less and exercise more often. We might however also ask ourselves why it is that there is not more public outrage and mobilization around this issue. Where are the marches, demonstrations, the flash-mobs against mass surveillance? Why are there no more institutionalized and government-backed initiatives to put us on a stricter privacy diet, along with our five vegetables a day? The EU is the master of its own problems These questions are particularly salient in Europe. Publicly, François Hollande, Angela Merkel and several other European leaders were “shocked” and “appalled” by the revelations. In the meantime, we are now very aware of the fact that European intelligence services actively collaborated with the NSA and GCHQ, collecting themselves as much data as possible in order to gain bargaining power in the transatlantic intelligence-sharing cooperation game. This has been shown by some of us in a study for the European Parliament, and confirmed by the Moraes Report from the same institution. If not national governments, then whom should we expect to take measures? The European Union has raised some hopes, through the activity of some key MEPs within the Committee on Civil Liberties of the European Parliament. The LIBE Committee conducted an enquiry on mass surveillance, asking critical questions to the European Commission and the representatives of the Union’s member states. The European Parliament, in turn, has been one of the few institutions to organise a hearing with Edward Snowden. These expectations are raised by the role that some within the European Union (EU) institutions have played in the past regarding previous occurrences of mass electronic interceptions, chiefly in the disclosure of the ECHELON programme. Yet this picture is misleading. Thinking of the European Union as separate from national governments does not make much sense indeed. European states are member states. As such, their representatives participate on a daily basis in how the EU formulates its policies, and in turn EU policies are part of what national governments in member states do on a daily basis: Berlin, London, Paris or Rome are in Brussels as much as Brussels is present in national capitals. As we have argued elsewhere, the EU in this view is the master of its own problems. The practice of mass surveillance underscores the limits of the existing and forthcoming EU data protection legislation, in particular with regard to data processing for law-enforcement and national security purposes, data processing by third countries, and cooperation in data processing between security and intelligence services and private service providers. National security, incidentally, is the only area of the founding Treaties establishing the Union where EU competence is explicitly ruled off. Objectionable EU policies have also been formulated with regard to electronic surveillance. In April of this year the European Court of Justice (ECJ), prompted by the Irish High Court and the Austrian Constitutional Court, found the EU data retention directive adopted in 2006 to be invalid. The directive harmonised member state legislations on the retention by telecommunications operators of traffic and location data and their access by ‘competent national authorities’. It was found by the Court to constitute a particularly serious interference with the rights to privacy and data protection. The decision of the ECJ, incidentally, led the UK government to pass the emergency ‘DRIP’ legislation that extends rather than curtails the scope of data retention powers for UK authorities. Some reactions from top EU policymakers after the Snowden revelations are telling in this respect. Viviane Reding, now former vice-president of the Commission and EU justice commissioner, argued in November 2013 for the establishment of an EU intelligence service by 2020 “so we can level the playing field with our US partners”. National security is a misnomer Expecting the EU to counter national governments then, or national governments to stand up against electronic surveillance is missing the point. What the NSA revelations show is that state surveillance and national security are to some extent misnomers. Surveillance is not exercised exclusively by “the state”, national security is not ensured exclusively at the national level. So how does the picture look like from this perspective? On the one hand, we should think of the surveillance apparatus as a loose coalition of institutions, bureaucracies and corporations that function as a network both within and across national borders. More often than not, professionals working within these networks have more interests in common than they do with other civil servants from their own state. In other words, the French external intelligence agency (DGSE), which does much of the bulk data collection work in France, has more interests in common with the GCHQ or even the NSA than it does with the French data protection authority CNIL. These networks work together and reinforce each other: the GCHQ, for example, is known to have actively trained DGSE officials to lobby the French government in order to get more institutional and legal powers. These alliances are sometimes institutionalized and public, as in the UKUSA Agreement (also known as the “Five Eyes”, which include the UK, the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand), sometimes less known (such as Alliance Base, which includes the UK, the US, Canada, France, Germany and Australia since 2001). Who is on the other side, and who has the potential to keep these networks in check? The courts are certainly one possibility, but it should not be overstated. As noted by some, the abovementioned decision of the ECJ on the data retention directive does not rule out mass surveillance and in fact sets out “unusually detailed guidelines for the legislature” to adopt a data retention instrument compatible with fundamental rights. Parliamentary supervision and oversight by independent bodies (such as the CTIVD in the Netherlands, or the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament in the UK) do exist, but have proved to be limited if not supportive of surveillance measures (the case of the UK DRIP law comes again to mind). The search for support points within the EU institutions, in any case, is limited. In addition to these institutional options, three factors might contribute to a change in practices of mass surveillance: a gradual change in public opinion, an evolution in technology, and a challenge to the current business model (this means both the rise of free software and an increased offer of paid services relying on a subscription rather than free services financed by advertising - Google’s current model). As such, change in the direction of more privacy might come from a loose coalition of actors with divergent agendas but a common interest in privacy: privacy-minded political movements; the free software, open source, hacktivist community and private entrepreneurs. If the environmentalist movement can serve as an example, it is possible to imagine the diffusion of a demand for privacy from a small core of political activists to the broader society, in particular through open-source or easy-to-use paid software. The development of recent initiatives and the renewed popularity of old initiatives aimed at guaranteeing more privacy, such as the Mozilla Foundation (Firefox browser, Thunderbird mail client), the DuckDuckGo search engine, or the new services from the Dark Mail Technical Alliance (founded by the owners of Silent Circle and the defunct Lavabit), and ProtonMail (an encrypted mail initiative launched by MIT and CERN scientists) supports this hypothesis. While these activists and entrepreneurs were largely ignored until not long ago, the Snowden revelations have contributed to diffuse their concerns and to popularize their combination of technological and political commitment. These changes might, in the long run, alter Europe’s national and supranational institutions more than anything else. Read more from our 'Joining the dots on state surveillance' series here.An unemployed military veteran who raised no funds and put up no campaign website shocked South Carolina's Democratic Party leadership by capturing the nomination to face Republican U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint in November. With nearly all precincts reporting Tuesday, Alvin Greene, 32, commanded 59 percent of the vote against 41 percent for former four-term state lawmaker Vic Rawl, 64, who had raised about $186,000 and had to abruptly scrap a late-week fundraiser for the fall. State Democratic Party Chairwoman Carol Fowler said voters unfamiliar with either candidate may have voted alphabetically for Greene over Rawl. "As far as I know, he never showed up at anything. Vic Rawl has been campaigning everywhere from the time he filed," she said. Rawl said he was disappointed. "I would've liked very much to be a candidate against Jim DeMint," Rawl said, describing his sole primary rival as something of a mystery. "I never saw him. I've still never met him." As for Greene, he couldn't explain it either but thanked voters in a state numb with high unemployment and said: "Let's continue to make history and get South Carolina back to work." Greene said he spent a total of 13 years in the Air Force and Army before leaving the Army in August. DeMint, a conservative Republican pursuing a second term, has marshaled a $3.5 million war chest already to face the bare-pockets Democratic underdog. Political scientist Scott Huffmon at Winthrop University said the looming DeMint-Greene contest already shapes up in lopsided favor of DeMint and shows South Carolina Democrats lack depth to field strong candidates in every race. "DeMint's coasting pretty much to re-election," he predicted. Late Tuesday, stunned Democratic leaders in South Carolina struggled to comprehend how the little-seen candidate upstaged Rawl, a moderate Southern Democrat they viewed as their far stronger bet against DeMint. Rawl's lengthy resume lists four past state House terms and former posts as prosecutor, circuit court judge and more. DeMint trounced a Charleston lawyer, Susan Gaddy, in the Republican contest to advance. More CBSNews.com Coverage of Tuesday's Primaries: Winners: Blanche Lincoln \| Nikki Haley \| Meg Whitman \| Carly Fiorina \| Sharron Angle \| Roundup Anthony Salvanto: What's Next for the Big Primary Winners? Jeff Greenfield: California Vote to Alter Primaries Could Have Huge Impact Bob Schieffer: Money and Melodrama Shape Primaries Marc Ambinder: How Did Sen. Blanche Lincoln Pull Victory From the Jaws of Defeat? Women Win Big on Primary Day Interactive Map: CBS News Campaign 2010 Race Ratings99th edition of Welcome to theof Research and Reviews in the Fastlane. R&R in the Fastlane is a free resource that harnesses the power of social media to allow some of the best and brightest emergency medicine and critical care clinicians from all over the world tell us what they think is worth reading from the published literature. This edition contains 5 recommended reads. The R&R Editorial Team includes Jeremy Fried, Nudrat Rashid, Soren Rudolph, Anand Swaminathan and, of course, Chris Nickson. Find more R&R in the Fastlane reviews in the R&R Archive, read more about the R&R project or check out the full list of R&R contributors This Edition’s R&R Hall of Famer Peri-operative Medicine, Cardiology Douketis JD et al. Perioperative bridging anticoagulation in patients with atrial fibrillation. N Engl J Med. 2015; 373(9):823-833. PMID: 26095867 This randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial assigned patients with chronic (permanent or paroxysmal) atrial fibrillation or flutter who had received warfarin therapy for 3 months or longer, with an international normalized ratio (INR) therapeutic range of 2.0 to 3.0 and were undergoing an elective operation or other elective invasive procedure that required interruption of warfarin therapy; and had at least one of the CHADS 2 stroke risk factors to receiving bridging anticoagulation therapy with dalteparin sodium (100 IU per kilogram of body weight administered subcutaneously twice daily) or to receive no bridging therapy (i.e., a matching subcutaneous placebo) from 3 days before the procedure until 24 hours before the procedure and then for 5 to 10 days after the procedure. The results showed that for this group of patients a strategy of forgoing bridging anticoagulation was noninferior to perioperative bridging with low-molecular-weight heparin for the prevention of arterial thromboembolism. The strategy of forgoing bridging treatment also decreased the risk of major bleeding. stroke risk factors to receiving bridging anticoagulation therapy with dalteparin sodium (100 IU per kilogram of body weight administered subcutaneously twice daily) or to receive no bridging therapy (i.e., a matching subcutaneous placebo) from 3 days before the procedure until 24 hours before the procedure and then for 5 to 10 days after the procedure. The results showed that for this group of patients a strategy of forgoing bridging anticoagulation was noninferior to perioperative bridging with low-molecular-weight heparin for the prevention of arterial thromboembolism. The strategy of forgoing bridging treatment also decreased the risk of major bleeding. Recommended by: Nudrat Rashid The Best of the Rest Emergency Medicine Macy E, Contreras R. Health care use and serious infection prevalence associated with penicillin ‘‘allergy’’ in hospitalized patients: A cohort study. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2014;133(3):790-6. PMID: 24188976 Allergy to penicillin class drugs is extremely common. However, most studies show that only 1-5% of patients who claim an allergy actually have one. This article investigates the additional costs that occur as a result of penicillin ʺ allergy ʺ being placed on a chart. In this observational study, the authors found that patients had longer hospitalizations and at more risk for C.diff, MRSA and VRE infections. Overall, they found that it would be much cheaper and more efficient to test every patient to try and establish true allergy (or more likely, absence of allergy) than to continue to spend health care dollars in this way. allergy being placed on a chart. In this observational study, the authors found that patients had longer hospitalizations and at more risk for C.diff, MRSA and VRE infections. Overall, they found that it would be much cheaper and more efficient to test every patient to try and establish true allergy (or more likely, absence of allergy) than to continue to spend health care dollars in this way. Recommended by: Anand Swaminathan Emergency Medicine Murphy N et al. Gestation-specific D-dimer reference ranges: a cross-sectional study. Br J Obstet Gyn 2015; 122:(3)395-400. PMID: 24828148 The workup of pregnant patients with possible pulmonary embolism is complicated because the beloved decision aids haven’t been validated for use in this population and we know d-dimer levels increase naturally during gestation. This study took a sample from healthy pregnant patients (n=760) at different stages of gestation. They found, unsurprisingly, that d-dimer increases with gestational age, congruent with limited prior literature. They propose a continuous increasing d-dimer in pregnancy. With PE experts such as Dr. Kline proposing gestation adjusted d-dimer, this is a research space to watch. Recommended by: Lauren Westafer Systems and administration Del Portal DA, et al. Impact of an Opioid Prescribing Guideline in the Acute Care Setting. J Emerg Med 2015. PMID: 26281819 As many EDs implement voluntary opioid prescribing guidelines, this study is the first of it’s kind to examine outcomes after doing so. The prescription opioid abuse epidemic in the U.S. is a well known problem and a black eye on the face of medicine as it’s an issue we created in an attempt to alleviate the suffering of our patients. Unfortunately, the pendulum clearly swung too far to the side of liberal distribution and we are now dealing with the consequences of over prescribing. The authors in this study detail their experience implementing a voluntary guideline at multiple ED sites. They found that opioid prescriptions for dental, neck, back, or unspecified chronic pain decreased from 52.7% before the guideline to 29.8% immediately after its introduction, and to 33.8% at an interval of 12 to 18 months later. Additionally, 100% of ED faculty supported the guideline. Importantly, providers were able to ʺ override ʺ the guideline at their discretion and a state prescription monitoring database was not available at the time of the study. override the guideline at their discretion and a state prescription monitoring database was not available at the time of the study. Recommended by: Jeremy Fried Ultrasound and imaging Bouhemad B et al Ultrasound for ʺlung monitoringʺ of ventilated patients. Anesthesiology 2015; 122(2):437-47. PMID 25501898 The use of lung ultrasound (LUS) is ever expanding. Today we know several specific LUS patterns corresponding to lung pathology and for some of these we have couple specific treatments. However the problem with LUS has mostly been how to communicate findings between clinicians and to monitor these over time. This paper offers a scoring system to monitor degree of lung aeration over time and as response to specific treatments, ie PEEP and prone position, in the ventilated patient. Recommended by: Søren Rudolph The R&R iconoclastic sneak peek icon key That’s it for this week… you think is worth reading. That should keep you busy for a week at least! Thanks to our wonderful group of editors and contributors Leave a comment below if you have any queries, suggestions, or comments about this week’s R&R in the FASTLANE or if you want to tell us whatthink is worth reading.This article is from the archive of our partner. Google's photographic tour of everywhere on always seemed a little bit limited by the term "Street View," but with photos of business interiors now appearing on Google Maps, it's breaking free of that constraint. As part of its new local efforts, Google Places reps are running around 37 global cities--in the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, Japan, France and the U.K., to be specific--to photograph the interiors of a few lucky local businesses. The project has been underway for six months now, and business owners have to apply for the privilege of being photographed. But the latest effort from the company that once set out to organize all of the world's information is even more impressive that the recent press stunts that took Google Maps users on a trip up the Amazon River and a journey through the Alps. Now, they're taking you inside your local comic book store. View Larger Map As you'll learn if you tap the arrows on the ground, the new feature is not limited to a peek in the front door. The new feature aims to offer users the ability to walk through the entire store--or coffee shop or restaurant--to get a feel for what it's like inside. The new interactive tour comes in addition to the option of including featured photos that can be closeups of plates of food or specific products. Both are accessible from the business local listings page and Google Maps. From the old street view, you just have to click on the pin to zoom in for the interior view. For privacy's sake, Google blurs the faces of any people that are inside.Lata Mangeshkar ( (help·info) ) (born 28 September 1929) is an Indian playback singer and music director. She is one of the best-known and most respected playback singers in South Asia, especially India.[2][3] She has recorded songs in over a thousand Hindi films and has sung songs in over thirty-six regional Indian languages and foreign languages, though primarily in Marathi, Hindi, and Bengali. The Dadasaheb Phalke Award was bestowed on her in 1989 by the Government of India. In 2001, in recognition of her contributions to the nation, she was awarded the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour and is only the
now I am working on edits. Still a bit more to do, but it's not as bad as creating the whole thing from the ground up. During the time I was drafting the project, I was still painting my nails and saving up posts. This manicure was inspired by a post I saw at PolishPedia. It was a manicure of cute little teddy bears. Since I had the same colors as was used in the tutorial, I thought I would attempt it with a little twist. Overall, I'm very pleased with how it turned out....just not with how the pictures came out. Seriously Flip Flop Fantasy is impossible to photograph! Let's take a look! My nails were rather long...kinda liking that length. Of course a day later one broke and they returned to nubbins. Also had to use the white lightbox background which turns grey.....ugh. I need to figure this stupid thing out once and for all....or shove more light into it. China Glaze - Flip Flop Fantasy Ulta - Snow White Sinful Colors - Black on Black Adorable, right? In the PolishPedia tutorial, she had a white nail with pink polka dots. I really wasn't feeling it so I decided to do two teddy bear accent nails. I was going to do a middle and ring finger accent with the two bears looking at each other, but I decided against it since I have lately been disliking accents on those fingers. No offense to those who do that, but it's been bugging me when I personally do it. Besides, doing a bear face on the thumb gives you a bigger canvas and a cuter design. To design the teddy bears, I used a nail art brush and painted the large circle for the bears head. I filled in the inside of the bear's head using the same brush. When it was dried, I added ears, eyes, and the nose with different sized dotting tools. I cannot begin to tell you how proud I am of my polka dotted nails!!! Thanks to my new dotting tools from Born Pretty, I have more sizes which makes it easier to create the perfect dot. I was able to get them almost perfect!!! Also, instead of starting in the center and going down the middle of the nail, and then dotting along the side, I went diagonal this time. I think it worked out a lot better too because I again was able to cover more of the nail. If you want to get yourself some of these dotting tools, head on over to Born Pretty and use the coupon code AMBK31 to receive 10% off! Just click the little code on the side to go to their site! What do you think?? Love, hate? Are you able to photograph Flip Flop Fantasy perfectly or no? Overall, loved having this bright and cute manicure during the middle of a snow storm! It brightened my day so much!!!! Until next post, <3!! Colors Used:On August 10th the Washington Post’s Callum Borchers wrote a particularly dishonest piece called, “People love it when Donald Trump makes fun of journalists — except one in particular”. It reported on a recent Bloomberg poll that asked respondents what statement/action of Trump’s bothered them the most. Still waiting for the Hillary version of this? You’ll be waiting along time. Of course, one of the actions the poll asked people to rate was “Trump’s criticism of a reporter that was seen as mocking the reporter’s physical disability.” Note “that was seen as…” Don’t you love it? Who saw it that way? People who watched the video of Trump with the media caption “Trump mocks disabled reporter” plastered on it? The media created the impression that Trump was mocking the reporter’s disability when in fact this was not the case as we have shown: See: https://www.catholics4trump.com/wapo-fact-checker-gets-4-hillarys-for-ignoring-evidence-trump-didnt-mock-reporters-disability/ See also: https://www.catholics4trump.com/the-true-story-donald-trump-did-not-mock-a-reporters-disability/ Now the media is polling to see how outraged people are over a false narrative that they themselves created. Pretty neat. Borchers does all of the misleading things we point out in our linked pieces above. He has the video of Trump freeze framed at the precise moment that Trump’s right hand is flexed down. Then he has the obligatory still photo of Kovaleski with his right hand flexed, giving the impression Trump is mocking a fixed flexed right hand. Predictably, Borchers does not have the courage to show the public video of Kovaleski, because then it would be obvious to his readers that Kovaleski is not spastic and Trump could not possibly have been mocking his disability. Also, Borchers does not show video of Trump impersonating a flustered General at the same rally he imitated the flustered reporter. Nor was Borchers honest enough to show video of Trump imitating a flustered Cruz with the same type of arm and hand gestures. But the most egregious falsehood Borchers tells is what follows: Nine months after a rally in South Carolina where Trump contorted his arms in a way that was clearly meant to imitate the effects of arthrogryposis, which visibly limits flexibility in the arms of journalist Serge F. Kovaleski, voters say the incident still disturbs them. Note: “that was clearly meant to imitate the effects of arthrogryposis.” It’s remarkable how Borchers can read Trump’s mind. But it’s even more remarkable how he begs the question. He simply expects us to take his word for it, that Trump falling his arms and hands was “clearly meant” to imitate the effects of a condition that results in fixed joints that can’t be moved very well at all. As we demonstrated in the above links, video of Kovaleski proves that his disability in no way causes him to move in any way similar to Trump. A comment was then placed in the comments section of the article on August 15th, explaining these facts and linking to the two above articles on our site with video evidence giving an alternate explanation for Trump’s actions. It was first allowed to be posted and then quickly deleted. This demonstrates that the Washington Post is aware of evidence existing that contradicts their conclusions, and that they are willfully attempting to conceal it from their readers. If Borchers and WaPo were honest and truly wanted to report ALL of the evidence for and against and let the readers decide, they would have to include the video of Kovaleski and the video of Trump impersonating a flustered General and a flustered Cruz. Any objective report would include both evidence for and against a certain interpretation of the Trump video. However, as we have seen, WaPo is not interested in the truth or being objective. The have one sole objective and that is to stop Donald Trump from becoming president. They will apparently stoop to every level of dishonesty including the hiding of facts and evidence from their readers to create the appearance of a story that hurts Trump’s chances among voters. Fortunately, for the public and for the sake of the truth, we are here to expose WaPo’s dishonesty and provide the public with ALL of the facts and both sides of the story so they can decide for themselves. Like this: Like Loading...A damning confession made by a Quebec man days before his arrest on a terrorism-related charge can be used against him, a judge has ruled. After months of deliberation, Judge Serge Délisle of Quebec provincial court has decided the RCMP did not break the rules in conducting an elaborate undercover sting operation against Ismael Habib. In the sting, Habib, 29, told an undercover RCMP officer it was his "duty" to fight jihad alongside ISIS. He also confessed to whipping a prisoner on a 2013 trip to Syria. He was arrested days later in his home in Gatineau, Que., on unrelated charges, after an apparent domestic dispute. Once in custody, he was charged with the terrorism-related offence. The trial of Habib, who was born and raised in Montreal, resumed Monday after a six-week recess. Defence lawyer Charles Montpetit is expected to begin his arguments on Wednesday. First adult tried under new terrorist law Habib is charged with attempting to leave Canada to participate in the activities of a terrorist group and providing false information to obtain a passport. Ismael Habib, seen here in a court sketch from last March, told an undercover RCMP officer it was his 'duty' to fight jihad alongside ISIS. (Laurie Foster-MacLeod) He is the first adult being tried under a section of the Anti-terrorism Act that was enacted under the Conservative government in 2013. In the course of the police sting, he confessed to an undercover agent posing as a crime boss peddling fake passports that once he found a way out of Canada, he planned to go to Syria to fight with ISIS. Unbeknownst to Habib, his confession was videotaped, and the Crown, led by federal prosecutor Lyne Décarie, aired that tape to bolster its arguments. Questions surrounding confession In the ruling issued Monday, the judge had to decide whether the undercover operations constituted what is called a "Mr. Big" sting, where police officers create a fictitious criminal organization and then seduce the suspect into joining it. The method has resulted in hundreds of recorded confessions, often in cold case murders. The lawyer representing Ismael Habib, Charles Montpetit, will present arguments on Wednesday. (CBC) However, in 2014, a landmark Supreme Court decision put limits on how police are allowed to use Mr. Big stings. A Mr. Big confession can be found admissible only if it proves to be a critical piece of evidence that is corroborated by other evidence — and if the police can show they have not abused their power in persuading the accused to confess. In his decision, Délisle found that, despite some modifications made by RCMP, the method used against Habib still qualified as a Mr. Big sting. The judge ruled it should be admissible, since Habib was not coerced into giving his confession and because it was corroborated by other evidence. Today's Staunton News Leader, a Gannett newspaper based in Virginia, came with a little surprise for the children. In a "Kid's Corner" sidebar buried in the weather section, the caption accompanying a Crayoned drawing included the word "fucking." As in: If you’re a fucking idiot, it can be fun to refer to your draft site as “the war room.” Wait, what? The arbitrary caption is a line of copy pasted directly from The Onion's "Tips For Hosting A Fantasy Football Draft," published last Friday. (See left.) Romenesko points us to the paper's online apology, which specifies that the objectionable section was laid out and submitted by third-party vendor, Accuweather.com. "The language was not caught by our editors and made it into print," writes executive editor David Fritz. "First of all, we apologize for this getting into the newspaper. Secondly, we'll be working internally and with our vendor to make certain that there's no repeat." Mistakes like this usually end up in newspapers one of two ways: 1) A disgruntled employee is leaving the company and wanted to see if this extraneous copy would get by the newspaper editors. Usually such a prank would be a lot funnier, so this probably isn't the case. 2) Whoever laid out the page pasted his/her clipboard text as place-holder caption and never bothered to insert the correct text. This is why graphic designers use TK or Latin passages, not random sentences from The Onion, because place-holder text is known to slip into print. In any case, could've been worse? [Romenesko // the kind of photo you'd expect in Kid's Corner via Shutterstock]To help us continue working for your rights, please support DRI with a donation; we suggest €5 per month, but even a €20 euro once-off donation will help a lot! Scroll down to make a single donation, a monthly donation, or to donate by Bitcoin. We appreciate any level of contribution you can offer — thank you for supporting DRI. Single Donation Please choose an amount for your donation: €5 €10 €20 €50 Other Other Amount Name * First Last Email * Select a payment method: Credit Card PayPal Please click the Donate button to transfer to PayPal and complete your donation. Your payment will be securely processed by Stripe. 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Speaking of pipelines — and your difficulty getting one built in the U.S. to export the bitter fruit of Alberta’s bitumen — you have my sympathies. Come heck or high water, your oilsands are our oilsands, because we’re all in this together in the land of milk and honey. But your latest demand — that I as Ontario’s premier prostrate myself before oilsands-rich Alberta by saluting and saying sorry for speaking my mind — is, um, un-Canadian. True, it’s traditional to stoke anti-Ontario resentment ahead of an Alberta election, casting me as one of those ungrateful “Eastern bastards” who deserves to freeze in the dark (sorry about using the b-word, but it’s in quotes). The business press and the tabloids are lapping it up. But times have changed. I can’t fathom your demand that we publicly declare fealty to Alberta’s cause in the U.S. You can dress it up as our pan-Canadian duty, but it was seen here as transparently and pointlessly political, not patriotic. Trust me, Americans barely notice Canadian prime ministers and ambassadors. They are oblivious to premiers. And they couldn’t care less about an imaginary “united front” among the provinces, as if we had a God-given right to pollute Nebraska’s sensitive ecology. In case you hadn’t noticed, your Alberta tarsands — sorry, oilsands — are our collective Canadian bogeyman, akin to Newfoundland’s baby white seals. We are all bearing a cross for you, even if your right-wing media can’t wait to crucify me. Goading us won’t get you anywhere. The battle for public opinion can’t be fought in Central Canada, nor will you win with bluster in the U.S. or Europe. Cleaning up your act — by reducing wasteful water inputs and excessive carbon outputs — would convert more hearts and minds abroad. Article Continued Below On the home front, it hurts when Alberta’s exports drive up our double-edged petrodollar and price our exports out of the market. But when I said precisely that the other day — rebutting your claims that the oilsands have enriched Ontario — I discovered that the truth hurts even more. My polite (if impolitic) answer, at the end of a scrum, merely pointed out that our manufacturing heartland has paid a heavy price in lost jobs. Heard of Caterpillar? Even so, I offered a friendly climbdown a couple of days later, admitting that I need to “self-edit” myself a bit when talking to the press (My wife, Terri, always reminds me at the dinner table). I gather, from your reaction on Calgary talk radio, that wasn’t enough for you. They call me Premier Dad here, because I lapse into the role of eldest brother in a family of 10. Also when dealing with the other 10 provinces. But instead of lecturing or hectoring you, I’ll make this reciprocal plea: When your bitumen belches carbon into the atmosphere, remember that Ontario is rapidly closing all its coal-burning power plants to reduce our pan-Canadian footprint for greenhouse gases. I don’t hear you thanking us for that. Alberta owns the resources under its soil. But if this were a truly functional federation, instead of soaking up so much revenue today you’d create a sovereign wealth fund (as other oil-rich countries have) to minimize currency distortions. I don’t hear you talking that up. We still can’t get Ottawa to bolster our green and clean energy strategy, while it grants generous tax concessions to Alberta’s dirty oilsands. And I’m still waiting for you to back us on that one. As Premier Dad, I’ve always tried to find a balance between truthful and tactful when raising my own kids. Yes, it was uncharacteristically brazen of me to rain on your parade rather than join your crusade. But it was a bit rich of you to not spare a thought for our losses. When you feel our pain, we’ll celebrate your gain. Yours in Canadian unity, Dalton McGuinty Martin Regg Cohn’s provincial affairs column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. [email protected], twitter.com/reggcohn. Read more about:Believe It Or Not, The Old Delhi Blast Happened As A Man Carrying Bagfull Of Crackers Tried To Smoke A Bidi! Believe It Or Not, The Old Delhi Blast Happened As A Man Carrying Bagfull Of Crackers Tried To Smoke A Bidi! One person has died and five others suffered injuries in an explosion that took place on Tuesday morning at Naya Bazar – a whole sale market at Chandni Chowk. The CCTV footage of the event shows a man carrying firecrackers in gunnybags on his head just before the explosion: The police said prima facie it looks like a firecracker explosion when he placed the bag down to light up a smoke but an official confirmation is awaited. BCCL The man who died on the spot was carrying two gunny bags on his head, said the police, adding that the explosion took place when he placed them on the ground. He can be seen smoking in the CCTV footage when the blast occurred. Smoke and debris fill the street as the explosion rocked the area and people can be seen scurrying to safety. Don't Miss 152 SHARES 5.6 K SHARES 142 SHARES 1.6 K SHARES The blast took place at around 10:30 am and the deceased has not been identified yet, said a police officer. Teams of Delhi Police anti-terror wing, Special Cell, Intelligence Bureau and forensic experts have reached the site of explosion. The area has been cordoned off. “Prima facie it looks like a firecracker explosion in a jute bag. Though, the nature of the blast is yet to be ascertained as doubts remain if the explosion was caused by firecrackers or cylinder,” Joint CP (Northern Range) Virendra Chahal told reporters. BCCL Explosive materials used in making firecrackers have been found at the site of explosion in the area. Window panes of the surrounding buildings were damaged due to the impact of the blast. “We have recovered those plastic shells commonly used in fire crackers from the spot. But we still need to figure out what was the explosive substance inside those shells. There is no crater at the spot, which means it was not a high intensity explosive,” said a senior police officer present at the spot. indiatimes Meanwhile, Home Minister Rajnath Singh – who is in Bahrain – reportedly called Delhi Police Commissioner Alok Verma and inquired about the incident and directed him to take stock of the situation in the national capital. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has also sought a detailed report from the commissioner and is learnt to have briefed the top cop to immediate arrest those involved in the incident and keep a strong vigil on the area. Delhi has been on high-alert because of the festival season.Residents of Chicago can track their city’s plows and pothole repairs in real time. In Seattle, 911 calls are quickly detailed online. New Yorkers can sift through city contracts with a simple mouse click. Minneapolis has kept a tight grip on the information it collects even as cities across the country open up streams of public data to developers, journalists and the public. But this past November’s election has spurred calls at City Hall to liberate that data, from food inspections to landlord violations, so it can be analyzed and manipulated for the public good. “I figured when I came to Minneapolis that I was going to find a liberal, open place — very progressive, etcetera,” Otto Doll, the city’s chief information officer, told a gathering of data enthusiasts last week. “And we are, in certain ways, but not with our data.” The secretary of state’s office is also entering the fray, opening up public data sets in new formats for developers to experiment with at an event later this month. And at a developer-driven event last year, five strangers took six hours to create a mobile tool, now called OMGTransit.com, that makes it easier to track real-time bus and train arrivals. Supporters of open data say it improves government accountability, empowers citizens and ultimately can save public dollars. But they often encounter resistance from government officials, who are reluctant to release it to the masses. “The real end is making new tools or new analyses for the local community or the city or the government,” said Bill Bushey, an organizer for Open Twin Cities. Minnesota’s open records law already defines what data is public, but open data advocates say it should be in an easily analyzed format — for instance, spreadsheets rather than PDFs. Bill Bushey, his computer covered in stickers, will be part of the civic discussion on how to make Minneapolis’ public data more accessible. Doll is following a City Council direction to create an open data policy for the city that also likely will address ways to protect individual privacy. Those who attended Doll’s gathering said they were interested in data sets relating to crime, business licenses, housing inspections, city spending and 311 calls, non-emergency contacts with City Hall. Among them was Tony Webster, a developer who used an open records request to create a searchable database of city restaurant health code violations spanning two years. He speculates that Minneapolis is one of a few major cities without one. Webster also used Chicago’s towing data to create an app that tells drivers if their cars have been towed. But he has encountered major obstacles trying to obtain simple housing information — or any real-time data sets — from Minneapolis. “Making that information more easily accessible would only further the goals of the city by ensuring those who can advocate, report on, or research urban problems have the data in hand,” Webster wrote in an e-mail. Culture change New Council Member Andrew Johnson, the body’s most vocal open data advocate, knows that frustration all too well. A former systems engineer at Target, Johnson was part of a team that offered to help Minneapolis police analyze their public crime data. They needed it in a raw format, rather than maps and reports. “It was like pulling teeth,” Johnson said. “And ultimately we ended up giving up because it was so hard working with the department at the time. Because they wanted to hold that data so close to the vest.” Opening more city data will rely partly on the buy-in of city department heads. The city’s regulatory services chief, Nuria Rivera-Vandermyde, said she is eager to improve public access to the city’s housing data, including adding more functionality to the city’s property lookup site. Public works staffers are starting to use technology that tracks plows as they complete routes, but they have no timeline for a public rollout. Transportation Maintenance Director Mike Kennedy said if someone eventually transformed it into an app that tells people if they are legally parked, he would be supportive. “We know that that’s where it’s going and I’d love to have that myself,” Kennedy said. Chicago and New York City provide citizens with checkbook-level spending information online, while Minneapolis’ spending transparency garnered a D- from the U.S. Public Interest Research Group last year. Minneapolis’ chief financial officer, Kevin Carpenter, said providing that level of detail online would present many complications, such as how debt payments and pass-through funds from other governments are classified. The city already uses data in innovative ways internally with the help of IBM, which has helped create a so-called intelligent operations platform that can visualize events or identify trends by drawing on many disparate data sets. That tool is not available to the public. ‘Stuff you can’t even imagine’ At a collaborative workspace in Uptown later this month, developers will dig into a range of public data on elections and business filings that Secretary of State Mark Ritchie is releasing in new formats. In an online message board, “Capitol Code” participants already have suggested creating a directory of Minnesota manufacturers, or a tool to easily report and look up fraudulent solicitations. “When you ask out loud to the citizens, ‘Hey, what are your ideas?’ and then you bring in data from a number of different places, the real objective is the stuff that you can’t even imagine,” Ritchie said. “Really what this is doing is it’s transforming the way in which a government performs,” says Ian Kalin, open data manager for Socrata, a Seattle-based company that works with governments across the country to open data sets and store them online. He estimates that more than 100 governments in the U.S. have launched open data initiatives, mostly in the past five years. Socrata works with Chicago, which has released nearly 1,000 data sets. Developers there have created apps that allow the public to dig into detailed crime statistics, research the most active lobbyists, locate vacant buildings and track city legislation. Other data help researchers evaluate after-school programs or track health trends across the city, said developer Derek Eder, who started a business from crunching public data. “Who in the city of Chicago would have ever thought that you could use the data that way?” Eder said. “But the fact that it was released, and that it’s free for people to use, makes it all the more easy for people to take the data and then do something really fascinating with it.” Twitter: @StribRoper12 years ago today, Steve Jobs delivered a keynote in Boston where he announced a number of new initiatives with its ole’ rival Microsoft and an end to the legal battle over Apple’s allegations that Microsoft illegally copied the “look and feel” of the Mac OS. In the video below, a non-turtleneck clad Jobs announced that Microsoft and Apple had reached a cross licensing agreement whereby each would be free to license each others existing patents and any future patents filed for the next 5 years. In addition, Jobs noted that Apple would make Internet Explorer the default browser on the Mac (which resulted in a hilarious round of “boos” from the audience), and in return, Microsoft would pledge to release versions of Microsoft Office for the Mac for the next 5 years, and that it would also purchase $150 million in Apple Stock and not sell it for at least 3 years. What’s amusing about the video below is just how anti-Microsoft the crowd is, and it really takes you back to a time when hatred for Microsoft was a lot more common amongst Apple fans than it is today. About 4:45 seconds into the video, Bill Gates appears via satellite to discuss Microsoft’s new initiatives with Apple and the crowd reacts as if they’ve seen the devil himself. Man, what a time to be a Mac fan! Soon thereafter, Jobs said what can arguably be probably be classified as one of the most salient and important statements in Apple’s history. And if we want to move forward and see Apple healthy and prospering again, we have to let go a few things, here. We have to let go of this notion that for Apple to win, Microsoft has to lose. We have to embrace the notion that for Apple to win, Apple has to do a really good job… the era of setting this up as a competition between Apple and Microsoft is over as far as I’m concerned. For anyone too young to remember, the anti-Microsoft sentiment in the 90’s was palpable for Apple fans, and for many, their love of Apple was only rivaled by their hatred for all things Microsoft. Steve Jobs was keenly aware that Apple couldn’t keep on chasing Microsoft Windows forever. He correctly pointed out that Microsoft had already won the OS wars. And with that mindset, Jobs helped steer Apple into new directions over the next few years as he oversaw development of the iMac, iPod, and eventually the iPhone.Please enable Javascript to watch this video FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) - St. Louis County has lifted the state of emergency that was imposed in Ferguson and the surrounding area after shootings during protests to mark the anniversary of Michael Brown's death. County Executive Steve Stenger's announcement Friday followed the third straight night of calm in the St. Louis suburb. Stenger said in a statement that police will remain vigilant. Stenger issued a state of emergency Monday, putting St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar in charge of security, after gunfire and violence erupted during demonstrations related to the anniversary of the 18-year-old Brown's death. Brown, who was black, was fatally shot by white Ferguson officer Darren Wilson on Aug. 9, 2014. Wilson was not charged, and the shooting spurred a national ``Black Lives Matter'' movement. St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger released the following statement Friday morning:Intel's 5th Core processor family, codenamed Broadwell, will launch in three lines for the mobile segment. We are talking about upcoming Broadwell 14nm processors that will start appearing in Q4 2014 and will continue to launch trough the first half of 2015. The 5th generation Core 5Y70 and three other similar parts belong to the Y-line of processors. these are BGA processors with 4.5W TDP and they draw significantly less power than the Y-line of processors belonging to the Haswell generation. The Haswell Y-processor line has a TDP of 11.5W and 4.5W - 6W Scenario Design Power (SDP). Since Intel is doing fine with 4.5W TDP on Broadwell it doesn't use the imaginary SDP rating for the 5th generation of Core processors. Y, U and H-processor lines The second to come is the U-Series line that comes in BGA and TDPs ranging from 15W to 28W. Remember Broadwell 5th generation Core has graphics inside as well, so these power figures sound quite good. It replaces U-series line of Haswell 4th generation parts that also has a TDP of 15W to 28W. The last of 5th generation mobile processor family is the H-processor line that comes with BGA and whooping 47W TDP. This one is meant for the high end systems and Intel has U processor line with Haswell with the same TDP and a lower TDP version that had 37W maximum thermal dissipation. No Broadwell M-series 37W, 47W and 57W parts? One might notice that Intel doesn't mention the M-processor line that is available in Haswell flavour, but this processor line is not mentioned in the current roadmap. Broadwell 5th generation Core U-series line starts in Q1 2015, Broadwell 5th generation Core Y-series line starts in Q4 2015, while the H-series line starts appearing in Q2 2015. Bay Trail-M also known as N-processor line with its 7.5W to 4.3W TDP and 4.5W and 2.5W Scenario Design Power will stick around until it gets replaced by more efficient Braswell designs in Q1 2015.Steve Jobs is considered an amazing genius and made billions of dollars. Sure we overlook that he didn't pay his share of taxes and didn't believe in charity. But other than these occasional rumblings of dissent he is pretty much held in high esteem. We celebrate him because he invented incredible computers and phones to interact with the Internet and supposedly fix our mundane lives. And now we are addicted to these machines with most people under the age of twenty hardly remembering what the world was like without them. The dirty little secret that nobody likes to talk about is that things just might have been better before the Internet. We had more time to ourselves before cell phones, and text messaging, and Facebook consumed our lives. But you don't hear many people making the argument that Steve Jobs could have ruined the world. That just isn't sexy on the technology blogs. Instead we hear the purveyors of modern thought preach about how the Internet and social media have brought people closer together and changed the world for the better. About how it has freed oppressed people in Egypt and in other places. But are we in the Western world even as free today as we were twenty-five years ago? How can we be free when we are prisoners to social media, in a world without privacy? How can we be free when our every movement is tracked and every conversation is recorded and can easily be held against us? How exactly are we free if we are tethered to our cell phones? And even worse, the human condition is beginning to devolve. We have become addicted to the vanity of social media unable to stop exposing our lives to the world. We post photos of ourselves pretending to be happy on Facebook and speak in 140-character tweets to people we don't know and will never meet in person. We have an emotional dependence on constant text messages from people that we have not seen in years, but still claim to be our friends? Is it pure freedom when these things consume our minds? Before the cell phone and the Internet you felt a more pure sense of liberty than we do today. Whenever you left the house, and the phone, in your kitchen attached to the wall, nobody was able to get a hold of you. When you walked home from school you were alone with your thoughts, free to explore in the woods or skip rocks along the water of some lonely riverbank. Nobody could find you. You were actually alone. People were able to leave the pressures of life behind. Work would end at five o'clock. We were not pursued by a non-stop stream of electronic information scolding us about things still left to do. Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, and Bill Gates have become the rock stars of our generation, The Beatles of our time. So nobody in the right mind would want to forcefully suggest that technology could have ruined the world. That just wouldn't be hip. Technology is the new rock and roll. Railing against it may make you look like some old fogey from the 1950s, aghast at Elvis for shaking his hips on The Ed Sullivan Show. And yes, we love Steve Jobs because he is an artistic and at times poetic technical genius. But could the true genius of Steve Jobs be that he invented a product that costs $600 and needs to be replaced every six months? Could the true genius be how he surreptitiously ripped us all off? It's as if the John Lennon of our times held us up at gunpoint and robbed us all blind. Unfortunately our generation is so impressed by rags to riches stories and self-made billionaires that we are unwilling to address the fact that these assholes are screwing us. Instead we find these people inspiring. In this self-centered modern society we no longer thumb our nose at the oligarchs. Instead the corporate-controlled media has programmed us to believe that with enough hard work and dedication, we too could someday become rich assholes and screw everyone around us. So we don't say anything and hold on to the impossible hope that someday we will make it into their echelon. Life as a human being on this planet changing. Our minds need instant gratification. There is so much information available at our fingertips that television networks and movie studios will soon become a thing of the past. Why go to the trouble of seeing a work of art in the cinema when you can instantly look at a
significant. This also supports Ugo Bardi’s idea of the “Seneca cliff,” according to which societal decline following a peak in energy production, consumption, and EROI may be far quicker than the build-up to the peak. “Burden of Proof: A Comprehensive Review of the Feasibility of 100% Renewable-Electricity Systems,” by B.P. Heard, B.W. Brook, T.M.L. Wigley, and C.J.A. Bradshaw. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Volume 76, September 2017, Pages 1122–1133. This study largely underscores what David Fridley and I wrote in our recent book Our Renewable Future. None of the plans reviewed here (including those by Mark Jacobson and co-authors) passes muster. Clearly, it is possible to reduce fossil fuels while partly replacing them with wind and solar, using current fossil generation capacity as a fallback (this is already happening in many countries). But getting to 100 percent renewables will be very difficult and expensive. It will ultimately require a dramatic reduction in energy usage, and a redesign of entire systems (food, transport, buildings, and manufacturing), as we detail in our book. “Social Instability Lies Ahead, Researcher Says,” by Peter Turchin. January 4, 2017, Phys.org. Over a decade ago, ecologist Peter Turchin began developing a science he calls cliodynamics, which treats history using empirical methods including statistical analysis and modeling. He has applied the same methods to his home country, the United States, and arrives at startling conclusions. My research showed that about 40 seemingly disparate (but, according to cliodynamics, related) social indicators experienced turning points during the 1970s. Historically, such developments have served as leading indicators of political turmoil. My model indicated that social instability and political violence would peak in the 2020s. Turchin sees the recent U.S. presidential election as confirming his forecast: “We seem to be well on track for the 2020s instability peak.... If anything, the negative trends seem to be accelerating.” He regards Donald Trump as more of a symptom, rather than a driver, of these trends. The author’s model tracks factors including “growing income and wealth inequality, stagnating and even declining well-being of most Americans, growing political fragmentation and governmental dysfunction.” Often social scientists focus on just one of these issues; but in Turchin’s view, “these developments are all interconnected. Our society is a system in which different parts affect each other, often in unexpected ways.” One issue he gives special weight is what he calls “elite overproduction,” where a society generates more elites than can practically participate in shaping policy. The result is increasing competition among the elites that wastes resources needlessly and drives overall social decline and disintegration. He sees plenty of historical antecedents where elite overproduction drove waves of political violence. In today’s America there are far more millionaires than was the case only a couple of decades ago, and rich people tend to be more politically active than poor ones. This causes increasing political polarization (millionaires funding extreme candidates), erodes cooperation, and results in a political class that is incapable of solving real problems. I think Turchin’s method of identifying and tracking social variables, using history as a guide, is relevant and useful. And it certainly offers a sober warning about where America is headed during the next few years. However, I would argue that in the current instance his method actually misses several layers of threat. Historical societies were not subject to the same extraordinary boom-bust cycle driven by the use of fossil fuels as our civilization saw during the past century. Nor did they experience such rapid population growth as we’ve experienced in recent decades (Syria and Egypt saw 4 percent per annum growth in the years after 1960), nor were they subject to global anthropogenic climate change. Thus the case for near-term societal and ecosystem collapse is actually stronger than the one he makes. Some Concluding Thoughts Maintaining a civilization is always a delicate balancing act that is sooner or later destined to fail. Some combination of population pressure, resource depletion, economic inequality, pollution, and climate change has undermined every complex society since the beginnings of recorded history roughly seven thousand years ago. Urban centers managed to flourish for a while by importing resources from their peripheries, exporting wastes and disorder beyond their borders, and using social stratification to generate temporary surpluses of wealth. But these processes are all subject to the law of diminishing returns: eventually, every boom turns to bust. In some respects the cycles of civilizational advance and decline mirror the adaptive cycle in ecological systems, where the crash of one cycle clears the way for the start of a new one. Maybe civilization will have yet another chance, and possibly the next iteration will be better, built on mutual aid and balance with nature. We should be planting the seeds now. Yet while modern civilization is subject to cyclical constraints, in our case the boom has been fueled to an unprecedented extreme by a one-time-only energy subsidy from tens of millions of years’ worth of bio-energy transformed into fossil fuels by agonizingly slow geological processes. One way or another, our locomotive of industrial progress is destined to run off the rails, and because we’ve chugged to such perilous heights of population size and consumption rates, we have a long way to fall—much further than any previous civilization. Perhaps a few million people globally know enough of history, anthropology, environmental science, and ecological economics to have arrived at general understandings and expectations along these lines. For those who are paying attention, only the specific details of the inevitable processes of societal simplification and economic/population shrinkage remain unknown. There’s a small cottage industry of websites and commenters keeping track of signs of imminent collapse and hypothesizing various possible future collapse trajectories. Efforts to this end may have practical usefulness for those who hope to escape the worst of the mayhem in the process—which is likely to be prolonged and uneven—and perhaps even improve lives by building community resilience. However, many collapsitarians are quite admittedly just indulging a morbid fascination with history’s greatest train wreck. In many of my writings I try my best to avoid morbid fascination and focus on practical usefulness. But every so often it’s helpful to step back and take it all in. It’s quite a show.Last week, the Boston Review ran a most fascinating interview between author Junot Díaz (The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao) and The Handmaid’s Tale author Margaret Atwood. You know, just a couple of brilliant and award-winning writers discussing speculative fiction, the rise of Trump, and how Atwood’s novel resonates today versus when it was first published in 1985. The whole piece is well worth reading (read it in full here) but there’s one particularly interesting tidbit we’d like to point out: Margaret Atwood thinks Drake should be in season 2 of the Hulu series based on her book. It began when Díaz told Atwood about being in Toronto recently and said, “It seems like currently Toronto — and we could say by extension Canada — has two global superstars: Margaret Atwood and Drake.” He then asked Atwood, 77, if she had met the 30-year-old Grammy winner. Here’s a small snippet of what followed: Atwood: I haven’t met Drake, but I have of course met people who have met Drake. But you have to realize how o-l-d I am. I’m not likely to go to the same parties. Or many parties at all, to be frank. Díaz: I understand. I just think that, Canada — I’ll say this to the whole nation — you are missing a great opportunity to put these two folks together. Have you listened to his music? Do you have any opinions? Atwood: Wouldn’t it be fun for him to have a cameo in season 2 of The Handmaid’s Tale? Díaz: Well, there you have it. Atwood: There you have it. I’ll drop that notion into the ear of Bruce Miller, the showrunner, and see what he can do with that, because of course the show is filmed in Toronto. Maybe Drake could help smuggle someone? Yes, Margaret Atwood! Drake certainly could help smuggle someone! Why not? After all, the singer got his start acting on the teen drama Degrassi: The Next Generation. Get him in one of those nice Drake-y sweaters and have him start saving some women from Gilead!Some background: My first smartphone was an iPhone 4. I currently own (and adore) an iPhone 6 and use an iPhone 5c for work. I've also used a Windows Phone for work (which I liked way more than I thought I would). I have loved and lost an iPad 1 and 2, before switching to much cheaper Android tablets. I now use a Surface 3 daily as my main computer (docked) and tablet (keyboard and pen). I have never owned an Android phone. I have always pooh-poohed them as "cheap." Android was fine for a tablet I used sometimes to watch movies on my lap, but for a phone that I used all the time? I preferred a more durable Apple product--an investment. Even a Samsung phone didn't hold appeal... I've had Samsung tablets, which I liked, but couldn't stand their version of Android--too bloated for my tastes. I guess I just preferred the more streamlined iOS experience, walled garden and all. I don't think I'm alone. If all Android devices worked like the Pixel, though? More people would be changing their minds. I happened to get my phone in the mail the day before leaving for a weekend out of town trip... so I had an opportunity to try out a lot of features on this phone I might not have otherwise used right away. I'm going to try and step-by-step through my thoughts on how things worked. 1. Set-Up Set-up was incredibly easy. A SIM card tool was included and it was a piece of cake to just move my SIM card from my old phone to the new one and turn the new phone on. My Verizon signal was recognized immediately. I was then prompted to log into my home's wifi network for the rest of the setup, so as not to kill my data for the month. How thoughtful. :) Like with any other Android device, you'll also be prompted to log into your Google account or create a new one. Even transferring from my iPhone 6 was way simpler than I thought it would be. Google included two charging cables, one with USB-C connectors on both ends for use with a wall outlet charger (also included) and the other with a standard male USB connector. There was also a dongle which allowed you to connect another USB cable to your other device. So, I was able to plug my lightning cable from my phone into my new Pixel XL when prompted and transfer all of my contacts, music and pictures right to my new phone. The transfer took about 15 minutes, during which time I was able to continue with a couple of other setup procedures. The setup process was somewhat lengthy--depending on how you want to set up your device (as a new device, or from a backup of an old device), it may take some time to download apps and transfer data from an old phone or the cloud. Be prepared to take this time... but once it's done, it's done. It's also a nice touch that you get free extra cloud storage for movies and pictures that you take with your phone... No more paying for extra iCloud space! You can also allow/unallow the phone to automatically "dump" pictures from your phone to the cloud when on Wifi to open up space on your phone. This happened once on my trip, and it was actually a really helpful feature. 2. OS and Navigation The Android OS on the Pixel phone is by far the cleanest version of Android I've ever used. It is clean, snappy and intuitive. A quick right swipe opens up essentially your "Google Now" feed. An upward swipe opens up your full app list, so you have them quickly and easily accessible, without having all of them cluttering up wallpaper space, and a right swipe takes you to the next wallpaper page where you can add more app shortcuts. You can also add and place widgets, move things around, etc. A down swipe pulls up your standard settings selections like screen brightness and airplane mode. Even coming from iPhones, I was able to pick up this phone and figure it out right away. It's really easy. 3. Speed and Ease of Use It also just works. I've used cheap Android tablets that are all kinds of slow and hiccup-y and just no fun to use... This phone is FAST. Downloads and installations of apps are super fast, even on LTE. Apps open and load FAST. Pages reload FAST. It is way faster than my iPhone 6 and just a pleasure to use. 4. Camera and screen It's great. I attached a photo I took... which I downloaded from my Google Drive after the phone automatically backed up my photos to save space. :) I had it set to download lower resolution photos than the original photos taken by the phone, but you get a good idea of the color. I was happy with how my pictures came out! The camera app is pretty standard fare for a phone camera, with some other little features available to explore for kicks. I generally don't use extra filters or anything though. The screen is absolutely beautiful. The XL screen is big, but not too big, even for my tiny little kid hands. I did get a fairly grippy silicone case for my phone, if only to help keep it from slipping out of my tiny little kid hands as phones often do. I do find myself two-handing this phone, but the way they set up the OS with many of the controls and most-used apps at the bottom, I find my thumb is actually able to reach most things very easily and I don't have to think about being able to reach things too much. 5. Fingerprint Reader. This is one of my FAVORITE things about my iPhone 6. I love that the Pixel XL has one... I am not thrilled with its placement on the back of the phone. I will be the first to say that I am probably just still getting used to it. But in practical use, there are times when my phone is sitting on the table and I just want to check for notifications, and having the fingerprint reader on the front would allow me to just press my finger to the reader and see the notifications without picking up my phone. (I know... first world problems) Having the reader on the back means I have to pick the phone up and properly hold it. I'd love to at least have a "knock to wake" feature or something (maybe there is one--I looked all over and couldn't find it) so I could just see notifications without having to pick the phone up all the way to use the power button or fingerprint reader. I'm also looking forward to more apps making use of the fingerprint reader for logins like they've been doing in the iOS ecosystem. If you build it, they will come--I know they'll be coming. Just need to be patient! 6. Third Party hardware I have a Pebble Time Round smartwatch which uses Bluetooth LE. I found my watch stayed connected to my phone and actually got richer notifications than it ever did with my iPhone 6. I actually love my Pebble more now! I also use bluetooth headphones of varying types regularly. They all connected easily, stayed connected and worked great! The one downside is that I did not see a quick reference show of the battery level of the connected device on my Pixel like I do on my iPhone 6. Maybe that's not a feature I've figured out yet, maybe it's not available on Android at all--I'm not sure. 7. Hotspot and Tethering If you have Hotspot/Tethering enabled on your plan, you can use this phone as a hotspot. I found it really quickly in the settings and found that it kicked on and connected with my Surface 3 more quickly than when I use my iPhone 6 as a hotspot, which was a pleasant surprise. So far I've found this feature to work really well and the speeds going through to my hotspot connected devices were good and solid. 8. Google Maps and Navigation This was one area where maybe a software update may be coming along. I don't know if anyone else had trouble with this, but I did a lot of walking on my trip, and found that my "facing direction" when trying to follow walking directions in Google maps was pretty inconsistent, to a point where I really needed to stay aware of cross streets and make sure I was actually facing the direction Google Maps says I was. I turned the phone off and on to try and recalibrate, which helped for a short time, but the problem came back. This may be user failure in that I missed a setting that I needed to have, even after making sure all location services were on, but out of everything I love about this phone, I think this may be my one complaint. Otherwise, the Google Maps app was very fast and responsive. 9. Google Assistant Siri and I never got along. I don't have an accent or anything... but some reason, she could never understand what I was trying to ask her. Google Assistant and I had several worthwhile little chats over the weekend and actually got things done. She's a breath of fresh air, doing things for me like setting alarms, reminding me what time my flight was going to leave, and making sure I didn't forget my hotel room number. I'm looking forward to seeing what else she can do. I love that you can speak in regular language to her and almost every time, she understands. 10. Aesthetics and Design In terms of look and feel, this phone is very premium. It has just the right weight--heavy enough that it's got substance and won't fly out of your hand, but you won't get tired holding it. The finish is beautiful, and I really like the way they did the contrasting finishes on the back with the matte metal on the bottom and the mirror-y smooth gloss on the top. The button locations are intuitive and, even being on the back, the fingerprint reader is well-placed and a natural location for either index finger to reach. The front screen covers the entire front of the phone with no interruptions in the glass except for the earpiece. It's all very smooth and flush. And yes--it has a headphone jack! I think I remembered everything I wanted to say. Thanks for taking the time to read--I know buying a new (and very expensive!) phone is a big deal--I hope my feedback is helpful. Read moreMembers of the banned Party for Free Life in Kurdistan (PJAK) group killed two Iranian border guards and injured five others in an armed clash in the northwestern border region. A gunfight occurred on Saturday evening between police serving with the Orumiyeh Border Regiment and PJAK militants, Tasnim News Agency reported. According to reports, troops from the Ziyaee border company came under attack as they were moving along the border for a routine change of guard. The clash resulted in the martyrdom of Major Mohammad Reza Firouzi, commander of the company, and Warrant Officer Mohammad Reza Farahi. PJAK is an offshoot of the internationally-recognized terrorist group, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which conducts deadly operations in western Iran, northern Iraq and southern Turkey. PJAK terrorists regularly engage in armed clashes with Iranian security forces along the country’s western shared border with Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.Daryl Dixon is in pretty bad shape, having just been shot at the end of last week’s episode of The Walking Dead. But while some are questioning if the character’s ride on the zombie drama could be coming to an end, the man that plays him still has plenty of open road ahead of him. Ride With Noman Reedus — which will feature the star and a different riding companion in a different city each week as they travel to a destination and explore motorcycle culture along the way — will begin its six-episode run on AMC in June, and we have the exclusive first look video at the unscripted series right here. <Watch Reedus dish out hugs, thumbs-ups, and high fives in this promo featuring the first footage from the show. “I can’t think of anything we did that wasn’t awesome,” says Reedus. You can enjoy the awesome for yourself by watching the video above to see if it gets your motor runnin’.Get the biggest daily news stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email POLICE investigating the death of an OAP aged 87 have arrested her 48-year-old boyfriend on suspicion of murder. Florence McCouig died in hospital after allegedly telling doctors she feared she was poisoned. Her partner Roy Green was later held. A postmortem test revealed the widow may have died of natural causes but detectives have asked for toxicology tests. Neighbours said Mr Green used to help with her gardening and moved into her home in Wigan, Greater Manchester, two years ago. One, Connie Groonell, 78, added: “She said he was good to her, did her cooking and cleaning. I used to see her most days, but less when Roy moved in.” Det Chief Insp Howard Millington said: “There has been a lot of speculation about this incident and I do not want people to come to any conclusions over this woman’s death. “Initial indications are she may have died of natural causes but are carrying out further tests and inquiries.” A police statement added: “Police were called following the death of an 87-year-old woman. "A 48-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of murder and bailed until 31 January.”As we’ve learned from our recent explorations of Mars, there’s really not a whole lot going on there. Yes, there are geological processes at work, but most of them move at a nearly imperceptible pace. So that's why after nearly ten years of Martian rover exploration, NASA scientists were surprised to see a rock suddenly “appear” in front of the Mars Rover last week. You can see the rock in the images above. The image on the left shows the area in front of Opportunity on Sol 3528. The image to the right was taken 12 Martian days later and is almost identical—except for a rock the size of a donut that had unexpectedly shown up NASA announced the discovery of the rock at an event at Caltech in Pasadena this past Thursday night, dubbing the rock “Pinnacle Island.” “It’s about the size of a jelly doughnut,” NASA Mars Exploration Rover lead scientist Steve Squyres told Discovery News. “It was a total surprise, we were like ‘wait a second, that wasn’t there before, it can’t be right. Oh my god! It wasn’t there before!’ We were absolutely startled.” Unless someone has figured out a way to punk Opportunity all the way from Earth, mission scientists can come up with just two explanations for the sudden appearance of Pinnacle Island: a really close call with a meteor or something Opportunity did. It’s possible that the mystery rock came from a nearby meteor strike, with the force of impact blowing Pinnacle Island off the surface to land in front of Opportunity. Squyers thinks it’s far more likely that Opportunity somehow moved the rock during maneuvers. “So my best guess for this rock... is that it’s something that was nearby,” Squyers told Discovery News. “I must stress that I’m guessing now, but I think it happened when the rover did a turn in place a meter or two from where this rock now lies.” One of Opportunity’s steering actuators has stopped working, so when the rover made a recent turn, the skidding of the affected wheel atop the bedrock may have bumped the mystery rock, sending it a few feet through the Martian atmosphere to land in front of the rover. However the rock got there, NASA is going to study the heck out of it. According to Squyers, the side facing up hasn't been exposed to the Martian atmosphere for "billions of years," so researchers may be able to learn something new from its appearance.After 50 long years, there is now a real sense of excitement that progress is finally being made for the long-neglected LeBreton Flats. The planned redevelopment of the area will be the single largest urban project of its kind in Canada today and perhaps in North America, representing more than 53 acres in the heart of the nation’s capital. It is a project that will transform the face of Ottawa for generations to come. It will require investments of billions of dollars from the private sector, with the people of Canada as the beneficiaries. This endeavour is not a normal run-of-the-mill National Capital Commission (NCC) project. It will be a legacy of the national government for all Canadians. We have before us a once-in-a-generation opportunity, for our region and for our country, and we need to get it right. However, with the direction in which we are currently heading, there is a real risk of getting it wrong. This has to be about more than building just another urban community, or adding 8,000 more condos that may take decades to sell and build. As residents of Ottawa, we have a greater responsibility and an obligation to showcase the very best for the capital of our great country. Related This past April, the NCC announced that the two remaining proponents to redevelop the lands had both scored high enough to qualify for the final stage of the process. Both groups brought forward impressive submissions. The RendezVous LeBreton Group project includes a state-of-the-art NHL arena that would be the new home of the Ottawa Senators, supported by a modern urban residential development, as well as an abilities centre for all ages. The Devcore Canderel DLS Group proposal features creative museums and attractions, as well as community anchors such as a YMCA, a school and Canadian-branded retail shops, all linked by accessible green space. We can only imagine that a decision to select just one of these bids must have been a great challenge for the committee tasked with making the final recommendation to the NCC board. According to the rules of the bidding process, the NCC is required to negotiate first with the highest-scoring proponent – RendezVous LeBreton Group. If those negotiations fail, the NCC would turn to the other proponent. But why must we settle for just one project at the exclusion of the finest components of the other? Bearing in mind the national significance of the initiative, why not combine the best of each proposal? The process that is underway risks achieving a suboptimal result despite the genuine goodwill and hard work of the NCC and all of those involved. During the bidding process, the bidders were prohibited from talking to each other, to prevent collusion. But the rule against such discussions makes no sense now that the bidding process is over. The NCC’s decision to negotiate with only one proponent means that there is currently no way for it even to consider combining the best of both projects. As former elected representatives serving the residents of the National Capital Region for the past several decades (from both sides of the political aisle), we believe that the federal government has an obligation – not only to the people of Ottawa, but to the people of Canada – to find a path forward that will give us the very best result. Based on our own experiences as Ottawa-area ministers serving in different cabinets, we also believe there is a creative solution to this process. The NCC itself can come to the conclusion that there is considerable merit in marrying the best of both proposals. The Commission’s own Request for Proposals gives it wide discretion to make changes even at this stage. If the NCC does not want to act, the minister responsible for the NCC, Mélanie Joly, and local MPs (including our most senior minister, Catherine McKenna) should get involved. Indeed, Cabinet has the authority, on the advice of the minister of Heritage, to provide a directive to the NCC if it “is of the opinion that it is in the public interest to do so.” The public interest demands the best possible development for our nation’s capital – a destination that will inspire the millions who come here each year, and attract new visitors from all over the world. In our view, the way to achieve that goal is to merge the best components of the two projects. We urge all MPs in Ottawa, and both ministers, to do what is necessary to make this happen. John Baird represented the riding of Ottawa West-Nepean as the member of Parliament from 2006-2015 serving in several cabinet roles, including as the minister responsible for the NCC. John Manley represented the riding of Ottawa South as the member of Parliament from 1988-2004 serving in several cabinet roles, including as Deputy Prime Minister.Last week, a Missouri community descended into chaos after someone spray-painted "White Lives Matter" on a mirror in a girl's restroom at the local high school. The story quickly made the rounds in the mainstream media as evidence that racism really does exist. Now, however, school officials have revealed that a "non-white" student was actually behind the graffiti: School officials in a Missouri community were making plans Tuesday to discipline a “non-white” student whom they said had confessed to writing a racial slur and the phrase “White Lives Matter” on a mirror inside a girls’ restroom at a high school. Parkway schools Superintendent Keith Marty said in a statement Tuesday that the revelation that a non-white student was involved was surprising, but it did not “diminish the hurt” caused by the incident at Parkway Central High School in Chesterfield. "The behavior was wrong and the student will be held accountable for this serious act according to our student discipline policy," said Marty, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “It is important to understand why this happened and why we are often quick to assume who is responsible," he added. The racial slur was found in a girls’ restroom on campus last week, prompting the local community to organize and stand against racism. “I was horrified,” West County anti-racism activist Joy Weese Moll told KTVI last week. “A lot of us in West County have a really hard time saying racism exists here. It makes me sad for the person who wrote it because they have not been taught and not learned how beautiful our society can be.” Parents who have children going to the school also reacted. “This is very much a white person issue that we need to tackle as white people and speak up against,” parent Alexandria Lane-Detwiler said. Actually, this really isn't a "white people" issue, because the perpetrator wasn't even white! Instead, it was a minority student who was trying to get attention by making it look like he or she is oppressed by "racist" white people. Sadly, we live in a culture in which people want to victimize themselves whenever they can. We celebrate victims so much that everyone wants to be one and show how they've "survived oppression" in their own special way. It's disturbing that the media is so quick to report on so-called racial incidents that they don't even wait for them to be confirmed as legitimate. Now that the perpetrator has been identified as a minority, we're willing to bet this story will disappear without so much as an update.Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Hong Kong's skyline was lit up with fireworks Chinese President Xi Jinping has warned against "impermissible" challenges to Beijing's authority over Hong Kong. Mr Xi was speaking at the swearing-in of the territory's new leader Carrie Lam, as Hong Kong marked 20 years since its handover to China from Britain. On Saturday afternoon, after Mr Xi had left Hong Kong, thousands of people took part in an annual march calling for greater democracy. During Mr Xi's visit there was little opportunity for protest. An earlier protest had led to clashes with pro-Beijing demonstrators. Mr Xi's visit to the city - his first since becoming Chinese leader in 2013 - came amid tight police security. Several people were detained in the morning, when a small group of pro-democracy activists clashed with pro-Beijing demonstrators close to the site where the lavish ceremony took place. Organisers said 60,000 people took part in the later pro-democracy march, though police said the figure was much lower. Heavy rain affected the march, which started at Victoria Park in Causeway Bay. Some protesters carried yellow umbrellas, a symbol of the demonstrations which gripped the city in 2014. Lam Wing-kee, one of the five Hong Kong booksellers who went missing in 2015 and re-surfaced in detention on the mainland, addressed the march. Image copyright AFP Image caption One protester carried a cardboard cut-out of President Xi carrying a yellow umbrella The Chinese leader oversaw the swearing in of Ms Lam, the newly-elected chief executive of the territory, along with the rest of her cabinet. She is Hong Kong's first female leader. In a speech he said that Hong Kong needed to "improve its systems to uphold national sovereignty, security and development interests". "Any attempt to endanger China's sovereignty and security, challenge the power of the central government... or use Hong Kong to carry out infiltration and sabotage activities against the mainland is an act that crosses the red line and is absolutely impermissible," he said. Read more about Hong Kong since the handover: He added that Hong Kong now enjoyed more freedom than ever before. But while the territory's Basic Law guarantees wide-ranging freedoms under the "one country, two systems" formula, Beijing's refusal to grant universal suffrage has triggered sometimes violent unrest. In Saturday morning's small-scale protests, pro-democracy party Demosisto said police had arrested five of its members, and four members from the League of Social Democrats. Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption One protester gets caught up in a scuffle with police Among those said by the group to have been arrested was Joshua Wong, the leader of the so-called umbrella protest movement. Slammed to the ground - Juliana Liu, BBC News, Hong Kong correspondent Image copyright AFP/Getty Images It was meant to be a routine demonstration by pro-democracy protesters. The leaders of the League of Social Democrats and Demosisto had gathered to make their way to the square in the Wanchai district where the flag-raising ceremony was taking place. They were demanding greater voting rights for Hong Kong, as well the immediate release of the Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo. But without warning, scuffles began between the demonstrators and the police. Faces were slammed to the ground. And then pro-Beijing supporters turned up, waving flags and blaring patriotic music. Each side was shouting abuse at the other. The tussle went on for more than an hour, with it ending only after the leaders of the pro-democracy demonstration were led away by police, who called it an illegal gathering. During the ceremony, the flags of China and Hong Kong were raised alongside one another to mark the 20-year anniversary of the city's handover of British rule. Helicopters flew overhead as onlookers cheered at the ceremony in Golden Bauhinia Square, central Hong Kong. On Friday, an official protest zone near the convention centre where Mr Xi was guest of honour at an anniversary banquet and variety performance was heavily patrolled, as demonstrators gathered chanting "end one-party dictatorship". Image copyright Reuters Image caption Carrie Lam shakes hands with President Xi after swearing an oath of office in Hong Kong Image copyright AFP/Getty Images Image caption Helicopters pass the flags of China and Hong Kong at Golden Bauhinia Square There is growing concern that the Chinese central government is undermining Hong Kong's more politically liberal traditions, despite its promise to give it a high degree of autonomy. Joshua Wong and 25 other activists were arrested on Wednesday for "breaking the 'public nuisance' law" after climbing into a golden sculpture of a bauhinia flower, Hong Kong's emblem. The sculpture, which sits by the city's harbour front, was a gift from China and an iconic landmark symbolising the handover. Read more about Hong KongJerry Jones talks with the media as he hosts a news conference and reception to announce new tenants for the Star in Frisco,Texas on Thursday, December 15, 2016. (Louis DeLuca/The Dallas Morning News) The Cowboys have clinched a division title and home-field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs with two games remaining. But don't look for them to rest their starters. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said Friday morning that they learned from their experience in 2007. "It's an age-old question and certainly deserves to be a question: how much do you want to be playing well, how much edge do you want to have," Jones said on 105.3 The Fan's G-Bag Nation show [KRLD-FM]. "I know that in our [2007] season here with Wade Phillips, we had a great season and then we turned around and got into the playoffs and rested pretty good the last ballgame. And we ended up losing the first playoff game that we had with home-field bye all the way through.Anne, a self-described cultural entrepreneur, is travelling around the Nordic region putting on Sami coffee ceremonies. They are a wonderful glimpse into a ritual with deep roots. For many Sami, making coffee is synonymous with a feeling of home—a precious thing for the indigenous, nomadic people of Northern Scandinavia. We caught up with her to ask about the Sami coffee ceremony and her motivations for sharing them. Anne was born just south of Narvik, in northern Norway. These days, she is based in Lycksele, Sweden on a homestead where she lives with her husband and two children. She has a dog, a cat—and reindeer. Anne has training as a barista and a wealth of coffee knowledge amassed through her years as a cultural entrepreneur. There are around 50-80,000 Sami, predominantly in the northern areas of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. Around 40,000 of those are settled in Norway, both in the North and further south as far as Hedmark county in Norway (there is a distinction between Northern and Southern Sami). There were Sami settlements in the northern area before either of the four nations had been established. Traditionally, the Sami have herded reindeer, fished and had smallholdings, though this way of life is growing increasingly rare. These days, most Sami in Norway live in cities, like the rest of the population. The Sami language belongs to the Uralic family, and is closer to Finnish than any other Nordic language. How did you come to focus on Sami coffee culture? I grew up with it. It was always around me: at home, in the mountains, by the reindeer enclosure and while visiting relatives. It’s a natural part of my life — I only condense it down to its essential parts and present it for people unfamiliar with it, through coffee, stories and settings. The Sami coffee culture wasn’t as conceptually clear to me when I started my café in Lycksele. While there, I noticed how different people would sit and drink their
crsctl delete css votedisk path -forceWhat should we do after modifying voting disks?After modifying the voting disk, restart Oracle Clusterware using the crsctl start crs command on all nodes, and verify the voting disk location using the following command:crsctl query css votediskWhen can we use -force option?If our cluster is down, then we can include the -force option to modify the voting disk configuration, without interacting with active Oracle Clusterware daemons. However, using the -force option while any cluster node is active may corrupt our configuration.Brexit, it turns out, wasn’t just about screwing the economy - last June’s vote has also ignited a fully blown culture war. One of the early salvos in this war has been the suggestion by some dinosaurs on the political right that we should bring back “traditional” imperial weight and measures, rather than use the ghastly, Napoleonic metric system. That’s right - there are actually people out there who want to turn the clock back to an imaginary 1950s - or the 2970s to use the more traditional, non-European, pre-Roman Celtic calendar. In February, Andrea Leadsom, Minister for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, as well as erstwhile Tory leadership candidate said: “Once we have left the EU, we will get the opportunity to look at how we can change rules that will be better for the United Kingdom and whether that’s on weights and measures or issues like teaspoons, those are things for the future.” Just last Sunday, commentator Simon Heffer wrote a column titled “Now that we are to be a sovereign nation again, we must bring back imperial units”. It should almost go without saying that this is an obviously crazy idea. And Gizmodo UK can exclusively reveal that it isn’t just us - and everyone else under the age of 50 - who thinks so. Thanks to a Freedom of Information Request with the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), we’ve seen the experts, umm, weighing in, on this most ludicrous of proposals. The Weight of Public Opinion One group that refuses to speak in half-measures is the UK Weighing Federation. This is the trade association for manufacturers of weighing equipment (which would all need to be replaced if we switched back). They claim to represent 75% of the weighing industry (which is a thing) in the UK. You might expect them to support such a change. Wouldn’t it be a lucrative payday for manufacturers of weighing machines? But no, even they think that bringing back imperial would be “hugely detrimental to UK consumers and industry”. In the letter, the reasons they give are pretty damning of this whole stupid proposal: "All our trading partners, with the exception of the USA, use metric units Metrication occurred on 1st January 2000 and all trade approved weighing instruments manufactured since then operate solely in metric mode Metrication occurred on 1st January 2000 and all trade approved weighing instruments manufactured since then operate solely in metric mode No manufacturer now makes imperial weighing instruments, and it would be impossible to convert current machines to imperial measures in a cost effective manner. As an example, there are at least 100,000 scales in the supermarket sector alone, and these would have to be replaced at a cost of around £50m A return to imperial measures for business transactions would have a detrimental effect on consumers. The main audience for imperial units is in the over 50 age group and the majority of people below this age have been educated in the metric system The costs to implement such changes or run a dual system will inevitably be passed on to the consumer, causing a rise in the cost of all goods sold by weight An uncontrolled choice of either metric or imperial weights and measures would create a chaotic situation. In practice some customers continue to order in imperial (eg 2Ib of mince) but receive their goods in metric The only country that now uses imperial units is the USA, however their 'customary' system is not the same as that which was used in the UK" Brutal. Weighty Issues A letter was also sent to Andrea Leadsom in February from someone works in the industry. Annoyingly their name was redacted - but the force of the words (measured in metric Newtons, not Imperial “Pound-Force”, whatever that is), were not. This was from someone who is a qualified Inspector of Weights and Measures. In other words, someone who works for Trading Standards and who is actually tasked with checking that goods are being sold correct and ensuring consumers are protected. Image Credit: here. The letter essentially debunks Leadsom’s comments - pointing out that for a start, the EU isn’t the reason we went metric, and we could switch back any time. It makes the point that only two countries internationally use Imperial measures: the USA and, er, Burma - and the States doesn’t even use the same Imperial system as us (they have 18 fluid ounces to the pint, we have 20). On this front “a return to imperial units would isolate the UK internationally and it would create a trade barrier for both exports and imports” it argues. Perhaps the most damning section though - on the assumption that Brexiteers have already demonstrated that they don’t care about isolating the UK internationally or creating trade barriers - is a section in which the writer points out what a massive pain in the arse converting back would be. "There are major practical issues with a return of imperial units after a gap of twenty years: 1. Most local authorities have retired or got rid of their old imperial standards and testing equipment. I have calculated that to properly resource a local authority Trading Standards Service with new imperial weights and measures would cost over a million pounds per authority. Authorities would face a doubling in their annual cost of equipment maintenance. Any Weights and Measures Inspector who qualified post-2000 would need to be retrained and recertified by the National Measurement Office as fit to test imperial equipment. 2. Nearly all the Certificates of Approval issued by the National Measurement Office in relation to imperial trade equipment have now lapsed. This means manufacturers would have to pay for the re-certification of this equipment. The approval process can cost thousands of pounds per item under examination. This would place huge additional costs on UK trade equipment manufacturers. 3. Self-verifying manufacturers no longer have imperial test equipment. The cost to the industry of retraining self verifiers and maintenance engineers would be huge. For example, a weighbridge test unit costs over £100,000. Due to UK road weight limits, a single weighbridge test unit cannot carry both metric and imperial weights. To test for metric and imperial weigh bridges would mean both local authorities and equipment manufacturers purchasing new HGVs and employing additional drivers. 4. UK schools have not taught the imperial system of measurement since the mid-1970s. You have to be over 50 to remember being taught imperial units. Increasingly, imperial units are becoming obsolete for the vast majority of UK consumers." “A return to imperial is impractical both in terms of financial cost and in practice”, it argues - and again, this is someone who would actually be tasked with implementing the return of imperial units, if the government were mad enough to legislate on it. The letter writer also says they are a qualified food standards inspector (trading standards people must be people of multiple talents). So letter ends by commenting directly on Leadsom’s suggestion that teaspoons could be used as a unit of measurement. “A move to declare sugar by the teaspoon is, quite frankly, bonkers”, it says. "The teaspoon is not a standard measure. Over recent years we have had huge problems with different food manufacturers and supermarkets using different RDAs in relation to nutritional information. The use of the traffic lights system has never been properly agreed and consumers have not had consistent or accurate information as to the nutritional content of their food. That changed in November 2016, when the Food Information Regulations 2015 standardised the nutritional information on pre-packed food labels. The regulations also made nutritional labelling compulsory when previously it was only required on food which made specific nutritional claims or which was fortified. Before issuing press releases about food labelling, I suggest you speak to your departmental officials or to the Food Standards Agency, After all, your statement about sugar labelling directly contradicts legislation enacted by your government only four months ago." Ouch! The government did actually respond to this letter - and gave the sort of bland non-response that sort-of recognises that the letter writers have a point. “The Government is committed to providing a fair and accurate measurement system both now and in the future. This is vital to a competitive economy as it gives consumers and businesses the confidence to buy and sell goods, allowing businesses to grow”, the government says in the letter, also adding that “The metric system is the international system of measurement and its use in the UK allows British businesses to compete effectively in international markets.” “As you will know from your experience as an Inspector of Weights and Measures, being able to compare prices and quantities is a fundamental principle of fair trade. Having a single system of units of measurement allows UK consumers to easily compare between different brands and sizes.” So it appears that despite the worrying signs, the government isn’t about to give up on science and modernity at the behest of the Brexiteers. Michael Gove might have said before the referendum that people have “had enough of experts”. But hopefully this is one instance where the government might recognise that the experts should be listened to. We’ve reached out to BEIS to find out whether they’re mad enough to take any of this nonsense seriously - and will let update this piece if they get back to us. Update (12:07): BEIS has got in touch with the following statement: “Businesses can already use imperial units alongside metric, or on their own for draught beer and cider, bottled milk and road traffic signs. This is national legislation and there has been no change to the law since the referendum result.” So why not head down to the market now and buy half a pound of fresh "Give Way" signs? James O'Malley is Interim Editor of Gizmodo UK and tweets as @Psythor. The scales image at the top is from Chris Potter on Flickr. More Politics Posts:Carson McCullers (February 19, 1917 – September 29, 1967) was an American novelist, short story writer, playwright, essayist, and poet. Her first novel, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, explores the spiritual isolation of misfits and outcasts in a small town of the U.S. South. Her other novels have similar themes and most are set in the deep South. McCullers’ oeuvre is often described as Southern Gothic and indicative of her southern roots. However, McCullers penned all of her work after leaving the South, and critics also describe her writing and eccentric characters as universal in scope. Her stories have been adapted to stage and film. A stagework of her novel The Member of the Wedding (1946), which captures a young girl's feelings at her brother's wedding, made a successful Broadway run in 1950–51. Early life [ edit ] She was born Lula Carson Smith in Columbus, Georgia in 1917 to Lamar Smith, a jeweler, and Marguerite Waters.[1] She was named after her maternal grandmother, Lula Carson Waters.[1] She had a younger brother, Lamar, Jr.[1] and a younger sister, Marguerite.[2] Her mother’s grandfather was a planter and Confederate war hero[citation needed]. Her father was a watchmaker and jeweler of French Huguenot descent. From the age of ten she took piano lessons; when she was fifteen her father gave her a typewriter to encourage her story writing. Smith graduated from Columbus High School. In September 1934, at age 17, she left home on a steamship bound for New York City, planning to study piano at the Juilliard School of Music. After falling ill with rheumatic fever she returned to Columbus to recuperate, and she changed her mind about studying music.[3] Returning to New York she worked in menial jobs while pursuing a writing career; she attended night classes at Columbia University and studied creative writing under the Texas writer Dorothy Scarborough and with Sylvia Chatfield Bates at Washington Square College of New York University. In 1936 she published her first work. "Wunderkind", an autobiographical piece that Bates admired, depicted a music prodigy's adolescent insecurity and losses. It first appeared in Story magazine and is collected in The Ballad of the Sad Cafe.[4] Marriage [ edit ] From 1935 to 1937, as her studies and health dictated, she divided her time between Columbus and New York. In September 1937, aged 20, she married an ex-soldier and aspiring writer, Reeves McCullers. They began their married life in Charlotte, North Carolina, where Reeves had found work. Career [ edit ] Maxim Lieber was her literary agent in 1938 and intermittently thereafter. In 1940, at the age of 23, writing in the Southern Gothic or perhaps Southern realist traditions, McCullers completed her first novel, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter.[5][6] (The title was suggested by her editor and was taken from a Fiona MacLeod poem, "The Lonely Hunter"). At the time the novel was thought to suggest an anti-Fascist message.[7] McCullers published eight books; the best known are The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1940), Reflections in a Golden Eye (1941) and The Member of the Wedding (1946). The novella The Ballad of the Sad Café (1951) depicts loneliness and the pain of unrequited love; at the time of its writing, McCullers was a resident at Yaddo, the artists' colony in Saratoga, New York. In The Member of the Wedding, McCullers describes the feelings of a young girl at her brother's wedding. The Broadway stage adaptation of the novel had a successful run in 1950–51 and was produced by the Young Vic in London in September 2007. Many know her works largely by their film adaptations. The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter was adapted as a film with the same title in 1968, with Alan Arkin in the lead role. Reflections in a Golden Eye was directed by John Huston (1967) and starred Marlon Brando and Elizabeth Taylor. Huston, in his autobiography, An Open Book (1980), said: I first met Carson McCullers during the war when I was visiting Paulette Goddard and Burgess Meredith in upstate New York. Carson lived nearby, and one day when Buzz and I were out for a walk she hailed us from her doorway. She was then in her early 20s, and had already suffered the first of a series of strokes. I remember her as a fragile thing with great shining eyes, and a tremor in her hand as she placed it in mine. It wasn't palsy, rather a quiver of animal timidity. But there was nothing timid or frail about the manner in which Carson McCullers faced life. And as her afflictions multiplied, she only grew stronger. Personal life [ edit ] Carson and Reeves McCullers divorced in 1941. After separating from Reeves she moved to New York to live with George Davis, the editor of Harper's Bazaar. She became a member of February House, an art commune in Brooklyn.[8] Among her friends were W. H. Auden, Benjamin Britten, Gypsy Rose Lee and the writer couple Paul Bowles and Jane Bowles. After World War II McCullers lived mostly in Paris. Her close friends during these years included Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams. During this period of separation, Reeves had a love relationship with the composer David Diamond, and the two lived together in Rochester, NY.[9] She fell in love with a number of women and pursued them sexually with great aggression, but seems not to have succeeded in having sex with any of them. Her most documented and extended love obsession was with Annemarie Schwarzenbach of whom she once wrote "She had a face that I knew would haunt me for the rest of my life." In her autobiography, McCullers reports that the two shared one kiss. McCullers' passion, however, was not reciprocated, and the two remained friends with McCullers dedicating her next novel, Reflections in a Golden Eye, to her.[9][10] Sarah Schulman writes: There is the infamous obsession with Katherine Anne Porter and a much-implied ongoing “friendship” with Gypsy Rose Lee. But if Carson ever actually had sex with a woman, even Tennessee [Williams] didn’t hear of it. According to McCullers’s brilliant biographer, Virginia Spencer Carr, Carson did brag to her male cousin that she’d had sex with Gypsy once. But if that was the case, she never mentioned it to any of her gay friends. In the absence of reciprocated lesbian love and the inability to consummate lesbian sex, McCullers still wore a lesbian persona in literature and in life. She clearly wrote against the grain of heterosexual convention, wore men’s clothes, was outrageously aggressive in her consistently failed search for sex and love with another woman, and formed primary friendships with other gay people.[9] In 1945, Carson and Reeves McCullers remarried. Three years later, while severely depressed, she attempted suicide. In 1953 Reeves tried to convince her to commit suicide with him, but she fled and Reeves killed himself in their Paris hotel with an overdose of sleeping pills.[11] Her bittersweet play The Square Root of Wonderful (1957) drew upon these traumatic experiences. The potential suicide of Carson’s father may have foreshadowed if not influenced these events. This break from the reported story of his sudden death by heart attack was first published in 2003 by Virginia Spencer Carr in the preface to her updated biography, The Lonely Hunter.[12] The suggestion was further explored in "A Member of the Family," an article on Lamar Smith, by Daniel Bellware in the Fall 2017 issue of Muscogiana published by Columbus State University.[13] McCullers dictated her unfinished autobiography, Illumination and Night Glare (1999), during the final months of her life. Her home from 1945 to 1967 in South Nyack, New York, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.[14][15] Death [ edit ] McCullers suffered throughout her life from several illnesses and from alcoholism. She had rheumatic fever at the age of 15 and suffered from strokes that began in her youth. By the age of 31 her left side was entirely paralyzed. She lived the last twenty years of her life in Nyack, New York, where she died on September 29, 1967, at the age of 50, after a brain hemorrhage. She is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery.[16] Criticism [ edit ] Although McCullers's style is often described as Southern Gothic, she produced her famous works after leaving the South. Her eccentric characters suffer from loneliness that is interpreted with deep empathy. In a discussion with the Irish critic and writer Terence de Vere White she said, "Writing, for me, is a search for God". Other critics have variously detected tragicomic or political elements in her writing. The most recent scholarly collection about her work is "Carson McCullers in the Twenty-First Century" (2016), edited by Graham-Bertolini and Kayser.[citation needed] Legacy [ edit ] McCullers's childhood home in Columbus, Georgia, is now owned by Columbus State University and is the central location of the university's Carson McCullers Center for Writers and Musicians.[17] The center is dedicated to preserving the legacy of McCullers; to nurturing American writers and musicians; to educating young people; and to fostering the literary and musical life of Columbus, the state of Georgia, and the American South. To that end, the center operates a museum in the Smith-McCullers' home, presents extensive educational and cultural programs for the community, maintains an ever-growing archive of materials related to the life and work of McCullers, and offers fellowships for writers and composers who live for periods of time in the Smith-McCullers home in Columbus. While the center operates out of the Smith–McCullers house, the writer's childhood home and museum is open to the public. In 1944, when McCullers's father died, her mother left Columbus and moved to Nyack, New York, where she bought her daughter's famed Nyack home. McCullers lived with her mother and sister off and on in this house for a number of years, eventually buying the house from her mother. McCullers was living in this house when she died, in 1967. In December 2006 the house in Nyack was added to the National Register of Historic Places.[18] McCullers's physician and longtime friend, Dr. Mary E. Mercer, bequeathed the house in Nyack to Columbus State University's Carson McCullers Center for Writers and Musicians, the same center that owns and operates out of McCullers's childhood home in Columbus, Georgia.[19] After Dr. Mercer's death in late April 2013, the McCullers Center inherited not only the house but also many artifacts and documents that shed light on the last ten years of McCullers's life. Because of the generosity of Dr. Mercer, Columbus State University is one of the very few universities to own two homes of a single author and now houses the world's most extensive research collection on McCullers. An endowment in Dr. Mercer's name also has been created to continue these efforts in the curation and preservation of McCullers's legacy. The Rainey-McCullers School of the Arts in Columbus, Georgia, is named in honor of McCullers and fellow Columbus native Ma Rainey. Charles Bukowski wrote a poem about Carson McCullers.[20] Works [ edit ] Novels [ edit ] Other works [ edit ] Collections [ edit ] Recording [ edit ] Carson McCullers Reads from The Member of the Wedding and Other of her Works. New York: MGM Records. 1958. LCCN 89741503. See also [ edit ]The owner of a local Budgens supermarket has defended selling squirrel meat as a sustainable way of feeding people and says it has a "lovely" taste. Andrew Thornton, started selling the meat about five months ago after requests from customers at his Budgens store in Crouch End, north London. "There are too many squirrels around, we might as well eat them rather than cull them and dispose of them," he said. Thornton sells up to 15 squirrels a week when they are in stock. The animal welfare group Viva accused Budgens of profiting from a "wildlife massacre". Its founder and director, Juliet Gellatley, said: "If this store is attempting to stand out from the crowd by selling squirrel, the only message they are giving out is that they are happy to have the blood of a beautiful wild animal on their hands for the sake of a few quid." Thornton rejected the claim: "That's not the case at all. If we are selling 10 or 15 a week I don't think that falls into the definition of a massacre." He predicted more people would eat squirrel in the future. "I think it's lovely. It's bit like rabbit. I think there will be a lot of fuss about this now, but in a few years it will become accepted practice that we eat squirrels. People don't bat an eyelid now about eating rabbit," he said. Thornton buys the meat from a game supplier in Suffolk, the Wild Meat Company, but said he hadn't stocked it for several weeks because the firm had run out of squirrel while it focused on other game products. "We would like to get it back on shelves as soon as we can. We are a mainstream supermarket but we take a very strong sustainability stance," he said. "We got into it because we had requests from customers. There are a lot of people who understand sustainability issues around here." Thornton claimed that squirrel meat is more sustainable than beef. "It takes about 15 tonnes of grain to produce one tonne of beef, which is not sustainable. "Squirrels will be culled anyway. You have two choices. Either you dispose of them or you eat them." The actor and Viva patron Jenny Seagrove said selling squirrel meat was "unbelievable". "Anyone who cares about wildlife, as I do, should be appalled at Budgens for allowing this," she said. A spokesman for Musgrave, which operates Budgens, told the Daily Mail: "As our retailers are independent, they therefore have the right and ability to secure products that Budgens do not offer for sale, within their individually owned stores."Run ZFS on Linux Connect with Tim Tim is one of our most popular and prolific authors. Browse all of Tim's articles on developerWorks. Check out Tim's profile and connect with him, other authors, and fellow readers in My developerWorks. Linux has an interesting relationship with file systems. Because Linux is open, it tends to be a key development platform both for next-generation file systems and for new, innovative file system ideas. Two interesting recent examples include the massively scalable Ceph and the continuous snapshotting file system nilfs2 (and of course, evolutions in workhorse file systems such as the fourth extended file system [ext4]). It's also an archaeological site for file systems of the past—DOS VFAT, Macintosh(HPFS), VMS ODS-2, and Plan-9's remote file system protocol. But with all of the file systems you'll find supported within Linux, there's one that generates considerable interest because of the features it implements: Oracle's Zettabyte File System (ZFS). The ZFS was designed and developed by Sun Microsystems (under Jeff Bonwick) and was first announced in 2004, with integration into Sun Solaris occurring in 2005). Although pairing the most popular open operating system with the most talked-about, feature-rich file system would be an ideal match, licensing issues have restricted the integration. Linux is protected by the GNU General Public License (GPL), while ZFS is covered by Sun's Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL). These license agreements have different goals and introduce restrictions that conflict. Fortunately, that doesn't mean that you as a Linux user can't enjoy ZFS and the capabilities it provides. This article explores two methods for using ZFS in Linux. The first uses the Filesystem in Userspace (FUSE) system to push the ZFS file system into user space to avoid the licensing issues. The second method is a native port of ZFS for integration into the Linux kernel while avoiding the intellectual property issues. Where can you find ZFS? Today, you can find ZFS natively within OpenSolaris (also covered under the CDDL) but also in other operating systems that have complementary licenses. For example, you can find ZFS in FreeBSD (since 2007). ZFS was once part of Darwin (a derivative of Berkeley Software Distribution [BSD], NeXTSTEP, and CMU's Mach 3 microkernel) but has since been removed. Introducing ZFS Calling ZFS a file system is a bit of a misnomer, as it is much more than that in the traditional sense. ZFS combines the concepts of a logical volume manager with a very feature rich and massively scalable file system. Let's begin by exploring some of the principles on which ZFS is based. First, ZFS uses a pooled storage model instead of the traditional volume-based model. This means that ZFS views storage as a shared pool that can be dynamically allocated (and shrunk) as needed. This is advantageous over the traditional model, where file systems reside on volumes and an independent volume manager is used to administer these assets. Embedded within ZFS is an implementation of an important set of features such as snapshots, copy-on-write clones, continuous integrity checking, and data protection through RAID-Z. Going further, it's possible to use your own favorite file system (such as ext4) on top of a ZFS volume. This means that you get those features of ZFS such as snapshots on an independent file system (that likely doesn't support them directly). But ZFS isn't just a collection of features that make up a useful file system. Rather, it's a collection of integrated and complementary features that make it an outstanding file system. Let's look at some of these features, and then see some of them in action. Storage pools As discussed earlier, ZFS incorporates a volume-management function to abstract underlying physical storage devices to the file system. Rather than viewing physical block devices directly, ZFS operates on storage pools (called zpools), which are constructed from virtual drives that can physically be represented by drives or portions of drives. Further, these pools can be constructed dynamically, even while the pool is actively in use. Copy-on-write ZFS uses a copy-on-write model for managing data on the storage. This means that data is never written in place (never overwritten), but instead new blocks are written and the metadata updated to reference it. Copy-on-write is advantageous for a number of reasons (not only for some of the capabilities like the snapshots and clones that it enables). By never overwriting data, it's simpler to ensure that the storage is never left in an inconsistent state (as the older data remains after the new Write operation is complete). This allows ZFS to be transaction based, and it's much simpler to implement features like atomic operations. An interesting side effect of the copy-on-write design is that all writes to the file system become sequential writes (because remapping is always occurring). This behavior avoids hot spots in the storage and exploits the performance of sequential writes (faster than random writes). Data protection Storage pools made up of virtual devices can be protected using one of ZFS's numerous protection schemes. You can mirror a pool across two or more devices (RAID 1) protect it with parity (similar to RAID 5) but across dynamic stripe widths (more on this later). ZFS supports a variety of parity schemes based on the number of devices in the pool. For example, you can protect three devices with RAID-Z (RAID-Z 1); with four devices, you can use RAID-Z 2 (double parity, similar to RAID6). For even greater protection, you can use RAID-Z 3 with larger numbers of disks for triple parity. For speed (but no data protection other than error detection), you can employ striping across devices (RAID 0). You can also create striped mirrors (to mirror striped drives), similar to RAID 10. An interesting attribute of ZFS comes with the combination of RAID-Z, copy-on-write transactions, and dynamic stripe widths. In a traditional RAID 5 architecture, all disks must have their data within the stripe, or the stripe is inconsistent. Because there's no way to update all disks atomically, it's possible to produce the well-known RAID 5 write hole problem (where a stripe is inconsistent across the drives of the RAID set). Given ZFS transactions and never having to write in place, the write hole problem is eliminated. Another convenient quality of this approach is what happens when a disk fails and a rebuild is required. A traditional RAID 5 system uses data from other disks in the set to rebuild data for the new drive. RAID-Z traverses the available metadata to read only the data that's relevant for the geometry and avoids reading the unused space on the disk. This behavior becomes even more important as disks become larger and rebuild times increase. Checksums Although data protection provides the ability to regenerate data on a failure, it says nothing about the validity of the data in the first place. ZFS solves this issue by generating a 32-bit checksum (or 256-bit hash) for metadata for each block written. When a block is read, its checksum is verified to avoid the problem of silent data corruption. In a volume that has data protection (mirroring or RAID-Z), the alternate data can be read or regenerated automatically. Standard approaches for integrity The T10 provides a similar mechanism for end-to-end integrity called Data Integrity Field (DIF). This mechanism proposes a field containing a cyclic redundancy check of a block and other metadata stored on disk to avoid silent data corruption. An interesting attribute of DIF is that you'll find hardware support for it in a number of storage controllers, so that the process is completely offloaded from the host processor. Checksums are stored with metadata in ZFS, so phantom writes can be detected and—if data protection is provided (RAID-Z)—corrected. Snapshots and clones Given the copy-on-write nature of ZFS, features like snapshots and clones become simple to provide. Because ZFS never overwrites data but instead writes to a new location, older data can be preserved (but in the nominal case is marked for removal to converse disk space). A snapshot is a preservation of older blocks to maintain the state of a file system at a given instance in time. This approach is also space efficient, because no copy is required (unless all data in the file system is rewritten). A clone is a form of snapshot in which a snapshot is taken that is writable. In this case, original unwritten blocks are shared by each clone, and blocks that are written are available only to the specific file system clone. Variable block sizes Traditional file systems are made up of statically sized blocks that match the back-end storage (512 bytes). ZFS implements variable block sizes for a variety of uses (commonly up to 128KB in size, but you can change this value). One important use of variable block sizes is compression (because the resulting block size when compressed will ideally be less than the original). This functionality minimizes waste in the storage system in addition to providing better utilization of the storage network (because less data emitted to storage requires less time in transfer). Outside of compression, supporting variable block sizes also means that you can tune the block size for the particular workload expected for improved performance. Other features ZFS incorporates a many other features, such as de-duplication (to minimize copies of data), configurable replication, encryption, an adaptive replacement cache for cache management, and online disk scrubbing (to identify and fix latent errors while they can be fixed when protection isn't used). It does this with immense scalability, supporting 16 exabytes of addressable storage (264 bytes). Using ZFS on Linux today Now that you've seen some of the abstract concepts behind ZFS, let's look at some of them in practice. This demonstration uses ZFS-FUSE. FUSE is a mechanism that allows you to implement file systems in user space without kernel code (other than the FUSE kernel module and existing file system code). The module provides a bridge from the kernel file system interface to user space for user and file system implementations. First, install the ZFS-FUSE package (the following demonstration targets Ubuntu). Installing ZFS-FUSE Installing ZFS-FUSE is simple, particularly on Ubuntu using apt. The following command line installs everything you need to begin using ZFS-FUSE: $ sudo apt-get install zfs-fuse This command line install ZFS-FUSE and all other dependent packages (mine also required libaiol ) as well as performing the necessary setup for the new packages and starting the zfs-fuse daemon. Using ZFS-FUSE In this demonstration, you use the loop-back device to emulate disks as files within the host operating system. To begin, create these files (using /dev/zero as the source) with the dd utility (see Listing 1). With your four disk images created, use losetup to associate the disk images with the loop devices. Listing 1. Setup for working with ZFS-FUSE $ mkdir zfstest $ cd zfstest $ dd if=/dev/zero of=disk1.img bs=64M count=1 1+0 records in 1+0 records out 67108864 bytes (67 MB) copied, 1.235 s, 54.3 MB/s $ dd if=/dev/zero of=disk2.img bs=64M count=1 1+0 records in 1+0 records out 67108864 bytes (67 MB) copied, 0.531909 s, 126 MB/s $ dd if=/dev/zero of=disk3.img bs=64M count=1 1+0 records in 1+0 records out 67108864 bytes (67 MB) copied, 0.680588 s, 98.6 MB/s $ dd if=/dev/zero of=disk4.img bs=64M count=1 1+0 records in 1+0 records out 67108864 bytes (67 MB) copied, 0.429055 s, 156 MB/s $ ls disk1.img disk2.img disk3.img disk4.img $ sudo losetup /dev/loop0./disk1.img $ sudo losetup /dev/loop1./disk2.img $ sudo losetup /dev/loop2./disk3.img $ sudo losetup /dev/loop3./disk4.img $ With four devices available to use as your block devices for ZFS (totaling 256MB in size), create your pool using the zpool command. You use the zpool command to manage ZFS storage pools, but as you'll see, you can use it for a variety of other purposes, as well. The following command requests a ZFS storage pool to be created with four devices and provides data protection with RAID-Z. You follow this command with a list request to provide data on your pool (see Listing 2). Listing 2. Creating a ZFS pool $ sudo zpool create myzpool raidz /dev/loop0 /dev/loop1 /dev/loop2 /dev/loop3 $ sudo zfs list NAME USED AVAIL REFER MOUNTPOINT myzpool 96.5K 146M 31.4K /myzpool $ You can also investigate some of the attributes of your pool, as shown in Listing 3, which represent the defaults. Among other things, you can see the available capacity and portion used. (This code has been compressed for brevity.) Listing 3. Reviewing the attributes of the storage pool $ sudo zfs get all myzpool NAME PROPERTY VALUE SOURCE myzpool type filesystem - myzpool creation Sat Nov 13 22:43 2010 - myzpool used 96.5K - myzpool available 146M - myzpool referenced 31.4K - myzpool compressratio 1.00x - myzpool mounted yes - myzpool quota none default myzpool reservation none default myzpool recordsize 128K default myzpool mountpoint /myzpool default myzpool sharenfs off default myzpool checksum on default myzpool compression off default myzpool atime on default myzpool copies 1 default myzpool version 4 -... myzpool primary
to that city because he will through a letter be commanded by a holy hermit to have it impressed in his heart and to wear it externally on his breast. “That man will begin to meditate on the secrets of God, about the long visitation which the Holy Spirit will make and the dominion that he will exercise over the world through the holy militia. Oh happy man, who shall receive from the Most High the greatest privileges! He will interpret the hidden secrets of the Holy Ghost, and he shall often excite the admiration of men by his revealed knowledge of the internal secrets of their hearts. Rejoice, my Lord, because that Prince above other princes, and King over other kings, will hold you in the greatest veneration, and after having been crowned with three most admirable crowns, will exalt that city, will declare it free, and the seat of the Empire, and it shall become one of the first cities of the world. “You and your consort desire to have children; you shall have them. Your holy offspring shall be admired upon earth. Among your descendants there will be one who shall be like the sun amidst the stars. He shall be a first-born son: in his childhood he will be like a saint: in his youth. a great sinner: then he will be converted entirely to God and will do great penance: his sins will be forgiven him, and he shall become a great saint. “He shall he a great captain and prince of holy men, who shall be called ‘the Holy Cross-bearers of Jesus Christ, with whom he shall destroy the Mohammedan sect and the rest of the infidels. He shall reform the Church of God by means of his followers, who shall be the best men upon earth in holiness, in arms, in science, and in every virtue, because such is the will of the Most High. They shall obtain the dominion of the whole world, both temporal and spiritual, and they shall support the Church of God until the end of time. “God Almighty will exalt a very poor man of the blood of the Emperor Constantine, son of St. Helena, and of the seed of Pepin, who shall on his breast wear the sign which you have seen at the beginning of this letter. Through the power of the Host High he shall confound the tyrants, the heretics, and the infidels. He will gather a grand army, and the angels shall fight for them. They shall kill all God’s enemies. “From the beginning of the world, after the creation of man, and to the end of human generation, there have been and there shall be seen wonderful events upon the earth. Four hundred years shall not pass when his Divine Majesty shall visit the world with a new religious order much needed, which shall effect more good among men than all other religious institutions combined. “This religious order shall be the last and the best in the Church: it shall proceed with arms, with prayer, and with hospitality. Woe to tyrants, to heretics, and to infidels, to whom no pity shall be shown, because such is the will of the Most High. An infinite number of wicked men shall perish through the hands of the Cross-bearers, the true servants of Jesus Christ. They shall act like good husbandmen when they extirpate noxious weeds and prickly thistles from the wheat field. These holy servants of God shall purify the earth with the deaths of innumerable wicked men. “How spiritually blind are those persons who, having no thought about the things of God, fix their end in earthly objects. Wretched men, far worse than the very beasts which are guided by their senses, because they cannot have reason: but when men abandon the use of their reason, they become brutalized. “Hence they shall ever be in confusion. Let, therefore, the princes of this world be prepared for the greatest scourges to fall upon them, but from whom? First from heretics and infidels, then from the Holy and most faithful Cross-bearers elected by the Most High, who, not succeeding in converting heretics with science, shall have to make a vigorous use of their arms. Many cities and villages shall be in ruins, with the deaths of an innumerable quantity of bad and good men. The infidels (Moslems) also will fight against Christians and heretics, sacking and destroying. and killing the largest portion of Christians. Lastly, the army, styled ‘of the Church’, namely, the Holy Cross-barriers shall move, not against Christians or Christianity, but against the infidels in pagan countries, and they shall conquer all those kingdoms with the death of a very great number of infidels. After this they shall turn their victorious arms against BAD CHRISTIANS, and. shall destroy all the rebels against Jesus Christ. These Holy Cross-bearers shall reign and dominate totally over the world until the end of time. The founder of these holy men shall, my lord, be one of your posterity. But when shall this take place? When crosses with the stigmas shall be seen, and the crucifix shall be carried as the standard. “The time is coming when his Divine Majesty will visit the world with a new religious order of Holy Cross-bearers, who wvill carry a crucifix, or the image of Our Crucified Lord, lifted up upon the principal standard in view of all. This standard will be admired by all good Catholics: but at the beginning it will be derided by BAD CHRISTIANS AND BY INFIDELS (Protestants and Moslems). Their sneers shall, however, be changed into mourning when they shall witness the wonderful victories achieved through it. Many wicked men and obstinate rebels against God shall perish. Their souls will be plunged into Hell. This punishment shall fall upon all those transgressors of the Divine Commandments, who with new and false doctrines (Protestants) will attempt to corrupt mankind and turn men against the ministers of God’s worship. The same chastisement is due to all obstinate sinners, but not to those who sin through weakness, because these being converted, doing penance, and amending the conduct of their life, shall find the divine mercy of the Most High full of kindness towards them. O Holy Cross- bearers of the Most High Lord, how very pleasing you will be to the Great God, much more than the children of Israel. God will, through your instrumentality, work more wonderful prodigies than he has ever done before with any nation. “You shall destroy the sect of Mahomet, and all infidels of every kind and of every sect. You shall put an end to all the heresies of the world by extinguishing all tyrants. You will remove every cause of complaint by establishing a universal peace, which shall last until the end of time (until the Anti-Christ). You will work the sanctification of mankind. O Holy Men: people blessed of the Most Holy Trinity! Your victorious founder shall triumph over the world, the flesh, and the Devil. “One of your posterity shall achieve greater deeds and work greater wonders than your lordship. That man will be a great sinner in his youth, but like St. Paul, he shall be converted to God. He shall be the great founder of a new religious order different from all the others. He shall divide it into three classes, namely, Military Knights, Solitary priests, most pious Hospitallers. This shall be the last religious order in the Church, and it will do more good for our holy religion than all other religious institutes. By force of arms he shall take possession of a great kingdom. He shall destroy the sect of Mahomet, extirpate all tyrants and heresies. He shall bring the world to a holy mode of life. There will be one fold and one Shepherd. He shall reign until the end of time. On the whole earth there shall be only twelve kings, one emperor, and one pope. Rich gentlemen shall be very few, but all saints. May Jesus Christ be praised and blessed: for He has vouched to grant to me, a poor unworthy sinned, the spirit of prophecy. NOT IN AN OBSCURE WAY AS TO HIS OTHER SERVANTS, but has enabled me to write and to speak in a most clear manner. I know that unbelieving and reprobate persons will scoff at my letters and will reject them; hut they will he received by those faithful Catholic souls who aspire to the possession of heaven. These letters shall infuse such sweetness of divine love in their hearts, that they will he delighted in pursuing them often, and in taking copies of them, because such is the will of the Most High. In these letters it will be found out who belongs to our blessed Lord Jesus Christ and who does not, who is a predestinate or a reprobate. Much better will this be known through the holy sign of the living God. He shall be a saint of God who will take it, love it, and wear it.” AdvertisementsA South Florida woman accused of injecting people’s buttocks with Fix-a-Flat and other substances in an alleged black market business agreed to a plea deal Thursday that will keep her behind bars for a year. NBC 6's Sharon Lawson spoke with Oneal Morris about the case. (Published Thursday, Oct. 24, 2013) Defendant in Bad Butt Injections Case Pleads Guilty, Sentenced to One Year in Prison A South Florida woman accused of injecting people’s buttocks with Fix-a-Flat and other substances in an alleged black market business agreed to a plea deal Thursday that will keep her behind bars for a year. Oneal Morris, 32, will have to surrender on Jan. 7 after she was sentenced to 366 days in prison on one count of practicing medicine without a license in Miami-Dade court. "I'm just happy this case is over, you know, it impacted my life a lot and God has really prevailed for me," Morris said after the sentencing. RAW VIDEO: Oneal Morris Speaks After Taking Plea Deal A South Florida woman accused of injecting people’s buttocks with Fix-a-Flat and other substances in an alleged black market business agreed to a plea deal Thursday that will keep her behind bars for a year. (Published Thursday, Oct. 24, 2013) The defendant was momentarily at a loss for words when describing the case. "It's been very difficult," Morris said. Morris and Corey Eubank were arrested in 2011 after several victims alleged Morris had injected their legs and buttocks with a mixture that included Fix-a-Flat, cement and superglue. Defendant in Bad Butt Injections Case Agrees to Plea Deal Corey Eubank, who had been accused of injecting people's buttocks with toxic substances, agreed to a plea deal Friday morning. NBC 6's Diana Gonzalez has the story. (Published Friday, July 12, 2013) In court Thursday, prosecutors said they were unable to determine the "mystery substance." "Since it was delayed disclosure, we were never able to determine what was injected into the victims," prosecutor Katheline Cortes said. In late July 2012, Morris, who police say is a transgender woman, was also arrested on two charges including manslaughter in the death of Shatarka Nuby, 32. Judge Rejects Plea Deal in Bad Butt Injections Case A judge on Tuesday did not accept a plea deal agreed upon by prosecutors and defense attorneys for two South Floridians accused of injecting people's buttocks with Fix-a-Flat and other substances in an alleged black market business. Jim Lewis, the attorney for defendant Corey Eubank, spoke about the case. (Published Tuesday, June 25, 2013) One of Morris' victims, Rajee Narinesingh, said one year behind bars isn't nearly enough for Morris. Narinesingh, who is also a transgender woman, said Morris' treatment produced golf ball-sized nodules on her face. “I know that for a transgender person in prison probably it’s gonna be very difficult, but compared to all of the suffering that people have gone through based on what she did, it probably isn’t enough,” she said. Narinesingh said Morris treated her almost 10 years ago. She first received cosmetic injections in her face, and after she didn't have a reaction at first, she proceeded to injections into her breast, hips and buttocks, Narinesingh said. But the treatment backfired. "At one time my face was like a rock, it was that hard," Narinesingh said. Narinesingh, who said she could have died, is now receiving monthly medical treatment with a licensed medical professional. She hopes to educate others about the dangers of undergoing procedures without licensed professionals. Morris still has a pending case in Broward. Eubank pleaded no contest to two counts of culpable negligence in July and was sentenced to one year of probation. Morris' attorney declined to comment on the open case in Broward. In June, a judge rejected a plea deal that would have given Morris 180 days in jail, five years' probation and a fine. Morris had been facing 15 years in state prison if the case had gone to trial. More NBC6.com Stories:You should read Tom Verducci's profile on Madison Bumgarner for Sports Illustrated's "Sportsman of the Year" award because it's fantastic and well-written, because it's a compelling look into the personal life of one of the best pitchers in baseball. You should read it for all sorts of reasons. But that doesn't mean that Verducci didn't bury the lede under hundreds of other words. It's all true. That he was so good so young that he started playing coach-pitch baseball at age four against seven-year-olds, and is so adept with either hand that he shoots a bow, bats, writes and ropes righthanded, but throws from the left side. That his father, Kevin, wouldn't let him throw a curveball until he had a driver's license. That before he dated Ali, he dated a girl named Madison Bumgarner ("No relation, I'm sure of it"). Madison Bumgarner would pick up the phone, and ask Madison Bumgarner on a date. Madison Bumgarner would hold hands with Madison Bumgarner on their way to the burger joint, where Madison Bumgarner and Madison Bumgarner would look into each other's eyes. The night might have ended with Madison Bumgarner giving Madison Bumgarner a polite peck on the cheek. Madison Bumgarner dated Madison Bumgarner, everyone. This is fascinating, not because of tired stereotypes about the South, but because a Madison Bumgarner dating a Madison Bumgarner isn't something Northern Exposure or Archer would have tried to get away with. Luckily, real life manages to be more interesting sometimes.First the Ukip leader declared his candidacy, then Al Murray and the Prophet Zebadiah of Ooog. Who will win? Constituent Marina O’Loughlin joins the protesters on the campaign trail The decision was made one December afternoon as we poked bare toes into the clean, golden sand outside the Pavilion on Broadstairs seafront. The beach curved around us and the sun shone while the rest of the UK shivered under grey skies and sleet. Why the hell, we asked ourselves, aren’t we living here? Our inner-city children spent their lives, whey-faced, staring at various screens, our tiny flat cost a king’s ransom, and this was all so beautiful: why weren’t we enjoying this Swallows and Amazons life, all cream teas and crab sandwiches? Nine years later, I realise that, despite its gorgeous location, the Pavilion is a shitehole boozer that sells horrible food, the children are still stuck to their screens, despite our best efforts (including joining the sailing club: brief pause for the hollowest of laughs at that one), and something nasty is stirring in my adopted home town. Until recently, when I spoke to people about where I live, it was about those miles of beautiful beaches, the microclimate, the Georgian and Edwardian architecture, the flourishing art scene, the glorious Kentish produce. It is a part of England brimming with life and energy and passion, from both locals and incomers. But that nastiness means that when I now say “Thanet”, people hear “Ukip”. Ukip has my constituency firmly in its sights, parachuting in its main man, Nigel Farage, in an act of bullish intent. When Farage ran for election here in 2005, the party was regarded as a bunch of marginal wackos, rather than serious contenders. Now, South Thanet is a bellwether seat: victory here might be just the chisel in the crevice that Ukip needs to split the political landscape wide open. So Farage knows the turf. I know it, too. For a couple of years, in an attempt to integrate with my new community, I ran a tiny cafe, selling the crab sandwiches I couldn’t find elsewhere. But I gave up: the introduction of one of the UK’s first lobster rolls was treated with as much suspicion as if I’d labelled them Bulgarian Homosexual Wedding Pies. A Pearly King from Ramsgate swore violently for a good 10 minutes because we couldn’t do him a fried egg sandwich. Ukip’s leader Nigel Farage takes a breather from his party’s February 2015 conference in Margate. Photograph: Ray Tang/Rex There’s a faction here that regards innovation with jittery distaste, and that extends to incomers. Urban refugees are dismissed as DFLs (Down From Londoners), irrespective of where we come from (I’m from Scotland, so I guess that makes me a DFS). But if the odd local blog bristles that us lot should “go back where we came from”, the antipathy to immigrants from farther away (8.59% of the local population, according to a recent Oxford University study; far lower than the 12.5% national average) is much stronger: especially to the eastern Europeans, many of whom have landed in scruffy parts of Cliftonville, where they have belligerently set about opening shops and car washes, and trying to get on with their lives. When I moved here, Cliftonville’s main drag, Northdown Road, was dying and decaying; it is not about to rival Bond Street any time soon, but it now has stores selling all kinds of food, Indian and Thai restaurants, and a wonderful artistic community at Resort Studios. Still, a typical conversation about immigration can go like this: Alan (not his real name), house agent: “Ukip knows what’s going on.” Me: “What do you mean?” Alan: “All the Bulgarians.” Me: “All the time I have lived here, I have never seen loads of Bulgarians. Where are they?” Alan: “One drives around in a big car.” Or John (ditto), plumber: “Well, Ukip are a bit fascist, aren’t they? Like the Nazis. But they might be better than what we’ve got right now.” At the end of 2013, when our MP Laura Sandys (Conservative, excellent) announces she intends to stand down at the general election, citing “a wide range of family demands”, I start to watch Farage’s steps with a sense of impending doom. * Facebook Twitter Pinterest Nigel Farage (top, centre) and Ukip have targeted the South Thanet seat, where their rivals include (clockwise from top right) real pub landlord Nigel Askew for the Reality Party (led by former Happy Monday Bez; top, left), the Prophet Zebadiah of the Al-Zebabist Nation of Ooog, TV’s Pub Landlord Al Murray and Labour’s Will Scobie. Photograph: Isle of Thanet Gazette (2); Ki Price (2); Leigh Dawney/PA Wire; Mary Turner/Getty Images By autumn 2014, the candidates are announced, and it’s not looking great. In addition to the creeping inevitability that was Nige, there’s twentysomething local boy Will Scobie for Labour – seems like a nice chap, makes all the right noises, but his youth and lack of battle scars lead many to suspect that Labour have just abandoned hope. Spooked by a challenge some way to their right, the Tories have put forward former Ukip treasurer and vice-chairman Craig Mackinlay, a move that’s seen as an attempt to out-Ukip Ukip, and a big shift away from the considerably more moderate Sandys. The Green candidate, Ian Driver, has meanwhile been busy proposing a cannabis cafe and lodging council standards complaints – against himself (for his “disgraceful and disreputable actions” in entering the derelict Pleasurama site on the Ramsgate seafront). He is ex-Militant Tendency, ex-Socialist Labour party, former Thanet Independent Group. Politics here is a flexible pursuit. Then come the various fringe parties, including Nigel Askew, the landlord of Ramsgate’s cool Queen Charlotte pub, who is standing for former Happy Monday Bez’s Reality Party; and comedy turn Al “The Pub Landlord”Murray for FUKP (Free United Kingdom Party). There’s a stout, gingerish chap in African robes who styles himself the Prophet Zebadiah of the Al-Zebabist Nation of Ooog and advocates the eradication of “arrogant, elitist, violent” Broadstairs. (He is also known as grime artist Robert Boaler.) It’s all a bit toe-curling, but pretty much a contained, local joke until the Al Murray announcement in January. My Twitter stream, largely metropolitan, explodes with mirth: this’ll take Farage down a peg or two! Me, I worry it’ll further dilute the vote in an area of high deprivation, desperately in need of politicians who actually care. Murray is clearly all about Murray, his pint-toting, “British moon on a stick” shtick a parody of Ukip’s main man. But the irony seems lost on a number of Thanet voters, who reckon he’s quite the card. Even those who get the irony are tempted; after Murray comes for a visit, brewer Eddie Gadd tells me, “I got a sense that he and his team have a very real, serious purpose here – to maybe, just maybe, pinch sufficient votes to prevent these postmodern fascists from getting elected. I’m all for him. I’ll vote for whoever is most likely to stop that sneering, opportunistic wanker from getting elected.” He means Farage. Among the merchandising material on sale at Ukip’s Margate conference, branded condoms sat side by side with fruitcake. Photograph: Ray Tang/Rex Yes, there are pockets of wealth in Thanet, much of it retired wealth and therefore fertile Ukip territory. But the poor are fearful, too, and Ukip knows how to manipulate those fears. Thanet suffers from immense shortages of housing and jobs. When pharmaceuticals giant Pfizer abandoned its Thanet plant in 2011, it had a seismic effect on employment: 3,000 out of a job in one blow, in an area with some of the highest youth unemployment in the country. Boarded-up shops and businesses mushroomed. In 2013, Stagecoach boss Ann Gloag bought the local Manston airport for £1, and there was excited talk about a new Richard Branson; seven months later, she shut down all flights and sold a majority stake to “regeneration specialists”, I imagine for considerably more than a quid. It is now empty and mouldering. There is also desperate child poverty, a shocking 50% or higher in parts of Cliftonville. Somehow, I can’t see Bez or Murray doing a whole lot to address any of this. The media, meanwhile, can’t believe its luck: what a gift! A farce populated by improbable characters, all played out in real time. Last month, BBC2 screened a jaw-dropping documentary, Meet The Ukippers, in which former Ukip councillor Rozanne Duncan outlined her problems with “negroes” and “negroid features”, and there were delighted comparisons with The League Of Gentlemen. The day after its broadcast, Mark Gatiss, co-creator of the TV show, tweeted: “Thanks for all the kind words about the new ‘League’ series last night. #MeetTheUkippers.” Oh, ho ho: Ukip may have since booted Duncan out, but she still serves on Thanet district council. In Broadstairs, meanwhile, the Ukip leaflets are arriving, yellow and purple as a bruise, urging us to join the Thanet People’s Army. It makes me feel motivated, but not in the way that’s intended. * It’s a bitter evening, sea winds strafing the sand as we trudge towards the Walpole Bay hotel in Cliftonville, a self-styled “living museum” where I once saw a punch-up between pensioners over a draughty window. Tracey Emin is a regular. Farage is speaking this evening, and we’d like to hear what he has to say. Bunny La Roche: The local anti-Ukip campaigner came to national attention in December 2014 when she lambasted Farage on BBC Question Time, calling him a ‘racist scumbag’. She has since been targeted on social media and sent hate mail. Photograph: Invicta Kent Media It turns out we can’t get in. Despite being billed as a public meeting, it’s “by invitation only”. So we join a shivering band of protesters outside, a slightly bedraggled bunch being filmed for Polish TV. Where are the young people? There aren’t any, on either side. If this is the Thanet People’s Army, it’s possibly running on Voltarol. Two women laugh: “It’s only us tough old birds who can face the cold.” A man in a linen suit and panama hat sweeps past into the hotel, looking for all the world like Colonel Sanders; he’s by far the nattiest dressed of the Kippers who, on this showing, seem to be late-middle-aged women in bad anoraks. Many local anti-Ukip protests are galvanised by a tiny, loud woman who goes by the soubriquet Bunny La Roche and who last December lambasted Farage from the audience on Question Time, her blue hair and cries of “racist scumbag” making a lasting impression. Her group is called Thanet Stand Up To Ukip. I ask people whom they’re voting for; several say Al Murray or Nigel Askew, “to split the vote”. No one seems to worry this might split the vote in a way that helps Ukip. There is no sign of Farage all night: they must have huckled him in and out of the back entrance. * There has been a fracas on Broadstairs high street, where people distributing Ukip leaflets have been shouting abuse at locals: “communist scum”, “Paedophile protection party” and (my favourite) “Go home and knit another scarf”. Ukip denies all knowledge, spluttering that the leafleters are fifth columnists and impostors. Iain Aitch, a Margate-born journalist, has helped make a series of “Ukip put me off my beer” beermats to distribute around local pubs. “It’s a non-party-aligned protest that gives Ukippers a taste of their own medicine,” he tells me. “They make people feel uncomfortable on the basis of their race, where they come from, their sexuality or religion. They are golf club bores with a former NF candidate leading their local campaign.” He means Martyn Heale, South Thanet Ukip chairman. On another freezing night, we join a protest outside the Pavilion; again, Farage is expected. And, again, it’s invitation only. What is he afraid of? I turn up with a local journalist, Jane Wenham-Jones, with hopes of scoring a press entry, but when she tries to get in to question Chris Wells, Ukip councillor and father of 11, she is taken by the arm and firmly escorted outside. Another activist stalwart at these gigs is Christine Tongue, film-maker and editor of Thanet Watch magazine. She has been banned from attending Ukip meetings since publishing last month’s cover lampooning Farage, his beaming face flanked by Al Murray and the Prophet Zebadiah with a shared speech bubble: “I’m the joke candidate.” This kind of strong-arm behaviour seems par for the course: two young chaps saunter in, looking very different from tonight’s retired-double-glazing-magnate-with-small-brushy-moustache style. They’re ejected, despite having invitations; party security has identified them as “not Ukip supporters”. The meeting has been billed as “open to everyone”. Several older people join our protest, thinking we are waiting to get in. Some younger people mistake us for the queue for the cinema next door. My feet feel frostbitten. If I’m going to continue being a political agitator, I am going to have to invest in some thermals. * A hustings in Ramsgate, with candidates from all the major parties, plus the Prophet Zebadiah, a nice lady, Ruth Bailey, who wants to talk about the future of Manston airport, and a bloke from the iPUT Thanet First party. There is a lot of waffling, none of which seems particularly relevant to Thanet: a question about the minimum wage reveals that only the Green and Labour candidates have any idea what it is. The Prophet chap commits the unforgivable crime of being a comedy character who isn’t funny. Farage isn’t here, of course; he’s at yet another invitation-only gig elsewhere in town. The only issues that get any real traction are digs (from all the parties) at Thanet district council’s notorious “brown envelope” culture, and promises to clamp down on corruption. The most impressive performance comes from Labour’s Will Scobie, despite a sense that he is fighting a solitary battle – an impression amplified when he later tweets Tony Blair and Alastair Campbell, attempting to tap them for a grand each towards his fighting fund: “£1,000 could make a big difference to us.” (Other, choosier candidates have made a point of refusing Blair’s money.) Even so, Scobie seems more poignant than grasping, especially compared with Farage’s plea that “ordinary people” in South Thanet “chip in a few bob”. Russ Timpson is persuasive for the Lib Dems, and there is a bravura anti-fracking speech from Reality’s Nigel Askew. But, all told, nobody comes close to the clammy glamour of Farage. He wins without even turning up. * In February 2015, the Ukip party faithful gathered in the Winter Gardens, Margate, to cheer their leader on in the race for the South Thanet seat. Photograph: Ray Tang/Rex It’s the big one: the anti-Ukip demonstration timed to coincide with February’s party conference at the Winter Gardens. The day before we arrive, a troupe of local dancers performs Springtime For Hitler in front of the venue; they’re publicising a forthcoming local production, and seem to go down well with the party faithful. One, Roger Helmer MEP, quoted Joseph Goebbels in a spirited blog response: the producers of The Producers “seem to have taken at least one move out of Herr Goebbels’ play-book”, he writes, before adding sagely, “Of course, that doesn’t mean that Goebbels was right – or not always.” We meet at Margate station, the cold and rain no impediment to a festive atmosphere: music, face painting, some slightly lame chanting of “Nigel Farage, you’re so foul/You are just like Enoch Powell.” A double-decker bus in lilac Ukip livery circles mournfully, empty. From inside the conference, we hear that Janice Atkinson MEP, candidate for Folkestone and a woman who last year described a Thai constituent as a “ting tong from somewhere”, has called our band of about 600 (not 250, as reported elsewhere) “the great unwashed”. All of us – restaurateurs, B&B owners, sixth formers, teachers, antiques dealers – try not to take this too personally. Just as well: last week, Ukip suspended Atkinson over allegations of a “serious financial nature” related to inflated expenses claims. Placards here are mostly of the “Frack off Farage” variety, but there are some deliciously “Down with this sort of thing” efforts: “Dear Ukip, it’s not too late to change your mind”; “Racism is illogical, Captain”; “Ukip in, Waitrose closes” (admittedly that last is the work of my husband). The conference slogan is Believe In Britain, and Farage’s entrance, greeted like that of a rock god by his superannuated followers, is to the Monkees’ I’m A Believer, which makes me really cross, because I’ve always liked that song. Bulletins from inside mention the merchandising: condoms captioned “Don’t waste an election”, and fruitcake. And leaflets that argue anti-homophobia initiatives in schools are “sexual grooming”. There is no manifesto. This strikes me as fiendishly clever, allowing the disaffected and fearful to project their own hopes and desires on to Ukip’s shape-shifting blank slate. They’ve a few soundbites, though, and seem particularly proud of “It’s the National Health Service, not the international Health Service”. A local theatre production of The Producers uses Ukip’s conference as an opportunity to publicise their show. Photograph: Joe Pepley/Rex Our march is very jolly until the English Defence League, Britain First and East Kent English Patriots show up. I may have led a sheltered life – too busy having lunch – but I’ve never seen them in the flesh. Their faces are either covered in England scarves or contorted into ugly fury, spitting their rage in our direction. They, too, seem concerned about our personal hygiene, bellowing that we “get a wash”. One, in a car, just seems perplexed: “What the fuck are you doing? You’re white!” They’re hellbent on getting a rise out of our peaceful rally, but a woman from Britain First is the only person arrested. Comments on the group’s Facebook page, under a later report about the arrest, offer the likes of: “omg thats ridiculous poor woman bet she wouldn’t off been arrested if she was muslim!!” Ukip has tried to distance itself from these nationalist groups, but their members clearly see something in the party that resonates. And perhaps that distancing message hasn’t quite hit home: Thanet South Ukip’s own Facebook page has “liked” a notorious far-right hoaxer and antisemitic internet troll. I get carried away and attempt, with a bunch of others, to storm the barricades keeping us out of the Winter Gardens. (What we plan to do should we succeed, I have no idea – liberate some fruitcake?) We fail spectacularly and slink off to the Lifeboat bar. Bunny La Roche is there; I ask what the reaction was to her Question Time appearance. She’s clearly a tough little thing, but says it was “truly awful – I cried for days”. She later emails me some of the material to which she was subjected, and it’s genuinely horrifying: “Lets [sic] hope some immigrant scumbag comes to your house and rapes you to death, vile bitch,” reads one, accompanied by a picture of a dead child captioned: “hung by Muslims because his family is Christian”. Britain First activists at Ukip’s February 2015 conference in Margate. Photograph Isle of Thanet Gazette Photograph: Isle of Thanet Gazette *After Meet The Ukippers was broadcast, I thought that sheer embarrassment might put a stop to some of my more undecided neighbours from flirting with Ukip, but no: at the time of writing, local polls are looking favourable. The party seems to be Teflon-coated down here, immune to gaffe after gaffe, and local chairman Martyn Heale’s National Front past is airily dismissed as a phase, at what he maintains was “a bit of a social club”. Farage’s glamour factor can’t be overstated, either. He has been on TV so often now, he’s seen as a celebrity. (Even after that frankly weird show with the comedy-drunk poshos from Gogglebox. They’re from Sandwich, which is in the South Thanet constituency.) In the event of victory for the “batrachoidal Farage” (thank you, Alan Bennett), South Thanet will for ever be tarred as the launchpad for Ukip. Nigel is not a stupid man; he must be pretty confident of where this is going. But what do I know? I’m just a restaurant critic; I write about my tea. But I do know what it’s like to live here, to see an area that has been pulling itself up by the bootstraps become a national laughing stock. Apart from a spot of last-minute kneejerking in the direction of Manston airport, I have never heard Farage utter a word to indicate that we matter to him as anything other than a means to his end. And still they’re snowed – the old, the insular, the fearful – dazzled by his beer-and-Rothmans Everyman drag. If he loses and resigns his leadership, as he has promised, it would be a body blow for Ukip, one from which it will struggle to recover. But if he wins, many of us will have a hard time living with the shame.Image: Whatsername/Flickr As part of an unprecedented law enforcement hacking operation, in early 2015 the FBI hacked over a thousand suspected US-based visitors of a dark web child pornography site called Playpen. Despite reports that the hacking campaign spread beyond US borders, so far the FBI has declined to comment on whether computers abroad were hit. Recently unsealed court documents now confirm that the investigation targeted international suspects. "Thousands of users of 'Website A,' in the United States and abroad, remain under active investigation," reads a government motion from 2015 that was unsealed last week. Website A refers to Playpen, which the FBI seized, and briefly ran, in February last year. Once it had control of the site, the FBI deployed a network investigative technique (NIT)—a hacking tool—to identify users of the site when they clicked on certain child pornography-related threads. The government motion, which addresses a protective order for discovery documents, comes from the case of Richard Stamper, who was arrested on suspicion of child pornography crimes. "The disclosure of certain information, names and/or statements contained in said documents may jeopardize multiple ongoing criminal investigations involving the sexual exploitation of children, both on the national and international level," the document continues. Although no specific countries are mentioned in the filing, media reports and documents from
advanced" than the Arya according to the textual evidence.[20] According to Asko Parpola, the term dasa in ancient Indian texts has proto-Saka roots, where dasa or daha simply means "man".[21] Both "dasa" and "dasyu" are uncommon in Indo-Iranian languages (including Sanskrit and Pali), and these words may be a legacy of the PIE root "*dens-", and the word "saka" may have evolved from "dasa", states Parpola.[21] According to Micheline Ishay – a professor of human rights studies and sociology, the term "dasa" can be "translated as slave". The institution represented unfree labor with fewer rights, but "the supposed slavery in [ancient] India was of mild character and limited extent" like Babylonian and Hebrew slavery, in contrast to the Hellenic world.[22] The "unfree labor" could be of two types in ancient India: the underadsatva and the ahitaka, states Ishay.[22] A person in distress could pledge themselves for work leading to underadsatava, while under ahitaka a person's "unfree labor" was pledged or mortgaged against a debt or ransom when captured during a war.[22] These forms of slavery limited the duration of "unfree labor" and such a slave had rights to their property and could pass their property to their kin, states Ishay.[22] The term dasa appears in early Buddhist texts, a term scholars variously interpret as servant or slave.[23] Buddhist manuscripts also mention kapyari, which scholars have translated as a legally bonded servant (slave).[24] According to Gregory Schopen, in the Mahaviharin Vinaya, the Buddha says that a community of monks may accept dasa for repairs and other routine chores. Later, the same Buddhist text states that the Buddha approved the use of kalpikara and the kapyari for labor in the monasteries and approved building separate quarters for them.[25] Schopen interprets the term dasa as servants, while he interprets the kalpikara and kapyari as bondmen and slave respectively because they can be owned and given by laity to the Buddhist monastic community.[25] According to Schopen, since these passages are not found in Indian versions of the manuscripts, but found in a Sri Lankan version, these sections may have been later interpolations that reflect a Sri Lankan tradition, rather than early Indian.[25] The discussion of servants and bonded labor is also found in manuscripts found in Tibet, though the details vary.[25][26] The discussion of servant, bonded labor and slaves, states Scopen, differs significantly in different manuscripts discovered for the same Buddhist text in India, Nepal and Tibet, whether they are in Sanskrit or Pali language.[26] These Buddhist manuscripts present a set of questions to ask a person who wants to become a monk or nun. These questions inquire if the person is a dasa and dasi, but also ask additional questions such as "are you ahrtaka" and "are you vikritaka". The later questions have been interpreted in two ways. As "are you one who has been seized" (ahrtaka) and "are you one who has been sold" (vikritaka) respectively, these terms are interpreted as slaves.[26] Alternatively, they have also been interpreted as "are you doubtless" and "are you blameworthy" respectively, which does not mean slave.[26] Further, according to these texts, Buddhist monasteries refused all servants, bonded labor and slaves an opportunity to become a monk or nun, but accepted them as workers to serve the monastery.[26][25] The Indian texts discuss dasa and bonded labor along with their rights, as well as a monastic community's obligations to feed, clothe and provide medical aid to them in exchange for their work. This description of rights and duties in Buddhist Vinaya texts, says Schopen, parallel those found in Hindu Dharmasutra and Dharmasastra texts.[27] The Buddhist attitude to servitude or slavery as reflected in Buddhist texts, states Schopen, may reflect a "passive acceptance" of cultural norms of the Brahmanical society midst them, or more "justifiably an active support" of these institutions.[28] The Buddhist texts offer "no hint of protest or reform" to such institutions, according to Schopen.[28] Kautilya's Arthashastra dedicates the thirteenth chapter on dasas, in his third book on law. This Sanskrit document from the Maurya Empire period (4th century BCE) has been translated by several authors, each in a different manner. Shamasastry's translation of 1915 maps dasa as slave, while Kangle leaves the words as dasa and karmakara. According to Kangle's interpretation, the verse 13.65.3–4 of Arthasastra forbids any slavery of "an Arya in any circumstances whatsoever", but allows the Mlecchas to "sell an offspring or keep it as pledge".[29] Patrick Olivelle agrees with this interpretation. He adds that an Arya or Arya family could pledge itself during times of distress into bondage, and these bonded individuals could be converted to slave if they committed a crime thereby differing with Kangle's interpretation.[30] According to Kangle, the Arthasastra forbids enslavement of minors and Arya from all four varnas and this inclusion of Shudras stands different from the Vedic literature.[31] Kangle suggests that the context and rights granted to dasa by Kautilya implies that the word had a different meaning than the modern word slave, as well as the meaning of the word slave in Greek or other ancient and medieval civilizations.[32][verification needed] According to Arthashastra, anyone who had been found guilty of nishpatitah (Sanskrit: निष्पातित, ruined, bankrupt, a minor crime)[33] may mortgage oneself to become dasa for someone willing to pay his or her bail and employ the dasa for money and privileges.[32][34] Shamasastry's 1915 foundational translation of the Arthashastra describes the rights of the dasa, confirming Kangle's contention that they were quite different than slaves in other ancient and medieval civilizations. For example, it was illegal to force a dasa (slave) to do certain types of work, to hurt or abuse him, or to commit rape against a female dasa.[34] Employing a slave (dasa) to carry the dead or to sweep ordure, urine or the leavings of food; keeping a slave naked; hurting or abusing him; or violating the chastity of a female slave shall cause the forfeiture of the value paid for him or her. Violation of the chastity shall at once earn their liberty for them. Arthashastra, Translated by Shamasastry[34] When a master has connection (sex) with a pledged female slave (dasa) against her will, he shall be punished. When a man commits or helps another to commit rape with a female slave pledged to him, he shall not only forfeit the purchase value, but also pay a certain amount of money to her and a fine of twice the amount to the government. Arthashastra, Translated by Shamasastry[34] A slave (dasa) shall be entitled to enjoy not only whatever he has earned without prejudice to his master's work, but also the inheritance he has received from his father. Arthashastra, Translated by Shamasastry[34] The term dasa in Indic literature can mean slave, servant or when used as a suffix to a bhagavan (deity) name, it refers to a pious devotee.[35][36] Slavery in medieval India [ edit ] Slavery escalated during the medieval era in India with the arrival of Islam.[1][4] Wink summarizes the period as follows, Slavery and empire-formation tied in particularly well with iqta and it is within this context of Islamic expansion that elite slavery was later commonly found. It became the predominant system in North India in the thirteenth century and retained considerable importance in the fourteenth century. Slavery was still vigorous in fifteenth-century Bengal, while after that date it shifted to the Deccan where it persisted until the seventeenth century. It remained present to a minor extent in the Mughal provinces throughout the seventeenth century and had a notable revival under the Afghans in North India again in the eighteenth century. Al Hind, André Wink[37] Slavery as a predominant social institution emerged from the 8th century onwards in India, particularly after the 11th century, as part of systematic plunder and enslavement of infidels, along with the use of slaves in armies for conquest.[3] Islamic invasions (8th to 12th century AD) [ edit ] Andre Wink summarizes the slavery in 8th and 9th century India as follows, (During the invasion of Muhammad al-Qasim), invariably numerous women and children were enslaved. The sources insist that now, in dutiful conformity to religious law, 'the one-fifth of the slaves and spoils' were set apart for the caliph's treasury and despatched to Iraq and Syria. The remainder was scattered among the army of Islam. At Rūr, a random 60,000 captives reduced to slavery. At Brahamanabad 30,000 slaves were allegedly taken. At Multan 6,000. Slave raids continued to be made throughout the late Umayyad period in Sindh, but also much further into Hind, as far as Ujjain and Malwa. The Abbasid governors raided Punjab, where many prisoners and slaves were taken. Al Hind, André Wink[38] Levi notes that these figures cannot be entirely dismissed as exaggerations since they appear to be supported by the reports of contemporary observers. In the early 11th century Tarikh al-Yamini, the Arab historian Al-Utbi recorded that in 1001 the armies of Mahmud of Ghazni conquered Peshawar and Waihand (capital of Gandhara) after Battle of Peshawar (1001), "in the midst of the land of Hindustan", and enslaved thousands.[39][40] Later, following his twelfth expedition into India in 1018–19, Mahmud is reported to have returned to with such a large number of slaves that their value was reduced to only two to ten dirhams each. This unusually low price made, according to Al-Utbi, "merchants came from distant cities to purchase them, so that the countries of Central Asia, Iraq and Khurasan were swelled with them, and the fair and the dark, the rich and the poor, mingled in one common slavery". Delhi Sultanate (12th to 16th century AD) [ edit ] During the Delhi Sultanate period (1206–1555), references to the abundant availability of low-priced Indian slaves abound.[1] Many of these Indian slaves were used by Muslim nobility in the subcontinent, but others were exported to satisfy the demand in international markets. The revenue system of the Delhi Sultanate produced a considerable proportion of the Indian slave population as these rulers, and their subordinate shiqadars, ordered their armies to abduct large numbers of locals as a means of extracting revenue.[41][42] While those communities that were loyal to the Sultan and regularly paid their taxes were often excused from this practice, taxes were commonly extracted from other, less loyal groups in the form of slaves. Thus, according to Barani, the Shamsi "slave-king" Balban (r. 1266–87) ordered his shiqadars in Awadh to enslave those peoples resistant to his authority, implying those who refused to supply him with tax revenue.[43] Sultan Alauddin Khalji (r. 1296–1316) is similarly reported to have legalised the enslavement of those who defaulted on their revenue payments.[43] This policy continued during the Mughal era.[44][45][46][47][48] An even greater number of people were enslaved as a part of the efforts of the Delhi Sultans to finance their expansion into new territories.[49] For example, while he himself was still a military slave of the Ghurid Sultan Muizz u-Din, Qutb-ud-din Aybak (r. 1206–10 as the first of the Shamsi slave-kings) invaded Gujarat in 1197 and placed some 20,000 people in bondage. Roughly six years later, he enslaved an additional 50,000 people during his conquest of Kalinjar. Later in the 13th century, Balban's campaign in Ranthambore, reportedly defeated the Indian army and yielded "captives beyond computation".[48][50] Levi states that the forcible enslavement of non-Muslims during Delhi Sultanate was motivated by the desire for war booty and military expansion. This gained momentum under the Khalji and Tughluq dynasties, as being supported by available figures.[1][48] Zia uddin Barani suggested that Sultan Alauddin Khalji owned 50,000 slave-boys, in addition to 70,000 construction slaves. Sultan Firuz Shah Tughluq is said to have owned 180,000 slaves, roughly 12,000 of whom were skilled artisans.[41][48][51][52][47][53] A significant proportion of slaves owned by the Sultans were likely to have been military slaves and not labourers or domestics. However earlier traditions of maintaining a mixed army comprising both Indian soldiers and Turkic slave-soldiers (ghilman, mamluks) from Central Asia, were disrupted by the rise of the Mongol Empire reducing the inflow of mamluks. This intensified demands by the Delhi Sultans on local Indian populations to satisfy their need for both military and domestic slaves. The Khaljis even sold thousands of captured Mongol soldiers within India.[42][51][54] China, Turkistan, Persia, and Khurusan were sources of male and female slaves sold to Tughluq India.[55][56][56][57][58] The Yuan Dynasty Emperor in China sent 100 slaves of both sexes to the Tughluq Sultan, and he replied by also sending the same number of slaves of both sexes.[59] Mughal Empire (16th to 19th century) [ edit ] The slave trade continued to exist in the Mughal Empire, however it was greatly reduced in scope, primarily limited to domestic servitude and debt bondage, and deemed "mild" and incomparable to the transatlantic slave trade.[60][61] One Dutch merchant in the 17th century writes about Abd Allah Khan Firuz Jang, an Uzbek noble at the Mughal court during the 1620s and 1630s, who was appointed to the position of governor of the regions of Kalpi and Kher and, in the process of subjugating the local rebels, ``beheaded the leaders and enslaved their women, daughters and children, who were more than 200,000 in number.[62] When Shah Shuja was appointed as governor of Kabul, he carried out a war in Indian territory beyond the Indus. Most of the women burnt themselves to death to save their honour. Those captured were "distributed" among Muslim mansabdars.[44][not in citation given][63][not in citation given] The Augustinian missionary Fray Sebastian Manrique, who was in Bengal in 1629–30 and again in 1640, remarked on the ability of the shiqdār—a Mughal officer responsible for executive matters in the pargana, the smallest territorial unit of imperial administration to collect the revenue demand, by force if necessary, and even to enslave peasants should they default in their payments.[63] A survey of a relatively small, restricted sample of seventy-seven letters regarding the manumission or sale of slaves in the Majmua-i-wathaiq reveals that slaves of Indian origin (Hindi al-asal) accounted for over fifty-eight percent of those slaves whose region of origin is mentioned. The Khutut-i-mamhura bemahr-i qadat-i Bukhara, a smaller collection of judicial documents from early-eighteenth-century Bukhara, includes several letters of manumission, with over half of these letters referring to slaves "of Indian origin". Even in the model of a legal letter of manumission written by the chief qazi for his assistant to follow, the example used is of a slave "of Indian origin".[64] The export of slaves from India was limited to debt defaulters and rebels against the Mughal Empire. The Ghakkars of Punjab acted as intermediaries for such slave for trade to Central Asian buyers.[61] Fatawa-i Alamgiri [ edit ] The Fatawa-e-Alamgiri (also known as the Fatawa-i-Hindiya and Fatawa-i Hindiyya) was sponsored by Aurangzeb in the late 17th century.[65] It compiled the law for the Mughal Empire, and involved years of effort by 500 Muslim scholars from South Asia, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. The thirty volumes on Hanafi-based sharia law for the Empire was influential during and after Auruangzeb's rule, and it included many chapters and laws on slavery and slaves in India.[66][67][68] Some of the slavery-related law included in Fatawa-i Alamgiri were, the right of Muslims to purchase and own slaves, [67] a Muslim man's right to have sex with a captive slave girl he owns or a slave girl owned by another Muslim (with master's consent) without marrying her, [69] no inheritance rights for slaves, [70] the testimony of all slaves was inadmissible in a court of law [71] slaves require permission of the master before they can marry, [72] an unmarried Muslim may marry a slave girl he owns but a Muslim married to a Muslim woman may not marry a slave girl, [73] conditions under which the slaves may be emancipated partially or fully.[68] Export of Indian slaves to international markets [ edit ] Alongside Buddhist Oirats, Christian Russians, Afghans, and the predominantly Shia Iranians, Indian slaves were an important component of the highly active slave markets of medieval and early modern Central Asia. The all pervasive nature of slavery in this period in Central Asia is shown by the 17th century records of one Juybari Sheikh, a Naqshbandi Sufi leader, owning over 500 slaves, forty of whom were specialists in pottery production while the others were engaged in agricultural work.[74] High demand for skilled slaves, and India's larger and more advanced textile industry, agricultural production and tradition of architecture demonstrated to its neighbours that skilled-labour was abundant in the subcontinent leading to enslavement and export of large numbers of skilled labour as slaves, following their successful invasions.[75] After sacking Delhi, Timur enslaved several thousand skilled artisans, presenting many of these slaves to his subordinate elite, although reserving the masons for use in the construction of the Bibi-Khanym Mosque in Samarkand.[76] Young female slaves fetched higher market price than skilled construction slaves, sometimes by 150%.[77] Under early European colonial powers [ edit ] According to one author, in spite of the best efforts of the slave-holding elite to conceal the continuation of the institution from the historical record, slavery was practised throughout colonial India in various manifestations.[78] In reality, the movement of Indians to the Bukharan slave markets did not cease and Indian slaves continued to be sold in the markets of Bukhara well into the nineteenth century. 17th century [ edit ] Slavery existed in Portuguese India after the 16th century. "Most of the Portuguese", says Albert. D. Mandelslo, a German itinerant writer, "have many slaves of both sexes, whom they employ not only on and about their persons, but also upon the business they are capable of, for what they get comes with the master. The Dutch, too, largely dealt in slaves. They were mainly Abyssian, known in India as Habshis or Sheedes. The curious mixed race in Kanara on the West coast has traces of these slaves.[79] The Dutch Indian Ocean slave trade was primarily mediated by the Dutch East India Company, drawing captive labour from three commercially closely linked regions: the western, or Southeast Africa, Madagascar, and the Mascarene Islands (Mauritius and Reunion); the middle, or Indian subcontinent (Malabar, Coromandel, and the Bengal/Arakan coast); and the eastern, or Malaysia, Indonesia, New Guinea (Irian Jaya), and the southern Philippines. The Dutch traded slaves from fragmented or weak small states and stateless societies in the East beyond the sphere of Islamic influence, to the company's Asian headquarters, the "Chinese colonial city" of Batavia (Jakarta), and its regional centre in coastal Sri Lanka. Other destinations included the important markets of Malacca (Melaka) and Makassar (Ujungpandang), along with the plantation economies of eastern Indonesia (Maluku, Ambon, and Banda Islands), and the agricultural estates of the southwestern Cape Colony (South Africa). On the Indian subcontinent, Arakan/Bengal, Malabar, and Coromandel remained the most important source of forced labour until the 1660s. Between 1626 and 1662, the Dutch exported on an average 150–400 slaves annually from the Arakan-Bengal coast. During the first thirty years of Batavia's existence, Indian and Arakanese slaves provided the main labour force of the company's Asian headquarters. Of the 211 manumitted slaves in Batavia between 1646 and 1649, 126 (59.71%) came from South Asia, including 86 (40.76%) from Bengal. Slave raids into the Bengal estuaries were conducted by joint forces of Magh pirates, and Portuguese traders (chatins) operating from Chittagong outside the jurisdiction and patronage of the Estado da India, using armed vessels (galias). These raids occurred with the active connivance of the Taung-ngu (Toungoo) rulers of Arakan. The eastward expansion of the Mughal Empire, however, completed with the conquest of Chittagong in 1666, cut off the traditional supplies from Arakan and Bengal. Until the Dutch seizure of the Portuguese settlements on the Malabar coast (1658–63), large numbers of slaves were also captured and sent from India's west coast to Batavia, Ceylon, and elsewhere. After 1663, however, the stream of forced labour from Cochin dried up to a trickle of about 50–100 and 80–120 slaves per year to Batavia and Ceylon, respectively. In contrast with other areas of the Indian subcontinent, Coromandel remained the centre of a sporadic slave trade throughout the seventeenth century. In various short-lived expansions accompanying natural and human-induced calamities, the Dutch exported thousands of slaves from the east coast of India. A prolonged period of drought followed by famine conditions in 1618–20 saw the first large-scale export of slaves from the Coromandel coast in the seventeenth century. Between 1622 and 1623, 1,900 slaves were shipped from central Coromandel ports, like Pulicat and Devanampattinam. Company officials on the coast declared that 2,000 more could have been bought if only they had the funds. The second expansion in the export of Coromandel slaves occurred during a famine following the revolt of the Nayaka Indian rulers of South India (Tanjavur, Senji, and Madurai) against Bijapur overlordship (1645) and the subsequent devastation of the Tanjavur countryside by the Bijapur army. Reportedly, more than 150,000 people were taken by the invading Deccani Muslim armies to Bijapur and Golconda. In 1646, 2,118 slaves were exported to Batavia, the overwhelming majority from southern Coromandel. Some slaves were also acquired further south at Tondi, Adirampatnam, and Kayalpatnam. A third phase in slaving took place between 1659 and 1661 from Tanjavur as a result of a series of successive Bijapuri raids. At Nagapatnam, Pulicat, and elsewhere, the company purchased 8,000–10,000 slaves, the bulk of whom were sent to Ceylon while a small portion were exported to Batavia and Malacca. A fourth phase (1673–77) started from a long drought in Madurai and southern Coromandel starting in 1673, and intensified by the prolonged Madurai-Maratha struggle over Tanjavur and punitive fiscal practices. Between 1673 and 1677, 1,839 slaves were exported from the Madurai coast alone. A fifth phase occurred in 1688, caused by poor harvests and the Mughal advance into the Karnatak. Thousands of people from Tanjavur, mostly girls and little boys, were sold into slavery and exported by Asian traders from Nagapattinam to Aceh, Johor, and other slave markets. In September 1687, 665 slaves were exported by the English from Fort St. George, Madras. Finally, in 1694–96, when warfare once more ravaged South India, a total of 3,859 slaves were imported from Coromandel by private individuals into Ceylon.[80] [81] [82][83] The volume of the total Dutch Indian Ocean slave trade has been estimated to be about 15–30% of the Atlantic slave trade, slightly smaller than the trans-Saharan slave trade, and one-and-a-half to three times the size of the Swahili and Red Sea coast and the Dutch West India Company slave trades.[84] 18th to 20th century [ edit ] Golas or hereditary slaves of Kathiawar, c. 1855 Between 1772 and 1833, the British parliament debates, as recorded in Hansard confirm the existence of extensive slavery in India.[85] A number of abolitionist missionaries, including Rev. James Peggs, Rev. Howard Malcom, Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, and William Adams offered commentaries on the Parliamentary debates, and added their own estimates of the numbers effected by, and forms of slavery in South Asia, by region and caste, in the 1830s. In a series of publications that included their: "India’s Cries to British Humanity, Relative to Infanticide, British Connection with Idolatry, Ghau Murders, Suttee, Slavery, and Colonization in India", "Slavery and the slave trade in British India; with notices of the existence of these evils in the islands of Ceylon, Malacca, and Penang, drawn from official documents", and "The Law and Custom of Slavery in British India: In a Series of Letters to Thomas Fowell Buxton, Esq" tables were published detailing the estimates. Estimates of slaves held in various East India Company territories and Native Kingdoms in the 1830s[86][87][88] Province or Kingdom Est. Slaves Malabar 147,000 Malabar and Wynad (Wayanad) 100,000 Canara, Coorg, Wynad, Cochin, and Travancore 254,000 Canara 80,000 Assam 11,300 Surat 3,000 Ceylon (Sri Lanka) 27,397 Penang 3,000 Sylhet and Buckergunge (Bakerganj) 80,000 Behar 22,722 Tizhoot 11,061 Southern Mahratta Country 7,500 Sub Total 1,121,585 The publications suggest slavery was endemic, with individual published letters, or reports discussing the practice in a small geographic areas often mentioning thousand of slaves, e.g. Slavery in Bombay. In Mr. Chaplin's report, made in answer to queries addressed to the collectors of districts, he says, "Slavery in the Deccan is very prevalent and we know that it has been recognized by the Hindu law, and by the custom of the country, from time immemorial'." Mr. Baber gives more definite information of the number of slaves in one of the divisions of the Bombay territory, viz., that " lying between the rivers Kistna and Toongbutra," the slaves in which he estimates at 15,000 ; and in the southern Mahratta country, he observes, " All the Jagheerdars, Deshwars, Zemindars, principal Brahmins, and Sahookdars, retain slaves in their domestic establishments ; in fact, in every Mahratta household of consequence, they are, both male and female, especially the latter, to be found, and indeed are considered to be indispensable." — Par. Pap. No. 128, 1834, p. 4. While Andrea Major, in Slavery, Abolitionism and Empire in India, 1772-1843, published in 2014: In fact, eighteenth century Europeans, including some Britons, were involved in buying, selling and exporting Indian slaves, transferring them around the subcontinent or to European slave colonies across the globe. Moreover, many eighteenth century European households in India included domestic slaves, with the owners' right of property over them being upheld in law. Thus, although both colonial observers and subsequent historians usually represent South Asian slavery as an indigenous institution, with which the British were only concenred as colonial reforms, until the end of the eighteenth century Europeans were deeply implicated in both slave-holding and slave-trading in the region. Andrea Major[10][89] Regulation and prohibition [ edit ] In Bengal the East India Company, in 1773, opted to codify the pre-existing pluralistic judicial system, with Europeans subject to English Common law, Muslims to the sharia based Fatawa-e-Alamgiri, and Hindus to an adaptation of a Dharmaśāstra named Manusmriti, that became known as the Hindu law,[90] with the applicable legal traditions, and for Hindus an interpretation of verse 8.415 of the Manusmriti,[91] regulating the practice of slavery.[86] The Company later passed regulations 9, and 10 of 1774, prohibiting the trade in slaves without written deed, and the sale of anyone not already enslaved.,[89] and reissued the legislation in 1789, after a Danish Captain, Peter Horrebow, was caught, prosecuted, fined, and jailed for attempting to smuggle 150 Bengali slaves to Ceylon.[89] The Company subsequently issued regulations 10 of 1811, prohibiting the transport of slaves into Company territory.[89] When the United Kingdom abolished slavery in its overseas territories, through the Slavery Abolition Act 1833, it excluded the non Crown territories administered by the East India Company from the scope of the statute.[92] The Indian Slavery Act of 1843 prohibit Company employees from owning, or dealing, along with granting limited protection under the law, that included the ability for a slave to own, transfer or inherit property, notionally benefitting the millions held in Company territory, that in an 1883 article on Slavery in India and Egypt, Sir Henry Bartle Frere (who sat on the Viceroy's Council 1859-67), estimated that within the Companies territory, that did not yet extend to half the sub-continent, at the time of the act: Comparing such information, district by district, with the very imperfect estimates of the total population fifty years ago, the lowest estimate I have been able to form of the total slave population of British India, in 1841, is between eight and nine millions of souls. The slaves set free in the British colonies on the 1st of August, 1834, were estimated at between 800,000 and 1,000,000; and the slaves in North and South America, in 1860, were estimated at 4,000,000. So that the number of human beings whose liberties and fortunes, as slaves and owners of slaves, were at stake when the emancipation of the slaves was contemplated in British India, far exceeded the number of the same classes in all the slaveholding colonies and dominions of Great Britain and America put together. Fortnightly Review, 1883, p. 355,[93] Growth of East India Company controlled territories (pink) between 1765, 1805, 1837 and 1857 Portugal gradually prohibited the importation of slaves into Portuguese India, following the 1818 Anglo-Portuguese anti slavery treaty, a subsequent 1836 Royal Edict, and a second Anglo-Portuguese treaty in 1842 reduced the external trade, but the institution itself was only prohibited in 1876.[94] France prohibited slavey, in French India, via the Proclamation of the Abolition of Slavery in the French Colonies, 27 April 1848.[95] British Indian Empire Provisions of the Indian Penal Code of 1861 effectively abolished slavery in British India by making the enslavement of human beings a criminal offense.[13][14][96][16] Officials that inadvertently used the term "slave" would be reprimanded, but the actual practices of servitude continued unchanged. Scholar Indrani Chatterjee has termed this "abolition by denial." In the rare cases when the anti-slavery legislation was enforced, it addressed the relatively smaller practices of export and import of slaves, but it did little to address the agricultural slavery that was pervasive inland. The officials in the Madras Presidency turned a blind eye to agricultural slavery claiming that it was a benign form of bondage that was in fact preferable to free labour.[97] Indentured labor system [ edit ] After the United Kingdom prohibited slavery by the mid 19th century, it introduced a new indentured labor system that scholars suggest was slavery by contract.[98][99][100] According to Richard Sheridan, quoting Dookhan, "[the plantation owners] continued to apply or sanction the means of coercion common to slavery, and in this regard the Indians fared no better than the ex-slaves".[101] In this new system, they were called indentured labourers. South Asians began to replace Africans previously brought as slaves, under this indentured labour scheme to serve on plantations and mining operations across the British empire.[102] The first ships carrying indentured labourers left India in 1836.[102] In the second half of the 19th century, indentured Indians were treated as inhumanely as the enslaved people previously had been. They were confined to their estates and paid a pitiful salary. Any breach of contract brought automatic criminal penalties and imprisonment.[102] Many of these were brought away from their homelands deceptively. Many from inland regions over a thousand kilometers from seaports were promised jobs, were not told the work they were being hired for, or that they would leave their homeland and communities. They were hustled aboard the waiting ships, unprepared for the long and arduous four-month sea journey. Charles Anderson, a special magistrate investigating these sugarcane plantations, wrote to the British Colonial Secretary declaring that with few exceptions, the indentured labourers are treated with great and unjust severity; plantation owners enforced work in plantations, mining and domestic work so harshly, that the decaying remains of immigrants were frequently discovered in fields. If labourers protested and refused to work, they were not paid or fed: they simply starved.[102][103] Contemporary slavery [ edit ] According to a Walk Free Foundation report in 2016, there were 46 million people enslaved worldwide in 2016, there were 18.3 million people in India living in the forms of modern slavery, such as bonded labour, child labour, forced marriage, human trafficking, forced begging, among others.[104][105][106][107][108] The existence of child slavery in South Asia and the world has been alleged by NGOs and the media.[109] With the Bonded Labour (Prohibition) Act 1976 and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (concerning slavery and servitude), a spotlight has been placed on these problems in the country. One of the areas identified as problematic were granite quarries.[110][111] See also [ edit ] References [ edit ] Further reading [ edit ]It may be billed as the film that is set to shake up the entire industry, a harbinger of a time when no one visits the cinema and downloads new films directly from the internet, but Beasts of No Nation has certainly pulled no punches in its world premiere presentation at the Venice film festival. Having been bought by Netflix in a $12m deal, Beasts of No Nation is set for only a cursory theatrical release, with its availability on video-on-demand on the same day. However, the film, directed by Cary Fukunaga and starring Idris Elba, impressed critics at Venice, with the Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw calling the study of child soldiers in an unnamed West African war zone “a violent and disorientating nightmare with a shiver of Coppola’s Apocalypse Now”, while Variety said it possessed a “savage beauty and matter-of-fact horror”. Beasts of No Nation features a host of first-time actors, most cast from local children, including the film’s lead, 14-year-old Abraham Attah, who Fukunaga said he discovered while Attah was “playing hookey”. According to Attah himself, who joined Fukunaga in the press conference, he was playing football when “a white man came and said he wanted people for a movie”. Abraham Attah, left, and Idris Elba in Beasts of No Nation. Photograph: Netflix Fukunaga explained that more than 600 children were seen initially, with the final selection being made through a series of workshops in Ghana, where the film was shot. “We spent four weeks improvising scenes from the movie. It also gave a chance to see who had discipline and stamina, as well as acting ability.” Fukunaga also explained that some of the people cast as extras were forced to drop out as they travelled to the shoot after they were arrested on suspicion of being mercenaries. Beasts of No Nation review – Idris Elba rules in Netflix's impressive move into movies Read more Adapted from a novel by Uzodinma Iweala, Beasts of No Nation deals directly with the process of indoctrination and desensitisation practised by certain irregular militias. Fukunaga, who studied political science at the prestigious Institut d’Études Politiques in Gren
points to win. Sounds like relatively traditional RTS stuff—indeed, Hidden Path isn't using VR to reinvent the genre's mechanical wheels. Instead, the studio has spit-shined the concept of using hands to control a giant map—and tuned the battling to make this as fun as possible. I repeatedly shouted "wow, this is clever" as I made sense of the various control systems. Want to move around the battle table? Grab the table and slide yourself around it (or even use both hands to monkey-crawl all the way across). Want to upgrade various technologies on your base? The edge of your table is lined with various wooden blocks, and you pick these up and place them in open slots in your base to install them as permanent upgrades (and your slots expand as your base gets better over time). Whenever you're in the middle of the map and want to create new towers, it's as simple as flicking one of your wrists sideways, which reveals a "pick a tower" interface as a disc covered in icons. (The more upgrades you've installed at your primary base, the more towers you can generate with your ore.) Use your other free hand to grab an icon, then move it to the right spot to make that tower. And directing units to move or attack is as simple as pointing at them, holding a button down, and releasing that button once a floating arrow points at the exact target you want them to run, fly, or drive towards. You even get a zany catapult for free at the corner of your map. At any time in the battle, you can go to your catapult, pull it back, and let loose on your opponent, with the only limitation being the accuracy of your long-distance aim (like a VR version of Artillery or Scorched Earth). This doesn't cost any resources; it just takes a while to regenerate a new cannonball. But wait, you might ask. How do you aim a catapult across a battlefield covered in the usual RTS haze and clouds? No fog of war? You read that correctly. Brass Tactics has tossed the usual RTS convention of fog of war out the window. At any time, players can drag their way across the map and see exactly what their opponent is plotting. I thought this was unheard of, so I asked Hidden Path what the heck they were doing. They insist that after so much playtesting, VR RTS makes more sense without it. "Players’ attention is the critical resource," Terrano says. "There's no fog of war in the real world, and this is more like a tabletop game. I wanted you to be able to look and see everywhere. The trick is, you can’t look everywhere at once." I realized what he meant very quickly into my own demo session. Brass Tactics has what feels like five battling paths, split across the map with a few branching points, along with a few wide-open swaths of land. Each can be exploited by certain ranged, flying, and slow-and-deadly units to change the expected flow very suddenly. You can certainly crawl across the map using your real-life hands to spy on your opponent's side of combat at any point, but Brass Tactics makes the sheer act of generating and ordering units incredibly brisk—and the act of journeying across a map pretty slow. As a result, moving your entire view to your opponent (which is, by default, obscured by some hills and geometry from your side of the map) disrupts the flow of offensive management—thus making any spying attempt an interesting strategic choice, especially later in an explosive map. (You can also move to your opponent's side and stick your hands in their face if you want, but it's really not worth the trouble. Seriously, I tried.) Terrano says that the team took six months to build the game's basic interface, before even starting work on creating units and balancing armies. His team even experimented with what he called "vertical" and "cylindrical" battleground designs before settling on this giant imaginary battle-table system. All the while, his team had one operating goal: to create a fully tactile and physical interface. "Typical real-time strategy has lots and lots of interface," Terrano says. "For example, your base upgrades. Rather than have a tabbed menu with icons, they’re these buildings you pick up in your hand and snap into the board." The company is targeting launch in October of this year, and the retail version of Brass Tactics will include a five-mission solo campaign, a cooperative campaign against AI soldiers, and a full online RTS battling experience. The team says that for now, army-building options will be identical on both sides of the battlefield, as opposed to asymmetrical—though that could change over time. What probably won't change, at least, is a satisfying, offense-heavy approach that still feels rich with unit micromanagement, full-field strategy, resource handling, and rock-paper-scissors army juggling. Oh, and one that feels awesome to direct entirely with your hands. We'll be keeping our eyes on this one. Listing image by Hidden Path EntertainmentIt’s been a crazy year for bitcoin. Not only has it comfortably surpassed the $4,000 mark, it’s now accepted by a variety of major online retailers – even AirBnB are expected to add a “bitcoin accepted here” to their header later this year. Yep, cryptocurrencies have definitely exceeded all expectations, majorly shaking up the financial sector and causing turmoil among various governments due to tax loopholes. If you were there at the beginning – one of those “naive” investors – you’ve no doubt had the last laugh, unless you made the mistake of cashing in early! What’s most shocking about bitcoin, however, isn’t the amount of millionaires it has created since its inception, but that the experts state that the value is nowhere near the market cap, which could exceed $100,000 within the next decade! With such high predictions – which of course, must be taken with a hefty fistful of salt – it’s difficult to ignore the potential of cryptocurrencies, shunning them as a passing fad. But then, $4,000 is a lot of money to invest, especially when there are no guarantees. For most of us it’s simply too late and too expensive to get in the game. Investing in Cryptocurrencies Might Still Be Viable It’s worth noting that bitcoin isn’t the only cryptocurrecy on the market. In fact, there are now over 900 in circulation. While the majority of them will fail before they make any impact on the world, some of them will take off, perhaps reaching the same heights as bitcoin. And those who had the confidence (or ignorance!) to invest early could again find themselves laughing all the way to the bank. There are a select few cryptocurrencies that are currently attracting interest and don’t cost the earth, including Ethereum, which is gaining quite a lot of buzz and stands at $335 as of August 2017. While it’s not even close to bitcoin in terms of financial value, it’;s reacting to the marketplace in the same manner that bitcoin did in the early days. But will it continue to do so? Only time will tell... Cryptocurrencies Are Only Going to Gain Prominence According to the Harvard Business Review, “Blockchain technology will have a similar impact on the financial services industry to what the Internet had to media.” If this prediction comes true then the state of worldwide banking will be very different, very soon. Perhaps within the next decade. While this may seem far-fetched, it’s really not that hard to believe. As more and more people not only invest in cryptocurrencies, but use them to make everyday payments, our preconception of what money is is changing. Additionally, some countries, particularly in the Nordic regions, are increasingly distancing themselves from hard cash already. In fact, in Sweden and Denmark it’s not uncommon to find shops and restaurants that don’t accept cash at all and only take digital payment processors. The Danish government have even made plans to phase out cash altogether within the next decade. While this has little to do with blockchain technology, it’s proof that many of us now regard “physical cash” as a burden. The Blockchain Rectifies Problems With Traditional Banking Blockchain technology is decentralized, meaning no single person or entity has control over it, not a government, business or even a third party regulator. This means that there are no processing fees, no prerequisites for opening an account, and instantaneous transfers to anyone, anywhere in the world. Spectre, the disruptive platform that removes financial brokers out of the equation and decentralizes and tokenises the liquidity pool against which traders trade, is an example of the decentralization benefits of the blockchain, and why many traders are choosing cryptocurrencies over more “tradtional” investments, such as stocks and bonds.Back in January I blogged enthusiastically about the plans for Royal College Street in Camden, and I’m pleased to say the scheme is nearing completion. It’s a little hard to make definitive comments because the new arrangement isn’t finished, but what’s there already suggests that this will be an excellent, pleasant and safe street to cycle on. It’s not going to be A-grade Dutch quality, but for the money that has been spent on the entire length of the street – around £50,000 – I think it’s really good value for money. The old arrangement – a two-way track on one side of the street, kerb-separated from the one-way carriageway – has of course been replaced by single-direction cycle tracks on each side of the street. But the one-way flow for motor vehicles has been maintained. It is important to stress at this point that removing the one-way systems in Camden – part of the process of ‘gyratory removal’ that is very popular in some campaigning circles – would mean this street reverting to two-way for motor vehicles, and that in turn would mean great difficulty in implementing cycle tracks of this width and quality on it. The space required for two-way flow for motor vehicles here would mean very poor quality cycle tracks, or indeed no cycle tracks at all. Subjective safety would disappear. By contrast, keeping this street one-way for motor vehicles has allowed a generous amount of road width to be allocated to protected space for cycling. (It also makes driving less convenient, relative to cycling). This is a point I have made before – in the desperate rush to remove one-way systems, we shouldn’t overlook how keeping them in place, but for motor vehicles only, can allow the creation of pleasant streets for cycling, and indeed privilege walking and cycling at the expense of driving. This is a common tactic in the Netherlands, and we should copy it. The separation between the cycle track and the main carriageway is achieved simply – through heavy box planters (yet to receive the plants on the day I visited). The width of the track is exactly 2m. This is sufficient to overtake, or to be overtaken, in relative comfort (as in the picture above). However, looking at the width of the street, it seems to me that the tracks could have been substantially wider. A bit of a missed opportunity, but one that I hope can be rectified at a future date (and not at great expense, given the ease with which planters and ‘armadillos’ can be moved, relative to the cost of rebuilding a kerbed cycle track). The high kerbs between the pavement and the track remain, meaning the full width of the track can’t be used, due to the risk of pedal strike – but replacing all the kerbs on the street would have added substantially to the cost of the scheme. The protection and separation on the southbound track, on the other side of the street, mostly comes in the form of parked cars. I posted some photographs on Twitter, and I don’t think it was particularly clear – judging by some of the responses – that the vehicles nearest the cycle track are parked. But that’s the arrangement. The parking bay is separated from the track by the humped ‘armadillos’, bolted to the road (these also appear on the other side of the street, between the planters). They seemed to be doing a pretty effective job in keeping the parked cars off the cycle track; there isn’t really any reason to park on it in any case, with the marked parking bays. The Ranty Highwayman did point out to me that these ‘armadillos’ could constitute a trip hazard, especially as they are new and therefore unfamiliar, and not particularly visible. I don’t know if there’s any particular solution to this problem! As I was heading south, I noticed a van driver parking up and getting out of his vehicle, helpfully providing an illustration of how much infringement there is on the cycle track from a vehicle door. There’s enough space there to swerve around an opening door. Of course the risk of ‘dooring’ remains, but is lower than it might first appear. For a start, the drivers will be looking forwards, towards where bike users are coming from, different than the usual ‘dooring’ problems which result from a failure to use mirrors, or to look over one’s shoulder. In addition, open car doors will be at an obtuse angle to oncoming bike users, meaning an impact – if it occurs – will be a glancing blow, pushing the car door shut again, rather than a halting impact straight into an unyielding door. And finally, any bike user unfortunate enough to be hit will not be deflected into the path of passing motor vehicles; only over to the side of the track, or onto the pavement, where the risk of further injury is much lower. It was really enjoyable cycling up and down the street – I did so several times! – especially cycling southbound, which felt really comfortable and safe. There is an issue, however, at the very end of the street, where you wait at a light to cross St Pancras Road. The vehicles heading into Royal College Street (towards the camera) are queuing in two rows at the lights (in the left of the photograph), even though Royal College Street is a single carriageway road. That means there is some jostling for position as they set off from the lights, with vehicles cutting the corner, right across the place where you are waiting at the stop line, which is quite unnerving. The driver of the car in the picture below seemed determined to get there ahead of the taxi beside him, passing within a foot or so of where I was waiting. The stop line here does feel quite exposed, and could do with some form of physical protection, or with moving back slightly to the point of the last armadillo. The crossing as a whole, however, is quite neat, with the two tracks on either side of the street converging in one crossing point, and ‘elephants’ feet’ marking the crossing routes. The other big issue that deserves comment is that of the bus stops, which are ‘Danish style’, in that bus passengers alight directly onto the cycle track itself. The only concession here is that the cycle track is raised up to pavement level, the hump presumably aimed at slowing those on bikes, as well as raising the bus stop to pavement level. It’s not ideal, but from the couple of buses I saw stopping on the street, enough common sense was being exercised by all parties for the arrangement to work reasonably well. People stepping off the buses seemed aware they weren’t stepping on to a pavement, but onto somewhere they were going to encounter bikes, and likewise people approaching the bus stops in the cycle track were sensible enough to realise that there would be potential conflict. I even managed to video myself cycling across the bus stop as a bus stopped and people got off. I guess this will be typical behaviour. Hopefully everyone riding a bike will approach the bus stop, when a bus is stopping, in a similarly slow and cautious manner, and the people getting off the bus will be aware of what they are stepping onto. These are not busy bus stops, with only one small bus stopping on this street at infrequent intervals, so I don’t think there will be difficulties here. But some pedestrian comfort has been lost. So there are some minor niggles about this scheme, but it is really hard to complain about it, when it has cost so little, and it is so far ahead of pretty much anything else that exists on the streets of London right now. From what I could see when I visited, it is already very popular – despite still being under construction. I look forward to it being finished!The Supreme Court of Canada has declined to hear two appeals that sought to delay the Site C dam project in British Columbia. Two First Nations — the Prophet River and West Moberly First Nations — had sought a judicial review of the mega-project, citing problems with how it was approved by the provincial and federal governments. The Site C dam is a controversial $8.5-billion hydroelectric project on the Peace River near Fort St. John in northeastern British Columbia. Once completed, the dam will flood an 83-kilometre-long river valley. BC Hydro say it will provide enough electricity to power the equivalent of around 450,000 homes The two First Nations say proper consultations were not carried out during the approval process and that adverse effects from flooding would significantly impair how they exercise their treaty rights. The applications were dismissed with costs today. As usual, the Supreme Court of Canada gave no reasons for its decision not to hear the cases. The claims have been previously dismissed by the provincial Supreme Court of B.C. and the Federal Court of Appeal. In their decision, the Federal Court of Appeal ruled the federal government is allowed to issue permits for projects like Site C without first discovering if the project violates treaty rights.The wireless service in BART's underground stations is provided by Sprint, Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile [GALLO/GETTY] A rail transit provider in the United States disabled mobile phone services to prevent a planned protest on Thursday, attracting criticism and unflattering comparisons to crackdowns on dissent in the Middle East. Demonstrators in northern California's Bay Area had planned a protest to condemn the shooting death of Charles Hill, who was killed on July 3 after Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) police officers responded to complaints about a drunk man at a station in the city of San Francisco. Hill was fatally shot in the torso - police said he had lunged with a knife - and protesters responded eight days later with a demonstration that shut down three San Francisco BART stations. BART's police force had been criticised before, in 2009, after a white officer responding with several colleagues to a complaint restrained an unarmed black man on the ground of a train platform and then fatally shot him in the back. That shooting also prompted protests, and the officer served less than two years in prison after being convicted of involuntary manslaughter. In a statement released on Friday, BART said organisers planned another protest over the Charles Hill shooting during busy commute times on Thursday, which "could lead to platform overcrowding and unsafe conditions". "Organisers planning to disrupt BART service on [Thursday] stated they would use mobile devices to co-ordinate their disruptive activities and communicate about the location and number of BART police," the statement said. "BART asked wireless providers to temporarily interrupt service at select BART stations as one of many tactics to ensure the safety of everyone on the platform." James Allison, the deputy chief communications officer for BART, told Cnet News that mobile services were disabled in four San Francisco stations from 4pm to 7pm local time. But BART offered varying explanations, probably with different legal ramifications, for how the shutdown had actually occurred. In its first statement, BART said it had asked mobile service providers to stop their service. Then, a BART deputy police chief told the local online news outlet SF Appeal that BART turned off the services itself, as it is allowed to do under its contracts with the providers - Sprint, Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile. About the same time, BART changed its official statement - which was posted on its website - to say that "BART temporarily interrupted service". Unflattering comparisons The mobile phone disruption comes at a sensitive time: Regimes in the Middle East have in the past eight months used far harsher Internet and mobile phone blackouts to squelch dissent, and David Cameron, the British prime minister, suggested this week that he would examine ways to hamper the use of social media to prevent civil disturbances and riots like those that brought violence and looting to London and other cities over the past week. The online hacker group Anonymous launched a campaign, OpBART, to overwhelm the transit agency with faxes and emails, and critics on Twitter began relaying news of the communications shutdown using the hashtag #muBARTek, a play on the last name of deposed Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. On Thursday, BART police Lieutenant Andy Alkire told the local Bay City News agency that while it was unusual to block mobile services, it was "a great tool to utilise for this specific purpose". Linton Johnson, BART's spokesman, told the local KTVU television channel that BART "didn’t try to shut down the protest. They simply turned off the cell service so it couldn't become viral. "It really is just a cost-benefit analysis of where your freedom of speech begins to threaten the public safety." Blackout a legal uncertainty Federal law makes jamming mobile phones illegal in the United States, but the situation in San Francisco was not clear cut, and it appeared that BART did not use jamming technology. Mobile signals do not normally reach underground BART stations, so when BART shut down the technology that made those signals available, it argued that it was simply eliminating a complimentary service. That makes the legal situation murkier. Sprint, Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile provide mobiel service to underground BART station, and those companies have a legal obligation to provide services as part of being granted their federal licenses to operate, but if BART turned off the service itself, where does the responsibility lie? "This may well affect the legality of BART's actions... but it doesn't affect the impact," said David Wagner, a computer science professor at the University of California - Berkeley who has written about wireless communications security. "In this day and age, deliberately disrupting cellphone service is dangerous to public safety, no matter how it is done." Jesse Choper, a professor at the Berkeley School of Law and a constitutional law expert, said BART could argue it had acted to preserve public safety rather than halt a protest but that blocking mobile services to entire areas may have obstructed more free speech than was necessary. The US Supreme Court has never dealt with a case such as the BART communication shutdown, Choper said, but in the past has issued opinions that lay out how authorities may prevent protests. Any move to block a demonstration must satisfy four basic criteria, he said. It must be neutral on the content of the demonstration, serve a significant government interest, leave open an alternative venue, and be narrowly tailored to avoid restricting more free speech than is necessary, he said. If he were arguing in BART's defence, Choper said, he would say that the broad mobile phone blackout had not discriminated based on the content of the protest, that it served the significant interest of protecting public safety, and that protesters could still have demonstrated elsewhere, such as forming a picket line outside the stations. But it could be argued, Choper said, that the service shut down had obstructed more communications than needed. "The question is, what less should they have done," he said. "Would you want them to monitor every call?"Deep passes are the most exciting play in televised football—the viewing audience can't see the situation downfield until the ball (and the camera) make it down there, so the play always feels, in that tiny moment before we catch up, like a sure touchdown or interception. It's well known that not every QB in the league has the ability (or proclivity) to throw a good deep ball, but we want to know: Who are best deeper passers in the NFL? Let's look at this from a few different angles. For starters, let's look at who's actually throwing it downfield. Pro Football Focus has tracked every single passing attempt at a target 20+ yards down the field going back to 2008. The chart at the top shows, for this year's QBs (min. 150 total attempts), who's thrown deep passes the most often over the six seasons, as a percentage of total attempts. There are some surprises in there—I didn't know Jake Locker chucked it so often—but for the most part this conforms with general assumptions about who have the "strong arms" in the league. Slingers like Eli Manning and Joe Flacco are towards the top, while dink-and-dunkers like Ryan Tannehill, Christian Ponder, Alex Smith, and Matt Schaub are towards the bottom. But who's throwing the most accurate deep throws? Pro Football Focus also tracks receiver drops, so instead of completion percentage—which knocks the QB for throws that should have been caught—we can use PFF's "accuracy" figure, which is a measurement of how many throws were on target (completions + drops over attempts): Well that might be why I hadn't heard too much about Jake Locker—while he ranks first in the league in deep pass attempt rate, just 35.6 percent of his deep looks are on target, which puts him at 26th in the league. Russell Wilson and Colin Kaepernick have been accurate on over 50 percent of their deep throws so far in their careers, which is just absurd, joining Drew Brees at the very top (with Geno Smith and Aaron Rodgers close behind). Mike Glennon and Matt Schaub are notable in that they attempt very few deep passes, but when they do they've been very accurate. Finally, it's interesting to see that while Eli Manning has seen a lot of success with the deep ball, Joe Flacco has actually been pretty terrible. Advertisement Accuracy isn't a perfectly fair measure though; a 25-yard first down is great, but it's not as good as a 50-yard touchdown, even if that throw is harder to hit. Here's a chart of yards per attempt by QB on 20+ yard targets, still from 2008 through present: Drew Brees takes over the top spot, thanks in no small part to the absurd downfield dominance of Jimmy Graham. Joe Flacco joins a very sad group of passers who are at least 10% below the league average, although Tom Brady, Jay Cutler, and Matt Stafford aren't far behind. The Jets face the Ravens this weekend in a critical game for the AFC playoff picture, and while a very successful deep passer will be taking the field, it probably isn't the QB you'd expect it to be. Advertisement Data via Pro Football Focus Regressing is Deadspin's new home for sports science, statistics, medicine, and other nerdy endeavors.The Anarchism of Despair The life of Laurance Labadie appears very much like his anarchism, a deliberate, often anachronistic struggle against the vogues and prevailing winds of his day, a hopeless attempt to revive an energy faded or extinguished entirely. His thought belonged to a libertarian strain regrettably anchored to those of the previous generation or two, to a time just before the “official” anarchist movement coalesced firmly around communist and syndicalist patterns of thought. Perceiving the inherent stagnancy of such a narrowly circumscribed focus on these ideologies, Ardent Press, along with its distribution partner Little Black Cart, has worked to make egoist, individualist, nihilist, and anti-civilization writings available. For those of us who care about developing a more complete picture of anarchist history and ways of thinking, Ardent Press’s efforts are very much appreciated. Anarcho-Pessimism: The Collected Writings of Laurence [sic] Labadie is just such a vital effort, the most comprehensive compilation of Labadie’s writings ever, and to the author’s knowledge the only Laurance Labadie collection since the historian of anarchism James J. Martin made a selection of Labadie’s essays a part of his Libertarian Broadsides series. The volume features a series of introductory essays by someone called “Chord,” as well as a biographical introduction by historian Mark A. Sullivan[1], and Martin’s “We Never Called Him ‘Larry’: A Reminiscence of Laurance Labadie” (which also appeared in the Libertarian Broadsides collection). There is a deep despondency hidden even within the most sanguine of anarchisms, for imagining and expecting a freer, fairer world tends unavoidably to throw into sharp relief the long and arduous journey ahead. The anarcho-pessimism typified by Laurance Labadie, however, carries no such promise for the future, expects no paradise, has no faith in the ability or the inclination of human beings to live together and relate to each other in non-authoritarian ways. As Chord observes in the introduction, “the possibility of a happy ending for the human race was simply out of the question to him.” Labadie derided utopians for their utopias, for erecting their systems and prescribing the terms on which human beings must interact. Putting Labadie at odds with the main current of the anarchist movement, his anarchism, successor to that of Benjamin Tucker and his Liberty circle, reviled communism as another castle in the air that “will ever be opposed by thinking people.” Still, he made no common cause with the counterfeit libertarianism of “American ‘free enterprisers’” and saw the confrontation of communism with this conservatism as a no-win situation for “individual liberty.” Indeed, his hatred of the mephitic social environment created by the corporate state led him to an affection — at least to an extent — for the thought of the decentralist, self-sufficiency champion Ralph Borsodi, with whom Labadie had a long and rewarding friendship. Like Borsodi, Labadie saw himself as the defender of a forgotten “third way.” Chord’s introduction perceptively fits Labadie into a lost tradition within anarchism that deliberately eschews fatuous talk of revolution — at least as the seizure of the state — and economic expropriation. Following Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Benjamin Tucker and others, Chord explains, Labadie’s anarchism advised a slow and measured movement in the direction of freedom, arising from “intellectual and economic” developments and “only superficially political.” Chord’s description of the individualist anarchist predisposition of skepticism toward revolutionary aims and politics tracks closely George Woodcock’s account of the philosophical differences that separated Proudhon from Marx.[2] The latter put the cart before the horse in treating political revolution as a necessary step which must precede the solution of the social and economic problem. The former, in contrast, held that workers’ self-organization, their adoption of free and equitable economic relations amongst themselves, would accomplish the political revolution perforce. Abandon the quest for control of the mechanisms of political power, building your own decentralized, libertarian associations now. This distinction is apparent in all of Labadie’s work, captured in striking completeness by Anarcho-Pessimism. Because he understood the importance of education in the desired anarchistic evolution (rather than revolution), Labadie proposed “the complete abolition of the education system,” which as one of the principal keepers of the status quo retards “the ability to ask significant questions” (boldface in original). Labadie had absolutely no faith that humankind would ever begin to ask those questions and he expressed fathomless annoyance at the “fakers” and “uplifters” he saw everywhere, especially in the political and education establishments. Many an anarchist reader of Labadie’s work will doubtless sympathize. Labadie’s woebegone libertarianism recalls Bakunin saying, “I feel neither the strength nor, perhaps, the confidence which are required to go on rolling Sisyphus’s stone against the triumphant forces of reaction.” Labadie, though, never gave himself over to the kind of naive, romantic revolutionism that propelled Bakunin’s life. For Labadie, the revolution was culminated when an individual “woke up,” abandoned faith in the state and all systems of authority, joining those few distinguished by their understanding of liberty. And such an appreciation of liberty was, Labadie thought, quite unlikely to result from preaching or proselytizing of the kind he saw among the various political factions of his lifetime. Labadie’s anti-authoritarian posture was, rather than the fruit of some religious conversion or epiphany, a tendency intuitive or instinctive, bound indissolubly to a deep distrust in his fellow humans and their plans. Abstract notions of human solidarity and cooperation — ideas which have been at the center of so much of anarchist theorizing — did not impress or interest Labadie. A withdrawing misanthrope who moved desultorily from job to job, Labadie once told his parents of his “hate of everything,” damning “the whole cosmic process” as “utter hopelessness and futility.” His father, of course, was the great labor activist and anarchist Joseph A. Labadie, for whom the University of Michigan Library’s Labadie Collection is named. Where Joseph (or “Jo”) was well known for his cheerful and obliging comportment, earning him the title the “gentle anarchist,” Laurance didn’t think very much of his fellow man, describing his own probes into “what makes humans tick” as thoroughly “infused with a considerable degree of venom.” As Martin recounted, “Laurance luxuriated in his image of a curmudgeon,” his “joy at being an agent provocateur.” Labadie loved liberty mostly because he was intensely cynical about his neighbors and the meddlesome interferences that they were certainly plotting. Chord’s introduction to Section 2 of the book, “Evolving Experiments With Anarchist Economics,” spotlights the contradiction inherent in Labadie writings on political economy, which at once denounce all “systems” and endorse a specific program of mutualist money and credit that is nothing if not systematic and definite. In this he followed Tucker, whose work continuously emphasized the emancipatory power of free credit for the working class. Such economic ideas — and Labadie’s left wing individualism more generally — appeared even more quixotic to his twentieth century audience than the same ideas had during a time when radical proposals for monetary reform (e.g., Greenbackism) were far more common in American politics. By the middle of Labadie’s life, individualistic and laissez faire ideas were identified with the conservatism that Labadie hated just as vehemently as he hated communism. Chord is not far from the mark in writing that “Labadie’s economic theories read like theology at times,” that Labadie’s only lapses into a kind of religious fervor come when he’s discussing economics. Such fixation on economic forms and the elimination of privilege distinguishes anarchist individualism of the Benjamin Tucker variety, and Labadie never dispensed with this fundamental aspect of the vanished school for which he served as “keeper of the flame.” Anarcho-Pessimism will come as an astounding revelation to anyone interested in an anarchism that, rather than offering another recital of workerist bromides, presents a caustic indictment of modern politics and society. With a contempt and audacity all his own, this one of a kind autodidact savaged the status quo like no one before or since, and in doing so gave us what is one of the last links in the chain that is American individualist anarchism. Though it points to the dynamic variousness of anarchism as a whole, the individualist anarchism we find in Anarcho-Pessimism is unlikely to change the present day anarchist movement. Labadie, of course, wouldn’t have given a damn. He wasn’t a joiner, or a revolutionary, or an activist.[3] In his lifetime, only a few lucky acquaintances benefited from his acumen and wit, and it is safe to predict that only a bold and irreverent few will benefit from this collection. Notes: [1] See also Sullivan with Mildred J. Loomis, “Laurance Labadie: Keeper of the Flame” in Benjamin R. Tucker and the Champions of Liberty: A Centenary Anthology, a collection Sullivan edited with Michael E. Coughlin and Charles H. Hamilton. [2] Quoting an 1846 letter from Proudhon to Marx, Woodcock observes that it “clearly opposes the anarchist ideal of economic action to the Marxist emphasis on political action.” Proudhon’s letter had argued, “[W]e have no need of it [revolution] in order to succeed; and that consequently we should not put forward revolutionary action as a means of social reform, because that pretended means would simply be an appeal to force, to arbitrariness, in brief, a contradiction. I myself put the problem in this way: to bring about the return to society, by an economic combination, of the wealth which was withdrawn from society by another economic combination.” [3] Individualist anarchism always was philosophically and intellectually oriented, rather than action oriented. Indeed, when Tucker left for France, taking Liberty with him, Labadie’s father Jo lamented, “How dead the movement seems now.” See Carlotta Anderson’s All-American Anarchist: Joseph A. Labadie and the Labor Movement.In late February the eyes of the football world were on Indianapolis. Scouts and general managers descended on the city for the NFL Combine, an event designed to give college players a chance to prove their worth as professional talents. But does it? Certainly the team interviews and medical information gathered at the six-day event are valuable for a team considering selecting a player and using a portion of the salary cap on them, but what about the drills, the portion of the combine that an average of 346,000 viewers turned to NFL Network to watch last week in a sort of Hunger Games like competition? Common sense tells you some of the drills aren’t too valuable. As entertaining and impressive as it might be to watch a 300-pound defensive tackle run the 40-yard dash, how is that applicable to what a team needs from that player on the field? I can’t remember seeing a defensive lineman run 40 yards on a single play last season. Clearly, though, it’s more complicated than that. To get a better sense of how applicable the combine drills are to actual NFL ability I spoke with Dr. Micheal A. Clark, the chairman, founder and CEO of Fusionetics. An expert in human movement science, Clark worked as a physical therapist for the Phoenix Suns for 13 seasons and his company counts 60 college and professional teams as clients including 15 NBA teams as well as the Atlanta Falcons and Kansas City Chiefs. Most of the combine drills, Clark said, are not applicable to any specific thing a player does on the field, but they’re not designed to be. “It’s more a misconception of what you’re trying to measure with that stuff,” he said. What teams are measuring is simple: athleticism. Clearly athleticism is an important aspect of what makes NFL players successful, but it is far from the only thing. Still, it’s important

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